Emergency Animal Hospital

Reviews 4

TR

Tracy St. Croi

I went to the South location for emergency care for my cat and I am still stunned at the low level of integrity with their billing practices. I am very sad and disappointed that a clinic would take advantage of people who are in vulnerable positions and scared. After coming into the clinic my cat was taken back to see a doctor and I was asked to wait in a waiting room for the doctor to come in. By time he came in I had calmed down enough to figure out that my cat had a back choking episode after coughing up a fur ball. Doctor said he wanted to do x-rays and a battery of tests. I told him I am on a strict budget and I need to “ok” everything but he could do the x-rays . He agreed and left the room. A tech came into my room with an invoice to go over with me that had a low end of $450.00 and high end of $750.00. I was stunned and in shock!!! The tech asked “how do you want to pay for this?” I said “I can make a deposit payment and then a payment plan”. The tech said “no, you need to pay in full”. She asked if I had a partner I could call or someone that would loan me the money or a credit card. I said “I have none of those and I needed to leave to get money”. The tech told me that I could not leave and they would not give me my cat until the bill was paid in full. So now I am a prisoner here. I was in shock she said that!! I told her I felt powerless, I am by myself, vulnerable, scared and you are trying to shame me and shake me down for money and if I don’t pay I am going to lose a very dear companion. I have been to emergency vets before and have never experience this level of non-compassion and mafia style business practices. Thank God my earth angel called at that very moment and I were able to work a deal out with the clinic. I was told that I could be “released” once the bill was paid in full. The bill was paid and I was told I could pick up my cat in two hours. Well two hours turned into five hours and they charge you by the hour as well. When I picked up my cat the doctor brought her out to me and gave a general report of her condition. I said “So she had a bad choking incident bottom line. He nodded his head and said yep. This clinic has adequate medical care but their billing practices are that of a Soprano’s episode. Fur baby owners beware.

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A

A P.

First off, this is pretty much the only 24hr animal hospital in the austin area. Please, if your pet is having an emergency do not hesitate to go here simply because of a few negative reviews. Im really surprised to see so much negativity, especially people saying that the staff are like salesmen. I did NOT experience that in any way, shape, or form. I was very satisfied with the service I received when I brought my dog in on a Saturday evening. Yes, I had to wait about 2hrs before being seen, but thats because my dog was having a serious but non-life threatening emergency. During those 2hrs I saw people come in with dogs and cats that had been hit by a car/gunshot wound (seriously)/bitten by rattlesnake, etc. so I completely understood why I was continually moved back in line. Some people do not understand this concept and it baffles me. As posted throughout the building: "You will not necessarily be seen in the order in which you arrive." Its a hospital, thats how it works, deal with it. Dont take out your frustration on the employees! I never once felt like they were trying to sell me unnecessary treatment options (and they easily could have based on my dogs condition), the doctor was really nice and sincere and informative and even told me I could come back the next evening for a quick followup and I wouldnt be charged an additional exam fee. I walked in expecting to pay minimum $300.00 but walked out with a $130.00 bill and a well cared for, medicated, healing pup. The nurse technicians were attentive and very helpful. While I was in the waiting room - still in line at this point - one of the techs went to the back to check on my dog and came back to let me know that she was doing fine and just sleeping in the kennels. I didnt even ask the tech to do that but I definitely appreciated it. The doctors here also recently saved the life of my friends dog when it needed emergency surgery in the middle of the night. So yea, 5 stars.

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BR

Brandon Thornton

Twice I have brought my dogs here under dire circumstances, each a terrible experience. Please note, the after hours Animal Hospital here is different than the daytime hours hospital. Apparently the after hours emergency clinic is contracted out, the after hours clinic is the only experience I have with this location. Each time I was there, the clinic made me feel as if I were in a used car dealership, seemingly attempting to convince me into purchasing add-ons in order to save my dog. It would have been obvious to anybody that my dogs needed to be put down, quite obvious.....even to my next door neighbor who is a Doctor and helped me load my dog in the most recent incident into my car after the accident. Yet, the Vet Tech told me that she would spend the money "if it were me". And the Dr. told me that my dog had a "75% chance of survival. And I dont give out percentages". I wont tell you what my dog looked like after being struck by a car, but the Doctors expectations were highly unrealistic based on so many things I cant even begin. Then...when I agreed to treat my dog and see how he fared after a day, they pulled out all of the signature pages. After seeing the document that said that I have to have my dog out of their hospital by 6:45 AM, because the "Daytime" clinic opens at 7, I was crushed. My dog was in such bad shape, 7 AM was only 8 hours later and there was no way that I would be able to take care of him at home. The Emergency clinic is not allowed to keep their patients at the Day Clinic, wow. The Vet and Tech had no advice for me about how to handle my dog in 8 hours when he was to be evicted from the clinic. It was tragic, and though this hospital may be great for a late night pet incident requiring a brief interaction with a Veterinarian, more serious incidents with extended care should be taken elsewhere. I found the experience very cold and disturbing. If you are an animal lover, you feel it.

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KE

Kelsey Brandon

I recently took my cat in here because he got sick because Im an idiot (I will admit it). Anyway, they took him back and tell me whats going on and how to fix it....The vet tech comes back with a HUGE number of $700 for an iv, sedation, meds, an overnight stay, and who knows what else(he only needed the IV and some medicine for me to bring home). And said if they didnt do all of that stuff to our cat that he would very likely die! I told them I couldnt afford $700 because Im a student and they offered me a credit line, which I also did not want to do because once again Im a student with enough debt. So the vet tech gets really huffy with me and basically acted like I was the worst person in the world for not being able to afford an outrageous bill. So after he talked with the vet they came up with the magical number of $200 (which was probably still too much....) for the visit, IV, and take home medicine. My cat is fine now with just the IV and his medicine , but they WILL take advantage of you if they can. They will guilt trip you and treat you like youre just awful for making a mistake. I would not recommend anyone take their animal here unless you just have to--and even then be careful to not get taken advantage of! Update: I am going to go ahead and say that they dont know what they are doing at this vets office because they prescribed my cat the same dosage of muscle relaxers that you would give a HUMAN THAT HAD BACK PROBLEMS. A 15 lb cat! He hasnt been able to walk straight all day and my dad who is a doctor said that he definitely should not have been given or continue to get that dosage (or even that medicine). So my cat has been drunk (but not seizing......) for nearly 24 hours now. Thank you vet clinic.

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