I have mixed feelings about the people that work here, their veterinarians are somewhat hit or miss (I'm judging based on overall friendliness, bedside manor, and how informative they may or may not b... Read More
I have mixed feelings about the people that work here, their veterinarians are somewhat hit or miss (I'm judging based on overall friendliness, bedside manor, and how informative they may or may not be), but for the most part I don't have any serious complaints as far as that goes. I've taken my cat here for urinary tract problems many times, which was a very stressful time and only one of their vets left me with a less than positive feeling after a visit. My cat has been doing better for a couple months now, thank goodness. My one star review, however, is about a couple of phone calls between myself and the reptile vet that works there on Mondays and Tuesdays (I'm assuming it's not a regular employee considering they only see reptiles two days a week, but I'm not 100% positive). I have an adult female leopard gecko that I got from a friend (her name is Lilith), she was not being cared for properly at her previous home and I believe this has led to an accumulation of underlying health problems, or at least one health problem specifically, that being impaction. Her belly has been abnormally large since I've had her, it looks kind of swollen and full. She's always gotten around just fine and exhibited perfectly normal behavior until I fed her 4 medium sized dubia roaches which led to her not being able to go to the bathroom. After a few days of not finding poop in her enclosure, I became very worried, as she was not doing well and appeared to be very uncomfortable. Considering her history of being kept on dangerous substrates for all or most of her life, I feared that this could be very serious. This is what led to my phone call to Garland Animal Clinic. I spoke to their reptile vet on the phone and explained my situation, expressing my opinion that this was an emergency (it may not have been if it was only the one incident of being fed slightly too large dubia roaches, but given her history and her constantly full/swollen looking belly, I did not think this was something to be taken lightly as it seemed likely that there was an underlying problem). The lady told me she disagreed about it being an emergency, and told me to give my gecko warm soaks. She was VERY rude and condescending, and did not seem to care about my situation or the well-being of Lilith. She spoke in a way that gave me the impression that she thought I was stupid, like I had no idea what I was talking about, and like my geckos history was irrelevant and that I was basically just wrong about the severity of the situation (mind you, she made these assumptions without even LOOKING at my gecko). She did not seem like she wanted to be bothered with my questions, or with getting my gecko in to see her. I reluctantly got off the phone with her, feeling almost cheated in a way, because veterinarians are supposed to CARE about animals and WANT to HELP. I tried the warm soaks, and by the next morning I found poop. This victory, however, was only temporary. After a couple days I tried feeding her again because despite my worry, I knew I couldn't just starve her. I fed her 4 mealworms and she passed them. After a couple more days I fed her 4 phoenix worms, which are pretty soft, and she did not pass them. So here I am a week later, in the same spot. A healthy gecko should not become impacted that easily. If the vet had listened to my concerns and trusted that I knew something was wrong, we could have had this problem addressed a week ago, when I urged that this was a serious matter. I now feel lost, like I have no one to turn to, and Garland Animal Clinic made me feel this way. I'm very upset, as the life of my leopard gecko is very important to me, and it should have been to the veterinarian I spoke with over the phone last week, but sadly was not. I pay good money for their services, it is unacceptable for one of their people to make me feel this way. I realize they're a veterinary clinic and not a retail store, but basic customer service rules should still apply to their interactions with the people that come to them for help with their animals. Read Less