Animal Emergency Center - Novi

Reviews 3

RJ

rj kp

On September 28th 2014 I suspected my parakeet may have been getting sick. Since this was a Sunday all of the vets in my area were closed. I thought about waiting until Monday to take her to see an avian specialist in Saline but this was the second day of her symptoms and I did not want to let her get worse without doing anything. From the first interactions the AEC staff had with my parakeet, things did not seem right. They were not gentle or considerate. They waved papers, clipboards, and pens next to the cage, scaring both birds inside. When it came time for the examination, the doctor did not turn the lights out in order to calm the birds, like every other vet I have taken them to. Instead she chased my bird around the cage with her hand and a small towel, gripping onto whatever part of my bird she could get a hold of. At one point she got hold of my birds toe and held on, cruelly, while my bird flapped her wings in fright. When she finally got a hold of my bird, she held her in such a way that her beak was open, as if in pain. Although she has never liked being held, she has had to endure it many times. Never has she responded this way. I do not know if she was being held too tight or what, but it was not right. Still, I did not say anything because I thought the vet knew more than me. After the examination, the vet put my bird in a smaller container in case she needed to be handled again. During this time, the vet left the room and I tried calming my bird by sitting next to her and talking to her, telling her everything was going to be okay. I was wrong. The vet came back to get my bird in order to give her a blood test. A short time later she returned, telling me that during the procedure my bird grew weak. They placed her in an oxygen enriched enclosure where she died. When I next saw my bird, the feathers all down the side of her neck were caked with blood. She was an active, energetic bird right up to her death. There was no reason for her to just die. After this had already happened the vet told me it wasnt uncommon for small birds to get so stressed out during these procedures that they end up dying. If she had told me this before hand I never would have consented to the blood test until the other options we discussed were exhausted. My poor bird died either from losing too much blood, becoming too stressed, or a combination of the two. I never expected this would happen. It never crossed my mind that bringing her to the vet would be what killed her. I fault the staff of the Animal Emergency Center for being cruel to my bird and not informing me of the risks. I fault myself for not speaking up, for consenting to the blood test, and for bringing her there in the first place when, despite the symptoms, she was acting like an otherwise healthy bird. Shortly after giving my dead bird back to me in a box, a staff member approached me about payment options. I refused to pay them for killing my bird. The doctor who did the examination then came in and threatened to take me to court. This part I would like to address directly to the Animal Emergency Center: I understand you were attempting to provide a service but you failed miserably. You are not entitled to compensation just for your efforts, especially when those efforts result in such a catastrophic outcome. You can take me to court but you will never get a dime from me. You have already taken more than you will ever know.

SH

Shelly Ma

During the three days of my dog Snickers in October 2011, I felt that the veterinarians at AEC are nice people with good heart. However, I didn’t have Snickers back home as promised. In the beginning, they suspected urethra rupture and did a contrast study on the urethra. It was such a relief that the contrast study didn’t reveal any rupture. But things turned bad the day after, and they did another contrast study on bladder this time (where they did the surgery for bladder stone) and didn’t see anything there either. They couldn’t figure out why there was leaking and where and wanted me to transfer Snickers to MSU. I was so disappointed and sent Snickers to another vet where Snickers was found septic the next morning. In the afternoon after we left AEC, MSU found three urethra ruptures and they did a six hours surgery trying to fix the urethra which wasn’t successful. I lost my dog. What bothers me most is that Dr. Robertson, the owner of AEC, insists on following points: 1. The first contrast study AEC did was accurate, no urethra rupture at that time. 2. When Snickers left AEC, there was no urethra rupture. 3. The three urethra ruptures were developed after Snickers left AEC. I have been discussing the case of Snickers with Dr. Robertson for about a year; so far it is going nowhere. I even sent her the notes from DR. Lamborne at AEC who wrote "Very concerned for urine leaking outside of the urinary tract, despite our inability to find such a leak using contrast." And "even bruising present during surgery, suggesting urine already leaking." Those notes were written right before Snickers left AEC. Silence is all I get now. Due to the fact that Michigan law treats dog as property, it is very hard for pet owners to sue the veterinarians for malpractice and some places are taking advantages of this. Please be aware that AEC doesn’t have any specialist, instead they call MSU when they have issues they don’t know, at least for my dog’s case. And AEC is not the only pet hospital who open 24 hours in Novi area and the charge is more reasonable.

TA

Tay Smith

Im giving this place a solid 5 stars. Why? Because on Friday May 23rd we rushed our little Yorkshire Terrier to this location which was in critical condition upon arrival. This tragic event just happened to come at the most inconvenient time possible. When we arrived they immediately began to tend to our puppy, shortly after they came out to update us on the situation. We still dont know what the heck happened to our dog in which we only had for 7 days. (He believed to have starved himself to death.) Unlike the previous animal this location TRIED! They didnt just say "You have to put him down" This women did all that they could. I personally knew it was too late to save him, but I couldnt just not give up on him like that. They gave us an estimate of $1,800 to try HARDER to save him, but again I knew it was too late and I had to come to grips of knowing I couldnt invest that huge portion of money to our dying little pup. The estimated ultimately went down to $350 to treat him. I just had to give them something for trying. He died the next morning. The point of this is that these women in this location are very professional and seemed very determined to help us, even if they knew it would be too late. That was such an awful day for me, watching my little buddy die in front of me and there was nothing more that could have been done. This place TRIED! I thank god for you all. I was too heartbroken to thank you all. Even though well really never know the COD Im glad hes not suffering or is in any pain anymore. Take the $350 as a thank you. We said our goodbyes as we were headed to your facility. You women are amazing! Again, many thanks for putting in an effort and not just sitting back and doing nothing. As stated before, we knew the outcome, but we just couldnt invest in such funding for our animal to continue to suffer any further than that. -With regards to "Brownie" Thank you, Staff of Animal Emergency Center of Novi.