Animal Medical Center of Cumming

Reviews 3

PA

Paul Clayton

Be aware… What a rip off this vet (Mike McLaughlin) is. Took our dog to Animal Medical Center to have his ears cleaned and a bulge on his ear inspected. Not our first visit to this place but the other trips were routine in nature, shots, nails cut, ears cleaned etc. Got a call after they examined our dog and the girl said that our dog needed surgery for the bulge on his ear. I asked what does this surgery entail, overnight stay? She said no that I would need to talk with the doctor to get the details. So I told her to clean his ears and we would talk with the doctor when we picked him up. I asked her at that time what the cost would be for the procedures done and she said $142.00. Well when I arrived the girl told me the doctor wanted to talk with me about the surgery before I paid. The bulge was a hematoma he explained, ruptured vessel from probably scratching his ear with his paw. He proceeded to tell me that his ears were so dirty that it looked like bark on a tree inside his ear. That it had been a lot of time for this type of build up to occur. I said you/Animal Medical Center were the last to clean his ears. He said they tried to do their best cleaning his ears but had an issue with him being aggressive. He continued telling me that they would have to sedate our dog with any visit from that moment on. There is an additional $47.00 charge per visit IF WE CONTINUED USING Animal Medical Center. So now it’s the dog that is keeping him from doing his job. We have seen no aggressive behavior from our dog. Although he will lick you to death! I asked for the cost of the surgery for the hematoma and he proceeded to tell me the procedures to be taken and that the cost would be 700 to 800 dollars. The treatments after, antibiotics, checkups etc. were to cost more. I told him thanks and went back to the reception to retrieve my dog and pay the bill. Much to my surprise the bill was now $364.54. Over twice the initial quote. This price included three prescriptions that I was to give him daily for the next two weeks. The prescriptions were $111.40 of the $364.54 bill I paid. Prescriptions/antibiotics were for a fungal issue within the ears, wash/flush for cleaning the ears and a diarrhea prescription do to the antibiotics causing such. Concerned for my dog’s ear I immediately took him to another veterinarian (for a second opinion) that gave him a thorough ear exam while I waited. When the doctor returned to give me the diagnoses he explained that his ears were very dirty (Hmmm just paid $253.00 to have them cleaned) that the bulge was a hematoma and he would need surgery. I asked if my dog was aggressive and he said not at all. I asked what would be the soonest he could do the surgery and what the cost would be. He said we can do the surgery in the next couple of hours and that it would cost $80.00 plus a few meds. The total was $126.00 and that included prescriptions for his recovery. Example of inflated pricing- same exact sedation injection $47.00 Animal Medical Center, $14.00 where I had the surgery done. Over 200% more. All went well and my dog is doing great!! The next morning I returned to the Animal Medical Center to get a refund on the prescriptions that were unnecessarily prescribe in my opinion. I had not even opened the bag they had given me to carry the prescriptions. They refunded the wash but not the other two that were still in the med bottles and in their manufacturers tamper proof packaging. So I paid $331.00 to have my dogs ears half assed cleaned (obviously half assed cleaned the first time too) by a doctor who thinks his work/practice is worthy of a 600% plus markup over other veterinarians. Makes me think he let the ears go un-cleaned the first time knowing I would be back with more problems. ALWAYS GET A SECOND OPINION- EVEN WITH YOUR PETS!!

A

A Private User

I have to say that I agree with many who posted comments here about the staff at this Vet office but thats part of their job and they do it well. However, I would STRONGLY encourage anyone to check other area Vets prior to committing to using this Vet. I had a situation where there was an emergency with my dog and my options were to spend over $5k in surgery even though the surgery may not solve the issue, spend over $2500 for an amputation or just put her to sleep. I always thought that their regular visits were very expensive but this here put me on a spot where my only choice was to put her to sleep. It was a Saturday so I ended up waiting until Monday to decide what to do and see how much money I can find so I wont have to put her to sleep. During the weekend I found another reputable Vet that had better rates for the same services, including the regular office visits. I had no option than take her there since it was more affordable. When I picked up my dog on Monday as soon as they opened, they had done x-rays, blood tests and other prep work, which to me was clear they were milking me as much as possible since I had left them a message that I would be there early to take her somewhere else. When I picked her up I was charged over $1000 for a two night stay and the "prep" work that was done. By the way, the only reason she stayed with them was because they told me I could not take her with me because she needed to be sedated till Monday. The second Vet told me he wouldve sent her home with pain killers and asked me to keep her in a cage confined. The second Vet looked at her, we did the amputation, it cost me $1500 for EVERYTHING they did and one overnight stay. They even tossed away some medicine the previous Vet prescribed for the surgery because they said she didnt need those pills. It was very clear I had been ripped off by the first Vet. Not to mention the $1000 charge from the first Vet almost made me have to put her to sleep. The only reason I didnt was because the second Vet worked with me on payments, something the first one right out said they could not help me, full payment was due when I picked her up. End result, my dog is happy, healthy and just perfect. My Vet costs have been reduced DRASTICALLY (no joke) and the New Vet (Dr. Cribbs in Canton but very close) and his team are more caring and his staff is just as nice and caring or even more than the AMC crew. I strongly suggest you talk cost to as many Vets as possible or you will be paying A LOT for pet care.

NA

Nathan Gardner

Overall, very negative experience. We did drop off our dogs later in the day on a Saturday, but it took four pages from the front desk, over 20 minutes, and one "you are still here" comment before they took both dogs back. The clinic requires each dog to have a Canine Flu Vaccine linking it to the deadly outbreak that occurred in the area within the last year or two. The only problem is their vaccine is for the H3N8 string but the deadly outbreak was the H3N2 string so it is ineffective. It feels like they were using the threat of my dogs getting sick and dying (even used the "God forbid something happen to your dogs" comment) to push an up charge. When my wife picked up the dogs, the bill was $281. They overcharged $98 through not applying discounts and charges for services not provided. I did call and they refunded the overages but still was very disappointing. Overall, like other reviews, I felt like they were looking for any reason to add additional charges. We will be looking for a different provider in the area. This was our first and last visit to AMC.