The last 48 hours have been the most harrowing experience made worse by the willful disregard for my pets health from Spencer Springs Animal hospital.
After nickle and diming me for $500 to stitch up my cat Bowser. A dog tried to eat his tail. Extra stitches to fix the first set that weren't tight enough, two rounds of sedation, special healing honey, $12 bandaids, etc.
I should have learned my lesson.
Unfortunately our 8 week old puppy who we newly adopted 3 days ago began to fall seriously ill very quickly, and I had no other vets in mind.
Diarrhea quickly turned bloody, dehydration, and lethargy followed. I suspected the worst, but as I syringe fed my baby water 2.5ml at a time, I made the appointment with Spencer Springs for first thing in the morning.
Overnight Yoshi responded well. I was up all night with him, nursing him as best I could. He started drinking water, then eating, and though he was not 100% by morning, he was very much back to puppy antics of dragging the broom around the kitchen.
I still kept the appointment , wanting to ensure there wasn't something else going on. My suspicion was he'd eaten something bad, like leaves from our Oleander in the back yard(I removed the entire shrub this afternoon)
We get to the vet and I explain my concerns. The vet decided to give me a lengthy lecture on parvo and buying dogs from breeders, and the dangers of having other animals around, before telling me the test would be $65. Fine whatever. Just do it.
Test was negative. Thank goodness.
I mentioned the palm tree nuts and Oleander dangers id just learned of in our yard and the vet agreed my suspicion might be right. But by then we were nearing the 24hour exposure mark and her therapy of iv fluid and charcoal seemed moot. I denied to leave Yoshi there for observation which pissed the vet off. I'd had good results overnight on my own and decided to maintain the regimen that had worked to rehydrate and restore pup to his normal self.
The vet became agitated that I disagreed with her and left the room. When she came back she said if we go home she wanted to at least do subcutaneous fluid to help his hydration.
She brought Yoshi to the back room. Three very loud yowls later she returned a dripping wet dog to me.
When I got home things went from bad to worse in the blink of an eye. All the progress of made had vanished. He wouldn't move, wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink. And worse, if you moved him at all he cried out in pain.
Eventually his lethargy turned to fever and visible chills. His little body vibrated as he struggled to maintain consciousness.
At that point I lost it and sent hubby back to the vet with Yoshi, fearing I'd never see his little puppy face again.
They took him for observation, sending my husband home with tales of possible internal obstructions and bills that would total $2k or more. A price we just can't afford, especially after shelling out $500 last week for a cat and another $157 that morning to have Yoshi looked at by them.
Despite crippling anxiety, I avoided pestering the vet with calls. Christmas was cancelled but hopefully puppy would be okay.
Near closing time, and still no follow up, hubby finally called the vet.
Nothing wrong could be found with Yoshi. But they think he had an adverse reaction to the subcutaneous fluid. They admitted Puppies generally don't do well with this method.
They pushed this subcutaneous crap on me because I refused to leave him there all day for observation knowing it would most likely cause my pup to react and need to be brought back in for IV and observation.
And what did they try to do when Hubby went to pick Yoshi up from them??
They tried to slap him with another bill for IV fluids and a day of monitoring.
The audacity!
This is not how vets care for animals or their owners.
As with all medical procedures, the client has a right to refuse unnecessary treatment. The vet should have respected that. And knowing better should not have pushed a riskier procedure.
To willfully treat with a procedure known to be iffy on puppies is not only double dipping, it's malpractice!
Too bad they don't have malpractice for pets. The lawyers would have a field day.
Did I pay for these services? No. Am I planning to dispute charges this Vet refused to drop that caused this snowball of health decline in my baby puppy, yes!
Beyond that, I want to blow the whistle on this price gouging, Nickle and diming, place claiming to be a pet hospital.
Doctors and Vets are supposed to heal, not hurt their patients.
This place not only showed a complete lack of regard for my puppy’s health, they also treated me and my family with disrespect and abused our trust in the veterinary system.
Spencer Springs is Not a vet I would recommend to my worst enemy. Not even to the owners of the dog that tried to eat my cat’s $500 tail.
If you are in the Vegas area, get yourself a vet with Integrity who not only respects his patients but their owners as well.