High Country Veterinary Hospital

Reviews 3

JU

Julia Hart

Update: so much improvement since my last post. I had to go back because of an emergency and they got rid of the lady who was having problems with communication. Dr. Highland is great with my dog and she on several occasions had went above and beyond to take care of him though I never asked for it. The people at the front desk now do much better at communicating and are friendly and personable. Seriously, big improvement! As a military spouse, I try to get settled in quickly to all of our familys medical needs. Finding the the doctors for general wellness, dentist and optometrist; including a vet. We were recommended this place by a friend when we got to the Springs area. Over time, my experience deteriorated. There were several "miscommunications" with the front office staff, theyd forget important info and have to contact me later, and though the doctor was excellent at her job she lacked any kind of personal skills when dealing with us as patients. But Ive dealt with animal people before and they typically lack in social skills with humans, so I ignored it. This last time was a bad experience that I wont return again. We had friends (also military) who moved to the Springs and we recommended this place. My friend and I had an appointment on the same day, however, I had to bring my dog in early for a teeth cleaning and removal. I discussed with the doctor to please update him on all of his shots. She said okay (by the way this was a different doctor from the owner). So, I left and scheduled a time to return and when I did return there was a line and my friend was there for her initial visit. We spoke in line until our turn. The young lady who waited on me that morning looked at me and said, "Are you two together?" I said, "Oh, no. Im by myself." Then in an aggravated tone the young woman responded, "Then why are you here?" "Im here to pick up my dog from his cleaning. " The young woman continued to be flustered through the payment process and getting me situated in a exam room. After another nurse came in and went through the post surgery care, she said she would meet me outside with my dog so that I can put my 1 year old in the car first. When the nurse met me outside, shes like, "Did you make an appointment for your follow up?" "I didnt think I need a follow up." "Well, you got to come back in 7-10 days to have the stitches removed from the cyst we took out." (The cyst was something we had discussed in the initial appointment.) I thought that was odd that they didnt mention anything about that before and now were having a discussion about it in the parking lot. The next day, I had planned to ask my friend how her experience went because I was seriously considering not going back after the follow up appointment. She said she had the worst experience after her dogs initial appointment with the front desk. She was checking out and was charged a high price for the appointment than she was quoted over the phone. Not only did we recommend that place but the only other reason she went to High Country was because of its lower prices. When she mentioned to the older lady of the quote, the younger and older lady had a heated discussion in front of the entire waiting room about the miscommunication. The older lady then turned to my friend and said, "Well, this was a miscommunication on your part, but next time you come in youll have to pay full price." Needless to say, Ill be going in to have my dogs stitches removed, all of his shots updated because they never did do that and a copy of his records so I can go somewhere else.

NA

Natasha Gill

Fairly priced. Wont be bringing my dog back here. Doc seemed like she was having a bad day. Was pretty short with me, interrupted me a couple times when she was asking me questions. My dog is 5 months old, starts training in a couple weeks (after she recovers from her upcoming spay). She has been minimally socialised as she was receiving vaccines and hasnt been microchiped yet. The doc didnt take any time really to let my dog warm up to her, maybe two to three seconds before she tried to listen to my dogs heart. My dog growled for a second. And we both told her no. This is the first time shes growled at anyone. The vet got up to get a treat and told me I was speaking too softly to my dog, it wasnt intentional. This was the first time shes growled at anyone. When she approached my dog again she started to growl again, was told No and shown the treat and she stopped. The doc asked me to get her off the chair she was sitting in. I tugged on the leash a couple times, didnt work, so I went to go pick her up. The doc asked for the leash instead, so I gave it to her. She pulled my dog out of the chair then continued yanking on her leash, pulling my dog to her, she pulled hard enough that the collar popped off my dog who went and hid under the chair. The doc was visibly upset by that. If you know a dog is already scared, why would you pull her across the floor by her leash? And to the point that her collar popped off. All we had to do was turn my dog towards me and she was fine. She was still tense but she didnt react when the doc checked her temp. It seemed excessive. Ive never seen a vet drag a dog to them by its leash. My dog definitely needs more socialization, but I really dont see how doing that will help her associate anything positive with the vet. But we wont be returning here!

DR

Drew Lamprecht

This is not a veterinarian. Our dog winston is a very well behaved dog, which they admitted, but they seemed to be very upset that their aggression towards our pet was met with fear from him. It began when he was trying to get on the scale, which he was problem on, but there were a lot of sights and sounds to take in so he was very distracted. As he was wandering onto the scale, a hyperactive dog came through the door and Winston stepped off the scale to greet it. The woman weighing the dog straddled him, wrapped the leash around his nose, and violently pulled him onto the scale, then chastised us for "reassuring" him. I dont know what these peoples problem is with making sure that my dog, who is a rescue, was feeling at least a little bit comfortable with a pretty scary experience. The ASPCA recommends reassuring your animal during a scary vet visit, and I will reassure any creature that is being violently abused. Then they took our dog off to some kind of torture chamber in the back for a heartworm test. Our dog was abandoned, and has some problems with new people, but he always warms up to them. If the new person is beating him and trying to stick him with a sharp object, the natural response in almost any living thing is going to be fear. Winston is in no way aggressive (he has never growled, snapped, bit, and I have heard him bark maybe twice), but the vet tried to go on about his "temperament" problem. Being frightened by a violent veterinarian is not a temperament problem. The staff here has a temperament problem.