Foster Hospital for Small Animals

Reviews 3

LI

Lina R

If you care about your pet PLEASE take it to another hospital. Small summary below of the horrors we went through with a previously healthy dog who died in their care after having a surgical procedure at a different hospital and sent there after having a neurological episode after the procedure specifically to see a neurologist which didnt look at him for over 24 hours. He died a day later. This is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to their leadership team after his passing. It took them over 1 month to get his remains to me after they "forgot" about our request to have him cremated and dragged on the cremation. They didnt bother assigning a specialist to him or having a neurologist look at him despite him being brought there just for that. They euthanized him without my permission, then charged me for it, without giving me a chance to say goodbye. They charged me more than was quoted without once getting approval or telling me until after he passed away. After everything, they did NOTHING to make any of this right. 1. Initial doctor didnt bother reviewing his file before taking him in despite it being sent to them from another hospital and they were made aware it was an emergency. After arrival at the hosital to specifically see a neurologist he wasnt seen by one in over 24 hours. 2. Why did it take more than 24 hours to take a look at Apollo when he was brought in BECAUSE of a neurological event? 3. What happened during the time he was there and why was there no specialist that could deal with this case that knew how to deal with someone in his position? They KNEW that he was prone to clotting and prone to bleeding but the doctor looking after him admitted to me that he didnt know what to do and that a specialists advice would be needed. Why wasnt this specialist on Apollos case in the first place? 4. Why had accounting not called me EVER to tell me that I had spent more than the 3k that was first quoted and gotten my approval to charge me more than that? And only sent me a bill SIGNIFICANTLY higher than I had agreed to pay without having any knowledge of it? 5. Why did the night doctor administer Euthanasia WITHOUT my permission or knowledge? And if he wasnt euthanized, could he have survived and still been alive? And even if the answer is no, could I have been there when it was administered and had the chance to hold him, kiss him and say goodbye? 6. Why have I not received his ashes in over 4 weeks, his body sitting in a "holding" pattern while I am mourning? No accountability. No one bothering to call us back when we call to find out why it is taking so long until I call again on Thursday night after receiving the bill. This is my child. This treatment of his body is massively disrespectful and is severely traumatizing for me to imagine and visualize in my head. My poor baby, dead, alone and forgotten. 7. And finally, the biggest question of all. Did I make the biggest mistake of my life sending my poor baby to Tufts? Thinking this was his best chance and that the doctors were able to take care of him?

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Tyfani Mumford

Most of the reviews I see here are for dogs or cats. This is my experience with my sick sun conure. My sun conure Bebop started exhibiting signs of lead poisoning last night- lethargy, vomiting, and bloody stool- after flying to and chewing on a stained glass window. We contacted our avian vet who highly recommended this practice to us. Even though we live two hours away in Connecticut, we needed to see a specialized avian vet that night. This is the most important detail: We called multiple times before we left to make sure that not only would there be an avian vet available when we arrived, but also that they would be able to treat a parrot with lead poisoning with chelation therapy, as recommended by our normal vet. We got to Foster Hospital at 12am, and Bebop was seen immediately. We did not see the vet for another three hours, and during that time we had no idea what was going on with our bird. At 3am, we were told that they did NOT in fact have an avian vet on staff, and that there was nothing they could do for Bebop until the morning. They offered to keep him overnight (which they would do for a fee obviously, but they couldnt provide us with an estimate of what this would cost), until they could run tests on him in the morning. At this point, it didnt make sense for us to leave Bebop in another state two hours away so that he could get tested a few hours later. The only reason why we brought him to Foster Hospital in the first place was so that he could be treated immediately. Because the vet who was on staff knew nothing about birds, she tried to charge us for a "consultation fee" of $100 as she tried to get in contact with other vets who presumably did know about birds- the vets who presumably were supposed to be at the clinic as assured to us during our many phone calls to this clinic before we left Connecticut. The attitude of the staff seemed to be "We dont know whats wrong, so its not really our problem." Bottom line: $200, four hours of driving, and three hours of not knowing what was going on with our severely sick bird, and one vet who ultimately could not treat our bird. I would not recommend this place to any exotic bird owner. Bebop is now being treated for severe lead poisoning at the South Wilton Veterinary Group. Both the avian vet there (Dr.Schunk) and the vet who referred me to both Foster Hospital and SWVG (Dr. Burke) were horrified by the treatment we received there. Hopefully Bebop will pull through, he is currently receiving excellent care.

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Bruce C. Pietsch

Ive brought two dogs here and the first sadly was too late as had pancreatitis w bleeding internally and Acton Animal emergency held my Gokden necessarily with not treatment and is in my humble opinion responsible for that dogs loss of hope of any chance but Tiufts although it is a jolt to have to come up with 75% of treatment high estimate which was $3590 for my 1st Golden in Seotembeg 2007 but for my Bichon thought to have brain tumor it was almost $5000 and that is more that mosh families ca afford even in MA but if anyplace can save your dogs life this us it.. So aid recommend trying to pay to get treatment and then working with them if you cannot reach full payment. My Bichon had suexutess and was e i.e. text I have brain tumor and likely possibly not Mage it but they discovered a rare Bot Fly and it had laid eggs in Y dogs eye which in Bicobs is black so camouflage of fly larvae evades easy detection esp as they burrow into the nasal canal behind eye! Its disgusting but luckily thoug it too level MRI they reacted tha bot fly and believe its still bronzed in the ER as memory of one in -10 Million rare cases as these flies normally reside in Bekize in tropics neighbor has horse farm so suspect only reason is all horse flies in my block! Now I have 2nd Gokden w likely brain em tumor with weakness a D falling as diagnosis on referral seems likely that MRI will show one or two tumors hoping benign but in brain if impinging on motor never areas surgery may not he possible although perhaps they could remove portion of growths if benign or malignant then course of treatment is either radiation if malignant but seems receptive to that or steroids if benign to shrink inflammation and relive cranial pressure. We go tomorrow but I have high faith in this hospital that they will be ale to salvage another decent year or so with my 8 year old Cream Gokden as not ready to say goodbye yet and its devastating thet such Heakthy dig 3 months ago could turn so quckly to awful disgnosis. Prayer and Tufts vets are all we have now so will follow up if things go okay if not probably wont have emotional strength for a long while. Great vet hospital if dig is very such go straight here dont waste precious time at local vets as it can be diff of pets kije or death in my humble opinion!