Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota

Reviews 4

JO

John W

Hard to put into words how bad an overall experience this place was for us. Skyrocket estimates to keep your animal alive and watching people sign their lives away at a high rate of interest in the lobby in tears (we did not participate in their line of credit) and a rather semi professional staff. So here is my full story: So we brought our dog in with a traumatic brain injury due to being hit by a car. While we did not want to put a price on our beloved pet $5000 was steep to perform everything with them not knowing if they could pull him through. The problem started when they could not even get the sex of our dog right. Then my dog is placed on the concrete floor with blankets next to 10 kennels with barking dogs in an operating room with industrial lighting. Please remember he has a traumatic brain injury. We drove their everyday to check on our family member from over an hour away as we live in western Wisconsin but we hoped for some sort of sign of recovery. He was there for 2.5 days and we spent a couple thousand dollars but decided to get him out of there because at $600 a day in the conditions he was in we could not tolerate it. The medicine they gave him did reduce the swelling on the brain and homecare was an option but he was unable to walk or stand. We nursed him and turned him every 4 to 6 hours and exercised his limbs and even built a device so his feet hung below him. 2 weeks of at home care he was up and moving. We are thankful he has made a near full recovery and he is so happy and fully functional. Here is the part that really makes my blood boil. They called requesting for us to come back in for a follow up and due to us being over an hour away and not happy with the conditions we declined the follow-up. The vet was rude and disrespectful and told me I was inhumane. We did request the records be sent to my local vet where we did complete a follow-up appointment. They never sent them. Then they reported me weeks later to Madison, WI for inhumanity to an animal. I was contacted by my local county sheriff that he was inquiring about my pets welfare and needed to do a check. I told him the story and promptly directed him to my vet if he had any other questions. So no welfare check necessary. I guess spending a couple thousand dollars and using all our vacation time to provide homecare for our dog is not enough. Disagreeing with their inhumane conditions does not go over well with them. Do yourself a favor and go elsewhere if you can.

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HC

Hcalls

I brought my sick dog to the Animal Emergency and Referral Center in Oakdale and received excellent care. Upon realizing that our dog was sick on a Monday afternoon I first called our regular vet clinic which could not get me in for several days. I called two other clinics in my area and the earliest I could get in was the next day. Obviously traditional vet clinics do not typically plan for emergency appointments during their normal office hours. I felt my dogs illness required immediate care and so chose to go to emergency clinic knowing that the cost would be higher. The staff was kind and attentive, they not only discussed with me their recommendations for diagnosing the illness, but also discussed with me the cost to get my approval before proceeding. In addition the vet discussed with me a stepped approach to a treatment plan that began with the most conservative treatment. Im surprised by some of the comments about expecting emergency services to be the same cost as a regular vet appointment. This clinic is open and staffed 24 hours for the purpose of emergencies. Again as this is an emergency clinic I expected to wait to see a vet, but the process went more quickly than I expected. I was told how long it would take to run the lab tests, so while I was there for a while I was told what to expect. At the time of discharge I received copies of my dogs lab work and detailed information about the medication he was prescribed. I also received information to download a free App that gave me access to all the details of the visit, including the vets notes and recommended treatment plan, the presenting vital signs, lab work and prescription information. I usually keep paper copies of all the vet visits in a folder, now I have it electronically as well, this was a great and unexpected benefit.

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DE

dennis countryman

The absolute worst experience ever. We had an emergency with our dog that our regular vet could not handle. Our vet called Animal Emergency Center and asked if they could help. They said yes, bring the dog to us. We arrived at 11am and it took an hour and one half to see us and examine our dog (who had a golf ball size mass under his right eye). The doctor then stated that they were too busy and could not help our dog - but - said that we could come back in six days.......not six hours....six days later and they could take care of the problem. Hardly what I would expect of any animal hospital let alone one that professes to be an Emergency Center. There was no suggestion of what they could do to help us that day, just come back in six days. After expressing dismay at this response the doctor said she would try to squeeze our dog in that day. We waited for two more hours and were then told that "all of the dental animal doctors (our dog had an infected tooth) go home at 4:00 and they would not be able to help us. Really?? A 24 hour emergency facility where one team all goes home at 4pm?? Given the long delay in determining that they could do nothing to solve the problem - we could not seek out another vet to take care of our dog that day. So, they agreed to drain the mass and relieve the pain from the swelling that our dog was suffering from (but not solve the root issue). That only cost us......$873.03 (including medications for pain and infection) so that we could go to another vet and have the real issue taken care of. This "Emergency Center" does not have a clear vision our understanding of what it is to be an emergency facility. They may be good doctors, that I am not sure about...but they do NOT have a commitment to emergency care or for an animal that could not wait six days for treatment.

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JO

Joshua Secraw

This was my first experience here and it was awful let me tell you why. I am sure they have good staff, but when I went in I was not impressed. I actually had to wait a week to do this review I was so mad at them during my encounter. I took my dog Nova to get an emergency surgery consult here at 6:00pm for IVDD. Dr. Alex Molldrem initially stated that she would need surgery right away and we were willing to do this and wanted to get the paperwork started right away. He called the neurosurgeon and brought us in our paperwork. At this time he stated the surgery could wait until the morning and we were like you literally just said she needed the surgery now. With further questioning we found out that the surgeon would not be back until the morning and that is the reason for the delay. We left there at 7:50 to head to the U of M to do the surgery and they informed us we were close to the optimal time for the surgery to work, but if we had been there earlier the prognosis would have been better. In the end my dog, my best friend, ended up dying and I will always wonder if those few hours would have made a difference. She ended up with ascending myelomalacia a fatal disease and this is not the reason for the one star but studies I have read state that the speed of surgery may inhibit myelomalacia, but nothing probably could have been done for my Nova dog. My biggest problems and the reason for the one star is they changed their minds about the surgery when their surgeon couldnt be there instead of telling us to head to the U of M. Especially when every single veterinarian (7 of them) that I talked to said she needed the surgery as soon as possible including Alex until the surgeon could not be there and that makes me think it is all about the money not the care of the animal/friend.

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