Babcock Hills Veterinary Hospital

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

Unfortunately, I did not have the glowing experience that most people seemed to have with Babcock Hills. From the moment we started taking our two cats here, I got the impression that they were trying to schedule us for as many appointments as possible to get as much money as they could from us. It was especially prominent when one of our cats came down with kidney disease. After we got her stabilized, the vets told us we should give her SQ fluids at least once a day (fluids under the skin, to keep her hydrated.) They showed us how to do it from home and sold us the equipment for it. They said almost all cats respond positively to it and after the first two or three sessions, she shouldnt have any problems with us administering the procedure. Boy were they wrong. We tried several times to give her the fluids, and every time she fought us as hard as she possibly could. Even with two of us holding her and the needle in place, we could not manage to give her more than 10 seconds worth of fluid (when we were supposed to be giving it to her for several minutes.) She would get very aggressive afterword as well, hissing at both us and our other cat and bullying the other cat. Very unusual of her. We brought our concerns to the vets and said we wanted to stop giving her the fluids, since it seemed to be worse for her health. They agreed we should stop doing it but pressured us to bring her in to their office 2-3 times a week to have their techs do it instead, for $20 a time. We could not afford that, so we decided to monitor her for a few weeks instead and see how shed do. Its now two years later and she has not had SQ fluids for over a year and a half and she is perfectly fine. They also insisted that we get bloodwork done for her (over $100 per test) every 8 weeks to monitor her kidney levels, even after she had been stable for over 6 months. (Our new vet only recommends blood worm once a year, or twice a year if she has been sick.) The last straw for us was when we adopted a new kitten. He was found on the street by a friend of ours, so we immediately brought him to the vet to have him checked out before introducing him to our other cats. They ran blood test, urine tests, etc on him and everything came back perfect. He didnt even have worms. But they insisted we quarantine him for at least 2 months because if he had recently been introduced to the FIV (feline leukemia) virus, it was possible the test would not detect it for up to 2 months. This sounded very strange to us; we have had cats for many years, and I used to work for a pet supply store owned by vets, and I had never heard of anything like this, even after having done extensive research on FIV. Plus, anyone who has animals knows that keeping a new pet separated from current pets for that long would be very detrimental to social bonding between the animals. We called a different vet, made an appointment with them, and had the tests run again. When we told the new vet what the vets at Babcock Hills had told us, he told us that in 30+ years of practice he has never heard of anything like that, and highly recommended AGAINST keeping our cats apart for so long. Personally, I would not recommend Babcock Hills to anyone. All they want is to make a buck, at any expense to you and your pets.

AW

Awesome Shoebox

Good vet clinics are insanely hard to find. I am a super uppity pet parent as well. Honestly, this is one of the best vet offices I have ever been to. Every single member of the staff from reception to techs and kennel staff to vets were absolutely amazing to both me and my dog. Especially Dr. Lane, who my dog actually liked. Cannot recommend them enough! Here are a few examples of why they are awesome: *Short wait times w/online scheduling *My dog was never scared to go into the vet. He was super excited. *Veteran discounts *He liked Dr. Lane and everyone else mostly(he could be a bit difficult if he decided he didnt like someone haha) seriously, if he didnt like a vet or was scared of the office i would just leave(I left about 4 before finding Babcock Hills). It was really important to me that my dog was happy and not frightened. *Boarding was never an issue and i would always get a report card. Clean kennel area! I inspected it as I always do when boarding. Great exit baths, nails, teeth brushing. They always fed my requested diet (which in all honesty was a bit fussy on my part). *When my dog needed surgery Dr Lane called to keep me up to speed right after surgery, later in the evening AND the next day to check up on Toaster at home. I have been to many vets, but none had gone out of their way like she did to ensure my dog was cared for above and beyond what was expected. *They carry Bravecto(which the chain store vets dont carry) *When I had to put my 11 year old bulldog Toaster down, the staff was incredible and kind and patient as I was a total mess. I recently found out they made a charitable donation in his name. I dont know if they do it for everyone, but it was extremely touching and sweet. I was his north star and he was my liferaft, I miss him so much, but I also was touched that they would go out of their way to even make a donation in memorium for my beloved best friend. I RARELY give a 5 star review, but Babcock Hills Vet Clinic is totally deserving of it. I recommend them every chance I get to new pet parents! When time to have another dog in my life, I will be 100% coming back to Babcock Hills. Thank you all so much for all you do. ***To those complaining over price, please note that the level of care here is not that of a low cost community clinic. Maybe a few bucks more than others, but you can always ask for price prior to testing/meds/etc. They will work with you and always did with me. The prices are on point for the level of care your pet will be getting and attentiveness/skill of staff.

A

A Private User

Dr. Klein is very sweet, is professional, but she alone cant make up for their newer vets that have come on board. I have had three bad, awful, left in tears, experiences there and I will not be returning. If Dr. Klein had her own vet hospital, I would consider it. But there are two vets there that ultimately dont really care about your animals, only the money in their pocket. When I took my near dying dog there after she had choked/swallowed a rawhide, I called to make sure that they had time to help me, due to the fact it was an hour out before closing time when I arrived. They came rushing at me and took my dog away, left me standing there only to be offered by the front desk lady, alternatives to rawhides for $40. Call me crazy, but the dogs health was much more of my concern than what she could play with if she made it through this ordeal. After waiting a half hour, I still hadnt seen my dog, I thought maybe they were getting somewhere... FINALLY they told me that she was "stable" but the bone is now pressing on her heart and since it was near closing, they dont have time to look at why her heart is now sounding like it had a leaking valve, so I was told to take her to the ER because in a half hour they couldnt do much, she had to go home. They handed me my sick, hardly breathing dog, I was in hysterics, and I drove to the ER where they did an ultra sound and couldnt see anything in her belly, a relief, but not the end. Ultra sounds read off of water or fluid, she had been dry heaving for over an hour now so of course they couldnt see anything. They offered to keep her over night, but I took her home. In the end, 6 hours later, the bone came up. At its biggest, it was three inches at a diagnol, a half inch wide and square. I dont know how she got it up, but she did and she is fine now. The Babcock hills vet was merely a pitstop on a long awful night. The worst part of the night, when I left there in hysterics, they called and said I needed to come back and pay the bill. Mind you my dog was still choking. The furthest thing from my mind, I hung up and was disgusted at the audacity of people like that.