In our first visit to this clinic we paid seven hundred dollars towards x-rays and blood tests for our 3 year old cat who was experiencing occasional and repeated bile vomiting, but otherwise appeared extremely healthy . We were told by the Vet during the examination that these x-rays proved inconclusive and that the next step would be a much less expensive second set of x-rays within the next week, after changing his food (to a more expensive brand) to ensure his bowels were moving properly, even though we had stressed he was moving his bowels without difficulty to begin with. If this second set still proved inconclusive, the step after would be a one hundred and sixty dollar pancreas test (she was very dollar specific, which should have raised some eyebrows to being with, considering we had no compunction in dropping seven hundred dollars for one half hour of inconclusive tests to begin with). Despite the initial cost, this seemed like a very reasonable course of action.
The next day (less than 24 hours later) we were contacted by the receptionist who told my very distraught girlfriend that; the blood tests we're 'negative', was unable to specify what he was 'negative' for (didn't realize you could be 'negative' for a CBC), and that the next step would be a three hundred dollar barium scan, not the sixty dollar second set of x-rays the actual Vet had told us about. When I heard this I immediately called the clinic in order to book a consult with the actual Vet to ensure that this was indeed what was required, only to be told that our Vet wasn't even in the office that day. If the Vet was not in, where was the RECEPTIONIST getting her information from?
Now, I really have to ask why in the world would I put a beloved and ailing member of my family through a painful, stressful, and expensive, barium test on the word of some RECEPTIONIST when I have already been told the next , and certainly less painful, course of action by an actual Veterinarian is a simple second set of x-rays?? Never mind the fact that no one I spoke to was able to tell me what a barium test tells us that a second set of x-rays wouldn't. The rays were to ensure that his bowels were moving properly and the reason given for the much more expensive procedure was the same.
I recommend that if you do indeed choose to frequent the Secord Animal Hospital, you ensure that you are paying for the diagnosis of an expert, not the assumptions of someone being paid to answer phones. Our family will not be returning, and if i could give a rating of zero, I would.