Category: | Animal Hospital |
Address: | 5520 N Nevada Ave #150, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, USA |
Phone: | +1 719-260-7141 |
Site: | animalercare.com |
Rating: | 3.3 |
Working: | 12–8AM 6PM–8AM 6PM–8AM 6PM–8AM 6PM–12AM Open 24 hours Open 24 hours |
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Tesconair Family
This is a "place of business", not a veterinary hospital. We brought our German Shepherd in for emergency treatment because he was throwing up heavy amounts of blood and was becoming excessively weak after our vet closed for the evening. When I arrived and told them he had been throwing up blood for 2 days, they tell me I have to pay $500 before they can see him. They take my dog back, do X-rays and blood work, come back to tell me the X-rays showed nothing, blood work looked good except for anemia from loss of blood and now need to do an ultra sound and that would cost another $500. I asked them how the ultra sound will help and they told me to see if he has an ulcerated stomach. I am a (human) medical professional and ultra sounds are not used to detect this and only cost $200, but maybe dogs are different). I finally realized that all this had happened and they didnt offer me a chance to give a history. If they had, and an ultra sound does detect this in dogs, then they could have skipped the X-ray altogether. My dog had a similar, but far less serious episode last summer caused by steroids to treat a severe allergy. My dog had just been treated 2 weeks prior for another severe allergy outbreak (worse than the first) with steroids. I refused the ultra sound and explained the history. They said they need to hospitalize him for $2,000-$3,000 and may have to do surgery after more testing, which will cost a minimum of $5,000-$6,000. I told them no more testing, but I understood he needed a blood transfusion and asked what that would cost and was told $1,000 which "mandates" a hospital stay and above fee. I began to cry and told them I cant afford that. They offered me a credit card of theirs (which they pushed several times during the course of the evening) which I refused. The vet then said she would check into a more conservative treatment plan and left. I never saw her again!! A med tech came in with a paper that had a diagnosis of auto immune anemia with a treatment plan using steroids! I pointed this out to the tech, but she said she didnt know so went back to "talk to the vet". When the tech came back, she relayed the vet said it wasnt a steroid. I told her I am a medical professional and know exactly what that drug is. So she said she would have the office manager come talk to me. The office manager came and said she would talk to the vet, then came back with my dog informing me the vet consulted an internal medicine vet and changed the diagnosis to ulcerated stomach, which is what I had told the vet! She said they were very concerned with his low blood count and insisted on a transfusion. I said it was too expensive so they said he at least needed IV fluids and that would cost another $203 (in humans IV fluids cost $80). I was furious! I had paid $500 and just now found out they did absolutely nothing to stabilize my dog over the last 3 hours!! I had no choice but agree to this as he had visibly deteriorated even more since I arrived and there was nowhere else to go. I should note that after I refused, as the vet put it, the "gold standard treatment plan", the vet went away and I never saw her again. It was very obvious that all they are after is your pocket book. You will NOT deal with a vet without paying top dollar. Once you complain, you will only talk to a tech or the office manager. They will take your complaints, go back and "talk to the vet", then come back and talk to you. I finally got my dog back after charging me another $100 for medicine. Total spent for the evening was $803, which may seem reasonable for an ER visit, but I only spent 10 minutes out of 4 hours with a vet and did battle with staff for the remaining time. They were NOT interested in caring for my dog. Their ONLY interest was profit margin. If they were truly interested in quality care, they would take a full history upon arrival, then judiciously select the right tests to conduct in order to come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan, not the other way around.
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Jasmin McRae
Worst place I ever went to. Went there with my pregnant cat last night,I asked for an ultrasound to be done to see if the second baby was still alive ,was shut down on that. They insisted on X-ray ,$185 plus $98 to be seen by the Vet,suggestions were 3 Potassium shots to get contractions going again ,now we are at $323 , they do not offer military discount or payment plan only the care credit card. After being promised i would be kept up to speed of my cats progress ,lets just say I had to hunt people down to find out what is going on,after almost 6 hours I had reached my limit, had to track someone down again,finally the Vet comes in and tells me that the injections had no affect and that we are looking at a emergency c-section , thats when I hit the roof and asked them what guarantees do I have that the kittens are still alive since they refused to do the ultrasound ,yeah pretty much no guaranty and I was looking at $1700 for the surgery. So first they charge me over $320 and then want an additional $1700,at that point I asked them to kinda come towards me , NOPE NOT A CHANCE , and if I wanted to I could just wait till later to take my cat to a different Vet, wait up now your contradicting yourself there first its a life/death situation and now its cool to wait till later to take her to a different doctor?Are you people for REAL?????Not even considering that the kitten might has passed away already (blood poisoning) or the Uterus detached and she is bleeding internal.pretty much comsi comsa .I am a RN myself and if I would treat my patients that way I would long have lost my license and probably be in jail ...I asked for my cat back and also told them that if the cat passes away I will bring my 11 year old who the cat belongs to and they explain their total incompetents toward animals and their family!Also there will be a complaint filed with Carson so that no military family can go there and get ripped off!!!!! No compassion for anything but for money,that is super sad and they should be really ashamed of themselves ....Great way to show families and military families how much they really care about their 4 legged friends!!!!
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Nichole Seay
We took our 4 month old Saint Bernard to A.E.C.C. last night with an infected bite in his ear from another dog in the home. When we first got there we were warmly greeted and put in a room. Understanding this was an emergency room we were not the least bit offended when we had to wait a while because another more serious case came in. However, when the tech finally came in, she hardly looked at the dogs ear, and told us that these almost always required surgery to cauterize the broken blood vessels. She told us that we could either see the vet for her opinion which would cost another $98 or just take the dog home and have the surgery with our own vet tomorrow. We could see that the ear was not full of blood, it was full of puss that needed antibiotics, so we assumed the vet would give the right call and treat the ear. Another hour later (our dogs ear hasnt even been cleaned yet) the vet walks in and says almost exactly the same thing. She also suggested a surgery that no other vet that our family sees for the Saints has ever recommended. By now, were frustrated because the vet didnt even really look at his ear either! So, we asked for the antibiotics and the pain medicine and were hoping to leave. Then, they came back with the bill, and included the fact that NOW (at the end of all this time) they could clean the pups ear. We were so frustrated, we just wanted to get our baby some antibiotics and leave. They kept insisting that he would need surgery and there was no way that they could drain his ear. Another hour later they finally come back with two days of antibiotics and pain medicine. (Im not exaggerating.) Long story short, trust your instincts. With just one dose of antibiotics which we went for, his ear returned to normal size and by the end of the next day he was almost completely back to normal. Im not complaining about price, Im complaining about complete incompetence and the need to exaggerate everything for the benefit of their bank account. Buyer beware. You know your animal. Go there only if every other place in town is closed.