Dr. ""B"" comes across as a ""good guy"" and a somewhat competent vet...... as long as your four-legged companion is young and healthy. In January 2011, our otherwise-healthy eight-and-a-half-year do... Read More
Dr. ""B"" comes across as a ""good guy"" and a somewhat competent vet...... as long as your four-legged companion is young and healthy. In January 2011, our otherwise-healthy eight-and-a-half-year dog - the light of our life - had a couple of seizures and after having taken her to our city's emergency center, I attempted to schedule a follow-up appointment with Dr. ""B"". The receptionist *refused* to let me make an appointment - she told me, ""dogs have seizures - it happens - keep a log and if your dog starts having more than one a month, the doctor will probably want to see her"". Two sets of seizures and a month-and-a-half later (and two additional phone calls later), this office's other receptionist was still being very difficult about our attempts to schedule an appointment. We ended up switching to a different veterinary clinic, in which our beloved angel was given more thorough care than she'd ever received in her life. Unfortunately she didn't receive the level of care she needed, soon enough. By the time her 'new' vet was able to thoroughly evaluate, speculate dx's, and reassess her condition enough to make a referral to a neurologist for an MRI, the rapidly and aggressively growing brain tumor [discovered by the MRI] was too large to start any real course of hopeful treatment. Per our extensive dialogue with the neurologist, this tumor would've begun developing sometime in late autumn 2010; and if the tumor had been detected sometime in January or February 2011; depending on growth and location, it is *possible* at that time that the tumor could've been surgically removed with combo radiation therapy. In attempt to seek closure and put the pieces together, I placed a call to Dr. ""B"". Q: Was he even aware his receptionists refused my dog an appointment? A: Yes - he told me he doesn't typically get concerned when an aging dog has seizures, unless they become numerous and frequent. Q: If we would've been allowed to have had a post-ER appointment, would he have reviewed with us: the fact that it is uncommon for dogs over 5 or 6 years old to develop generalized epilepsy, our dog's biological history [his office was the veterinary care provider for our dog's birthmother & several of her siblings], and offered to make a referral to a neurological specialist? A: Nope, probably not (based on his generalized 'experience' that most dogs who have seizures don't really have anything seriously wrong with them). While Dr. ""B"" was polite to me on the telephone (and was gracious enough to talk to me in the first place); the bottom line is, we trusted him as our furry family member's practitioner, and that trust we *thought* we'd developed, is resulting in our sweet little girl's untimely death. The fact that he openly admitted he isn't really concerned about 'incidentals' that may or may not indicate larger health problems, should be at the forefront of concern to anyone out there shopping for veterinary care. Read Less