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| - *** Update 6/17/2015 ***
Still the best there is, as far as I'm concerned. My dumpling with the bad teeth has been to VTH a few more times since my earlier review, including another trip just yesterday. My guy's needs are beyond what the local vet offers, so we take the early-morning 120-mile drive. It's a long day (I left at about 5:45 a.m. and got home around 9:30 p.m.), and an expensive one, but to my mind, it's worth it.
Here's why:
1) My dog gets the care he needs. At Urbana, the dog is assigned a student whose mission for that day is to make sure the dog gets everything he needs. Locally, that one-to-one care is just not going to be available. One time, my dog's student told me he was required to log my guy's vitals every five minutes. Seems to me it would be hard to miss something bad happening with that kind of attention.
2) If my dog needs anything extraordinary, chances are, it will be available at the Small Animal Clinic. My guy has some heart issues, so before the dentists can work on him, he gets cleared by a cardiologist. It's not cheap, but I feel better knowing that my dog is likely to survive anesthesia.
3) They explain everything. I probably ask some really stupid questions, but they're always happy to answer them.
4) They don't seem to mind dealing with my dog. We all know he has issues with vets (especially vets with anything in their hands, like scopes or even name tags); they take the appropriate precautions, and that works out just great.
I'm glad these people are there.
*** Original review 10/26/2012 ***
There's nothing anywhere quite like the Small Animal Clinic at the U of I Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
My first trip there was a few years ago, when one of my dogs needed a root canal. No one local would even talk to me without my spending $150 for them to see the dog. All I wanted was a ballpark figure, some idea of what this would cost, so I didn't get surprised. Not only did Dr. Manfra give me a general range of the cost, she spent a good 20 minutes talking me through, generally, how the procedure would work, and a few possible options.
Wow. They were fantastic - treated Casey like a 50-pound prince, and they treated me very well, too. They even had suggestions as to what I might do in town for the day, since I was going to be there all day. Great! Not that I could think of anything but how my little dumpling was doing, but it was very nice of them to go the extra mile.
I took both of my little dumplings to have their teeth cleaned a couple days ago. One, no problem. The other had a heart murmur they wanted to check out before his procedure; turns out, there's a little something wrong, but right now, it's more something to watch than something to worry about. Then, he needed more than a teeth cleaning - there were a couple teeth that were iffy the last time we were there, but were now definite for having to come out. Fine - I know this guy has some problems, maybe owing to genetics, maybe owing to the rough time he had before he wound up with me.
I want to make clear that this isn't a case of people looking to find something wrong so they can pile on the extra expensive procedures. I knew my guy had some major dental problems going way back. The only thing I didn't know about was the heart murmur; I'm glad they found that, told me what to look for, at what point they'd need to look at it further. I am completely comfortable with what they did and the way they did it.
Anyway, to make a long story a bit shorter, it was an expensive day, and a long day, but no complaints here. Everyone left me feeling that my dogs couldn't have been in better hands.
If I could make one suggestion, it would be to add the small animal clinic to the U of I's public WiFi network. That would have been handy, but certainly isn't a reason to go somewhere else.
Anything that's out of the range of my neighborhood vet comes here. If I lived a little closer, these guys might become my regular vet.
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