PET OWNERS BEWARE. If you are reading this, you will hopefully avoid the same mistakes we made. If you are going to bring your cat or dog here, make sure to get a second opinion so that you are not being pressured into unnecessary and expensive procedures that are not justified by your pet's medical needs.
Don't let yourself get bullied into unnecessary treatments and if you see any red flags on your bill, have the courage to say something. It is not worth it to do business with a clinic that has a poor ethical standards. Check other reviews here (David W. below) that match our experience. We did not think to do this prior to bringing our cat here, and we deeply regret it. We paid for it in time, energy, stress, and our pocket books.
We brought our cat here because he was limping after taking a bad spill in our home. We made an appointment with Dr. Harbo. They did some x-rays and showed me the films. We were told that our cat had a non-healing, severe fracture and that and that surgery was necessary immediately, or my cat would suffer a lifetime of pain. They brought out an estimate for almost $3,000 and pressured me into putting down a deposit and to take out a loan to finance it if I could not afford it -- or consider the cheaper option of amputation.
We decided to bring the X-Rays to an orthopedic surgeon for a second opinion. The surgeon and staff were stunned and flabbergasted when they examined my cat's foot and saw the X-Ray films. My cat had, at worse, a tiny stress fracture and absolutely zero swelling or ligament damage. We were told he would heal completely without any medical intervention. In the surgeon's words, "it would be extremely far-fetched and ridiculous to say that surgery was necessary." Thirty days later, that stands true as our cat has made a complete recovery without any medical procedure.
This was the worst veterinary experience we've ever had. I don't fault this clinic for playing the typical sales games when they added a $15 dry cat food to my bill (that I didn't ask for or need) and $60 Sub-Q treatments (when my cat wasn't dehydrated nor was he examined to determine if he was in the first place) -- but this level of conduct is just plain appalling. Scaring and guilting customers to perform completely unnecessary $3,000 surgical procedures when there was clearly no medical need to do so.
The most disturbing thing is that Dr. Harbo received the discharge papers from the orthopedic surgeon that showed there was no complete fracture like the scare story she sold me, and called me on the phone. But she did not apologize or have any remorse whatsoever and just ignored the fact that I almost spent $3,000 in surgery or considered amputating my cat's leg for no discernible reason.
I hope management takes note of this and comes up with a plan to change the culture of this place so that patients and their pets alike are treated ethically. It was a close call for us, so my only hope is that future customers don't have to endure what we did.