Do not take your beloved pet to this horrid place! The staff were rude, insensitive and unsympathetic. They did not know how to clearly communicate things, and they provided contradictory information ... Read More
Do not take your beloved pet to this horrid place! The staff were rude, insensitive and unsympathetic. They did not know how to clearly communicate things, and they provided contradictory information - sometimes outright lying! I'll explain. My very young, healthy and active cat had an extreme emergency - he was perfectly fine and then he suddenly collapsed, and started dragging himself around the house in a panic, hyperventilating and crying out in pain! We called multiple animal hospitals and Beatty was the first one willing to take him - all our local hospitals refused (what?!), so we had to drive a whole hour to get to Beatty. When we arrived, the lady who showed me into the room nonchalantly started asking me all the same questions I had already answered on the phone, while my poor cat was suffering. I tried to get her attention when he started gagging, and when he actually started throwing up, she finally realized this was a true emergency, and she whisked him away into a back room. Then a doctor eventually came and dropped the first of two bombs on me - first, he was suffering one of three possible things - heart failure, a tumour, or I forget the last option (it turned out to be heart failure - my poor baby!) While I was still reeling in shock at this news, he bluntly asked me if I wanted to put my cat down? What!? And the reason had nothing to do with my cat's individual case - the reasons he gave were this: first, because statistically, 25-50% of pet owners put their pets down in this situation (what kind of stat is 25-50% anyway?!), and also because he didn't know if I was willing to pay for additional tests and/or medicines if my cat might die anyway. Um, does this guy not realize that our cat is a part of our family, that we love him so much, and would do anything we could to save him? I very firmly and flatly refused to put my cat down, told the doctor clearly that I would pay the bill, and that my cat MUST be saved!!! Despite this, whenever the vet gave me an update throughout the rest of that long day, he continued to ask me over and over if I wanted to put my cat down - again, not because my cat's condition had changed - in fact, he had to admit that by the end of the day, my cat had unexpectedly improved! And yet after telling me this, he still asked me again!!! Also, I was not allowed in the back room to see my poor baby. I know my cat very well, and he is easily terrified. I was sure it would only help if he could just see my face. So each time the doctor gave me an update, I asked if I could please see my cat. Each time, he gave me some lame excuse! It would have been better if he had said something like "sorry ma'am, it's our policy not to let any customers in the back room." Instead, his first excuse was "oh, we don't want to crowd him" - yeah, because a bunch of strange doctors around is better than his owner's familiar face?! Next, he told me I couldn't because my cat was in pain! But then the doctor revealed at the end of the day, when he finally brought my cat back to me, that they had actually given him pain meds right from the start, and he hadn't been in pain at all during that time. How mean! To make me think my cat was in agony that whole time just to keep me from being able to see him! They sent us home with a bunch of meds, and they grossly overcharged us. There were some meds they didn't have in stock that they charged us $40 just to prescribe - then we picked them up from Shopper's Drug Mart (they were human meds) and the actual meds cost only half as much! They also made us pay for some meds that they had to special order, and those NEVER came in. We also found out (after calling Beatty multiple times afterward to ask for clarifications on things that they had poorly explained, like when to administer the meds) that the only thing they had done that whole entire day was stick my cat in an oxygen tank and give him pain meds. They did tests, but no treatments at all. But they didn't tell us that - getting that information was like pulling teeth! On a side note, since we were at the vet for such a long time, I eventually needed to use the washroom. Because of covid, I had to phone and ask if I could come in to use the washroom. After they let me into the building, I stood in front of their reception desk for ages, with at least two unoccupied staff members were just chatting there right in front of me, completely ignoring me! Finally, I got their attention because I needed to know where the bathroom was! (As another side note, I was later telling one of my cousins about my Beatty experience, and she has had TWO separate bad experiences with them as well - in one instance, her pet was actually misdiagnosed!) In the end, we were able to spend one last precious week with our baby before he passed away. He needed emergency care one last time before the end, and I flatly refused to take him back to Beatty. We ended up finding a different place simply called Hamilton Animal Hospital. What a gem! The people there truly cared about us and our dear fur baby. At that place, putting him down was a last resort rather than the first thing that popped up. They did everything they could to try and save our poor cat. And when it was necessary to talk about that awful option, they were so kind and compassionate to us. So, please avoid bringing your precious pets to Beatty at all costs, and bring them to Hamilton Animal Hospital instead. P.S. I just got an call from Beatty today - MONTHS later - saying my cat was due for a check-up and vaccines. I never signed up for my cat to be a regular patient, let alone the fact that he had passed away and their call really upset me. When I called them to request that my number be removed from their list, and I explained why, they didn't even apologize or anything!! Read Less