After a call from the practice owner, I've returned to update my review and scrub it for cost complaints since I can't fairly claim to have comparative information on everyone's local charging practic... Read More
After a call from the practice owner, I've returned to update my review and scrub it for cost complaints since I can't fairly claim to have comparative information on everyone's local charging practices.I would like to point out that during the entire experience that I outline below, no veterinarian ever commented on the conduct of any other veterinarian or the correctness or incorrectness of their treatment. What you get here is the dog owners' opinion, based on personal experience colored by my own experience and several decades of non-medical engineering experience.We used to love Alpine- and we took our dog here regularly for 6 years, but the practice was sold over a year ago and our experience since then has left me less enthusiastic than I previously was. The final straw leading to this review is that our dog suffered a broken bone in her foot, which went undetected by the emergency clinic visit on a Wednesday, so we went in on Saturday to Alpine. They were able to squeeze us in despite a call that same morning, which has generally been one of the features of Alpine for years.The entire experience goes something like this:(1) Dog gets physical examination(2) Dog gets x-rays(3) Veterinarian shows x-rays to owner; veterinarian talks about how you expect the (rear leg) foot bones to look in x-ray, points out an area that doesn't follow the smooth line you expect, intimating it's a break, but doesn't identify it as such. Veterinarian offers to send x-rays to radiologist to read- owner declines because I've had enough breaks and x-rays (due to high intensity hobbies) that I felt confident this was an obvious break, and was mildly annoyed vet offered to send it out to radiologist.(4) Veterinarian offers "we could do nothing or we could splint it"; at this point was when I committed a major error. I didn't ask the follow-up question: "what are the benefits and drawbacks of each course of action?" As an over-protective dog owner, I suggested that we should splint the break, imaging a short little splint that would likely cover the adjacent joints (toes and over the hock). I was asked to wait until after the next appointment since there was only one vet in the office and we had chewed up a lot of time a that point.(5) ~45 minutes later dog goes into the back for splinting; dog re-emerges with her entire leg up to the hip encased in vet wrap with a hard plastic splint underneath. Not quite what I imagined for a break equivalent to breaking a long bone in your foot, below the ankle- but thought we would head home and see how it went. Instruction sheet says "check toes (for coldness/swelling or something similar-- basically ensure splint not cutting off circulation)"-- toes were not actually visible in the splinting configuration, so hopefully it wasn't too tight.(6) 15 minute drive home, dog is barely able to maneuver with splint (dog is tall and long-legged like a deer).(7) At home, dog clearly can't lay down comfortably and get up without awkward-looking maneuvering that spouse and I worried would cause damage to ligaments & joints on other rear leg. Call to vet's office to express concern. Spoke to vet tech who relayed concerns to vet; response from vet tech was "try it til Monday to see if she adapts and we can take it off then" sent vet tech back again with our structural concerns (strain on other rear leg) was told "vet says this is her best chance for recovery"...wait...WHAT? The person who told me 45 minutes earlier we could do nothing or we could splint is now recommending against her other option? Very unsettling. Eventually the unhappy owners convinced them to remove the splint.(8) Return to office, remove splint. Spend weekend frantically figuring out where we could find an orthopedic specialist we trusted to get a second opinion, finally got in one week later with specialist who was comfortable with the "do nothing" option.My irritation in this whole experience? Not getting the explanation behind the recommendation and getting the vet tech runaround when we called back with concerns. Researching vet books, I find that splints are not necessarily harmless- there are risks due to too-tight splinting, and with covered toes we would presumably not have insight into whether the splint was too tight and cutting off circulation. I wish I had been informed by the veterinarian as to these risks (as well as the enormous size of the splint) prior to making a choice. Alpine used to be really good at informing patients, and I think they've lost that skill. Because of this experience and two previous regular vet visits with the current practice owner, I'm uncomfortable recommending Alpine these days. Read Less