September 23, 2018 - I have used Riverbark many times in the past, even when it was named Manchester Animal Hospital, and I have always loved Doctor Jenny. In the past, she has been very kind to my do... Read More
September 23, 2018 - I have used Riverbark many times in the past, even when it was named Manchester Animal Hospital, and I have always loved Doctor Jenny. In the past, she has been very kind to my dogs and treated me with respect. However, this last time I took my dog to her, she wanted to simply brush me off with a couple of pills and send me on my way.
My dog had been coughing and unfortunately, it sounded like either heartworms or possibly heart failure. Doctor Jenny wasn't even going to run a heartworm test! I asked her about the test, and she was going to brush me away again by telling me that it was very expensive. I pressed the issue, and she said it was $45. Too expensive???
I told her that I wanted the heartworm test, so an assistant took my dog out of the room, and I guess they ran the test on him. (I mean how do you really know WHAT they do with your pets since they no longer treat them in your presence: They take the pets away from you and to a different room to treat them.)
Doctor Jenny came back amazingly quickly (too quick for a blood test if you ask me....) and told me that there were no heartworms. So...I proceeded to ask her about heart failure, and she smiled falsely and talked to me as if I was child saying that if it were anything to do with the heart, she would hear a heart murmur, and she did not hear a heart murmur.
I wanted to press the issue of getting an x-ray done because I was not convinced (as Doctor Jenny seemed to be) that my dog's problem was no big deal. He had been coughing, acting like he cannot breathe at times, and had lost a LOT of weight. But when I started to ask her about it....she simply began walking towards the door, told me to try the pills she gave me, and call her if they did not work.
ARE YOU SERIOUS!!! If they do not work, my dog could die! Well, it has been six days, and my dog is STILL coughing and acting like he cannot breathe at times. But I will NOT be taking him back to Doctor Jenny. I will be taking him elsewhere. I truly felt like Doctor Jenny treated me like some poor, ignorant person that did not deserve her time. Well, believe me, I will not be "wasting her time" anymore. My dog is my baby, and I was willing to do whatever it took to get him better. I will be taking him somewhere else where the people will treat me and him with respect and dignity.
For many people, their pets are their babies. I am one of those people, and it only takes one bad experience such as the one I described above for them to take their business elsewhere. Just as parents would not allow a second chance after a bad experience with a medical practitioner, pet parents will not either.
October 27, 2018 - This is an update to my review. The medicine that Doctor Jenny gave me for my dog did nothing, and in fact, my dog got worse. He got to the point where he was coughing almost constantly. True to my words, I did not take him back to Riverbark: instead, I took him to Reilly Road Animal Hospital. Unlike Doctor Jenny, who did not listen to anything I said, Doctor Stephenson actually listened to me and took my concerns seriously. He listened to Meepster's heart, and there WAS a heart murmur!! He did a blood test and a chest x-ray and determined that it was, indeed, heart failure as I had feared.
The time I wasted taking Meepster to Doctor Jenny and waiting to see if some stupid cough pills and antibiotics would help him, only made his condition worse. Furthermore, the money I gave Doctor Jenny ($156) could have paid for Meepster's heart medication for a month. I will never, ever take any of my dogs back to Riverbark, and I will never, ever recommend them to anyone either. Meepster is now on three different heart medications, and his coughing has stopped. However, his condition went on too long without medication, so...he likely does not have long left to live. Read Less