Our 11 year old black lab started having seizures back in early November. We worked with our vet to do the best we could to help her get stabilized, which we were able to do. But Molly, due to the meds, became extremely dependent upon us to perform basic daily functions. We could not take her off the meds or she would begin having seizure again. We decided to send Molly on her journey and wanted to do so at our home since it would be more comfortable for her and her sister could be with her when she went.
After reading the reviews for Sun City Mobile Vet, we contacted Dr. Schwartz to come by the house for us to perform the procedure since he had very good review and felt he would do a good job. Well, that did not happen. It ended up being a complete disaster from the start! When he got to the house, he made comments to my wife that she needed to let our dog go since she needed to make herself, "available" to me. Considering the emotional time we were going through, what he said really did not register with me. When he saw Molly, our lab, he hit her a couple to times on the head and said, "See, she doesn't even respond to what I am doing and needs to be put down." Molly was on phenobarbital and Gabapentin, so of course she was not responsive!
I then told him our previous dog who we put down was given a two step procedure with shots to put him down and if he could do the same with Molly. My understanding is that the first shot puts the dog to sleep and the second shot stops their heart. Clean and painless procedure which all the vets we checked with perform. Dr. Schwartz said he has performed 10,000 of these procedures and he uses and one shot of anesthesia and it would be quick and painless for Molly. We figured, okay, he knows what he is doing, so we went along with his plan.
When we had taken her outside to her favorite spot to perform the procedure, he seemed to be in a hurry and wanted to get on with the process. Once we were in place with Molly, he decided to inject her back leg instead of the usual front leg. He injected her and she resisted causing the needle to go through her vein. She began screaming out in pain and we had to hold her steady so he could continue to inject her. Never before had I seen or heard our dog scream out in such pain! I was hold her face and trying to comfort her while my wife was holding and hugging her. She continued to scream and he just stood there telling us she would go and second. She did not. We asked him to get more anesthesia to put her out of her pain, but he did not want to! We insisted so much that he finally went back til his van to get more and brought Bob, his assistant with him. He then shaved her front paw and began injecting her. Unfortunately, Bob was hold her front leg so tight the anesthesia was not going through her vein. After several minutes of hearing Molly scream, she finally passed.
Dr. Schwartz then began to make excuses as if it was our fault this all happened we this way. He said that he usually uses the front paw, but since we were at her front he decided to ho with the back leg and basically saying we were in his way. Oh yeah, that will be $450, please...
So, our last memory, the last few minutes of our pups life, were complete torture! To top things off, our other lab is witnessing the whole thing while pacing and whining out of concern for her lifetime companion.
We would never again use Dr. Schwartz or recommend him to anyone. He destroyed our memories of Molly by not evaluating the situation correctly but just plowed ahead with him plan and caused so much heartache for us.
I called him and texted him to discuss what had happened and to walk through it since it was so horrible, but he has never responded. Unbelievable. The guy totally botched the whole process and experience and we recommend you stay clear of this guy. read more