Abbott Animal Clinic

Reviews 3

JE

Jennifer Mathis

TL;DR: Had a bad feeling about the place, left puppy anyway, Desk Lady called 3 hours later to say the puppy was vomiting everywhere, even though she was fine when I left her. I took a foster puppy here, with the intent of getting her spayed before sending her to her new owner. She is 11 weeks old, and my regular vet wont spay until 6 months of age, so the rescue group Im working with told me to take her to Abbott. BAD SIGN #1: When I called to make the appointment, I told Desk Lady I needed a pediatric spay, and she replied "you need a WHAT?" BAD SIGN #2: For pre-surgery, I was told to stop feeding the puppy at 9pm the night prior, and give her no food or water in the morning. Everything Ive read about pediatric spay procedures says you should give them a little food in the morning, because they are prone to hypoglycemia. I called back to confirm, told Desk Lady that the puppy is only 11 weeks old, AGAIN, and she said no food or water was to be given the morning of the surgery. I read many, many bad reviews of the clinic, but trusted that the rescue group wouldnt send people there if it was terrible. However, when I took her the next morning, I got a really bad "please dont kill this dog" vibe from the place. Desk Lady gave me attitude about not bringing her shot records, even though no mention was made of it either time I called to make and confirm the appointment. I gave her the phone number to my vets office, and she let me leave, only to call me 20 minutes later while I was driving back into town, to say the puppy needed another set of shots and a deworming. Not being a vet, I deferred to their judgment and said to go ahead. Three hours after I left the puppy, Desk Lady left a voicemail saying "this puppy is reeeeeal sick, you need to come get her." She was ABSOLUTELY FINE when I left her. When I called to see what was going on, Desk Lady went on about how she had never seen a puppy vomit so much, and there was some red-brown substance in it, and she basically scared the crap out of me for the puppys welfare. I called my vet, warned them Id be bringing in a sick puppy, and then drove like the wind to go get her from Abbott. When I arrived, Desk Lady wasnt there, and a tech just sort of handed her to me. I told the tech I needed a list of all the medications they gave her, and whether she had been anesthetized, and the tech said they hadnt given her anything. This raised an eyebrow for me, since I had been told she was the first in queue. What had they been doing with her for the last 3 hours?! I can only assume I was wearing an "I will sue you into oblivion" expression, because no mention of payment was made, no paperwork exchanged. The puppy seemed scared, and smelled of vomit. I rushed her to my regular vet, who examined her, and said he saw no sign of illness. When I took her home, she ate every bit of food I put in front of her. Later, when I was looking for another vet who would perform a pediatric spay, I learned that Abbotts performing a spay surgery on a dog who had not yet been vaccinated for rabies is AGAINST STATE LAW. They never said a thing about a rabies shot.

RA

RAUL MORALES

Submitted official complain to TX Board - Do not take your pet here!!! On 8/09/017, I took my pet dog “Max” to Abbot Animal Clinic with Dr. M. Iqbal Javaid, D.V.M. for a light case of diarrhea and vomiting due to Max getting into the house trash. He is an inside dog and nothing out of the ordinary was changed besides him getting into the trash and eating dinner leftovers. All this information was explain to the assistant and written down; after paying my office visit of $54.50 and waiting for a few minutes for Dr. M. Iqbal Javaid, D.V.M he finally entered the room and begun asking us some question. He asked the assistant to take Max temperature and proceeded to use his ophthalmoscope to check the dog’s eyes and that was the end of his diagnostic. He stepped out of the room for about 10 minutes and came back with a printed estimate with items and procedures that totaled an amount closed to one-thousand dollars ($1000). My complain: The problem is not the quote or the money, the problem is the doctor fashioned a 2 page estimate without even knowing what was wrong with my dog. He assumed the dog required all these procedures without testing or running any minimum diagnostic exams; even requiring overnight hospitalization for a few days! I asked the doctor if we can take the first step and run some initial tests to see what was actually wrong and gradually adjust the treatment as needed. He declined my suggesting and said "this is the initial estimate to get started and the final bill might even be higher", he begun using scare tactics by citing several high-risk illnesses to get me to agree to the price. I feel the doctor was being unethical by trying to scare us in believing our pet was extremely ill to get us to sign on a treatment without confirming the sickness. At the end, I took my dog home, kept him hydrated and allowed for the “bug” to pass. This morning 8/10/2017, he is doing much better and his symptoms have stopped. I urge you to address this unethical doctor, because I’m sure other pet owners are getting scammed and taking advantage of us, pet owners, due to our already, “worried” state of mind. How do you confirm this?... check the doctors estimated proposal for my dogs treatment and ask him how he determined this treatment without running any tests on the dog. I called this morning to get a fax copy of the estimate and they decline to provide a copy, they just confirmed the estimate over the phone of $902 and to make an appointment. Thank you for your time

A

A Private User

Im not usually the review writing type, but I am writing this in the hope that fewer people will be victimized by this clinic in the future. I brought my sick cockatiel into Abbott Animal Clinic for treatment. We were able to see the vet, Dr. Javaid, quickly. He asked several questions, weighed the bird, etc. His assessment was that our cockatiel had indigestion from a food which we later found out is acceptable for birds to eat. His recommendation was to take stool samples to be sent to the lab for analysis, in case it was something serious. Dr. Javaid told us that we would receive lab results within two days of our visit. Also, he prescribed 4 medications for indigestion. The cost of these meds and lab work was $165.09, in addition to the $98.50 charge for the visit. The lab cost was $71.25. Total cost of the visit: $263.59. Our cockatiel died several hours later. Dr. Javaid in no way indicated to us that the condition of our bird was critical. After the fact, a simple internet search revealed that her symptoms were indicative of a very serious condition. It was, at best, a complete misdiagnosis. If antibiotics had been prescribed instead of the avian version of pepto-bismol, there is a possibility that our bird would be alive. After the death of our bird, we called Abbott Animal Clinic seeking the lab results 4 days after our visit (on the 8th). We had expected the results on the 6th, when had our bird not been so sick, the lab results could have actually benefitted her. We were told by the front desk staff that Dr. Javaid needed to review the lab results before they could be released, and that he had left the country for three weeks. We found this to be unacceptable and requested that the results be interpreted by the other vet and faxed to us immediately. 15 days after our visit, we still have no lab results and only a verbal opinion of what actually killed our bird (a bacterial infection). This is despite 4-5 calls to the office after the initial contact, several times with a commitment to fax the lab results ASAP. If your bird or exotic pet is sick in Houston after hours, I recommend contacting Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists or ABC Animal & Bird Clinic. The latter has an A+ BBB rating as opposed to Abbotts C+ (at the time of this writing). Do not put the life of a loved one, even the animal kind, in the hands of deceptive and incompetent medical staff.