ComplaintsforGolden Paws Animal Hospital, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  04/29/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I am very disappointed with Golden Paws Animal Hospital. I went in on Saturday, April 27, 2024 as my cat had just given birth to kittens and wasn't nursing them properly. I asked that she please give the mother some oxytocin to bring in the milk as she wasn't barely producing any. The veterinarian on staff had no clue what to do with the mother cat and kept making phone calls to others outside of the office. I told the vet on staff my cat was quite anxious and perhaps a sedative might help her as well. She wanted to give a large dose of gabapentin which I was not comfortable with as my usual vet (unfortunately he is out of town) said definitely NOT to give that to the nursing mother - he texted this back to me while I was waiting with my cat in the waiting room). She finally agreed to give some oxytocin as I initally have asked for; but gave wrong dosage (which did not help the cat whatsoever as it was 1/4 to 1/2 the recommended dosage). After NOT treating my cat appropriately, I was told to contact a cat rescue as they had no knowledge of bottle feeding kittens at Golden Paws Animal Hospital and to contact a cat rescue (this was done after charging me for the emergency visit and wrong medications). So I had to leave over the weekend trying to bottle feed kittens on my own without any advice and was treated with total incompetency by Golden Paws Animal Hospital. I had two other prior visits to this hospital which ended up with a cat that could not be helped and put to sleep (they had no idea what was wrong with her) and another cat that they ran lots of tests on and could not determine why she wasn't feeling well (I had to leave and treat her on my own on doing lots of research on the internet). I would NOT recommend ever using this clinic again if you have a sick cat and need help. Now I have kittens dying due to their incompetency to treat them and the mother properly when first brought in to their clinic.

  Business response

  05/02/2024

  ***************** left several reviews on social media and was in contact with my staff the Monday after her appointment. I was out of town but called her as soon as I heard she had a concern. She told be several times how the service she received was incompetent and she was upset that the doctor in charge was consulting with another doctor.  She felt like the advice given was poor.  I told her that I had to review the case and talk to the doctor in charge to understand the facts better.  She was unhappy that I told her that I needed to call her back so I could investigate this further

  After reviewing the case, I called her back in about 30 minutes.

  **************** shared with me that *************** came in on a "walk -in" emergency visit on a Saturday to be seen for her cat (Precious) not producing milk and she felt like her kittens were not latching to the Queen. She did say that her other cat (*********) had recently had kittens and that the kittens were latching to her. **************** examined both cats and determined that they were both producing milk out of all of their teats. Although this was a Saturday morning, **************** was able to get on the line with a veterinarian who is board certified in veterinary reproduction. It is totally appropriate to consult another an expert in this case as it one that is not commonly seen. The amazing thing in my mind is that **************** was able to get in contact with an expert on Saturday morning to consult on a case that was not in the care of this expert. (Imagine this happening in human medicine). It is very important to understand that it is a not a sign of incompetence to consult with an expert in reproduction. Consultations are a part of medicine - we consult with other doctors all of the time about various cases. This is actually a high level of service -especially to happen on a Saturday morning. Further there was not a charge assessed for this service.
  The expert was able to provide several recommendations that Dr. ****** shared with *****************. These included the recommendations of using Gabapentin as sedative for Precious as she was very anxious. Discussions that it is okay for the kittens to latch on to the other cat that is producing milk. Though the use of oxytocin was questionable as to how much it would help in a cat that is already producing milk, Dr. ****** gave a dose of this medication. ********************* complaint that this was the incorrect dose is not true. A reference from Plumbs Veterinary Drug handbook gives a dose of 0.25 to 1 unit/queen. The dose give was 0.25 units.
  Because throughout my conversation, ***************** kept calling myself and Dr. ****** incompetent, because she continued to threaten us, I told her that it would be best for her to find further care with the cats with the reproductive specialist.  I told her that we would not be refunding her. It is quite unusual for a doctor to be able to consult with a specialist about a case like this on a Saturday morning.  Despite her feelings, *************** went above and beyond to get her the best information in this difficult case.

• Initial Complaint

  08/30/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  called to pick up heart guard was told they would call back when ready...never called me back...i called again asked if I could come in and get early shots they said sure 400$ later we never got the shots we went in for no apology no credit of appointment etc ... blamed me I would like office visit and heart guard test fees reversed since I could have just picked up the meds no test only went in to do shots I did not receive even thought that's what my appointment was scheduled for

  Business response

  08/30/2022

  Tell us why here...I am so sorry that you feel our communication was not optimal during your visit.  We go to great lengths to make sure we are as transparent as possible.  In our exam rooms, we use large computer monitors that go over every plan item and price prior to performing any service or selling any product. Our intent is for our customer to partner with us to agree to our plan for the visit. We like to prioritize what is important and make sure that our customers always understand price.   Partnership,Prioritization and Price are part of our mission statement.  I am sorry that you felt that we fell short this time.  We are not perfect. If we are missing something in our plan at the time of our discussion in the exam, this is an optimal time to help us understand your needs. You have made it clear on all the social media sites that we are not the veterinarian for you.  We wish you the best in your future partnerships with other businesses.

  Regarding "just picking up heartgard":  this is a prescription item.  We are legally required by law to examine our patients on a timely basis to prescribe any medications and provide standard of care.  We had not seen Squid since December 2019 prior to the August visit.  We can not prescribe medications without a recent/timely exam visit.  Annual visits are generally accepted as this time frame.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩