RE: Urgent Vet - Fieldstone. I have used Urgent Vet in the past and was extremely satisfied; however, Monday night was the deal breaker and I will never go back and here is the reason why:
Monday night, my German Shepherd had fell on the floor and began to hyperventilate, so I immediately took him to Urgent Vet next to Publix. I live Fieldstone and they are about a minute away so I felt this was the best decision because it was close. Upon arrival, I told them what was going on and they took him to the back (I am assuming they did vitals, because his temperature was elevated) & within a few minutes they brought him to the room I was in (he was having trouble walking and breathing).
Once in the room, he immediately collapsed on the floor, tongue hanging out of his mouth, had far away eyes, hyperventilating, drooling & his head was extremely hot. I waited for quite sometime and watched my dog get worse, so I opened the door to the back and told them I needed someone right now, because my dog was getting worse and that this was an urgent situation. Mind you, when I arrived, you could see people sitting in the back.
The "vet" came in and I expressed my concerns, told her he was overheating, which was obvious, and asked her if she could please get me some wet clothes so I could cool him down. Her exact words were, "he's not there yet and we haven't had a chance to evaluate him because we are helping someone else right now". When I opened the door to the back this time, I saw that the vet was on a computer and someone else was wrapping a dog's leg. Not to downplay the situation with the other pet, it did not appear to be a life threatening situation, whereas, mine clearly was. The vet would not listen to me and downplayed the situation and, essentially, refused to give me wet clothes to cool my dog down.
After a brief minute, the vet said, "I guess we could give him a shot to calm his breathing down". I could not believe the words "I guess" came out of her mouth. When she said that, I immediately thought of the 4imprint Parachute commercial when the girl is given a parachute and she asked "if he was certain it was ok" and he crossed his fingers. She left the room to go get the shot, in which I expected that she would be right back. I was wrong.
I waited & waited, until I could not wait any longer. I opened the door again, she was on her computer & the other employees were mingling about. I informed the vet that I was leaving and going to Blue Pearl and she told me that they were just "about to get the shot ready" and "at least" it would calm him down and "make him more comfortable" while on the way to Blue Pearl. In my opinion, "I guess" and "at least" coming from a vet's mouth is problematic and very concerning. There was absolutely no sense of urgency while my dog was getting worse.
She came in shortly with the shot. Jager was on the floor, lethargic and she had to have two other people come in to lift him up so she could give it to him, because at that time, he was pretty much dead weight (Jager is 120 pounds). While this was going on, another employee rushed in with the credit card machine. After he received the shot, I asked the vet if they were equipped to handle an emergency situation like this. Her answer was, "No". Just to be sure I heard it correctly, I said, "I just want to make sure that I correctly heard that you are not equipped to handle an emergency situation such as this". She said that they were not. After I paid & Jager received the shot, they all left the room. I received absolutely no assistance getting him on his feet, to and in my vehicle. Once in the car, I called Blue Pearl, explained the issue and they had a gurney waiting for him when I arrived.
They immediately took him in the back, reviewed what the shot was and gave him more medication in order to get him stable. Due to the stress of getting him to Urgent Vet, the length of the wait at Urgent Care and traveling to Blue Pearl, I felt it best to leave him overnight, because I felt the stress of the ordeal would be too much on him.
The following day, I received a call from Urgent Vet asking how Jager was doing. I called them back and spoke with Lauren. I expressed my concerns and asked who the vet was the night before. She said she was new and didn't think she could give that information out. I think my response was something like, seriously, you cannot tell me who the vet was last night? She said she was knew and did not know how to get that information and that it should be on my invoice that was sent. While on the phone, I told her I did not receive anything and she told me that it was probably in my "junk box". At that point, I told her it wasn't. She told me again, she was new and they were very busy. I asked her who the supervisor was and if that person was there. She said that they were not able to talk, because they were in a meeting. I asked her a rhetorical question...when you said you all were bus read more
