I have taken about three cats and my first dog I have ever owned to this vet. Although they are competent and courteous, every time I went there it seemed like they are mostly interested I the almight... Read More
I have taken about three cats and my first dog I have ever owned to this vet. Although they are competent and courteous, every time I went there it seemed like they are mostly interested I the almighty dollar. I can see that the hey need to stay in business, I don't even pay my primary care physician even half of my the fee schedule that they have. For example if info for immunizations, they will try to pimp you out of your hard earned cash. The fees are so high, but they always try and scare you into giving in to you're fears about keeping you're pet free from disease and death. They play on how vulnerable you are and play on the possibility of any of harm coming and how much you want to keep your four-legged family members safe. I once had a part Siamese cat several years ago. It was my absolute single most favorite cat....to this day. He got sick with loose dark stool vomiting and wouldn't eat. After a few days of this my wife and I found some partially eaten ribbon that you wrap around XMas presents (those skinny thin ones) and were concerned that he had swallowed it. We had to take him for help and took him to Pantano Animal Clinic. He saw the vet and she recommend not only blood tests, but abdominal X-rays as well. We decided start with an X-ray. After a few minutes, this "Doctor" of veterinary medicine told us that she could see the ribbon on the X-ray and that it was stuck in his digestive tract. She recommended that the cat stay at the clinic over the weekend under observation and be closely monitored for signs of distress. She convinced us that he was in great danger. The cat ended up staying overnight and when we called the next day, after not hearing from the clinic, she told us that she started IV fluids and took several more X-rays. She said that the ribbon was moving along. She again wanted to do some blood tests and that the animal could die if she didn't know more that the X-rays said. I decide to wait because I imagined that the bill was growing substially, with not only the basic exam fees, but the IV fluids, and the overnight observation fees that were racking up. I told her that we would have to explore other options because we didn't exactly have a huge income or savings at that time and had an new baby and a toddler with hearing disabilities which took any extra money we had. We called the following as again, we didn't hear from anyone. The Dr got on the phone and proceeded to tell us that she was reading the X-ray wrong and what she had thought was a foreign object in his gut, turned out to be an ARTIFACT! This all coming from someone who supposedly had at least 4 years of college and another few years or so of veterinary school a a couple more of training! I was so upset. Especially after hearing that she did even more serial X-rays to monitor something that was never there to begin with. To add icing on the cake, she gave us a billing invoice that listed every last supply they supposedly used, Doctor exam fees (because she billed for every time she even looked in the cat's direction...6 alleged exams@65$ for the whole 48 hrs!), overnight/after hours observation, doses of laxatives and he was already having diarrhea! And last but not least a whopping 100$ X-rays and fee for interpretation BY HER! it came out to 2400$ !! She wouldn't adjust anything in the bill especially the X-ray charges! This is why I don't trust most vet clinics now especially this one. The sad part is that I tried to hold her accountable but she couldn't be held negligent or responsible!! Read Less