Once upon a time, I would have said this is a good place to take your pets- maybe I just didn't know any better and had not yet had a bad experience, but at this point, I've had a few. I understand th... Read More
Once upon a time, I would have said this is a good place to take your pets- maybe I just didn't know any better and had not yet had a bad experience, but at this point, I've had a few. I understand this is a business, and businesses need to make money. However, I feel more and more like money is all this place cares about.
For starters, a few visits ago, the staff decided it would be a good idea to take my dog "to the back" for his exams. They claimed he'd be less stressed. I get it and go along with it. The first time they did this, I thought they came back pretty quickly- and the "exam" (or whatever they do) kept getting shorter and shorter. The last time they took him back, they couldn't have been gone more than just a couple minutes... and this is a SENIOR dog going in for a YEARLY exam. It's clearly not thorough, and when they bring him back, the doctor literally walked in the room for a minute and everything was very rushed....so that $40 office visit/ exam fee seems like a waste.
I've switched from Dr. Smith to Dr. Cawood and there was no improvement. And I originally switched doctors because it seemed like Smith liked to suggest pricey electives that we "needed," but it never seemed like these things were done with any real purpose.
A couple weeks ago, I used Dr.'s Foster and Smith website to renew a prescription I'd been getting there for about two years with the approval of the doctors at Indian Creek. It usually gets authorized and ships right away. Not this time. I ended up calling the pharmacy to see what the delay might be. Indian Creek declined my prescription, saying my dog needed an exam. Ok, well this was middle to end of May and I knew he was due for his yearly exam, etc. in June. I figured I would be able to get ONE refill before he really needed to get in. (This prescription was for Rimadyl, which he REALLY needs to have to manage pain and inflammation) They didn't care. I think the receptionist cared just a little but NO doctor would approve the refill request. At first, they gave me an excuse about how they don't approve anything through online pharmacies. I know some online pharmacies are bad, but this one that I use was always okay as far as I knew AND THEY HAD BEEN APPROVING THIS SAME THING THROUGH THIS PHARMACY FOR TWO YEARS! Then the receptionist started in about my dog's rabies being past due. (It was past due, it was the ONLY thing that was past due, and literally everything else was due in June- and I intended for him to get it when I took him in for everything else.) But anyone who knows anything about keeping a dog healthy while on all kinds of meds knows that what needs to be checked is blood work. An exam tells you nothing... a rabies shot literally has nothing to do with it at all. And that's beside the point that his exam and blood work weren't even due for about another month. A month's refill was all that I requested, they denied it. However, when I had a different med refilled for him through Indian Creek, they had NO problem filling that one. I guess when the money goes to them it's different. When I want to use an outside pharmacy, that's when it's not okay. I literally picked the one up from Indian Creek, nobody said A WORD about blood work or anything being due- but literally the NEXT day, I ordered another Rx online only to have them use every excuse not to approve it and it was repeatedly denied.
For the record, I'm not that owner that wants unlimited refills without bringing my pet in. I don't think I've ever once not followed their advice or suggestions. I bring my dog in when he's due, I've spent a lot of money with them.
I also brought a hamster in last December that was sick- she had a lot of weird symptoms but it seemed like Dr. Cawood had better things to get to. He decided the technicians would trim her teeth and after a $40 office visit and a $10 trim on her teeth, she died the next day. If they don't care about pocket pets, they should just say they won't care for them- because they clearly didn't care at all about that visit. They like money though, so.. Read Less