I will begin by saying that I NEVER write negative reviews of businesses. I am a small business owner and I know some days you are just ""off your game."" That being said I had an awful experience at this clinic and will never go back.
I've used Betty Baugh for a little over a year because, while pricey, it is very close to my house and the doctor I usually see is very nice and has even called the next day just to follow up after a treatment. A week ago my cat got extremely ill and I called first thing in the morning. (While the web site says that they open at 7:30, no one answered the phone until 8:15.) My usual doctor was not in and I agreed, because of the emergency, to see whoever could take me first. I explained that I thought something was very wrong, told her the symptoms and suggested that it could be renal failure or kidney related. She was cool and uninterested and interrupted to say they could see me at 10. I arrived with a limp, vomiting cat and, as I entered, noticed a sign on the door ""reminding me"" of ""remodeling.""
Remodeling they were. There were obvious signs of construction, no real seating or waiting area and also, to my horror, a makeshift exam table in that waiting area. I was told to put my cat on that table as a dog began barking thirty feet away and the sound of hammers and sawing came from the usual exam rooms. The workers were hollering back and forth and walking through the waiting area and the receptionists and nurses were joking and carrying on about twenty feet away while I was told my cat had a most-likely cancerous mass in her stomach the size of a golf ball. The doctor then apologized, patted my back and said they would normally take x-rays but they didn't have any x-ray equipment set up (or any equipment for that matter) and said they would draw blood and give her fluids. Giving her fluids in this third-world style set up took five minutes and the cat screamed the entire time, causing the receptionists to have to talk louder over the noise. The whole thing took less than twenty minutes, was $200 dollars and I left knowing nothing, sobbing and with a terrified cat.
I have since gone to another vet, gotten x-rays and a thorough explanation of my options. They even booked an appointment immediately with a specialist that is usually too busy to see anyone last minute. I, naturally, had to pay all over again but it was surprisingly less than Betty Baugh, with the x-ray included. I did not leave crying.
My real question is why stay open during remodeling if you have no exam rooms available and no equipment set up? Why, when I clearly explained the gravity of the situation over the phone, would they not have said they couldn't really do anything there and recommend another hospital? I understand that closing up for a few days means not making money. I also think that placing the owner and her dying animal in the back of the waiting room amid boxes and junk while, with their animal screaming, people are walking around talking, laughing and also staring at them is cruel and not a small bit traumatizing.
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