| rev:text
| - My pretty princess chihuahua, Princess Baily, is 12 years old. If you've known me for any amount of time, you've heard about her. Unfortunately, the current narrative is about her health issues.
Although Princess Baily has had some health issues throughout her life, her current situation of congestive heart failure is precariously managed medically by her cardiologist, Dr. Church, at Desert Veterinary Medical Specialists, and her internist, Dr. Aguirre, at Salt River Veterinary Specialists.
At my last visit with Dr. Aguirre, I asked about Princess Baily's new onset bilateral eye drip, to which he diagnosed allergies, and he prescribed Claritin, which didn't stop her symptoms. At my last visit with Dr. Church, I asked about her eye drip, and he suggested Apoquel and to see a dermatologist. When I researched Apoquel, it was a drug that didn't makes sense as cure, nor did seeing a dermatologist make sense to me. Since Princess Baily is experiencing an ocular issue, I picked an ophthalmologist in the same complex, Dr. Lisa Felchle at Eye Care for Animals.
It took a few weeks to get an appointment, and today I saw Dr. Felchle.
Eye Care for Animals has several satellite offices around the valley, as do most veterinarians, and shares an office in Gilbert with the dermatologists, and the dentistry.
Of all of the buildings/specialists in the Arizona Veterinary Specialists complex, the ophthalmology/dermatology/dentistry office has always been the most confusing and disorganized, but my pet's oral surgeon, Dr. Coffman, is worth the disorganization of the front desk. So when I showed up this morning for Princess Baily's ophthalmology appointment, I wasn't surprised by the front desk. In fact, everyone was very polite and had my dog's registration papers all ready, and I only waited a few minutes to see Dr. Felchle.
As a physician AND a mom to an aging fancy chihuahua, I'm obviously very experienced in this setting, and VERY tolerant of all sorts of non-pet care related issues; basically, all I want from any veterinarian I see, is to use the equipment that I don't have access to, to see what's going on inside my animal, so I can make the appropriate decisions for her healthcare.
Since Princess Baily is 12 years old, and has never had an eye exam, her eye drip could be from all sorts of etiologies, from simple allergies to something more severe, so I couldn't wait to get to the bottom of this with a specialist.
As I waited in the room, I checked out the Yelp page of Dr. Felchle, who had a few bad reviews. When she came in with her staff, (who she didn't mention nor introduce to me, which I assumed was a technician and possibly an ophthalmology resident, who knows), I mentioned the reviews and she just stared at me and blinked, and finally said, "Oh, I don't read any of those anymore."
Then she was quiet and stared at me.
Finally, I said, "So you know why I'm here, correct?"
Then she and her team got started on the full ophthalmology exam, which was done very well and very quickly.
Princess Baily has some normal degenerative eye issues, and possibly a blockage in her lacrimal glands, and because of her age, anti-inflammatory/antibiotic drops were prescribed, instead of a surgical option.
I was checked out very efficiently. $261.
So, here's the dichotomy: Do I think Dr. Felchle is a qualified veterinarian and correctly treated my dog? Yes. Do I think Dr. Felchle has an odd bedside manner? Yes.
My philosophy about business is that you can understand the management by looking at how the staff behaves. Since the experience was a bit weird, I was curious enough about Eye Care for Animals to see what's behind this awkwardness.
Firstly, I saw they are not registered with the Better Business Bureau, and in fact, they had some complaints which poorly referenced their President and CEO, Karen Webster.
The complaints don't necessarily make me believe that any malfeasance was done, but certainly the way they handled the complaints only seemed to exacerbate the customers.
Eye Care for Animals was founded in 1981 by Dr. Reuben Merideth, and evolved to currently over 50 practices in 16 states. In 2017, they joined Pathway, a veterinary practice ownership and management company.
And therein lies the answer: Heavily over-managed, no direct owner involvement in individual offices, and employee based versus private ownership. In essence, Dr. Felchle is just showing up and putting in her hours. Thus, customer service and social media is seemingly irrelevant to her.
Dr. Felchle, graduated from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1996.
CONCLUSION
If you just want a one and done qualified veterinary ophthalmologist, this is a fine establishment.
If you're expecting nurturing and compassionate conversation along with your pet care, well...
4/5 RECOMMEND
OF NOTE
*Parking out front.
*For more information: eyecareforanimals.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)