| rev:text
| - Okay, so I'll separate this review into 2 parts: my review of SVS as an overall hospital, and my review of Dr. Lillian Rizzo, who works there.
Overall hospital:
Pros:
-Open 24 hours (I've never had to utilize their late hours, thankfully, but it's great that they're there if need be)
-Have a number of specialists
-I know they work with a few rescue groups, which is AWESOME. I'd consider giving them another star just for that reason.
Cons:
-Consistently rude hospital staff, from the receptionists to the vet techs. The people at the front desk gossiped openly in front of clients in the lobby. Vet techs were very impatient and uncaring with my very fearful dog and their handling with her was overly rough, IMO.
-Disorganized. There were two separate instances where they screwed up my appointment. Both times, I'd made an appointment several weeks in advance to see Dr. Rizzo (who is only at this location certain days of the week), and come in only to find that she "changed her schedule" and was at the other location that day. Really, guys? You couldn't have, oh, I don't know, called me ahead of time to let me know this?!?
-LONG waits in the lobby. In fact, there were several visits where I NEVER went into a private exam room, and just met with the vet in the freaking lobby. Not cool. I can see that being excusable if this were a walk-in or emergency appointment, but for scheduled routine follow-ups? Not acceptable, IMO.
-Expensive. Granted, they are open 24 hours and do have specialists, but it is really expensive.
I'd say the overall hospital gets about 2 stars, and that's being generous.
Dr. Rizzo:
I was referred to Dr. Rizzo by my former regular vet after my 60 lb, 4 year old Heinz 57 mix tore her CCL (ACL in dogs). There are several types of surgery that can be done to repair CCLs. Brief summary (I promise, it's relevant):
The oldest is the 'fishing line" surgery that essentially stabilizes the knee until scar tissue fills in. Least expensive and least invasive. Most prone to failure, especially in big, active dogs.
TPLO: newer, involves a metal plate and screws and sawing off and re-angling part of the bone, which essentially eliminates the need for a CCL. MUCH more expensive, requires a specialist trained in the TPLO technique, but is usually recommended for dogs over 50 lbs due to its lower rate of failure. If the plate or screws get infected, though, it's baaad news.
The newest is TTA, but there are very few surgeons out there that perform it, and not a lot of long-term data on its success.
I consulted with 2 different orthopedic surgeons-Dr. Rizzo, and a vet (I forget his name) at a hospital out in Gilbert. The vet in Gilbert STRONGLY recommended the TPLO over the fishing line, since my girl is big and active.
Dr. Rizzo recommended the fishing line, since my dog "wasn't really that big, compared to her Great Dane" and because of the more serious potential complications with the TPLO. After much debate (and lots of reading), I decided to go with the fishing-line surgery against my gut feeling-after all, Dr. Rizzo seemed to have no financial incentive to recommend the fishing-line over the TPLO, since it's much less expensive.
So we scheduled the surgery with Dr. Rizzo. Recovery was tough, especially since my dog has severe confinement anxiety (and yes, I know how to crate train a dog properly, but there are some dogs who have insurmountable anxiety issues with confinement). Dr. Rizzo was not very helpful in working with us on ways to keep her quiet without a crate or x-pen, and just kept telling us to crate her. Well, that's not really going to work, seeing as how she goes into an anxious fit when confined and will claw, thrash, and attempt to chew her way out--behaviors that are NOT conducive to strict rest.
We worked out alternative ways to keep her quiet, and followed the other post-surgery instructions.
Lo and behold, she reached a plateau in her recovery about 9 weeks in-she would sort of use the leg, but not really. Turns out, the surgery failed (gee, who could've predicted that?)
We ended up having to get the TPLO surgery done-Dr. Rizzo gave us a slight discount (I think 10%) on it, but we spent approximately $9,000 between the two surgeries + follow up. The TPLO *seems* successful (knock on wood), but it would've been one HELL of a lot easier if we had just done the TPLO in the first place-would've saved my dog a lot of unnecessary trauma and pain and would've saved me a whole freaking lot of money and mental anguish.
I can't help but wonder if Dr. Rizzo's reason for recommending the fishing-line surgery was, in part, because she knew it had a good chance of failure, and that we would end up having to do the TPLO surgery anyway. Dr. Rizzo seems very smart and skilled, but she's not the warmest or most caring person.
If I had to do it all over again, I would happily drive the 50+ min one way to Gilbert for the TPLO surgery and follow ups. Alas, can't change the past.
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