Incompetent and unprofessional.
The amount of unnecessary pain they caused to my dog and the stress they put my whole family into is despicable. And it's costing us several thousand of dollars to try to fix their mess.
I brought my dog to them because he had small spasms to his leg while walking, he wasn't in any pain, he could run and climb obstacles. And I made it clear to them. It looked something neurological. Our vet had just retired, I was a bit lost on where to go, and because they are orthopedics, I thought that was the fastest way to have good X-Rays of his hips and spine to rule out anything orthopedic first before further exams. Dr Sherman came out in the Sherman Oaks parking lot giving me the news that the problem was his knee, both knees were full of fluid and TPLO would have been a quick fix, being mine a working dog, his knee would have been more stable, 8 weeks and he could have been back to normal activity, he made it super easy. I asked twice, 'are you sure'? I felt really rude asking but it seemed very odd the problem was the knee. However, my scared brain wanted to believe that the problem was simpler than I thought and I felt kind of relieved that was an 'easy fix', so I signed for it. Well, the 'easy' process it has actually become a nightmare. Surgery was done by Dr Simon. Immediately after the surgery I noticed that the dog had exactly the same spasm at his leg than before the surgery, I tried to convince myself (and my husband) that it was going to take some time. From day 3 the dog starts oozing about 1 cup of liquid a day, they just changed the bandage a couple of times, bandage was staying on for 5 min then getting soaked and fall off. They were insisting that everything was normal. The oozing became blood, a lot of blood, I showed up at Lynwood office and Dr Sherman told me that there was a lot of coagulated blood that he removed and he re sutured him. After about 10 days from the second surgery the dog starts limping, I take the dog in and they give me an antibiotic for a sore on his ankle (coming from a sort of surgical burn that the dog had managed to lick though the cone) and claim that the dog must have some sort of soft tissue injury because the surgery is healing perfectly, strict rest. Limping get worse even with the dog on rest, the dog is obviously in pain, his foot swells significantly overnight. I go back again asking for X-Rays, Dr Simon very annoyed, says that she is a certified something she doesn't need X-Rays, she can feel with her hands, everything is ok, the dog is guarding his leg and doesn't want to use it, she gives me a full lectures about German Shepherds being very 'legs aware', that he is just behind with rehab, he needs more movement, that's why the foot is swollen. She says she has personally vigorously massaged him and he has the most stiff muscle she has ever felt. Like an idiot I listen to her again, and we start water tread mill same day at the Lynwood location, my dog like a trooper goes through the session. On the following days the dog gets worse, he barely puts his toes on the ground. I take him back AGAIN, this time they do X-Rays, again Dr Sherman says everything ok surgery wise, even though bone is not healed yet, he must have torn the Achille tendon (????? wtf???). Of course, he doesn't come out to talk to me but all this is referred by a technician. Well, I finally wake up and take the dog to Access. In 10 min visit the orthopedic immediately finds muscular atrophy compatible with gracilis myopathy, a rare progressive but self limiting and non painful condition that affects working German Shepherds. I show him the videos of the dog the day before the surgery and he just confirms the diagnosis. Did the dog need TPLO? probably not! He samples the knee fluid right there, with light sedation, and send it to culture. He gives the dog extensive antibiotic coverage while waiting for the culture and the dog responds to the antibiotics in only 48h. Culture results come out with a nasty multi resistant infection most probably introduced at the time of surgery, with only 1 effective antibiotic that he is currently on for 3 weeks, then the infected plate will need to be removed . Of course he lost a ton of muscular mass for being unable to properly use his leg for long time so we also need professional physical therapy. I asked dr Simon's office a million of times pre TPLO surgery X-Rays because I wanted to understand what they saw that suggested them a knee problem. Guess what? I never got them. They kept sending me post surgery X-Rays, like I am an idiot and I cannot see the difference between a knee with and without a plate. And to conclude, after I sent them the culture results to show them that the dog had an infection for at least 3 weeks under their watch, and we had a diagnosis of gracilis myopathy, they never called me and took responsibility, the manager who yells to everybody this time went silent. Unprofessional to the bones. read more