We had a reasonably pleasant experience with Plum Creek but probably would not use them again. In short, after being told multiple times that our dogs were doing great, when we picked them up one of t... Read More
We had a reasonably pleasant experience with Plum Creek but probably would not use them again. In short, after being told multiple times that our dogs were doing great, when we picked them up one of them had five cuts on his face and had lost his voice. This has NEVER happened with him in the past, and we only imagine what he was going through while there for five days.You can see the cuts here: imgur.com/a/gda8H#0Longer version of what happened is below.I will say that Plum Creek were recommended by a nearby kennel that was full. The Plum Creek staff were friendly and personable in all of our interactions with them. And Plum Creek was very inexpensive (exactly HOW inexpensive depends on what shots your dogs already have).First, Plum Creek's ability to explain the pricing and vaccine requirements was poor from the first call. We're coming from out of town and use a veterinarian with different vaccine requirements. This is where I found Plum Creek's pricing a bit deceptive. They're per night pricing is inexpensive, but they require a recent fecal sample and many shots that our veterinarian does not require. So we spent enough money on those things to increase the average per day cost substantially. I assume the dogs need all of these extra shots because they're being boarding at a clinic with sick dogs being treated, but it felt a bit like a bait and switch. And even after we got all of the shots on the list they provided us over the phone, we still had to get another one once we got there. Maybe this was a miscommunication on our part, but it was very frustrating.Finally, we called them several times during the six days our dogs were there. Every time we were told they were doing great. The staff joked about them being the ones making a lot of noise, but that they were fine. When we got there to pick them up, one of the dogs had lost his voice. This has literally never happened in the years we've been boarding the dogs other places. When I got the dogs to the car, I notice a cut on the top and an abrasion on the tip of the nose of one of them. I took him back in to see if they knew what happened. The doctor came out to look at him and determined it was from rubbing his nose on the fence. She said the abrasion on the tip is normal but the cut on the top was strange. She also found it strange that none of the staff had noticed this as they normally are very observant. She put some antibiotic powder on it, and we left. When we got home several hours later, I noticed more cuts on his face. He had an inch long cut over his right eye, an inch long cut on the side of his nose, a small scrape on the side of his nose, the smaller cut on top of his nose and the abrasion on the top. Some of these appeared older and had scabbed over. Some of them were fresher. I don't see how the staff could be "observing" the dogs very well if they didn't notice these multiple wounds inflicted on my dog's face over multiple days.And THIS is why I would not take my dogs back there. Every time we called, we were told they were doing great. But all the while, our dog was suffering. He was crying enough to go hoarse. He was agitated enough to cut his face multiple times on the fence (assuming that's what actually happened). It's hard to imagine what he was going through for that time. Read Less