Ames Pet Hospital, PC

Reviews 4

AN

Andrea T

I’ve never written an online review before and likely never will again. Some things are just too horrible to go unnoticed, though. The Ames Pet Hospital is one of them. We brought our two cats in thinking one of them had a possible UTI/bladder infection (there were a few fresh urine spots outside of the litter box and neither had done that before). We took both to the Ames Pet Hospital hoping to get a quick urine sample on both, being sure that both cats’ bladders were full before we brought them in. One cat needed his rabies vaccination updated. Fair enough. Then they talked about his distemper and boosters, and really emphasized the importance of each until I agreed (even though I said again and again he was an inside cat and shouldn’t ever be exposed to these things). They never discussed the extra $70 it would cost. I mentioned the other cat had an ear mite issue that had persisted no matter what we did. The vet stuck a $25 Q-tip in his ear (again, I wasn’t informed on the price until the bill) and gave us the same stuff we already had for an additional $20. These were separate charges from the cats’ “Wellness Exams,” which were $38 each. Finally we got to the bladder issues. They got a sample from one cat (another $38, no discussion) but couldn’t “find” the other one’s bladder. The sample from the cat they did get, however, suggested a UTI infection ($44 for meds). Problem solved, right? No. They suggested I keep the other cat there overnight so they could get his bladder sample (another $38) as well. Again no costs were mentioned. Long story short, the next day we picked up the overnight cat and our bill. The bill was $286 and the cat was soaked in his own urine and hungry and thirsty beyond belief. The cat must have been lying in it for several hours, if not all night, because his entire coat reeks of it. Ironically, the very problem we brought the cats in for—urine issues, specifically the smell—is now magnified. The cat walks all over the house—as any cat does—but he leaves urine scent everywhere he goes. We’ve washed him as best we can but it persists. I just hope once we gets himself all cleaned off and my boyfriend and I somehow cut back enough to the pay the rent this month we can forget about this mess altogether—except for to never take our pets to the Ames Pet Hospital again.

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A

A Private User

Im beyond livid. We boarded our two miniature pinschers here over the Christmas holiday as we were visiting relatives from Ames (we live out of state) and wanted to keep our dogs close in case of an emergency, since theyre both older. (Weve done this in several states - never had a problem before.) These folks insisted on giving our younger dog a distemper vaccine against the advice of his current vet, who vaccinates him every THREE years instead of every year, which they insisted had to do with "state licensing" and there was nothing we could do about it - since our hands were tied, we reluctantly agreed. I explained to the receptionist (who seemed to be too busy for us) that the dog had a history of seizures but had been asymptomatic for two years - strictly as a courtesy, in case he had a reacted to the vaccine with a seizure. When we went to pick them up, we were greeted with a charge for a diphenhydramine injection ($24) and a well office visit ($23) - the girl working told us she knew nothing about it and wed need to call and talk to the office manager. No one asked us permission to examine our dog or inject him with ANYTHING except the distemper vaccine, and they had records to prove that hed just had a well exam in November. Nevertheless, they quoted us $130 when we made the reservation, and we had to pay $199 to get our dogs back. On top of that, they forgot to give us our older dogs daily medication - called us after we were 160 miles down the road to let us know - and the girl who called couldnt ship it overnight because "the office manager doesnt come in until tomorrow." So add to those charges an emergency clinic visit (since our local vet was closed the day after Christmas) and the cost of medication to replace what they didnt give us... when I called the office manager and spoke to him, he told me that he "isnt concerned" about their reputation, since theyre AAHA-accredited, and offered to refund our money if we "promise to never come back." Of course, I wouldnt have expected anything else after everything else that had happened... Ive never made a promise that easy to keep before.

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JO

Joe Petefish

I wish there was a Poor option in the quality of this vet clinic. There is nothing at the level of Fair at Ames Pet Hospital. We have had 2 emergencies with our dog. Both emergencies, we were 95% confident that there was a GI blockage due to ingesting non-digestible objects. I will skip to the second time we called, after-hours, for a major emergency AND THEY NEVER CALLED US BACK TO SEE TO OUR EMERGENCY (they have a pager system where you leave your number and then they call you). We called twice and never received a call back. We called another Ames vet and he came into the office after hours to do life-saving surgery that same day. We will no longer take our pets to the Ames Pet Hospital and will advise others to stay clear. Heres more information as to why you should not take your pets here. The first emergency, we contacted them during business hours and were told they were too busy giving kittens shots to deal with us and told us to go the ISU Vet center if we could even get in to see someone there. When we tried to tell them we knew there was probably a blockage and just needed x-rays to confirm and instead they insisted we do a series of blood and stool tests to make sure he wasnt just sick. They wasted precious hours and treated us like we were morons. Every time we went in for routine check ups, we were hit up for extra services that were never needed and usually cosmetic though the advice is presented as a health related and necessary treatment. They must make a lot of money preying on ignorant but very loving pet owners.

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A

A Private User

This place is a poor excuse of a Vet clinic(specifically Dr. Stohlmeyer - the others were nice and seemed to listen. We were forced to change for some reason) . Dr. Stohlmeyer didnt listen to us and only cared about getting more money. My last visit there was due to a sick dog where she told me it was because of the dogs food (no problem for the previous 5 years) and we needed to put her on a special diet. We told her that our dog does have a sensitive stomach and that by changing her food she would be sick. We were assured that this was for dogs with sensitive stomachs and that our dog wouldnt get sick from the food. Wrong, we not only ended up with $40 worth of "sensitive" stomach food that our dog threw up on our comforter (another added bill to get cleaned) but they did an x-ray of our dog using their new x-ray machine to make sure that there was nothing in her stomach to the tune of $330. So in the end we paid for them to make our dog sick again and check out their new x-ray machine.

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