Short version for those that do not want to read : Their techs and vets were always very nice to us and our pup and always treated well. The concern comes in with the vaccinations as part of their 1... Read More
Short version for those that do not want to read : Their techs and vets were always very nice to us and our pup and always treated well. The concern comes in with the vaccinations as part of their 1st year care club. Each one caused our pup to get extended bouts of diarrhea. Wouldn't think twice about going here in a pinch if we needed to get in somewhere on short notice, but do your research on vaccinations and ask questions!!
Long version : First of all my wife and I were first time dog owners and we took some time to figure out where we wanted to take our pooch. We decided to take our 8 week old Husky here as we heard via word of mouth that Dr. Jewel was great, and he is. Every time he seen our pup you could tell he was great with animals. Him and the techs always made our pup comfortable and were always good to us. We bought into the care club package which covers stool samples, 1st year vaccinations, castration surgery and microchipping. GREAT! Well first round of vaccines came and tummy issues followed. Fast for 18 hours and then bland diet. Voiced our concerns before 2nd round of vaccines, but were told he should be fine and that we'll watch closely. More diarrhea follows along with another bout of fasting and bland diet and even probiotics to help combat the issues. 3rd and final round which also included rabies vaccine, we were hesitant but again were told he should take to this round a bit better as his immune system was building up. This was worse than the others lasting almost 2 months. A pup should not have to go through all this and it really left us with a bad taste and angry. Some people might say, "Maybe it was just your dog..." or "Maybe it was the food." We had him on Fromm's puppy food which is not TOP notch but its up there in quality and well, our pup is now over a year old, very health and energetic, still on Fromms. He is a bit undersized at 43-45 lbs (male Huskies are typically top out around 60) and really hasn't put on weight since 8 months. Though we can't prove that this is due to what he went through, you can't help but wonder.... As far as my statement above goes, we had our first visit with a more "homeopathic" vet this time around for our dogs boosters to avoid the same outcome. One of the first things the new vet had to say was, "I can't believe how many vaccinations your dog has been given, no wonder he had all those issues. I wanted to cry when I seen that." Whether or not this is the vet playing into the information that they were given, we also had our dog into 2 different puppy classes and shared our experience with other parents and none of them had the issues with diarrhea because none of them ever got the cocktail of vaccinations that our little guy received in such a short time span.
Shame on us for not doing more research into vaccinations, but as a first time fur parent, there is SO many and you always want to protect them from the worst. One would think this day in age you can trust your vet to disclose what is all in the vaccines or maybe listen to your concerns, err on the side of caution and maybe taper them back a little bit. My intent in this review is not to bash VCA Pahle, they have been good to us in every other way. I just want to inform anyone that may be in the same position that we were and maybe save them the heartache and stress of potentially dealing with these very same issues. Read Less