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I will never go back.

My previous experiences with this veterinary practice were positive, but today went so horribly bad.

I called to ask if my bland diet approach for my dog’s recent symptoms were smart and ended up being asked to bring her in right away, as soon as possible, and call when we arrived. This person took down all of the details of both her current symptoms, timeline, medications, and my request they also trim her nails since covid lockdown had interrupted our access to our old groomer.

So, we rushed down there, I called when we were arriving, was on the phone as we pulled into the parking lot, we parked in the first spot, visible from reception, confirmed which spot we parked in, and was told another staff person would call me back. 

It took a while for the staff person to call me back, probably ten minutes, and they didn’t know we were already sitting there waiting in the parking lot (still within view of reception). She asked a bunch of questions that the other staff person had already noted into our chart (including reading back details as they did so), but this new staff person apparently could not look at at any of that information and asked me to answer all of the same questions again. Eventually someone took my dog back and someone else came out with a clipboard of paperwork and asked me to fill out the same information a third time. It was also frustrating that various staff people had masks falling off (it’s NOT that hard to keep a mask on your face, you work in a vet’s office) and seemed pretty forgetful about trying to maintain social distancing (despite regulations or me telling them before coming in that I’m in a high-risk population for the pandemic and need to be cautious).

They took my dog back and left me waiting in my car for a very long time and it’s probably been an hour and a half with no information when I call, asking for an update. They tell me she’s stable and the doctor will have an update for me soon. A half hour later I call back to ask when I can expect an update, because I’ve now been in my car for roughly two hours (perhaps more) and am going to need to get out of my car for necessities at some point. Keep in mind I’m still the first car in view. The person tells me that they don’t know when Rosie will be seen and that someone should have told me earlier that there would be a long wait and that I should have dropped her off and gone home. 

Seriously?

Seriously.

She tells me it will be a while, to go ahead and go home. So, I drive the 15 minutes home and within 5 minutes of arriving the vet has already finished looking at her and is calling me. He suggests foods that another vet in the same office told me to not feed her due to concerns about allergies. This was not urgent. I could have just given her the bland diet I called about, but they’ll have me add an antibiotic to clear things up faster. They will be charging me for an “emergency appointment” for this short exam. Despite me asking three other staff people if they could trim her nails while she’s there, the vet doesn’t have this information and says it hasn’t been done but someone will. I let him know dremel is strongly preferred over clippers  (that she has more fear of)  and he verbally acknowledges this. He tells me I am welcome to head back to the office right then and pick her up.

So, I waited two hours in the car in 80+ degree weather to be told to go home, only to be told to come back 20 minutes later. Okay...

I arrive, pay over the phone (asking for clarity on the unexpected line item of being charged a few more bucks for her being there “for most of the day”, they said). The staff bring out my dog but do not bring out the food that I’ve been told to feed her and have paid for. They also did not dremel her nails, but used clippers (ouch, them claws are sharp!) despite the conversation with the vet. When she comes out with the food I ask if they fed my dog while she was there, she does not know and decides to go back inside for that information. And so we wait more.

Then a bad situation got worse when I, exhausted, stressed, overcharged, worried about my apparently-never-fed stomachy-achey dog, fail to properly secure my dog to the seatbelt. Then, despite me telling three of their staff that she’s dog reactive and we need to avoid other dogs, they do not warn me (though I am visible standing by the car with my dog) before bringing another dog past us, and through this unfortunate confluence of events, find myself running with arms flailing across Valmont to catch my dog. 

Due to the staff’s shoddy records, lack of attention to detail,  terrible communication,  wasting much of my day, and urging that I bring her in for an appointment immediately, I will not be returning. (And the horribly dangerous situation I found myself in at the end of it was the cherry on top.)