Animal Veterinary Emergency Treatment Reviews (%countItem)
Animal Veterinary Emergency Treatment Rating
Address: 3602 E 7th St Ste 3, Parkersburg, West Virginia, United States, 26104-3854
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My cat was very sick and running a fever and I took her to this emergency care because that was the only place opened. *** did a great job and wasn't trying to scam you out of your money. He gave my cat a B12 shot and an antibiotic to see if it would help and told me if she doesn't get any better and you have to bring her back in we won't charge you again for the fees since it is the same thing she would be seen for. The B12 shot helped but and she seemed to be acting some what better, for a little while anyhow. She was right back to being sick and not feeling well. I called the emergency office 2 days later and they said to bring her in. I went in and could not believe the way I was treated*** did blood work and nothing came back that wasn't normal. She diagnose my cat with pancreatitis. Only because she has seen a case of this in a cat that is a calico. I told her the cat got sick within a few hour time span- and I didn't believe it was pancreatitis but she was certain. Told me it would take a week to get the test back and gave me an estimate of $900 dollars to care for my cat. The pancreatitis test doesn't take a week.. that was a lie- it takes 20 minutes. Told me I would have to care for my take to make her "feel better" but she would die from this. Seriously? You are going to tell a pet owner who is already upset this type of information without even testing for it and lie how long it takes to do it? The prices for the estimate were 3-4 times more expensive than a regular vet. I get you are the only place opened and should charge for the first visit- but if you are returning for the same thing, you shouldn't be able to do that. It is the same facility! They are price gouging and using peoples emotions to get money.
presented with her pet *** to our clinic, Animal Veterinary Emergency Treatment, Inc. (AVET), on 10/31/17. The client presented with a complaint that the patient wasn’t acting normal for a few days, her eyes were glazed over and she was very lethargic. *** examined the patient and upon exam, found the patient to be “unremarkable, mildly depressed but A/R (alert and responsive).”? *** administered a convenia injection which is a long lasting 14 day antibiotic (due to a fever of 103.1F), as well as a vitamin B12 injection (to aid in appetite and digestion). At the time of initial examination *** elected not to perform diagnostic, *** advised the owner to reconsider and return if no improvement within 24hrs for lab work. As a curtsey *** offered not to charge *** an additional ER fee if she returned in this time frame, as *** worked the following shift. This recommendation was verbalized to the client by the doctor and again by the assistant who goes over discharge instructions at check out, and was also documented on discharge paperwork which was sent with the client. Our doctors at AVET work on a weekly rotation from Thursday evening at 6pm until the following Thursday morning at 8am. *** specifically wrote that “*** had to be seen within 24 hours on the discharge instructions, this was due to his shift ending for the week. It is company policy that when a patient is seen by a second doctor, a new emergency and examination fee is to be paid. The reason for this policy is due to the law which requires a Veterinary Client Patient Relationship (VCPR) in order to treat a patient. In order to establish a VCPR the patient must be examined by the veterinarian. This was not a special circumstance for *** as this is uniform for all of our clients. *** was brought back into AVET 48 hours later, to be rechecked. *** was now on for her weekly rotation and had to perform her own physical exam on the patient in order to administer any type of treatment. Upon examination, *** again found the patient be febrile with a temperature of 103F and she also discovered mid abdominal pain. The owner indicated that she was no better, had a poor appetite but might be enticed with lunch meat and she had a tendency to eat things she shouldn’t. *** ran a full panel of blood work and spoke with *** about a potential diagnosis at which point she also recommended x-rays to rule out a foreign body which the owner declined. Due to a lack of reduction in fever from the antibiotic and a normal white cell count on lab work, it was unlikely that her symptoms were due to an infection, but likely that the fever was due to the abdominal pain also noted. *** suspected either pancreatitis or a foreign body and recommended for the owner to follow up with her regular vet for send out blood work for a specfPL (specific feline pancreatic lipase) which takes 7 days to receive results as it is more accurate than a 10 minute snap test performed in house. Due to decreased accuracy of the snap test AVET does not offer it for cats but does offer the dog test which is much more accurate for dogs. An estimate was prepared for the client as a treatment plan for abdominal pain, fever, appetite stimulation and hydration. The Registered Veterinary Techinican (RVT), went over the estimate with the owner twice to make sure she understood what everything was for and that this was not specifically for any disease but symptomatic treatment and supportive care. The owner declined all treatments due to cost and planned to follow up with her regular vet at this point. We always recommend that a client follows up with their regular veterinarian after coming in to AVET (also indicated on discharge paperwork), because we are not a day time practice, and do not have a regular client base nor do we offer follow up care for chronic conditions. Upon discharge we fax all information, exam notes, blood work, estimates and receipts to the client’s regular veterinarian, so that during the follow up visit, the veterinarian will know what treatments and medications were administered. We are very open with our prices at AVET and tell every person that calls ahead that our prices are $100 for the exam, and any treatments or diagnostics are additional and that everything is due at the time of service. Our assistants and technicians also inform owners of ER/exam fees at the time of arrival, when diagnostics are to be performed owners are informed of cost to assure that running tests are within their budget and all clients are offered an estimate if they would like one. No services are rendered without complete disclosure of costs as costs with an emergency facility are often more than a primary care veterinarian, which is why follow up with primary care is recommended. At the time of discharge *** again questioned the $100 and was reminded of the statement on her previous paperwork at which point she agreed and paid the fee, she later called to complain to management whom she spoke with who again explained the fees and reasoning.If you have any further questions feel free to contact me during normal business hours M-F 6pm-8am Sat 4pm-Mon 8am at 304-428-8387 or on my personal cell phone at ***Thank you,*** Hospital Manager
I did take my cat into the clinic because she was lethargic and not acting correctly. My cat is very vocal all the time and always follows me around but she just looked miserable and looked at me. Her eyes were glazed over and she wasn’t acting correctly. While I was at the clinic *** did his review and said he couldn’t really find anything wrongand said that she seemed to be a very healthy cat(which I knew would happen because she is a very healthy cat and has never been to the vet besides when she was little for an exam and to update her shots). Your pet is just like a child… you know when something isn’t right, and something wasn’t right.
She had a fever of 103.1 and that definitely told me something was not right. *** said he didnotfeel that blood work was necessary because normally blood work won’t show exactly what is wrong. So let’s give her this shot of antibiotic and a B12 shot and see how she acts. She was acting better on the way home but that would be obvious with a B12 shot. He told me to monitor her and if she doesn’t start acting better they would do blood work to see if that would show anything. The paper work states, if no changein 24 houror if she gets worse than bring her back in for blood work. He told me while in the office if you have to bring her back in for blood work, they would do the blood work and not charge me again for the emergency fee and exam. She started acting a little better because of the B12 shot and because she was at the vet office and scared but the B12 shot didn’t wear off untilThursday.I called the office to see how much the blood work would be and the girl told me $200.00. I decided to take her back to have the blood work done since *** had told me I would not be charged the emergency fee and exam again since I had already been there for the same reason. When I took her in I did not ask for her to be seen by another Vet. I asked for the blood work to be done.The manager lied because the paperwork doesn’t say “had to be seenwithin 24 hoursof discharge”. Nowhere on this paperwork does it say what the doctor’s schedule is and that my cat had to be seen from the same doctor. It says to consider blood work. Therefore, if you are taking your animal back into the clinic for the exact same issues with the exact same problem, there is no need to re-review her and if that is the case… I paid the fee again for the next vet to do a partial exam of her. *** didn’t do every review that the first doctor did. *** looked my cat over and did a full exam on her; it took him a good 10 minutes or so. *** exam was about 2-3 minutes and was mainly reviewing the paperwork from the previous visit and asking me questions about her behavior and then said we will start the blood work to see if it shows anything. She didn’t exam the cat like she should have. I still didn’t know at this point I would be paying $100 dollars again for a review. I was under the impression that I would be paying $200 dollars for blood work.
Not to mention I sat in the waiting room for 30 minutes before we were even seen and there was NO ONE else was there and the clinic hadn’t been cleaned since I was there on Tuesday(that was very discomforting). I told them, I was bringing her back in to do blood work as suggested from***if no change. That is what I was in the clinic for. Her temperaturedidn’t drop any from the antibiotic or B12 shot (Antibiotic shots could take up to 24-48 hours to show a difference). So obviously, those shots didn’t help with the fever. “Due to the lack of reduction in fever”… her fever increased from 103.1 to 103.3… fevers means you either have a bacterial infection or viral infection. So, this is what she should be being treated for or should be the concern.
That is what I was most concernedabout and what the doctor should have been concernedabout, since her temperaturehad increased. They took my cat back to do blood work and of course my cat is going absolutely crazy, they bring her back out completely soaked in alcohol (I think this was a little much). You are supposed to be a vet office and you can’t even get a sample of the cats’ blood without dumping a bottle of alcohol all over her. The doctor came back after the results were back and she didn’t really see anything alarming and a few things were high but that was a given because she is scared and at the vet office. The doctor told me she had pancreatitis because she said she observed abdominal pain (which *** and the vet I took her took didn’t notice any abdominal pain at all). She said she had seen this before in this exact color of cat (like that actually tells you anything… I have had calicos my entire life and not once have any of them had pancreatitis). I told the doctor I could give you a two hour time frame when my cat started acting different and I would think pancreatitis wasn’t something that happened that fast). She proceeded to tell me she was pretty positive that it was pancreatitis and continued to tell me how I needed to comfort my cat and that she would die… I just needed to make her feel as comfortable as I could. Of course, at this point I was completely bawling because she told me my cat was going to die (she is an inside cat and my only animal and she is only 7 years old). She wanted to know if I wanted her to quote what it would take to make her feel better. This bill came to $890dollars. She didn’t say… lets run x-rays to see if she ate something. She didn’t say let’s try to get her fever down because that is obviously a big concern. It was either you pay an estimated $890dollars for them to make her feel better or you go home. She told me that it would take a week to get the test results back for pancreatitis and not once did she ever say she couldn’t run the test. The manager told me on the phone that he wasn’t sure why she told me it was a week because that test only takes 20 minutes… not once did he tell me they were not able to run that type of test on a cat or that it wasn’t very accurate. Nowyouare saying you can’t run that test? So, now you are lying about what test you can run and what test you can’t.I was never told to follow up with my regular vet to send out blood work for specPL as stated from the manager. If that is the case, why did the doctor give me an estimate for “Discussed poss. Pancreatitis vs FB, offered x-rays, supportive care, and hospital, gave estimates for diagnostics and treatment and to send out testing”. Why would you give me this estimated diagnostics and treatment and charge me $890 dollars if I would just have to follow up with a vet later?
You say that you faxed over my paperwork to my vet… which is a lie because you didn’t even ask when I was there who my vet was. My cat doesn’t actually have a normal vet because she has never been sick. Therefore, that is also a lie. I took all the paperwork with me because I wasn’t going to pay $890dollars for you “tohelp my cat” without knowing what she actually had or without running a few tests to tell me what it wasn’t. I took the paperwork with me and went to the vet,that is close tomy home,the next morning. They ran the testin 20 minutesand told me it definitely wasn’t pancreatitis and they didn’t see any sign of abdominal pain. Therefore, I would have paid~$900 dollars for you to monitor and keep my cat there (who knows what you do behind those closeddoors) to “help her and start treatments for pancreatitis” but wait… you can’t actually run that test; is what you’re saying now… So you would have charged me~$900moredollars and would have done absolutely nothing. That is great to know!!
You are claiming the registered vet tech explained the prices and that this was for an overall treatment for the cat, which is a lie. It was, here are the prices to help your cat as the vet stated for what she is diagnosing your cat with pancreatitis. This is what we need to do to make yourcatfeelbetter and to comfort her. You are saying people are always informed of price… that is a lie. Since your claim is, you are not a regular vet clinic why don’t you post all of your prices up on the wall so everyone will actually be informed. Instead, of claiming you tell everyone this stuff up front. They do not tell you the prices up front obviously, or I would have never been back (andIwill never go back there). The only reason I paid the $300 billon Thursdaywas because I wanted out of there, you just told me my cat was going to die. I was upset and my cat was pissed- had I not been…. I would have never paid that. I would probably still be standing in that vet clinic today. I don’t pay for stuff that I am told previously I wouldn’t be charged for.
When I called the clinic they told me the FIRST TIME (*** visit), which would be $100 dollars to see her. Which is fine, because I know it is an emergency vet and they are the only place opened after hours… I COMPLETELY get that. *** told me if I have to bring her back to do blood work because there is no change, they wouldn’t charge me thefee’s again because she would be back for the same thing they would justdo the blood work to see if anything showed up. When I called backon Thursday, I told them I wanted them to do blood work since she is acting the exact same (they pulled her file and said, okay, I see the notes for ***hey told me to bring her in and they will do the blood work. Not once, did they tell me oh okay, well you do know there is a different doctor on call now and it is our policy that, you will have to pay another fee to have your cat looked at for the exact same thing you were hereon Tuesdayfor. HAD, that been said, I would have NEVER took my cat back in there. No one would pay another $100 dollars to have your cat looked at for the exact same thing and even more so after the doctor previously told you wouldn’t have to pay it. I was expecting to pay the $200 dollars for blood work. Had I known I would be paying that fee again, I would have waiting until the next morning and took her to my local vet. So, now I have paid $460 dollars for you to give her an antibiotic, B12 and to lie to me about your test and to tell me my cat is going to die with pancreatitis that she doesn’t even have. People are wrapped up in their emotions with their animals, theyare their babies. You are price gouging and lying to clientsand getting money because they want their animals back to normal and most people would pay that.
I have called local vets in the area and they charge $100 dollars for blood work. How can you charge double of what everyone elsecharges?
You should be concerned about the animals you see and have customer service. Instead, not once has anyone even called to see how my cat was doing. I have talked to other people andtheir experiences werealsohorrible and most people said their pets didn’t come out alive. That is very concerning and this type of information needs to be given to the public. Everything needs to be out there so people know.
Case #***
According to West Virginia State Law (W. Va. CSR 26-4-4 (4.2), (4.3), and (4.5) a veterinarian must establish a Veterinarian/Client/Patient relationship (VCPR) before providing any type of service.
“(A)
A veterinarian assumes responsibility for medical judgments regarding the health of an animal and the client who is the owner or other caretaker of the animal agrees to follow the veterinarian's instructions; or
(B)
A veterinarian, through personal examination of an animal or a representative sample of a herd or flock, obtains sufficient information to make at least a general or preliminary diagnosis of the medical condition of the animal, herd, or flock, which diagnosis is expanded through medically appropriate visits to the premises where the animal, herd, or flock is kept.
Upon the formation of a veterinarian/client/patient relationship, in order for a veterinarian to exercise properly the rights granted by a veterinary license, the veterinarian shall:
(1)
Perform a physical examination of the animal. When a group of farm animals of one species is under a single ownership, it may be considered as a single entity; A veterinarian/client/patient relationship is established for the whole group if a representative number of animals have been examined;
(2)
Discuss with the client a diagnostic assessment and treatment plan, including recommendations and medications, and shall enter the plan into the patient's medical record. A group of animals of one species under a single ownership may be considered as a single entity, when a representative number of the animals have been examined sufficient to enable the veterinarian to obtain a reasonable medical judgment with regard to a diagnostic assessment and treatment plans, and
(3)
Discuss follow up recommendations with the client.”
*** stated in your discharge paperwork that your pet was to be rechecked if worse within 24 hours. You were seen 72 hours later, by ***, who was lawfully preforming her job. I spoke with you on the phone and stated to you that the pancreatitis test that we carry in house is a Pancreatic Lipase test and that it only takes 20 minutes to receive results, but I also informed you that I was not present for the conversation between you and *** and couldn’t say for sure what was offered to you. In my original response I said “We always recommend that a client follows up with their regular veterinarian after coming in to AVET (also indicated on discharge paperwork), because we are not a day time practice, and do not have a regular client base nor do we offer follow up care for chronic conditions. Upon discharge we fax all information, exam notes, blood work, estimates and receipts to the client’s regular veterinarian, so that during the follow up visit, the veterinarian will know what treatments and medications were administered.” That statement was coverage of company policy, not directed to your case. All clients are given copies of all paperwork from the visit so that they may be provided to the regular veterinarian. Paperwork includes (Client/Patient information, case history and doctors notes, estimation of fees, lab work, x-rays, discharge instructions, and an itemized receipt). You stated in your response “She wanted to know if I wanted her to quote what it would take to make her feel better. This bill came to $890 dollars” So, you acknowledge that you were given an estimate of fees, which included to ER/Examination fee, prior to any treatment or diagnostics being administered. This estimation was to treat ***ymptomatically, managing pain, nausea, appetite, and hydration, and also an x-ray to rule out a foreign body. Clients are provided these estimates so that we can better provide a plan of treatment that is within the individual’s price range. After you were given the estimation of fees, *** had blood drawn and received a full panel of bloodwork (CBC/Chemistry w/ Electrolytes). When blood is drawn from a patient, the leg or neck is sprayed with alcohol to help the vein protrude, so that the blood draw is easier and less stressful for the patient. After the blood is drawn, in patients that continue to bleed, the excess blood is cleaned out of the fur with hydrogen peroxide. As far as being told “I needed to comfort my cat and that she would die… I just needed to make her as comfortable as I could.” We see and treat pancreatitis very often and a majority of them recover with treatment, but it can be fatal if left untreated. I’m sorry that you had a poor experience at AVET, and I hope that *** has made a full recovery.
Thanks,
*** – Hospital Manager