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Review content:
My dog's last moments were painful and cold due to this hospital. AND PLEASE, TO WHOMEVER READS THIS AND HAS GONE TO THIS HOSPITAL, FILE COMPLAINTS WITH THE STATE AS I AM DOING AND HOPEFULY WE WILL PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS. AND DON'T THINK WE HAVE "WON" WHEN YOU SEE THAT THE HOSPITAL CLOSES WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR--THEY ARE MERELY MOVING TO A NEW LOCATION OFF OF I-79. This "hospital" is a sham and should be barred from practicing "care" ("we're the best with your pets", they say). In June I took my 7 year old beagle to the VEC in the middle of the night due to heavy breathing and obvious distress. He had recently been diagnosed with severe anemia, so my family and I knew we needed to get him to the hospital ASAP. He was given a couple of shots, an iv of fluids and sent home. Early the next morning he kept collapsing, stopping breathing and had his eyes rolled up in his head and his tongue hanging out of his mouth. His paws were like ice. When we rushed him back over to the emergency clinic, the receptionist, seeing what my pup looked like, and even after I clearly informed her of the seriousness of his condition, told me to step aside while she took five minutes to process a customer's bill, making sure she got him to sign in all the right places for their main concern, the almighty dollar. If a human hospital reacted to an emergency situation like this they'd be sued! We were given a room, but it was a total of fifteen minutes from arrival until a vet saw our pup. We had to run around the office screaming for help as literally no one was around, no doctors, vet techs, receptionists, nothing. We waited in the waiting room when Dr. Kenton Rexford saw us and said that it would definitely be worth our while to run all the same tests done on our pup last month (all $1,000 of them) again, as his condition might have changed since then.We specifically asked the doctor if the tests were worth it, if our pup had a good chance of survival. He said yes, that our pup merely felt "icky" (in his words). We got the test results, he said he could not find anything major wrong with our dog but recommended he see an internist the next day (one was no available on a Sunday). We again asked if our dog was probably going to die, and the vet said he had a good chance of survival. We were asked to go home (of course, after having to pay half of our $800 bill up front). We asked to see our dog first, and what we found frightened us. He was lying in a cage, completely limp and lifeless with so much drool pooled under his mouth that he could easily have drowned. I had to beg the vet techs present (five of them, all discussing lunch plans while sitting on the counters instead of doing anything work related) to prop my pup up properly, clean his mouth off and give him a new towel. They did, and we went home. Five minutes after returning home the receptionist called and told us that Dr. Rexford "forgot" to tell us that our dog was septic and could die at any moment. FORGOT!!!!????? I thought he just felt "icky"! Fifteen minutes after that we got a call saying our pup was in cardiac arrest. He died in their care after we gave the okay to stop CPR (it had been going on for 20 minutes). It was almost an hour before we were allowed to see him, and he wasn't even cleaned up or had his eyes closed or mouth closed to bring us some comfort and him some dignity. And we weren't allowed to see him until we paid the remaining $400 of our balance, no payment options discussed with us at all. And what I also found horrible is that Dr. Rexford used word like "what killed him..." when we had not even given the okay to stop CPR yet. How empathetic! I wish to God that we had been infromed of the seriousness of our beloved pup's sickness so that his last few moments could have been spent with those who love him, peacefully being put to sleep instead of such a violent, undignified death. Not to mention that we were bled of over $1000 in the time span of a day and a half by this clinic (counting the emergency visit the night before). Please, if you love your animals, never go to this vet.
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