Complaint Review: Banfield In Falls Church

I am currently a customer of this facility against my will and feel that this facility practices neglect on animals. last year i found a lump on my german shepard and took her to the banfield of sterling, they said they thought we had mammary cancer and gave her medication for hot spots that made her tumor swell up in a couple days,I then transfered her to the falls church banfield because a vet by the name of doctor withers said he could help us. at the time she had gone to this facility she was at a normal weight, eating regularly and by the blood tests from the other store she was fine. At the falls church store they gave her xrays under her wellness plan and said that there was no evidence that the cancer had internally spread. This doctor gave her predisnoe and in a matter of 5 days she was a shell of her former shelf. she didn't want to eat, she lost weight and lost a lot of mobility. i tried to call the vet and see if there was anything they could do after 2 days because i started to notice a change in her appettite. the vet said to cut the dose in half and she would be fine, by the end of the week she didn't want to eat and seemed very bewildered. i spoke with the vet and thier only advice to me was to put her down. i was not even able to get in touch with her doctor. this dog was my bestfriend and my companion and since i had spent my entire savings on her medical care in the begginning i was not able to take her to another vet and since the banfield of falls church would not give me any answers i spent all of my further money trying to give her the bestfood and care i could myself. i ended up getting into over 3 grand in debt because all of my money was put twoards making her comfortable until I thought her quality of life was gone. my problem with all of this is that , falls church banfield had only seen her one time, never gave me a solution, was not sensetive to the needs of me and my dog and now wants me to pay for the wellness plan even after she has passed( and may renew it) or pay for the services that were done to her. I do not feel that i should give them a dime after thier lack of empathy , thier carelessness with animals and the simple fact that they took my bestfriend of 11 years from a dog that hadn't shown any physical signs of illness yet and turned her into a sickly hurt dog in a matter of a week or two and did not claim responisibility. They also did not want to give me solutions or answers but wanted to throw her away like a peice of trash and now expect me to pay them a large sum of money or want the price of the xrays. i kindly pay for the xrays if there was not this stigma that " i did not follow doctors orders and kill my dog after some meds didnt go well". The only thing that i want out of this situation is to have the debt wiped clean because she only saw the doctor once and between sterling and falls church's bills I was left with nothing and since i did not use thier services and they would not let me cancel even after i tried to talk to them twice I feel that this resolution is logical and fair. i have had many problems with banfield in sterling and also with this facility. We put Sheba down earlier this year and a dog who had a wellness plan at that facility needed a home and we did take this dog, he was about 8 months old and was extremely neglected by his previous owner, we took him in and he is with us now and enjoying life, however, banfield sterling was later releasing information about OUR dog to the neglectful ex owner and we later found out that she was coming to the facility to ask questions about his new life and from the way I was being treated at the front desk made me question what the motivations were of this facility. The vet techs would call him by his old name, make references to the old owner and use phrases like why is he barking so much ? he wasnt like that with the other girl. what Banfield did not know was that this woman had severe emotional and life problems and was an alcholic that was having someone else take care of him . I have been through so much this year with Sheba our dog who has passed on and also with Max's previous owners who for weeks I was concerned was going to try and come and get him. I have documentation from a family member of the former owner stating some problems that would suggest that we should be concerned about the previous owner asking questions . when I confronted the Banfield office manager about this problem they acted like I was being unreasonable and did not want to talk to me. Later on that day they confronted a former employee who happened to be a friend of the family who happened to be getting food for his pets and then started to bash and berate him about my actions because I was upset that my vet was releasing personal information to someone that was not authorized. I called back again after I was called and told that Banfield was once again releasing information about problems I was having on my account . The only thing I want to accomplish from this is to let people know that there are serious problems with these vets and their services.

Becca
sterling, Virginia
U.S.A.