Took my show dog in to be collected, frozen, and semen exported to Europe. I will not go back to this clinic again, for several reasons.
Before arriving I spoke on the phone with Dr. Adams and requested a particular collection technique, which she agreed to perform. Got there and she did it ""her way,"" which resulted in less than half the sperm collected that other repro vets collect on my dog. (She only collected 840 million sperm, other vets have collected 1.8 billion sperm ~ so right there, she's cut my sales from her collection by more than half.) Then she argued with me that she knew what she was doing and I didn't know what I was talking about. I reminded her of our phone conversation and her prior agreement to follow particular collection steps, she said she couldn't remember every phone call. I pointed out that if she'd come into the examination room to introduce herself first, instead of coming straight in with a teaser bitch and bag, I could have reviewed our phone call. To that she told me I didn't know what I was talking about and that she has the vet credentials, not me.
Dr. Adams knew prior to my appointment that the semen was going overseas and even told me at her clinic that she'd reviewed the receiving country's import requirements. Yet she then ran a brucellosis test ""in house"" for $50 that's invalid for export to the receiving country, then she charged me another $65 for the required brucellosis test and didn't refund the incorrect test. Per the receiving repro vet in Europe ~ Dr. Adams should have known that an official USDA certificate was required, with testing performed at an official lab and not by her, and she didn't, and there's no excuse for that. Not only did I have to pay for the additional test ~ we almost missed the window to ship and inseminate because of her error. Of course, no apologies from her for her screw up.
Then there was the issue of the import certificate from the receiving country. I mailed it to Dr. Adams with an explicit cover letter of instructions. She called me with questions, said she had not bothered to read the cover letter, and then it turns out ~ she WROTE ALL OVER THE IMPORT CERTIFICATE BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T BELIEVE IT WAS OFFICIAL PAPERWORK. If she'd bothered reading the cover letter, she MAY??? have known better. Thank God the receiving country still accepted the import certificate, despite her highlights and handwritten notes all over it.
In sum, Dr. Adams:
1. Doesn't listen.
2. Believes she knows so much that no one else has anything to contribute to the process of collecting semen.
3. Never apologizes or accepts responsibility for her errors.
4. Isn't detail-oriented enough to handle proper overseas shipping, and then makes her clients pay for her mistakes (wrong brucellosis testing).
5. Doesn't do a particularly good job of collecting sperm, collecting less than half of what other repro vets collect from the same dog.
6. Is very abrasive and confrontational and absolutely refuses to back down from her position no matter how mistaken she might be.
7. Almost cost me an overseas breeding through multiple avoidable errors.
I won't be going back. For anyone in the Atlanta area looking for a good repro vet, I would instead recommend Dr. Rebecca Kessler of Centre Court Vet Clinic in Atlanta.
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