Unpleasant Vet Experience

I took Snickerdoodle to a Banfield vet location yesterday just to get her nails trimmed and have the vet show me how to better administer antibiotics. I had gone to a different Banfield location several times before for nail trimmings and they charged $8. But this Banfield location proceeded to do a full exam and charged me $46 when I had just gone there for the nail trimming!

On top of that, when I went to pay, one of the vet techs came out and said that she went ahead and added onto the bill some teeth wipes! I told them I didn't want the teeth wipes and they took them off the bill, but I thought the whole experience was kind of shady. You can't just add things to the bill without asking!

The most disturbing thing was the vet kept talking about what would likely be in my cat's future. Snickerdoodle had to get her teeth cleaned last week and her regular vet said she had some gingivitis but her teeth cleaned up well. After telling this to the Banfield vet, he started talking about how cats with gingivitis often have to have all their teeth pulled later in life, and so Snickerdoodle would probably have to have that done! I thought that was ridiculous. I've had a cat with bad teeth before and noone every suggested pulling his teeth. But what annoyed me was the vet was jumping to this worst case scenario for no reason! My cat is only 1 year and 3 months old! She's nowhere near needing her teeth pulled.

I was so mad after this experience and just needed to vent.

Thanks for listening.

Sounds like this one is just out for the $$ and doesn't care so much about the animals.

I recently left a vet that told me my 6 month old Ginger had HORRIBLE gingivitus and that she needed a full cleaning under anesthesia. They quoted me over $300 and I said no way, she was too young to have gums that bad!

The next vet I took her to said her gums were healthy and beautiful.

Which vet did I stick with? ONE guess!

I would have a hard time respecting a professional that expressed that opinion. Find a new vet...seperate from the issue of pushing the bill up (which they did), I don't agree with the vets comments...at all!

Fortunately Snickerdoodle has a great regular vet. I just went to this quickie vet in Petsmart to get her nails trimmed because it was closer to my apartment. But I will never go there again!

The vet I go to is a multi-vet practice and the one doctor, who is actually the "main" doctor, is a bozo!!! everytime I bring my cats in and get him, he always has to make some kind of comment like, well you know leukemia cats get sick more often.... no #$%^ Sherlock!! I've been doing this for 6 years and you think I don't know this?? plus he really doesn't seem like he wants to exert the effort to really examine my cats cause they have leukemia I think he thinks "They're just going to die anyway" anyway, I'm going to start requesting NOT to get him, and I agree with your assessment that that vet was out to get as much money out of you as her could, like we don't already spend enough

Some vets shouldn't be practicing medicine...

Eesh. I've had a similar thing happen to me at a vet's office. Thankfully, I have an excellent main vet as well. One spay+one checkup=$104 and you can barely tell that the kitten has an incision.

My original vet gave Gizmo a clean bill of health. Then she came down with asthma. He gave me Prednizone and blamed me after the cat developed side effects. He seemed to think that I was some kind of moron. I followed his directions to the letter when administering the medication.

My new vet informed me that Gizmo had several health hazards, one of which (tartar on teeth) should have been painfully obvious to the first vet.

It takes all kinds, but this wasn't one of the good kinds. I am pleased with the new vet--she seems to like cats, like Gizmo, and not treat me like a fool.

You are lucky to have a good vet. Quickie vets don't sound like so much of a bargain.

Originally Posted by white cat lover

Some vets shouldn't be practicing medicine...

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That is exactly the problem they are practicing.

what jerks!
I can't imagine someone telling me all those negative things.
Although they are not Human doctors they should still follow a code of ethics like doctors do. I mean come on!!!

I mean diabetes runs HIGH in my family, none of my doctors have ever told me I'm going to get it even though they KNOW i am at super super high risk for it. As a health care professional (human or not)they should be emotionaly sensitive.

I got some matches... lets go burn the place down!

Originally Posted by gizmocat

He seemed to think that I was some kind of moron.

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That's how this vet treats me too! I just sit there and think, do you have any idea how much research I've done??? I probably know more than him about leukemia at least Thank goodness I love the other vets there

You know I've heard alot of bad things about these Banfield Vets. Not only here, but on other cat and dog groups I belong to. Some stories are horrible. So just be careful who you choose as your vet!

When I took Draco up to our vet in Idaho he was only 9 weeks old, and weighed 2 lbs and the vet assistant gave me this accusing look and said, straight to my face, 'that's a really skinny cat.' i told her 'he's 9 weeks old.' then she looked embarrassed and said 'oh..'. It seemed like the vet just kind of rushed through the examination and didn't check for everything i thought he should because Draco had just come off of a farm, and nobody knows where he lived before that, but then i may just be paranoid.

That Vet sounds like a real jerk, and if it were me I'd be calling Petsmart and telling them what happened.

My usual Vet is a wonderful kind man...as was his Father.
My family has always taken our animals to these people.

But along came Annabelle.
Four years ago I found her playing in traffic not far from my house.
She was so tiny and sick looking I wanted to bring her in, but was really scared that she might be positive or God knows what else was wrong with her.
My Vet was out of town, so I took her to another Vet just a few blocks away.

They ran all the tests and she got a clean bill of health, they spayed her, gave her shots the only thing they said was wrong with her was ear mites.
I paid out the whohaw for a one shot ear mite treatment.
There cost was double what my Vet would have been, but at the time I didn't want to take the chance of letting her outside, or bringing her in until she was checked.
They told me when they looked at her teeth, they estimated her age at about 6 months.

Fast forward to about a week later...I found crawling bits of rice on her butt...YES, she had a tape worm...according to the Vet no creepy crawlies at all....her ears still looked awful, the ear mite treatment did nothing and her breath would knock over an elephant.

So off we go to my regular Vet.
He gave her a shot to take care of the worms...checked for other kinds of worms and found none.
He said the ear mite medication didn't work because she didn't have ear mites, she had a yeast infection in her ears, gave me medication and within 3 days her ears were fine...now the worst part.
When he looked at her teeth to find out what was making her breath so bad he found a cut...he said from the looks of it, the cut had been there for a VERY long time, long before I found her...it was so infected that it was actually pushing her tooth right through the side of her mouth.
He pulled the tooth and gave me antibiotics to take care of the infection and also told me that she was at least as old as my other cats...they were 2 at the time...if not a year or two older.
He said there was no way that they could have even looked in her mouth, they probably told me she was so young because she was just a tiny cat.
I also made him run the tests again, just to make sure she was health...thank God she was.

Needless to say I went back to the first Vet and I was not nice...they gave me half my money back, but that's not the point people like that have no business being responsible for the care of animals.
They lasted in this town for about another 6 months...then they were gone...gone overnight, they were there one day and gone the next.

I learned my lesson, once you find a Vet you like and you trust stick with them.

I'm not putting you down in anyway for taking your cat there, I just wanted you to know that I understand how you feel and that there are just some people who are not cut out to be Vets...sounds like PetsMart got hold of one of them.

gosh, THAT's a awful story, I'm so glad you were able to get Annabelle the care she needed... how do some of these "vets" get their degrees???

Originally Posted by katiemae1277

gosh, THAT's a awful story, I'm so glad you were able to get Annabelle the care she needed... how do some of these "vets" get their degrees???

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Everytime I think about it, it just breaks my heart.
That poor little baby had to be in pain but she never made a sound, thank God I got her to my regular Vet.
I wonder too how some of them got a degree.

That's pretty bad, sorry that happened to you.

I will say, to the defense of whoever said that they heard bad things about Banfield vets, that I've been taking my two to Banfield for over a year and a half now. I've met my share of incompetent vets but then I've also met some good ones... I guess that's the way it works most everywhere.

On that note, sounds like you got an incompetent one and I'm glad you have a regular vet that you like.

I really like my vets. We have a surgery with several vets, and you see whoever's on duty at the time of your appointment. They have always been fantastic with Radar. He loves vet visits, which I think is in part down to his bold friendly character, but also says a lot about the way he is handled and treated. They have plenty of time for your questions and concerns.

The only reason I don't take the parrot there is because they don't have an avian specialist, his vet is a bit further away from where we live, and he's also really good. He is the only avian specialist at the practice so I always see the same vet there.

I have on one occasion had to take a bird to a non-avian specialist in an emergency, and that regular vet instilled confidence in me because she got out her textbooks and then got on the phone to an avian specialist to confirm diagnosis and treatment right in front of me. To me, a vet who can admit that they are not an expert in that particular area of medicine and is happy to call up someone else for advice in an emergency situation is worth their weight in gold - I have a distrust of anyone who makes out that they know it all.

It is vital to be confident in your vet, if you have any doubts, look around for someone else.

When I took Marcie to the Vet for the first time, I was not at all happy with the way he talked down to me. My husband convinced me to give him another chance and I am so glad I did. He is great with animals, but I realized that just because he is great with animals doen't mean that he is a people person. I took slight offense to the way he talked down to me, but I realize that it was in Marcie's best interest that he makes extra efforts to make sure that I understand every little detail and have every 5 dollar word explained to me. Every time I call up in a panic about some little problem that Marcie is having, he is more than happy to see her right away and he actually told me that he understands that since I don't have any kids, Marcie is basically my kid. I just had to realize that despite a personality difference, I had a really good vet.

I'm a little sketched out by the banfield thing.. They are in my local petsmart now and I'm of the opinion that it is a money making walmart of vets.

I would ask people you know who have pets a long time and are real animal lovers who they go to, and ask more than one person..

The first vet I went to was just basically picked because of how close it was to my house.. I think that the shelter I adopted Rocky from didn't have a good opinion of them though they didn't come out and say it.. After a year we moved and I asked a bunch of people esp since Rocky had health problems.. One person I know who has 4 cats and two dogs gave my current vet glowing reccomendations.. They are a larger hospital with emergency clinic too.

I am very satisfied with them. A coworker had a different vet who wouldn't squeeze her dog in for a ear infection brought her dog in to the emergency section and was very impressed with them and the cost as well, so she is going to switch to them..