Complaint Review: Banfield Pet Hospital - Northglenn Colorado

First off, our cat had a spot on the side of his face that we had been watching for a couple weeks but we thought he had just been bitten by something and that it itched so he scratched it. It would start to scab over and he would scratch at it and pull the scab off and we would start all over..... He didn't act like he was in pain, he was his normal, silly little self, ate and drank fine, etc. that is why we didn't jump and run him to the vet right away. We were using some antibiotic cream that we had but like even humans do, when something starts to scab over it itches so we itch it!

Our cat, that we have had since he was a kitten and has never been sick, started acting weird on new years day, drooling then meowing really loudly like he was in pain. I called Banfield and told them what he was doing and they told me to bring him right over. The nurse checked his temp, heart, etc and said that everything looked and sounded good. The vet comes in and looks in his mouth, nothing else, not even the spot on the side of his face, and tells me that he has an absessed tooth that had exploded out the side of his mouth..........They start with a bill for $120.00 and I guess they felt sorry for us because they went ahead and waved the $34.95 office visit fee which brought our bill to $85.00. They sent us home with amoxicilin that we were to give the cat twice a day, cream to be put on the spot on his face twice a day and an elizabethen collar. Now mind you the $85.00 was for those 3 things, nothing else!

So we go home and for 4 days I do everything that I was supposed to do. Well this morning my husband says that he thought the cat was having siezures because he was standing there and just started drooling, tensed up, and his eyes got huge and he just stood there, not moving at all for a couple minutes. My husband called Banfield and told them what happened and they said to get him over there right away. So my husband leaves work and takes him over. We are not rich people, we both work and we live paycheck to paycheck so my husband asked them if they could bill us for the charges because we didn't have the money after paying $85.00 5 days ago and he was told no, they had to have payment after services had been rendered and sent my husband out the door with our poor cat who was very clearly in pain and needing medical attention.

My husband takes the cat home and is doing some research trying to find a vet clinic that would take payments and the cat has another one of these siezure like things and has an accident on the kitchen floor. He calls the Denver Dumb Friends League and talks to someone there and they told him that it sounds like there is something seriously wrong and that it sounds like he is going to have to be put to sleep. My husband calls me from his boss' office (he works at the apartment complex we live at) and can't even get the sentence out before he looses it and starts crying. His boss gets on the phone and talks to me and tells me what they said at The Denver Dumb Friends League which of course starts me crying! As I am crying, the 22 month old little girl that I take care of says, "sad, sad, sad!" I hug her and tell her that I am sad because my kitty is sick! So my brother-in-law (who does not have a driver's license) drives my husband to The Denver Dumb Friends League because he is so emotional he can't even drive to have our little 1 1/2 year old kitty put to sleep because he DIDN'T have an absessed tooth, there was something else wrong with him. So we paid $85.00 to Banfield Pet Hospital to have him misdiagonised (sp). If I had known they were so imcompetent (sp) I would of taken him someplace else, maybe he wouldn't of suffered and he wouldn't be gone today :-(

Dmmckit

Northglenn, Colorado

U.S.A.