Central Carroll Animal Emrgncy

Reviews 3

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Ryan Bailey

Whenever we do business with anyone, I normally use several social apps to help guide us in the right direction and avoid any places with bad business practices. Unfortunately in this case, we didnt have the luxury since our loved one was suffering and needed immediate attention. Our cat, Pedro, was mauled by the neighbors dog. Anyways, as with any time a loved one is hurt or suffering, were emotionally and financially vulnerable. I believe this business not only took advantage of that, but made errors during the process and altered their treatment plan to change the estimate without ever being fully transparent with us in hopes they could maximize profits. We submitted Pedro Saturday afternoon after the attack, surgery was set for Sunday and was to be released Monday morning. The initial estimate received was to clean the wounds, perform minor surgery, and provide treatment. This totaled a whopping $1400 (low end)/$1550(high). Due to the nature of the situation, timing, and business (24 hr weekend service), we understood this was high - but it was to save Pedros life. We went with it and was told that they would begin working on him. We contacted them later that night and was told his wounds were cleaned and stitched up and he was stable. Without hearing an update on his procedure the following day at 2pm, we decided to reach out to check up on him. Were told that amputation will have to be done on one of his legs, and that we were already "nearing" our full estimate (after 1 night spent). The Dr. giving us their professional advice, wasnt the Dr. who we were originally working with and the one who was wasnt available Sunday to perform the surgery as planned (why are we paying the inflated ER express price again?). So with all of this said, we were painted a bad picture for Pedro and that amputation seems to be the only route we had left. Over the phone, we accepted the new estimate which was an additional $1900 to $3100. This estimate was to cover the amputation and any additional supplies and hours needed for treatment (still Monday release). The very next day we get a phone call from his original Dr.(Dr. Valles), telling me how could the other Dr. could even give their professional opinion without even removing the bandages (bandages werent removed on Sunday, as promised and paid for; this leads me to think what else was not done). Furthermore, she said that not only did we have $500 left from the initial estimate, that she spoke with another Dr. that amputation wasnt required and that we should keep Pedro sedated and on meds for the rest of the day and release him to her the following morning (Tuesday). Of the $500 that was left from the initial estimate, Dr. Kaschenbach wanted another xray and blood work to be done prior to taking transition from Dr. Valles. As for the $1900 being charged for the second esitimate, we were told we would get refunded a majority of that back due to them not performing the surgery. Of course, after hearing this, all of it was great news until we went to pick up Pedro and the bill that accompanied him. I immediately sparked a conversation with Dr. Holms (Dr on duty) and the other techs (Kevin and Nicole), which no one could figure out the bill. Even though $700 was refunded, $1200 remained and was billed for the extra day he was there. This is where it gets really misleading. Per the bill and Dr Valles, minor surgery wasnt performed until Monday morning (no one wanted to tell me that; and was very hesitant). This is what believes me to think the amputation conversation was used to extract more money to supplement the first estimate. I told them up front that money was extremely tight and that we simply couldnt afford it. So putting a more favorable figure of $1400, instead of $2600 (which is what his minor surgery cost). I caution anyone to go here, be sure to get everything in writing and nothing over the phone! Their "details" are very vague (e.g., surgery; could be cleaning wounds or amputation).

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Katie Brooks

I typically dont leave bad reviews because I understand that every person/company has a bad day so I can usually shake it off, however, when youre reckless with the lives of my pets? Thats a different story. We found a stray cat late at night a nearly a week ago, and decided to bring him to Central Carroll Animal Emergency to get him checked out, and to get a SNAP test for FIV and FeLV. We have two cats already and wanted to be sure that the stray cat didnt have either highly contagious virus before we made the decision to foster him while we looked for his owner (Sweet cat, obviously someones pet). He tested negative, and we were told that he otherwise looked healthy, which was great news so we took him home. During a follow up visit with our regular vet, we were told that the SNAP test can give a false negative because it takes up to 8 weeks after infection for FIV or FeLV to show up in a blood test, and considering he was a stray we have no idea if or when he could have been infected. Which is pretty crushing news since weve allowed him to interact with our pets. Now if it ends up that he has either FIV or FeLV its most likely been passed to our cats, which can drastically reduce their lifespan. Had we been told that it could have shown as a false negative in the first place, we wouldnt have allowed the stray cat to interact with our existing pets. I was willing to overlook the fact that the veterinarian that we saw was short with us, flippant, and often condescending. I was willing to overlook the fact that we felt like we were inconveniencing them by being there. I was also willing to to overlook the fact that we were there for hours (12:30am-4:00am) when we were the only customers in the building (most of the time we just spent waiting in the exam room wondering were everyone was. All they did was check his vitals, do the snap and ear mite test, and give him a rabies vaccine.) But I am not willing to overlook the flagrant disregard for every single animal in this situation. Now it will be 8 weeks before we will know if our cats are okay. I will never bring another animal here. They really proved to us that they just dont care.

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Wesley Beall

I dont know about walking in, but I know I called this vet in a case where my dog was vomiting and was having trouble breathing. My dog is at least 15-16 years old, so we wanted advice on whether this was her time or not. After calling and telling them I was going to be in about 30 mins, I walked right in and within 5mins we had a room. We did wait for the doctor awhile, but it was well worth it. Most doctors would want to do a 100 tests on a dog this age, but this doctor helped us decided a most affordable way to help address the breathing issue. A chest x-ray was our best decision, this helped us confirm a growing spot beside the heart and lung, along with finding water in the lung. A shot was given to help calm her stomach down and an anti-botic. We got her calmed down, back to breathing better in a day and later switched her food to help control the vomiting. This doctor helped show us what is going to be expected later and helped us get a little more life out of our families dog, along with explaining it to use in comfortable manner. The doctor even showed us the x-ray and went above and beyond in explaining the situations we would have to look forward too. After the doc sent the x-ray to my primary vet, she called and upset my mother telling her that she had cancer and that more tests needed to be done. I couldnt believe a vet would even confirm the dog to have cancer without even wanting to take blood work. Even though I am sure it is probably going to be some kind of cancer, but for my primary vet to upset us without even being sure, was astonishing to me. The vet doc that handled my situation at this ER was great and I will be looking him up in Walkersville to be my primary now.