This is hands down the best veterinary office I have ever been to. The staff treated my dog as if she were their own - from the woman at the counter, to the techs, to the veterinarian.
My fiancee an... Read More
This is hands down the best veterinary office I have ever been to. The staff treated my dog as if she were their own - from the woman at the counter, to the techs, to the veterinarian.
My fiancee and I brought our four year old corgi in for what we believed to be hip dysplasia as well as booster shots and preventative heart worm medication. After a very thorough series of palpations by Dr. Vanassche she believed the issue was not hip dysplasia, as our dog did not react negatively to any of the stimulus. She could have sent us on our way and called it a day, but she listened to our concerns and despite the clinic being INCREDIBLY busy because of the long weekend (Memorial Day to be specific) she offered to keep our corgi there until the techs had time to take some x-rays.
We learned that our corgi had suffered damage to a ligament and it healed incorrectly, thus causing arthritis in her rear left knee. Dr. Vanassche explained what this meant, what the treatment options were, and then made some personal recommendations. Dr. Vanassche stated that because of the age of the injury she nor the other orthopedic surgeon at Pennsylvania Veterinary Care did not feel comfortable performing the surgery. She could have easily told us she was comfortable and taken us for all the money we were worth, but instead both her and the other surgeon genuinely had our dog's best interests at heart. She went on to explain that she felt medicine, not surgery, was the best course of action in her opinion but also suggested getting a second opinion just to be sure.
I was flabbergasted.
Dr. Vanassche ultimately recommended NSAID's, weight loss (our dog is approximately 7lbs. overweight), less high impact (playing fetch) and more high resistance exercise (swimming), and Dasuquin (an OTC hip and joint supplement that was reasonably priced when compared to other retailers/sources). She also presented laser therapy as an option, but in no way did I feel she was pushing it down my throat. We opted to go with the laser therapy as well which made a huge impact on our dogs mobility and we will definitely be scheduling more sessions later.
The staff was very clear about the costs, which were VERY reasonable; if we had taken our corgi to our previous veterinarian we would have easily spent an additional $200-$350 more. We paid for blood work to see if our dog could take an NSAID safely, heart worm check, heart worm preventative medicine, flea and tick preventative, booster shots for bordetella and distemper, NSAID medication, Dasuquin, x-rays, and lastly laser therapy. The total cost was just a hair above $680.
I can't recommend this location enough. But truly, the way they treated our dog was vital in shaping our feelings about this location. I cannot stress enough just how loving and kind they were with her, despite her lack of enthusiasm about being left by us for couple hours. :P
Thank you to everyone at Pennsylvania Veterinary Care.Read Less