Akron Veterinary Referral & Emergency Center

Reviews 3

MA

Margaret M

I cant even begin to explain my experience here as I could probably write several books about it and remembering what my dog and I had to go through here is heart breaking and traumatic. Firstly they are all about money, they will not help your pet unless you pay them. I was forced to take my dog here because of an emergency related to IVDD, a disc diseases that caused my dogs spine to rupture. I was ignorant as to what care and treatment my dog would need but the vets rushed me and said if I didnt hurry he could lose his ability to walk and control his bowels ever again. The surgery was something like $5,000 and they completed the surgery and my dog was able to walk again after 6 weeks. The entire time it felt like the vets were making a sales pitch to me and were very inconsiderate about my emotions and the stress of trying to come up with all of that money. I later learned that my dogs condition was not that serious as he never lost control of his bladder or bowels and he had deep pain sensation still. He would have recovered naturally using a conservative approach and this was never even mentioned to me. Instead my dog had to go through this horrible surgery and now his spine arches and is sticking out of his back. He looks terrible. This was only my first experience. A year later my dog got very sick and was retaining water around his heart and lungs. The x-Ray showed that there was so much water that you couldnt see those organs any longer. My local vets showed in his blood work that he had a low protein count but they were not sure what was causing it. They suggested an auto immune disease but couldnt be sure and they referred me back to this place. I dreaded going back as I knew it would be an outrageous cost and I was absolutely heart broken by my dogs failing health. I get there and they also do not know what was causing it but took him in under emergency care and hooked him up to IVs to try and help him. They ended up putting even more fluids in his body that he could not process and made the situation worse. They called me 2 days later with three possible causes as to what was wrong with him and three seep rate treatment plans. It was a sales pitch again, they started with the most expensive and worked their way down. Needless to say he stayed there for a week and accumulated $7,000 in medical expenses, all which I had to pay up front to get him back. They sent him home and within a day his health was failing again, I took him back the next day and it was the same thing over again, a sales pitch and we need money now even though the $7,000 I spent on treatment DID NOTHING for him. I was devastated and handing them every credit card I could find. I realized that I just couldnt afford it and they made me feel even worse as if they were lecturing me about not being able to afford his care even after I had give them over $11,000 in a 12 month period. During his stay there for a week no one was on the same page, different doctors called me every day and they all had different things they were trying that contradicted what the vet the previous day said, and at the end of the week I got a different Doctor all together that said he was fine and could go home on special food, well he came home swollen with edemas all over him and would not eat. When I went back the next day they had no sympathy they just wanted more and more money. When I realized I was maxing out my credit cards and I just couldnt afford to continue treatment I started crying my eyes out feeling so guilty that I could not help my buddy, they had no sympathy. I called a friend who was a vet and he suggested that it may be an auto immune disease and I asked what the best way to treat this was. He said steroids and an anti inflammatory anti biotic and this was my last hope. I decided to take my baby home so he could live his last days comfortable with us instead of at that terrible place. I tried the steroids and antibiotics and just prayed he would somehow make it. 2 years later hes doing great, thanks for nothing..

MA

mary striker

See the previous reviews? Accurate. It is scary how incompetent this staff is. Although I believe they only have 1 staff member who answers the phone AND does the procedure. SHE TOLD US NOT TO CALL BECAUSE SHE HAD TO STOP THE PROCEDURE TO ANSWER THE PHONE!? When there is an emergency with your pet all the area Vet clinics, after hours ask you to call this place. You call they say it will be less the $200 to come in and check things out. Very nice. Then you get there. $$$$$$$ is all they want. They take your pet back then they talk to you about money. The only option is cash 100% before you leave with your pet or you can apply for CareCredit at 26.99% and a clean credit. If you cant come up with the money they wont help your pet, sorry they said they just cant. Those are their only options. Not very resourceful. They are rude and condescending. My daughter came home from work late Saturday night to find her dog in labor. She thought everything fine until a few hours later the dog was obviously in distress and one of the puppies was not able to be born. We called several places and were told to call this place. After they took the dog back they did not start helping her, they assessed the situation in order to get a price, then stopped. They told my daughter they needed $1600 - $2000. She either had to have Care Credit or 100% cash before she could pick up the dog and hopefully her pups. Then they told her the they could abort the puppies and perform a c-section because that would be cheaper!!! My daughter spent the rest of early hours of this Sunday morning calling family members to try and figure out how to pay for this very unexpected expense. She also had to report to work at 7am without any sleep any worrying and crying, quite honestly, because she doesnt trust that they will take care of her dog and any surviving puppies. This is amazingly sad and heart breaking they do not deserve the money they extorted from her. I will do everything I can to make sure that they are investigated. This is NOT they way you run a pet hospital. You opened a business that will run in to these types of situations. The question is Akron Veterinary Referral & Emergency Center, did you open the business to help pets in distress or to extort families in a time of need? This is 2015 there are so many other options besides Care credit, If you actually cared about more than money YOU would find them. Not have your customers scrambling while you hold their pets lives over their heads!

ME

Melanie Vaughan

The vet techs were extremely friendly and helpful and compassionate! If it wasnt for them, I would not have a single positive thing to say about my visit. As a matter of fact, I have waited to leave this review after a few days in order to be able to reflect on what I would like to say. While I am happy that these emergency services were available, I was not happy with the lack of empathy and compassion of Dr. Griffith (Griffin?). Ive noticed a lot of reviews where people were expressing concern with the cost of services. While I agree that the prices are extremely high, I understand that with emergency services comes higher prices. It does not change the fact that several people have a difficult time spending hundreds to thousands of dollars, cash or credit, in a time of crisis. It did appear as if my family was rushed to make this decision and we were not supported by the veterinarian on duty. We made the decision to keep our pet comfortable and contact local vets to utilize the best option. Luckily, I was able to call off of work and schedule surgery with a wonderful Vet who completed the same surgery for 3,000 dollars less than what I was quoted by this business. It is extremely disheartening that my family felt that we were not willing to care for our pet due to questioning the cost of the services being rendered. While that may not have been her intentions, it certainly was gut wrenching to be told "it shouldnt be about saving money, it should be about caring for your pet." This implied to my family that you felt we could not afford to care for our pet. A patient has the right to question the necessity of services being rendered. Also, the vetrenarian on duty told us that someone "HAD" to call off of work in order to care for our pet in the morning or be prepared to say goodbye after we made the decision to contact other places. The vetrenarian already made it quite clear she would recommend surgery that night, in my opinion, it felt as if telling us we would potentially have to say goodbye was a last minute effort to get us to change our decision. I truly hope that the trend of these reviews enlightens your business to include additional trainings for your staff on customer service, compassion and empathy. In honor of my experience here, I have donated to a local non-profit organization to help other people with vet costs who are unable to fund an emergency service on their own.