Willow Mill Veterinary Hospital

Reviews 3

NI

Nicky Wagman

ETA (8/5): It has been a month since my cat was "treated" and what Ive learned is that there is a 100% disconnect between the Willow Mill staff and the ER they share facilities with. Since pets are automatically transferred between them this is terrifying! Also no promised refund, nor any further replies to my complaints from either place despite Dr Richards forwarding said complaints to the Willow Mill officials (since apparently the ER never did!) ORIGINAL REVIEW: Terrible vets! My cats heart attack was misdiagnosed as an asthma attack, despite my assurances that his asthma attacks are nothing like what was happening. After keeping him in (expensive) oxygen treatment that did little but hold his condition somewhat steady for over 24 hours I was told that there was nothing they could do to diagnose him and I should put him down as they were closing for the holiday week-end. When I asked about alternative locations I was told that they had checked with my regular vet (maybe they did but nobody there knew what I was talking about when I asked later) and they didnt have anywhere to offer, but I could take him to a facility associated with Willow Mill in York if I thought the cat could survive the trip because that was the closest location for oxygen that would be open that week-end. If I wanted a diagnosis I would have to try and get him to University of Pennsylvania because that was the closest cardiologist, and hed surely die going there! All untrue as I found a 24/7 facility just fifteen minutes away that has a cardiologist regularly on staff (and is also the ER that my vet recommends, so its odd that they wouldnt have mentioned the place over the phone when Willow Mill called to find out if they would be available to keep the cat over the week-end isnt it?). They treated my cat efficiently and in less than 5 hours of their care he was out of oxygen and breathing on his own; now hes home recovering with me. Of course, if the regular Willow Mill staff hadnt kept him sitting in their oxygen cage without doing anything for a whole day his recovery period could have started a whole week-end sooner! My primary experiences were with the ER staff so Im not sure if the regular staff at Willow Mill are as inept and greedy as their off-hours people; I never interacted with any of them save over the phone since they made it clear that there was no reason for me to come in and I would only be in their way. However the regular staff certainly did nothing to offer better treatment or diagnosis to my cat while he was in their care for that whole day; they didnt even call me as promised with updates, I had to call them. Perhaps theres just too much of a disconnect between the off-hours and daytime people so they dont know whats going on with any pets brought in on the night-watch, or maybe they just figure they can wash their hands of any pets brought in on someone elses watch so they dont care. Regardless of the reasoning my cat received little in the way of treatment and nothing in the way of accurate diagnosis from either staff. In summation, please dont take your pets here if something is really wrong! Im sure that theyre perfectly competent at ordinary things like broken bones and swallowing things that shouldnt be eaten and so on, but not only are they incapable of diagnosing more complicated conditions, theyll mislead you about available local options in order to keep you in their network so they can keep draining money while your pet languishes--especially if you go in near a holiday when youre clearly inconveniencing them like I was! When I expressed my dissatisfaction afterward I got a lot of pretty words about this being an uncommon and unacceptable occurrence and promises that they would check into things to find any problems, but they also promised a refund for the money I spent there on useless treatment and a week later, even that simple process still hasnt been completed so I cant imagine theyve put forth any more efforts into more complicated areas. Proceed with caution!

JA

Jay Giordano

<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>><<<<<<<>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>><<<<<<<>>>>>> If you like being taken advantage of and RIPPED OFF....this is the place to go My wife is a pharmacist and she totally busted these crooks for taking advantage of our family’s assistance companion dog. Heres our story: My daughter and her companion dog are attached to the hip! They need each other due to her Intellectual Disabilities/Autism. Several weeks ago her dog developed an unfortunate case of dermatitis. (Nothing life threatening however something that obviously was in need of treatment.) After a combination of oral medication along with a prescription for a shampoo, it appeared that we were over the hump and eliminated the topical condition. Well not so! I went in and the apparently it came back....so they prescribed medication that I bought from THEIR pharmacy. It cost over almost $100 for 21 pills. Thats almost $5 A PILL!!!! My wife informed me that they have the same medicine, APPROVED FOR HUMANS, that is 86 cents a pill down at CVS. That would be $18 for the medicine. I could have gotten the same thing for $18!!!! WTF.....I got totaly hosed....BUT I gave Willow Mill the benefit of the doubt. My dog got the Cadillac of medicines for her aliment....that was not cured the first time I went there. This is where it gets interesting......the first time we went to Willow Mill for this issue she was prescribed a special shampoo for her demtreosis......it cost $75 from THEIR pharmacy.....I decided to go online and see how much this shampoo could be bought for.....$18......$18 friggin dollars was the price online......so I over paid $55 for this shampoo, THAT DIDNT SOLVE THE PROBLEM. At this point I am pissed! My wife called WM and explained that we felt we were taken advantage of. WM knows full well that this medication can be bought at any local pharmacy for much much less than what they RIP YOU OFF FOR!!!! All this and I also had to pay for the visit, which isnt cheap....$100 PER visit. SO....we presented our case and they agreed to give us a WHOPPING $20 refund. This is after we paid $200 for two visits, $80 overpayment for medication that could be bought at CVS, and overpayment of $65 to buy shampoo I couldve gotten online for $18! All in we are at $375 for this minor skin condition called demetrois. And they want to refund us $20!!!!! Are you Friggin kidding me.....BUT WAIT........IT GETS BETTER. After agreeing with us to pay us $20 for our troubles, they send us a later that day saying they can no longer provide services to our compainon dog! So not only are the SCAM ARTISTS.....but they are ARROGANT AS HELL TOO!!!! Like they think we would go back to them after they ave ripped us off who knows how many times....we had been going there for three years! The sickening thing about this is that our daughter always goes with us to the vet.....they know we have a special needs child....and being "doctors" they know how many expenses we have having a child with disabilities!

JA

Janette Karlsen

After reading some of these reviews, it is clear to see that many pet owners are confused regarding which doctors they are seeing. It is important to note that up until a few months ago, Willow Mill Veterinary Hospital shared the same building with an Animal ER Center - however, these are NOT the same doctors or staff members. The doctors and staff of Willow Mill Veterinary Hospital are wonderful. I have been taking my pets there, with my family, since the days of Dr. Flowers. We currently see Dr. Richards and she is wonderful with my neurotic boxer. She has a way of calming him down enough to do the exam without needing a muzzle or any meds (that makes me a happy dog mom). We also recently adopted a cat from them that they helped rescue. Im sure our experiences with him will be just as good as those with the dog. Im not sure why they parted ways with the Animal ER company, but Im not entirely upset that they did. The staff within the Animal ER were, as others have said, cold. I had had a few experiences with them in the past with my boxer, and they were the type to automatically want to know how you were going to pay. --> This is not the same for Willow Mill; the care of your pet comes first and foremost. It is important to note that prices can be a bit surprising depending on what is being done for your pet, but this is the healthcare industry. Also, there are many different options for pet insurance. I recommend the ASPCA pet insurance as I did not have very good experiences with VPI. In the end though, if you cant afford to properly take care of an animal, maybe you should reconsider getting one.