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Banfield vets get my thumbs down

My experience with Banfield veterinary hospital at Petsmart on Westheimer Rd.

I discovered Dazzel sitting by our bedroom french door window to the balcony with a sort of confused look on her face, its not out of the ordinary for her to have cute little faces and such but it was different.  I walked up to her and noticed blood around her mouth and excessive drooling.  I forced her mouth open partly to find that her tongue was part black underneath on her right side.  Her and I sat there just kind of confused trying to figure out if she had been poisoned or if maybe the other cat had given her a whoopin but none of it made any sense, so I hit up Google.  In a random forum someone lists the same sort of symptoms but left her cat in the garage was concerned over her pets well being.  The last reply to the thread stated that the friendly feline might have gotten a hold of some cords plugged into the wall…yada yada yada.  Anyway, Tami and I found the cord and surely enough Dazzel had worked her way completely through a speaker wire from the home entertainment center and then attempted to chew through the power wire which by evidence of the wire she definitely got through both wires and its the only proof we have. 

Now on to the Banfield journey.

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Tami and I drive to the vet, we expect something to happen so what quickly but instead I waited while the receptionist flirted with some guy with a pit bull for about 20 minutes while not really doing anything but pretending to type on the computer.  Then she disappears to the back for about 5 minutes and comes back out to take him and his dog to the back(heh).  Next a lady who has some drama about medication for her dog which she was too poor to pick up and needed to know if it was still possible after 4 weeks since being prescribed, and yep, they sold it to her.  All in all with this lady about 15 minutes.  I come next, now this receptionist tells me "hold on, I’ll be right with you", and I obliged, which happens about 4 times in all, took 15 minutes.  Grrr.r……irritating.  Now we finally have her attention and we tell her the situation and she hands us a "new patient form", mind you we adopted her from Banfield, hah, I almost laughed.  I then talk her into taking the cat back while we’re filling out the forms so they can start examining her.  They gladly take her making sure to let me know that they’ll be happy to take her under emergency care, telling me this whilst taking my cat to the back.  Anyway we finish the paperwork and she directs us to sit in a room with(no bullshit) a Banfield commercial which she promptly starts up and leaves.  The commercial reminded me of the stupid Continental Airlines thing when you boarded the plane and waited, with the CEO welcoming you to your flight, yay.  This story is kinda dragging behind a bit huh?  same thing I was thinking in the waiting room.  Within about 10 minutes of the 10 minute video finishing, the "doctor"(notice the sarcastic quotes?) comes in with her assistant and immediately asked "where’s your pet?"  I start laughing while saying "I don’t know, you tell me, you were supposed to have looked at her" and Tami telling her that the cat was given to them already.  This doctor automatically starting talking to us about treatment plans and such, all the time Tami and I are just like, seriously? this lady hasn’t even looked at Dazzel.  So we just say ok, and they vanish into the back again for another 10 minutes.  The assistant comes back and has this whole list on the computer of things they want to charge us for.  2 of which were a one time shot that cost almost $50 each, $40 antibiotics, and $40 office visit charge.  This put us at $180 which we weren’t going to pay someone who didn’t even look our cat!  We eventually came to a better solution which involved us giving Dazzel her meds versus them and generic antibiotics and pain medicines that cost $40 together.  In the end we left there paying $80.

Dazzel has since been doing alot better, she isn’t drooling all over herself anymore and doesn’t just look completely lethargic anymore.  She still tries to play with strings and such, dumb cat.  Not too much change in her personality, a little dirtier since her tongue isnt quite working completely yet.  More updates on the Daz soon.