I visited Dr Hogstreth with a healthy rabbit who had a large absess and the decision was made to amputate. Bunnies normally do well as tripods (three-legged!) but our bunny not only nearly died from errors made during the procedure and after-care but we were treated with anger, instead of sympathy, that our pet had become so sick, that we should consider her quality of life (great before the op when she was hopping about with a bandage on!) as though we were the bad guys -- bad guys who paid close to have $1,000 for our pet to be made worse?! Yes, Lakota Hills Animal Clinic is very expensive and charges more than some other practices for meds and services. ($500 for the surgery -- about $100 per week in 2 -3 follow-up visits per week!) I don't think we were the bad guys for seeking care (or what we hoped would be care!) for our pet. I think the anger came from defensiveness -- like a service provider getting angry at a customer for complaining.\r
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Here's the catalog of errors:\r
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1. Incision was not closed properly, there were two holes that leaked pus.\r
2. First antibiotic was too weak, so rabbit developed infection and fever\r
3. We were told to clean the incision with alcohol (or peroxide) on the print-out sheet. I used alcohol for the first week (pharmacy brand) and was then told that was wrong and prescribed an expensive veterinary wash.\r
4. After four weeks I was wrongly told incision had healed (even though lumpy scar tissue developed and one of the holes was leaking even more cottage-cheese like material than before) and because of declining body weight etc we should think again about end-of-life i.e. our pre-op healthy rabbit was, thanks to surgery at this clinic, a no hoper!\r
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We now to have to pay for another veterinarian's advice and Lakota Hills won't be getting any more fees from us!\r
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Pros: Nice, clean facility, probably good for basic well-pet care
Cons: See above
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