Rebecca M.
1/5
My old man dog had kidney disease and had taken a turn for the worse. He wasn't eating well, he was having trouble keeping food down and he was slowing down in general. We had been bringing him to this hospital for a few years for his yearly vaccines and to monitor his kidney levels. His annual appt was coming up, but since he wasn't feeling well, I rescheduled to bring him in a week early and get his blood tests done to check his kidney levels.
I took him in and explained what was going on to the vet tech. In addition to his symptoms, he had a rough trip to the clinic. He got sick in the car, which was very much not like him. I was very worried about my little guy.
The vet spent less than 5 minutes in the room, said virtually nothing to me. She didn't even introduce herself. She just walked in, shot my boy full of vaccines, told me he was sick because he needed his teeth cleaned, and left. She did not address any of my concerns. She didn't review symptoms with me. Nothing. As the vet tech pushed me out of the exam room, I had to ask about getting him something for his nausea. He was having trouble keeping down food and that was my biggest concern on the visit. She had to go back to the vet to ask about it and came back with a prescription, as she pushed me out of the room again. I asked about his blood test and kidney levels. She told me that if there was anything I needed to know, the doc would call me in 24-48 hours. She also gave me a $1k teeth cleaning estimate and told me to schedule the procedure.
So, we went home and waited. My boy was so much worse the next day. I never got him to eat another bite of food on his own after that visit. The nausea medicine did seem to keep him from puking, but he couldn't walk any more. He could barely stand up on his own. Once he was up, he couldn't figure out how to lay back down. He trembled all over, all the time.
I never got a call with the test results, so I scheduled his teeth cleaning as the doc suggested.
His original appt was on Mon. By Fri he had continued to decline, so I called the office, asking about the test results. The call center told me the doc was out sick and wouldn't be able to call me until after the weekend. They had his test results back from the lab, so I asked them to forward the results to another animal hospital and I took him to a different urgent care.
My boy had lost 2 lbs since that Monday appt. He was only 10 lbs to begin with, so that was alarming. The new vet reviewed his labs and told me he was in extreme kidney failure and there was nothing to be done but make him comfortable. We lost him the next day.
On the following Monday the original vet finally called me back with the test results. I don't know why she did. She knew we had taken my boy to another vet and that he had passed over the weekend. She was very cold about the whole situation. She gave me a very insincere apology, and when I asked her why she would give my dog all those vaccines (I strongly believe that those vaccines worsened his condition and made him far sicker) when I had told them how sick he was, she blamed the vet tech for not communicating with her properly. When I asked why she didn't call me with his test results, she said she was sick. When I asked her why she pushed for a teeth cleaning when his symptoms were so severe, she again said she was sick.
I believe that my poor pup was mistreated by this animal hospital. His condition was not properly assessed. From my perspective, it seems that his condition was entirely ignored. They upsold me on a blood test that took time to go through the lab process, when they could have given us one at our appt that would have provided the info necessary to know that he was in kidney failure. They pumped him full of vaccines as he was actively dying. They did not call me back with his test results, and that robbed me of the opportunity to properly help my friend in his last days. This was an incredibly painful situation to begin with, for both me and my dog, and I feel that coming here made it a thousand times worse.
