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| - We took our second Animal Foundation adoptee (a 3 month old black lab) here to take advantage of the initial immunizations/check up thing... NEVER going back.
We had adopted him with the knowledge that he had been vomiting, however, the Animal Foundation had also told us that his previous owner had been feeding him yogurt and milk... So they associated it with that... Big mistake.
We took him to VCA a few days later and he had been throwing up 10-20 times a day. Yes, you read that correctly. 10-20 times each day. Obviously I brought this to the doctor's attention (she's lucky I can't remember her name...) and she ran some preliminary "tests", gave him his immunizations, said "he seems healthy to me", and sent me on my way... And yeah, even though it was supposed to be covered per the Animal Foundation, I had to pay for his shots. He then threw up once more in my car on the way home.
A week later with no relenting from this horrible vomiting dilemma he was forced to endure, I took him to a vet that I had used before and had good experiences at for a second opinion. The doctor there could sense there was something wrong when she felt around his neck. She took him to have X-rays and within 20 minutes she told me he had a rare but not unheard of condition commonly referred to as "megaesophagus" in which peristalsis fails to occur properly and the esophagus is enlarged. Look it up if you want more info. It's not pretty. My options for him at this point became:
1) Euthanize him. End his suffering at 12 weeks old.
2) Do nothing. Let him live out the rest of his life which could end in as little as 2 weeks due to malnutrition.
3) Get him surgical help that will fix the issue leaving him with somewhat minor side effects such as a shorter lifespan (8-10 years), indefinite problems associated to swallowing, slowed mental development, and a menagerie of others, with a price tag ranging $2000-$5000.
To recap, the vet at VCA couldn't even hypothesize what was causing him to vomit so frequently but instead claimed that he appeared to be perfectly healthy. In my venture to have a second opinion, I had more adult words pertaining to my concern thrown at me in 30 seconds than my entire time at VCA. VCA is a veterinary partner to the Animal Foundation. If the Animal Foundation isn't willing to investigate an issue prior to his adoption, why would this veterinary practice? And to be clear, the Animal Foundation is a kill shelter. Sure, they rescue animals and have adoption hours every day, but if you were to request that they investigate an issue (mental, physical, health, or otherwise) prior to your adoption of an animal, they may be more likely to put that animal down or just hold out for some other innocent guy who's looking for love in a little furry body who's hoping he'll find him too.
This veterinary practice is just that... PRACTICE. In my reasonably personal opinion, having spent money here, I feel that these individuals are unskilled, untrained, and unprofessional. Sure, they're NICE and all have SMILES.... But they desperately lack a capacity to perform the basic tasks at hand: identify issues and suggest remedies. Had I listened to their diagnosis of "he seems to be in perfect health to me!"... I'd have a dead dog buried in my yard... NOT what I signed up for.
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