I began taking my dog to Columbus Central Veterinary in April of this year for his annual shots. They seemed great then...just a simple and quick in and out visit for his shots. Overpriced, but it seemed to be worth it considering they had an emergency clinic and they were only 5 minutes from my house. Until a few weeks ago, my dog cut his paw pad outside on a piece of glass and we immediately rushed him to the vet. As soon as we got there, one of the techs carried him to the back while we had to wait in the waiting room wondering what was going on. I felt so uneasy about not going to the back with him but I figured it was standard procedure. The vet then told us that she would have to suture his paw pad. My boyfriend and I both found this odd considering the wound was not a laceration but an abrasion. How do you suture an abrasion? But we put our trust into them and let them suture his paw. He came out about 45 minutes later still under anesthesia which was very hard for me to see. They all found it amusing that he was running into walls and falling down and kept giggling. I've never seen anything like that and it broke my heart. I expected them to be a bit more compassionate. We were to go back in a week for a bandage change and his first check up. After the first bandage change, my dog chewed his bandage off while we were at work. When we got home and saw, it looked as if his paw had never been sutured in the first place. We wrapped his paw and made another appointment to take him back. When we went back, our appointment was at 8 pm. They didn't take us in until 9:30. They took our dog and about 20 minutes later the tech came out to tell us they'd have to re suture his paw. Keep in mind, this was 5 days after he chewed the bandage off. Once a wound is open for 24 hours you aren't supposed to re suture it because it has already started healing. Why did they want to re suture my dog's paw? So we asked to speak with the vet. The tech took us into an exam room where we waited for 40 minutes all the while listening to the vet and the techs talk in the hallway. Talking and laughing and joking as if they had nothing to do. After the 40 minutes, we left. I made an appointment at another vet and when I took my dog there, she explained that she never sutures paw pads because the minute the dog puts weight down on that leg, the stitches pop right out. She wrapped his paw and told us we could re wrap it ourselves every 5-7 days. So, not only did Columbus Vet suture something they should have known wasn't meant to be sutured, but they wanted to do it a second time 5 days after the stitches came out...once the wound was already healing on it's own. I believe that they saw how vulnerable and young I was and knew that they could convince me that I would need to spend all this money for my dog to heal. It has been a week since our last visit to them and his paw is healing beautifully. I would not recommend Columbus Veterinary to anyone. They are not in the business for the pets, they are clearly only in it for the money.
more