Comments on: How a Bad Vet Taught Me To Take Better Care of My Dogs

By: Linda - Alfie's Blog

Linda - Alfie's Blog — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 18:14:24 +0000

I absolutely hate leaving Alfie at the vets, but fortunately we’ve never had a bad experience like you had. These days you can read reviews online which can be really helpful in avoiding the worst vets clinics when you move to a new place, and that’s exactly what we did when we recently moved to San Francisco.

By: Jodi

Jodi — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 16:01:04 +0000

What a horrible experience for you and your dogs Pamela! I think sometimes the best life experiences we receive are not necessarily the ones we like but learning from the ones we don’t like.

I had a bad experience when Delilah went for spaying. We ended up changing vets and I couldn’t be happier.

By: Hawk aka BrownDog

Hawk aka BrownDog — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 15:44:08 +0000

Hi Y’all!

Great post!

Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog

By: Lauranne

Lauranne — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 11:01:31 +0000

I’m very lucky that the only bad vet I have met was the one in France this year who charged us 90 euros for some tables for BD which the year before had cost us 20 euros.

If my French was better I would have argued with him!

By: dawn

dawn — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 02:05:32 +0000

Fortunately most of my experience has been good as I’ve worked in most of the vet clinics I’ve used and I wouldn’t have worked there if I was comfortable with the care.

But hindsight with my first dog made me realize the first vet I used wasn’t great. We adopted Whitney on a Friday from the local shelter and ended up at the vet on Monday due to her vomiting and diarrhea. She had parvo. he gave her subq fluids, told us to feed her hamburg and rice and gave us some antibiotics. I was 16 years old and though I had read a lot about dogs, I knew nothing about parvo. When I got a job at a vet clinic when I went to college I saw what parvo looks like. Fortunately Whitney survived, but I shudder now remembering walking her around the block proud of my new pup while she had a very contagious, deadly disease.

By: Ginger

Ginger — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 01:10:11 +0000

I have been very lucky from day 1. I have had the best vet you could ask for. I have been with her for almost 25 years. She was just becoming a vet when I started going to her practice. She has been most patient, understanding, and helpful. I live in a different state now and travel back to her for everything. She returns my calls after hours and is always attentive to any concerns that I have. She has since started her own practice and I followed without any doubts. The other vet in the last practice was not my favorite, he was better with larger animals. No bedside manner or communication skills for the new pet owner. I don’t know how I will find someone to replace her when she retires. Dr. Kate Crumley is the best I know and I have met many working with an animal rescue. Wish everyone could find a Dr. Crumley.

By: Kristine

Kristine — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 19:21:27 +0000

I am so sorry you had to experience such a traumatizing event in the first place. It is agonizing to me that there are vets and clinics like the one you described. It is natural to trust a clinic to know what is best for one’s pet. I have not been to veterinary school and as a new pet owner I was just as naive about so many things. It is awful to think that not only did this vet not honour your original appointment, but that his staff treated your dogs so abominably. I do hope that clinic has long since been shut down.

I have had bad veterinary experiences myself and have written about them in the past but luckily none so bad as this. It’s a hard thing to learn that we have to be more proactive with our dog’s health – as well as our own. Just because someone calls himself or herself a doctor doesn’t mean we should assume they speak the whole truth. Doing your research, trusting your instincts, and asking the right questions are so important. We have yet to find a new vet for our pets now that we have moved and I am committed to doing it right.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 18:39:07 +0000

OMD! What a terrible experience. 🙁 Pierson may have had a very bad experience at the vet when he got fixed. But since he can’t talk to me about it, I’m not sure if it is because of his fear of being in strange places or if something else happened that I’m not aware of. He recovered well, but the next time I took him to the vet for routine vaccinations he peed on himself. He gets frightened easily, probably because of the hypersensitive and wary nature of his breed mix, but I’ve never known him to be this afraid.

By: Kimberly Gauthier

Kimberly Gauthier — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 12:26:59 +0000

I’m very lucky, because I don’t have a bad vet story. Because of blogging, I’ve learned to follow my gut. Our first vet didn’t like rescue dogs and I stayed there way too long. He cared for our dogs well and his staff was great, but after our last visit with him, I couldn’t go back and didn’t. When Blue was hit by a car, our neighbor took him to that vet and they refused to come out to the car to check on him; he passed on the trip and wouldn’t have survived his injuries, but this showed me that they had forgotten why they had gotten into the business in the first place.

When I first contacted our new vet, I explained that I’m a blogger and I do a lot of homework on our pets; I know that I don’t know everything, but it gives me comfort to know something. They have always welcomed my questions and I appreciate that so much. Our last vet hated to answer questions and would get really defensive and rude.

It’s so important to follow your gut. Don’t worry about hurting someone’s feelings when you take your dog and walk out. Maybe that move will make the vet rethink how they run their practice, treat patients, and the humans that pay the bill 🙂

By: emma

emma — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 12:15:12 +0000

We went through quite a few vets before we found our current one that we love! Mom didn’t really know that there were good and bad vets either until she was in Germany and had some terrible experiences. We are so grateful to have found a great place finally!