**LONG POST WARNING**
I have been going to Banfield for over 8 years, since I got my dog as a puppy. At first, their service is phenomenal. I really like the front desk lady Ruth, and Dr. Ross before he moved to Texas.
3 months ago, in May 2016 my mom brought my dog in to get her ears checked. They gave her prednisone for her ear infection and said come back in 4 weeks and we will recheck her.
That's when everything went haywire. My mom noticed that my dog was drinking and peeing excessively. Being a diabetic, she recognized that our dog, a 13 lb, 8 year old dog lost a pound in a week. My mom then brought her in and as they say, if you don't have an appointment, the only way they can see you now is dropping her off, no more walk ins available. So we tried to get the earliest appointment and get her checked out.
Dr. Johnson said that her weight is great and that the prednisone's side effect is thirst, that is why there's nothing to worry. Wait it out he said, so that the medicine is out of her system. My mom went home, told me about the diagnosis and we waited another week and she lost another pound, my mom is now in panic mode. Took her to the groomers on a Saturday, she came home and her eyes seem cloudy, and she can barely open her eyes. We were worried about her.
So we called them, we dropped her off, they took her in. They then called us that they will keep our dog cuz she is diabetic, and her numbers are uncontrolled, she also has ketoacidosis so it's really bad. Her eyes they said had dry eye syndrome and she's gonna be okay with eye medicine. This was June 26. We took her home and my mom said, our dog cannot see. She keeps bumping onto things.
June 27, we took her back in, the afternoon they called us and said they can no longer treat her because they can't control her diabetes and her ketoacidosis. Oh icing on the cake, she's BLIND. So we took her to the Emergency Vet and they kept her overnight and they were able to tell us that the ketoacidosis is clear, gave us the dosage for her insulin (the banfield said 5 units, the specialty vet said 2 units!) and changed her eye medicine because the ophthalmologist at this specialty vet no longer use what they prescribed. She is blind overnight because of her misdiagnosed diabetes.
After a few thousand dollars spent, and 8 years of being a loyal customer at banfield, we were very disappointed with what happened. We had brought it to their attention that there was something wrong with our dog a few weeks back and they never heard us. Dr. Grimmett told us the news, but I don't think she knew how it was affecting us emotionally because one time she said "what am I supposed to do". Really? what am I supposed to do as an owner when we tried to bring it to the professional's attention?
I am doing this review for other pet owners, to be vigilant and be aware of what might happen to their pets due to the negligence of others.