Sorry everyone, this is a long post but I want you all to know my story so this does not happen to you!
I am incredibly disappointed and quite honestly pissed off at this clinic which is why I am wri... Read More
Sorry everyone, this is a long post but I want you all to know my story so this does not happen to you!
I am incredibly disappointed and quite honestly pissed off at this clinic which is why I am writing this review. I brought my puppy here when I brought him home because it was rated really well and he needed his initial checkup. Now this was my first dog so I was not aware at the time of certain things that needed to happen at the first visit.
My puppy had diarrhea when he came home which I knew was pretty normal because he was in a stressful situation and traveled many hours in a car with new people that he did not know. I told the vet this but he said it should go away, but to try putting him on a probiotic to see if that helped. Fast forward a month and he still had it, although not as bad, so I will say the probiotic seemed to help a little, but his stool would go from mostly solid, to very soft, and then liquid within a matter of hours.
I was now going in for my second visit and I again told him the puppy still had diarrhea. He said it was probably his food and to change it because he is a shepherd and they have very sensitive stomachs (which I know is true so I took his word for it).
Now at this point it was his second visit and I had done some research in the month that he was still having his problem. I asked the vet if he should run his blood work to see if anything was wrong internally, (because he never did this on the first visit which is something all puppies should have done especially when they are coming from out of state). He said no that diarrhea is normal in puppies and just to switch his food and keep him on the probiotic and see how that goes. Now he was on a high quality grain free dog food before which he loved, and then when I gradually switched him over to this new food that the vet recommended...(which by the way had grains, soy, gluten, meat by-products, corn, and pretty much every terrible ingredient you can think of). This was the worst mistake I could've made because the diarrhea was the worst it had ever been. Most likely because of the ingredients that were in it. It was straight liquid and he was going so often that I was nervous he was going to get dehydrated and I was about to take him to a hospital. I kept him on this food for about 2 weeks and there was absolutely no improvement whatsoever so I changed him immediately to another high quality grain free food and he immediately showed an improvement (Thank god). They did do a fecal sample on him after the second visit only because I demanded it. Apparently it came back negative but it also came back the next morning and when I researched the time frame on this it usually takes a few days longer than that but I won't get into that right now. Also just so everyone knows, I did not take him to the hospital because he was still acting like himself, eating normally (although he didn't like his vet food very much), and drinking plenty of water so I just continued to keep an eye on him for any changes.
So fast forward to a few weeks later and I decided to get a second opinion.
At this new vet they immediately wanted to get blood work done to see if anything was wrong. We did a fasting and then came back 2 days later for labs. They all came back within a week and I found out that my pup has low vitamin B12 levels which is essential for growth and development! Sometimes it is caused by pancreatic issues which thankfully came back normal, and the other reason is because of an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestines. Because of the amount of bacteria, they will attach to the vitamin B12 so it does not get absorbed into the body. Having low B12 can cause organs to not function properly if left untreated and can also cause illness and eventually death!! It is unbelievable to me that something so simple was not done to begin with! This could've been discovered many months ago, and we could've been on the road to recovery, but the Dr insisted that it was his food.
Be careful who you bring your pets too and do your research people! Read Less