I am writing this a) because they saved my dog Mogwai's life, and b) to counter the review below by Susan Griffin. To clarify, I don't mean to invalidate her feelings or her experience at all. It was... Read More
I am writing this a) because they saved my dog Mogwai's life, and b) to counter the review below by Susan Griffin. To clarify, I don't mean to invalidate her feelings or her experience at all. It was clearly awful, but in good conscience I must share my own experience for one very important reason - if I had read her review before taking my dog here, I know it would have caused me MAJOR conflict when I made the decision to take their advice and operate on my dog. If we had not done the operation, he would have died within a day, or a few days.
I am ETERNALLY grateful I did NOT see her review before making my decision. My dog is a 17 year old pekingese. Before his incident of vomiting, he was a remarkably healthy little guy for his age. Robust and still very much enjoying life. In addition to pancreatitis, Dr. Porterpan diagnosed that his gallbladder was in terrible shape (via bloodwork and sonogram) and that surgery right away was the only option to save his life. You can imagine my conflict at putting a 17 (almost 18) year old dog under anesthesia for a major surgery. I asked myself if it was inhumane and was this just "his time". He is my baby, he's been with me the bulk of my adult life, and I was not ready to let him go, especially when Dr. P was saying she would absolutely do this if it was her dog and other than his age, they felt his vitals and other organs were in great shape.
We went ahead, not knowing if he'd even wake up from surgery and it was terrifying to say the least. It is an understatement to say I am forever grateful for the decision we made to give him a chance, and for the care and excellence it must have taken to save his life. It is now almost 2 weeks post operation and my little guy is amazing us all. He's wagging his tail, flinging his toys around etc... He's a happy little camper. I FULLY realize this could have gone another way, and my eyes fill with tears at the thought. I pray he has quality of life now for as long as G-d allows, and hope that is a good amount of time.
Now, for some specifics of my experience:
His surgeon, Dr. Thompson: I only spoke to her once after his surgery to tell me how it went and what she found/saw during surgery. Her skill, education and expertise very literally saved his life. I cannot thank, nor praise her enough even though we never met. His incision was the length of his abdomen, but was done very cleanly. His stitches are out now and it looks very good.
His doc - Dr. Porterpan: Clearly a very bright woman & excellent diagnostician. She was spot on about our guy. She is fast talking and very busy. You don't feel mollycoddled by her and I'm ok with that. I'd rather have an A+ doctor who feels rushed, than a B- doctor that holds my hand. I get the feeling her time is spent more with her patients (the animals) than with their humans, and again, I'm ok with that.
Her tech/assistant (title?) Leigh Ann. A GEM. So patient, you really feel she loves and cares about your animal and she takes the time the humans need to explain what's going on, answer questions etc... She was our point of contact and she, Dr. P and the rest of their staff monitored our guy behind the scenes.
Ashley, Brandy, Gwen and many other of the staff there (wish I remembered more names) that helped with Mogwai - we can only say how massively grateful we are to ALL of them. When Mogwai goes to his normal vet, he shakes like a leaf, tries to climb me like a tree and is clearly in major distress. I always assumed/knew this is because rectal temperature readings, shots etc... are not exactly things to look forward to. Trust me that my mind was blown when I took him back to get his stitches out / follow-up bloodwork, that he pranced into the clinic, tail wagging, happy as a little clam, like he owned the place. He must have had some serious TLC here to actually be HAPPY to go back. I was in shock and it spoke volumes about the back-stage love and care they receive.
Reached my char. limit or else I'd go on and on... I'll close with another HUGE THANK YOU!! : )Read Less