Hmmm....where to start. I've had two Old English sheepdogs for quite some time. One was 14 and the other is 8. They never really had major health issues, so vet visits were usually perfunctory for ... Read More
Hmmm....where to start. I've had two Old English sheepdogs for quite some time. One was 14 and the other is 8. They never really had major health issues, so vet visits were usually perfunctory for routine health maintenance and boarding when we went out of town until October. I found a mass on my younger boy. That's when I met Dr. Amanda Owens. She newer to the practice. Within a few days, we were able to schedule surgery, and it was a sarcoma. While he was recovering, the my older boy started acting weirdly. He had a seizure the night before his brother's post op appt. Dr. Owens said just bring them together. I would never have imagined that we'd have to put the older one down at the same time that the younger one was recovering from cancer surgery. Dr. Owens was incredibly compassionate. She even sent us a handwritten Christmas card. Fast forward a few months, and we had adopted a new dog from Pasadena Humane Society. He's a much smaller dog-they think maybe dachshund/jack russell mix. My 5 yr old picked him out. It's HIS dog. He will tell you all about it, which is pretty amazing because until he got this little guy, he's always been afraid of dogs despite growing up with them. This little dog has given my son so much confidence and instilled responsibility. They are best friends-every stereotypical boy-and-his-dog thing you might imagine. The dog's had a run of health issues that we never anticipated. The majority was pretty basic stuff like that he came home w tapeworms, had some skin issues etc. His behavior was otherwise pretty good, and he came housebroken. Last week though, he started acting strangely-eating walls and trying to chew tile floors. He broke a tooth doing this, so I took him to see Dr. Owens. She ordered labs before planning sedation for tooth extraction, and we were all very surprised to see total derangement of his blood counts. He has end-stage aplastic anemia. It's not curable, and despite attempts at treatment, he isn't getting any better. We're hoping that he might hang around for a few more weeks, maybe even a few months at best. My 5 yr old was there for the conversation, and he understands that his dog is very sick. Dr. Owens was FANTASTIC explaining to him in a very honest but kind way what might happen. She did a better job helping my son understand that his best friend won't make it than I probably would have done. She spent extra time with him and took his questions very seriously. On the other hand, I am a cancer surgeon, and she was able to easily switch and have a colleague-level conversation about cancer biology, treatments, trials and outcomes in the medical veterinary literature etc. She's knows her stuff. I really can't believe that in 5 short months, 3 of our dogs will have received terminal diagnoses. I'm glad that Dr. Owens is there to walk that path with us. Oh, and I have to mention Andrew who is the office manager. There are other reviews on here that are less than flattering. I can see that if you don't know him well, you could mistake his quiet demeanor, but he is great. The entire time while the last dog has been hospitalized, he's saved an exam room at the end of the day to let my son visit with his dog for at least an hour. We've never been charged for that. Andrew's come in and helped my son feed his dog snacks and shown him how he gives the dog medicine etc. Andrew was involved with each of our dogs' care. He has always been professional, thorough, kind and knowledgeable. I disagree fully with some of the things written on this site about him. He's been very helpful each and every time. Read Less