I recently adopted a cat from a rescue and within about a week realized that he had ear mites. The rescue provided the medication but just to be sure I wanted to get my cat checked out. Banfield offers a free visit for first time customers so I thought I would do that instead of going to my normal vet since I was pretty sure what was going on and I already had the medication. Once at the vet, I learned that the free visit really only consisted of taking my cats temperature and weighing him. In order to swab his ear with a q-tip and look under a microscope it cost me $41.76 plus $3.50 for "medical waste disposal". I was told my cat had a bacterial infection likely caused by the mites so I needed an ointment for another $34.99. So my free visit turned into $80.25. We gave the treatments to the cat and returned one week later for our "free follow up visit". They took my cat in the back and wouldn't let me come with them which I thought was strange. Within two minutes they were back saying everything looked great.
Once we got home, we noticed that he was tilting his head to one side and was completely off balance and falling over slightly. We watched him overnight hoping it would get better and when it didn't I called Banfield back only to be told that the follow up visit only includes looking in the cats ears (not swabbing again to see if the infection cleared) and if I wanted him examined again I would need to pay for a whole new office visit plus all the other fees. I was told "that's all corporate will allow them to do". No thank you Banfield!! I will be going back to my normal vet who cares about animals and ensuring they are ok and treated properly, not just about making money. What a terrible excuse for a vet!