When I found Dilworth Animal Hospital on Yelp, the glowing reviews had me excited that we had found our new vet. But, we had 1 mediocre experience here and one very bad one, so we won't be back. This ... Read More
When I found Dilworth Animal Hospital on Yelp, the glowing reviews had me excited that we had found our new vet. But, we had 1 mediocre experience here and one very bad one, so we won't be back. This is a long post so if you want the summary: this place is hectic, the vets aren't thorough, they dropped my sedated cat on the ground, and they badgered us for money.Here's the full story. Last fall I made an appointment for physicals for our 2 cats. They were able to fit us in really quickly on a Saturday, which was great. The lobby of this place is very hectic. There's dogs running around and the thing that really concerns me is their door to the outside doesn't close or lock on its own. Multiple times it was left wide open because someone didn't shut it, so any animal could run out into the street. Our original vet was a nice woman, but wasn't very thorough. Our girl cat is shy and sweet, and we had no problem doing an exam and bloodwork on her. Our boy cat while very sweet at home, really, really hates the vet. They tried to examine him but couldn't. This isn't abnormal, but we've been to at least 5 other vets in his lifetime due to moving, and others have made more of an effort. They told us we could come back for a re-check with him and offered us a new drug that might help sedate him. I really hate to drug him but since he's older, really wanted to get a proper exam done. We went back and saw a different doctor, sedating him beforehand. We were brought into a room right off of the lobby, which was loud and hectic and you could hear dogs barking. You'd think coming back in with a nervous animal, they wouldn't put us in the loudest room. Two techs came in right away to take his bloodwork, and I really felt like they manhandled my cat. I've never seen him held or shaken this way before. They also had a hard time getting blood out of him even though he wasn't fighting them. The vet came in to see us and the first thing she said to us was "don't be embarrassed." I was truly confused...embarrassed for what? Then she clarified to not be embarrassed of my cat. I wasn't, at all. More than anything, I'm embarrassed for this practice for having no idea how to handle anxious animals. The exam was short with minimal effort, and the tech tried to hold my cat down so the vet could hear his heart. He started to get upset and when he howled (not attacked, not bit, howled), the tech threw his arms out, stepped back, and dropped our sedated cat on the ground. I jumped up from my seat but couldn't get to him before he hit the floor with a thud. Instead of apologizing for DROPPING OUR DRUGGED ANIMAL, the vet made up an excuse about how they need to protect their techs. At this point we were done, we put our cat in the carrier and left. They didn't try to get urine from him, so they gave us a "kit" to take home. It was about ¼ cup of litter to have our 16 pound cat pee on, and they wanted us to bring the urine in. We couldn't make this happen. I think we paid for the urinalysis, therefore we lost our money on it. But it's worth the price of never dealing with this practice again.We checked out in the lobby, which was hectic as usual. The girl up front referred to our boy cat as "her" and told us we were all set, we paid last time. So we left and spent the afternoon consoling our now drugged and upset cat. Around the time the office closed, I missed a call from the tech we worked with saying that the front desk made a mistake, we DID owe them for the tests. He said they were closing but I could call back Monday to pay. Sure, no problem. Monday morning at 8am, I missed another call while showering, from this same tech. "Following up" to get payment. They literally hadn't even been open an hour since the time he last called. My husband called them back that morning and made our payment. That evening the tech called me a THIRD time (I wish I was joking) to ask me to pay. I told him my husband called earlier to pay and I'm not sure why he was still calling me. Obviously, this place cares about money, and money only. I've never had any medical professional badger me for money like this place did. There's a lot of things wrong with this practice. The vets don't seem thorough, the techs seem untrained. The front desk is not friendly at all and incompetent. It's also a madhouse in the lobby. It seems like they take on way too many appointments at a time for what they can handle. Maybe this is a great place to come if you have a small, happy, puppy, but other than that? Go elsewhere. Read Less