Grand Island Small Animal Hospital

Reviews 3

FR

Francisco Fernandez

If I could give them a 0 that I would do. Do you have a pet you love? Does your pet need medical help? I hope this story will help you 6/25/2016. I woke up in the morning only to discover that my Dog Onyx was having great difficulty to stand up and walk. It seemed like he didn’t have control of his legs, yet he was not complaining of pain. I decided to take him to the veterinary, but my veterinary did not work on Saturdays. A fast search online took me to the Grand Island Small Animal Hospital. When we left the house, Onyx was still walking, with great difficulty but still walking. While coming down the outside stairs, at the middle of the way I decided to pick him up and hold him in my arms, I took him to the car, opened the door and put him in. At this point he did not complained of pain; he let me hold him and was cooperative. At the hospital I requested emergency service, and after a wait and $95 pay we were conducted to a room, where a veterinary, the owner, Dr. Harper entered the room and inspected the dog. The dog was showing some pain already, but he mostly let the Dr. manipulate him. The Dr. said to me that it appeared that the dog had some problem in his neck area, that he was going to put together an estimate for the treatment of the dog. After a while I was presented the estimate that included two days in the hospital for observation, X-Rays and lab work. The cost for the diagnostic tools was $2,000. I really could not pay that amount for diagnostics only, but finally, we agreed on a testing procedure that was $922; it included not only the X-rays but lab work. They were really adamant about making the payment before anything was done. With the addition of the prescriptions, in total, I paid the Grand Island Vet Hospital $1.058.The major problem is that even after all that money, I did not get a diagnostic. They told me to take the dog to a veterinary radiologist or to Rochester to get an MRI, so Onyx remained “undiagnosed”. Were they serious? Did really they think on the dog well being or they really did think on money? Just consider this, The diagnostic tools they had were the same my veterinary at The Village vet used to diagnose Onyx with cancer in the bones and a tumor in the spine that could not be treated, that at that time I rejected a prescription for treating ticks, and another for the pancreas that would have added to the above price probably around $100.00 more, However, I had to ask for a medicine to help take care of the pain, and the veterinary gave me another one to be given alone with the pain medicine, their price took the total balance to more than $1,100. I asked for the results of the tests to take them to my veterinary, and they told me they would send them to her. I told the receptionist that my experience with them had been really bad, that they all said they loved the pets, but that was a lie because all they really cared was about the money, and they didn’t care at all for the animal. One of the directions for me after take Onyx home reads: “No running, jumping, or access to stairs” Imagine that direction on a dog that is unable to stand or to walk. Is it not worst than a joke? At the end, the veterinary at the Village vet was sent only the lab results. I had to go back again to Grand Island to ask them to send the X-rays as well. After all that was the important test. Once received, my vet gave me unfortunately a fast and terminal report Onyx had cancer in the bones and a tumor in the spine. They, at Grand Island couldnt or didnt want to give a diagnosis despite that they had the same X-rays. Was that the reason they didnt send the X-rays when they sent the labs? Unfortunately this is not the whole story, but would I go back to them again? Oh! You may answer this question yourself; if you read the whole article it is very easy.

A

A Private User

I have a beagle that suffers from epilepsy. The first seizure he had was a couple years ago and I live on the island so I obviously took him to the closest place. His seizure was over before we even got there. We waited about 20 minutes for the doctor to come in. When he did come in he did not look at my dog or even examine him. All he did was come in and tell us that a dog that has epilepsy is not ever going to be the same again, that there is medicine to stop the seizures but they will all make the dog lethargic and the dog will not be happy. He also mentioned that my dog will most likely die before he reaches 2 years old. We immediately took him to cornell university near where we grew up and got the exact opposite information. He is on medication and is now 3 years old and a happy puppy. My second visit to this place was out of necessity. He was carefully weaned off the medication under the supervision of cornell. After a few months he ended up having an aweful seizure that he would not come out of. After an hour I was forced to bring him back to this place. They took him in, gave him a steriod to stop the seizing and monitored him. A full day and a half later he did not improve and I pulled him out of there and brought him to cornell again. It turns out that what this place did was treat the physical signs of the seizure, but they did not stop the brain from seizing. He was almost 2 full days of being continually in a seizure. This "animal hospital" thought that the facial twitching that he had was him growling and baring his teeth but it was from the seizure. once cornell was able to stop the brain from seizing, his heart was stuck in ventricular tachycardia which is basically a dangerously raised heart beat. he also had an irregular beat. after a week of being in the icu at cornell he was able to be released home. 2 months later he is still on 4 different medications, one of which is a steroid that he is having aweful side effects from. we still do not know how much damage was done and if he will end up having to be on this medication the rest of his life. (btw the side effect is a psychotic reaction, which is aggression and being afraid of us) ALL because this place could not tell that a dog was having a seizure. I do not recommend this place to anyone with a neurological condition. The vets here obviously do not know enough to handle serious situations like this and the personality of the first doctor was incredibly insensitive and rude. The second time I brought him in i did not even get to speak to a doctor more than a couple minutes, I mostly dealt with the vet assistants. I will never go back to this place ever again, even if i have to drive a half an hour to get to another place.

A

A Private User

ABSOLUTELY THE MOST HORRIBLE PLACE EVER! I had my daughter take our cat to the vet because she wasnt feeling well. IHaving had cats my entire life, I figured it was a bladder infection. My daughter called me at work and said the charge was going to be $500! I spoke with the vet and she said she didnt know what was wrong with our cat and she wanted to perform numerous tests. I told her I thought it was a bladder infection. She said and to quote her "MOST CERTAINLY WE WILL PERFORM THE URINALYSIS AND IF THE WHITE CELL COUNT WAS HIGH, SHE WOULD STOP THERE". Before anything could be done, they faxed me a bill for $500, but as the vet said, if the white cell count was high, no further tests would be done, So stupid me, I signed the estimate. Later on the vet called and sure enough, my cat had a bladder infection. But guess what? Because I signed the stupid papers, they went ahead and did ALL the tests, even though she said she wouldnt if it came back my cat had a bladder infection. So I paid $500 for the treatment of my cats bladder infection. I was absolutely livid. I called Dr. Haper in the morning to let him know how upset I was. His reply, you ask? He very redely said, "Well most people would have been happy to find out that it was ONLY a bladder infection." I took it to a higher authority, but because I signed the papers, nothing could be done. I now use another vet and wouldnt go back there if all my vet visits were free. And its funny when you call my new vet, their answering machine specifically states DO NOT TAKE YOUR ANIMAL TO THE GRAND ISLAND EMERGENCY CLINIC if your pet needs emergency treatment. I called another vets office and it also recommended not going to the GI Emergency Center. We recently had to put our beloved 16 year old dog down. It was a Sunday and she was failing badly. It was an absolute blizzard, but we trecked all the way to Main and Kensington in Williamsville even though GI Emergency Clinic is only 5 minutes away. No way would I bring my beautiful dog to them.