Society Hill Veterinary Hospital

Reviews 3

R

R P Herman

DO NOT TAKE YOUR PET HERE!!! FOR OVER $130 all MY PUPPIES GOT WERE FLEAS. While you may have read some good reviews, please take my advice and DO NOT TAKE YOUR PET HERE. I actually liked the Dr that examined my 2, 9 week old puppies and wish she was located somewhere else. Not only was I told on the phone that morning that their exams would be $37 each and then charged $47 per puppy but my perfectly healthy puppies wound up with FLEAS FROM THEIR VISIT. Their waiting room looked semi clean but as my puppies have not had all their shots I left them in their carrier while I waited. Once I was taken back to a room you could tell that it had not been cleaned at all. The tech. even said to me hold on that table (the exam table covered visibly with a lot of animal hair) needs to be cleaned. He cleaned off the exam table and I held them on my laps until he finally asked to have one to weigh. He put the puppy on a clearly unclean ground and took my 2nd puppy to weigh. They were only on the ground for a short period of time and besides for being handled by myself, the Dr, the vet tech and 2 people that worked their they were only in my care. I took them straight home and bathed them because I was not happy that the floor was so unclean and that they had been on it, bath time, a meal, a puppy pad break and they were worn out and off to bed. When I took them to the puppy pad that night I noticed one scratching behind his ear, it was back to bed and in the morning as we started our day there was more scratching. I thought I must have irritated their skin by bathing them and thought nothing of it until the next day when the scratching was worse. I tried to examine them and brush them to look for fleas but they would barely let me so I brushed them the best I could and did not see anything. That night I noticed I had bug bites on my legs and thought how strange as I had not had one bite all summer. The next day I called the vet and got a phone call 48 hours later at 6pm on a sunday night telling me they likely could have picked up fleas and to treat them. I searched every drugstore and supermarket near me and couldnt find anything safe for them. I called out of work the next day and searched 3 pet stores and couldnt find anything safe for them. I called the vet and was not called back. I then picked up all the natural ingredients and treatments I could find online and treated them and brushed the fleas out, bagged up everything in my apartment and started endless loads of laundry. I cleaned my entire apartment with flea sprays and powders from the pet store only to find out the next day that my pups were scratching again. Finally a tearful phone call got their attention and I was finally told (36hours after I had been told to treat them) that I could use shampoo that said for 12 weeks old and they had a prescription I could pick up AND PAY FOR. The girl on the phone told me they werent responsible because I could have somehow brought it in on my clothes or shoes after leaving the vet, getting into my car, and taking them home. My family had 3 cats my entire life and we never had one flea problem yet after an 2 hours at their office I am on my 2nd attempt to rid them and my house of fleas. I spent over $130 for them to pick up fleas and have now spent $300, an unpaid day of work and endless time and energy to now only have to go buy medication and more flea stuff to retreat my puppies and my entire apartment. WILL NEVER GO BACK.

HE

Heshie Zinman

We put Hamlet, our Jack Russell/Terrier mix, to sleep yesterday. He was 13 dog years old - 91 in human years. We, our cat, Bubby, and our families and friends loved him dearly. Until recently he had been happy, lively and content. In recent weeks, Hamlet had become incontinent and seemingly demented. After many tests and poking and prodding by doctors and technicians to determine the cause of his symptoms, medication was prescribed to stop the incontinence. It worked for less than a week and the symptoms, and his obvious discomfort, grew worse. As a result, Hamlet had to be walked every two hours and, when in the apartment, had to be kenneled to avoid further damage to the furnishings. After many anguishing discussions, we finally decided that the best thing to do was to put him down. It was clear that Hamlet was suffering. When we reached out to Society Hill Veterinary Hospital, we were told that euthanizing him was not indicated and that we should take him to a prostate specialist for more tests, including an ultrasound. Fully aware of the fact that Hamlet was 91 years old, incontinent and demented, we considered SHVHs advice and still came to the same decision - it was in Hamlets best interest to be euthanized. We called back to SHVH and made an appointment for the following evening to have Hamlet put to sleep. The next morning, however, Hamlet woke us at 3:00 am, needing to go out. After his walk, it was clear that something was even more seriously wrong. Hamlet refused food, which is completely out of character for him. He was shaking uncontrollably and was having throat and tongue spasms. We calmed him the best we could and decided to call the SHVH at 8:00 am to see if they could put him to sleep that morning. The vet tech to whom we spoke said that he needed to check with the doctor. When he called back we were told that rather than bring Hamlet in to be euthanized, the doctor required that we take him to another vet hospital to undergo more tests. This was to include a quality of life assessment!! We were told that based on those tests, a decision would be made by that hospital as to whether we would be allowed to euthanize our dog, who was clearly suffering. We told the tech that it was our decision to put Hamlet down so he would not continue to suffer. The response was that Society Hill Veterinary Hospital, the practice that had cared for our pets for years, would not respect our decision to euthanize our dog. Faced with this trauma and pain, we found another hospital that helped us and showed the compassion and kindness that we so desperately sought for Hamlet. Clearly, end-of-life issues are not Society Hill Veterinary Hospitals competency. Five years ago, the same clinic botched euthanizing our cat, requiring multiple, painful needles full of sedative to complete the task. We should have learned our lesson in dealing with Society Hill Veterinary Hospital in the first place. We made the decision to continue to bring our pets to SHVH because of what we perceived to be good quality care while they were alive and healthy. Please dont make the same mistake that we made, especially when considering end-of-life care for your pet. Based on our experiences, we do not believe that Society Hill Veterinary Hospital is the best choice for your pet, or for you, when dealing with end-of-life - or any other - issues.

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Richie Byrd

We took our english bulldog puppy to Society Hill Veterinary Hospital for a routine checkup and to administer vaccinations. They did a full checkup (listened to his heart and lungs) and found that he was a completely healthy dog, with the exception of a possible issue with his elbow. They administered his vaccinations, which included a flu vaccination and a distemperment, and were in the process of preparing him for an X-Ray when he suddenly developed breathing issues. They made us aware of this issue and felt that he was struggling because he was scared of the X-Ray. It never crossed their minds that he was having a reaction to the vaccinations. The only care they provided him was oxygen which did absolutely nothing to combat the effects of his reaction to the vaccination and unfortunately he passed away. When they delivered this news to us the owner of the hospital, Dr. Claudia Casavecchia made a comment to us about how english bulldogs are known to have health issues (as if that was helpful after learning that our puppy had died). They are by far the most inept veterinary practice that I have ever experienced, they administered a flu vaccination, which had known issues of causing swelling of the face and head of dogs and then when the dog developed a breathing issue did not consider that the vaccination was at fault. Dogs are known to survive the flu, so why they are administering an unnecessary vacciation is beyond my comprehension. The owner of the practice (Dr (and I use the word Dr loosely) Claudia Casavecchia) lacks even the most basic bedside manner, instead of apologizing and offering condolences she blames the dog passing on the breed having known health issues. They have not been in contact with us since this incident, they have not been able to provide us with any closure as the necropsy was inconclusive and they have made no attempt to reimburse us the cost of the puppy. I would highly recommend that you do not take your pet to this facility as they are ill-equipped to handle even the slightest medical emergency.