Petworth Animal Hospital

Reviews 3

FR

Frances Norwood

This is not a place for animals or humans. Im going to keep this short because thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach. My 2 year old cat (still a kitten basically) injured her back paw on Tuesday. She came home after 15 minutes outside couldnt put weight on it and her paw appeared fanned out. Clearly in pain as well. I took her immediately to Dr. T who I had seen twice before for annual shots. I knew he was known as a prickly person from prior experience and multiple reviews warning me, but the reviews kept saying he loved animals and was good with them so I thought we were in good hands. We were not. He saw her Tuesday 30 minutes after her accident and was immediately hostile. I attempted to tell him what I knew of the accident but he did not want me to tell him what happened or to speak at all. Since I knew he was a grouch, I just tried to keep him focused on my hurt cat. He examined her and told us to come back at 10AM the next day for X-rays. I asked if he had ruled anything out and he got angry. I asked if surgery was necessary if he would do it tomorrow while she was already under anesthesia from the X-ray and he got angry. I was upset and pissed that this seeming doctor couldnt have a basic clinical conversation but I gave up getting any answers. I did insist that he give her pain medication, which he did. We came back the next morning and he immediately got angry again and this time left the room and sent his assistant to send me away. The assistant informed me they wouldnt be doing any X-rays until maybe 1 or 2PM --that I would have to leave her. She was clearly not enjoying being here so I wished he had told me that the day before so I could have come at 1 instead of 10AM -- causing her longer suffering here -- but I didnt say anything. The assistant said come back at 4:30. Clearly there would be no phone calls to me once he discovered what was hurting my cat. I told the assistant that she was still in pain -- the pain med from the night before didnt seem to help -- and asked if the assistant could give her something. He said sure, sure and left the room with her. I came back at 4:30 and doc and Mrs. T were there. I asked how she was and Mrs. T said be quiet and let the doctor speak. I stayed quiet to keep the peace and he proceeded to give me what turned out to be -- no surprise -- the absolute wrong diagnosis. He said, "it is an old injury to the back right paw. Its calcified and frozen in place. The injury is not painful." -- Yes, he actually wrote on her diagnosis "painless." He told me she was walking on it fine and that there was nothing more to be done. I reminded him that the injury occurred on Tuesday right before he first examined her so it was not an old injury and that she hasnt been walking on her leg since Tuesday (clearly he didnt watch her walk either). I gave up and gave him my credit card. I just wanted to get me and my cat out of there. I asked for the X-rays and he said no. I said I need them because Im going to need to take her somewhere else and he said have them contact me and Ill send them. (Later I found he was only willing to mail them which would mean shed suffer more days while waiting for the X-rays, so I went back and insisted that he give me the X-rays we had paid for). So heres the real diagnosis: she injured herself on Tuesday, dislocated one of her middle toes pretty badly. The X-rays were unreadable so we had to make new ones. She was in considerable pain and needed narcotics and as soon as she got the right pain medication -- after suffering for almost 3 days -- she was clearly relieved. We go today to the specialist to fix her toe. And if I hadnt gone to a doctor this 2 year old would have lived a life of disability and pain. This person is not fit to treat animals.

A

A Private User

If you care about your animal, you won’t go to Petworth!!! He stitched up my kitten’s spay surgery site WITHOUT anesthesia!!! My female kitten was spayed at Petworth, unfortunately. She was sent home with NO written post-surgery instructions. I took her back the next day b/c she ripped out the stitches as soon as we got home and had a gaping raw open wound all night long. I had to call an emergency animal hospital to find out what to do since there is no emergency number at Petworth (they don’t care!) The emergency hospital told me to get an Elizabethan collar so she won’t get down to the internal stitches. The next day at Petworth, the doctor told me to wait in the waiting room and took her downstairs without any discussion or explanation of what he was going to do. I could hear my cat screaming downstairs from the waiting room, behind the closed door. When I ask if he had done it w/o anesthesia, he said ‘Oh it doesn’t hurt. She just didn’t like being held down’ and then he ushered me out the door without letting me ask any further questions. He stitched her up WITHOUT anesthesia! I was furious! I came back to ask him to at least help me put her Elizabethan collar back on so she wouldn’t do it again on the drive home and he had the guy mopping the floor help me. When I asked for written post-surgery instructions he said they didn’t have any. When I asked why not he said just wait for Maureen to come (when?) and she’d tell me something. I called Maureen later and when I complained she told me that no one twisted my arm and forced me to come there. Let me tell you, they don’t care about you OR YOUR PET. Don’t believe that they do! He doesn’t even give you an itemized bill or an emergency number to call if something goes wrong later. If you get out of there without a problem, you are lucky! He’s a real cheapskate (no anesthesia, no itemized bill, no printed post-surgery instructions, no employees other than Maureen (sometimes) and the mop guy), but interestingly I saw on the internet that he bought an $850,000 house this July 2009 in the worst economy in history! It seems all the cutting corners pays off well for HIM, that’s for sure. It may be a LITTLE cheaper at Petworth but it’s not worth the agony that you AND your pet will go through. My little kitten is now passed out with exhaustion from the whole ordeal and hopefully not in pain. Go at your own risk but don’t say you didn’t know!

MA

Marina Kozak

An incredibly difficult story to tell, even writing this is upsetting. My pups day care accidentally closed the car door on his tail and broke it (pretty bad break with exposed bone). They immediately took him to Petworth Animal Hospital around 5:55pm on a Wed. They admitted him and promptly closed at regular business hours at 6pm. At 6:20p after speaking to the van driver by phone, he said I will get my dog back from the vet on Friday (2 days later), which I would unacceptable and immediately called the vet. To my incredible shock, their phone was unavailable and I wasnt even able to leave a message because the mailbox was full! At that point I had no idea whether my pup received any care or what state he was in. I also called my regular vet in Dupont and asked if anyone had requested his records, they had not. Note, this was Wednesday evening and Petworth Animal Hospital does NOT have hours on Thursday. I spent all night agonizing about the state of my pup and drove first thing in the morning to see if I could retrieve him. I spent 4hrs in the rain waiting for someone to show up at NOON at which point (after some rude words from Dr. Thornburg) I was able to get them to release him. My pup was in so much pain he was barely able to stand! When I walked into the street, he peed for an incredibly long time, indicating to me that over the previous 18 HOURS he had no bathroom breaks. I have no idea whether he had any food or water, his tail was not bandaged, he wasnt wearing a cone and was likely tending to his wound over that period. No one contacted for his medical records or me to explain the medical situation. So these people admitted an incredibly sick dog, did not have his medical history, and did not administer any care allowing him to suffer for 18 hours. It was not only irresponsible for him to have been admitted in the first place, it was was downright cruel to abandon him the way they did! It was appalling behavior for a few extra bucks and should not be in business if this is their motivation!