when my chiweenie's belly was hard and expanded, had blood in the stool and had a yelping fit, we looked for an emergency vet on google and found crossroads. the staff was very friendly and caring (at... Read More
when my chiweenie's belly was hard and expanded, had blood in the stool and had a yelping fit, we looked for an emergency vet on google and found crossroads. the staff was very friendly and caring (at first), the facility is clean and seating area is comfy. the staff was patient as we explained the symptoms: hard expanded belly, bright red blood in stool, and we explicitly told them he has a history of back issues. that's all the positive. now the negs... (the wait was very long, which they said was due to a critical case they had, but after reading other reviews, it seems making you wait a long time is part of their psychological tactics) my dog was taken to the back and examined there, which i would have rather had done with me in the room just to be sure it was thorough. the dr then suggested we do xrays, blood work and urinalysis.. which i understand is standard... but we have limited funds, and since he was drinking and eating and not lethargic, we decided to just do the xray first and go from there. the vet then went to the back and came back to tell us about the xray (without showing us the xrays), said there was no obvious blockage, but there wasnt much else they could conclude from just an xray and strongly suggested blood work.. suggested so strongly she came off as a condescending pushy jerk, like she was trying to make us feel bad about not being able to afford the extra tests.. she might have just been on the trailing end of a long shift, but that kind of attitude made me feel like they just cared about getting more money out of us. we have 4 dogs and have had a lot of experience with greedy vets and know enough about vet medicine to know that since it wasnt an obvious blockage, it could wait til the next day when we could see our regular vet.
so the next morning we went to our regular vet... and after looking at the xray for just about a min, he told us the whole problem. yes, he has a back injury, and could clearly see the vertebra that were damaged, 3 points near the tail have significant compression, one is almost completely compressed... that causes my doggie pain when he poops, so he doesnt evacuate completely, which caused constipation and gas... (he showed us on the xray the compressed areas and all the gas pockets which were very clearly visible, if the crossroads vet missed this, they need to go back to school)... the straining from the constipation caused a blood vessel to burst and that was the blood id seen in the stool. he gave us rimadyl for his back pain, and told us to give him gas x for the bloating.
we wouldnt have been able to find the problem without the xray, so thanx to crossroads for doing that.... but they definitely didnt need to do blood work or urinalysis to find the problem. they either were withholding the information about the compressed vertebra and gas to force us to do the other testing, or their vets just arent educated enough to figure out this very simple problem.
this experience just adds to the reasons why i would travel a thousand miles to get to tags a1 in santa clarita to see their honest vets.
in case of an extreme life threatening emergency, sure, get your pet to any facility that can help, even if they're greedy bastards.
crossroads' estimate for xrays, blood work, and urinalysis was almost $600 (just the visit and xray was almost $300) , and then there would be a cost for whatever treatment they would have recommended and boarding costs to keep him there for 'observation'. the cost at my regular vet for the consultation and medication was less than $100, and problem solved.
**and now that i have looked through their reviews, the positive ones are mostly vague and seem fake... i hate how places like this take advantage of distressed people who love their pets. this is the reason why at hermon dog park's yappy hour we often have pet education seminars with honest vets to go over basics. we need to be educated so we dont get screwed over.
PS, not nice to try to hide my review just because it reveals your bad practices. erase it again and i will repost Read Less