I'd never thought I'd be writing a good review for a place that euthanized one of my horses.
My mom and I have owned horses for 9 years. She owned a stunning 26 year old Arabian gelding and I have a marvelous 31 year old Morgan gelding. Their ages be damned these are two of the healthiest, happiest horses I've ever known.
My mom's horse, lovingly called Jah-sh (Josh) was the picture of health (or so we thought) up until this month. He began to lose interest in his feed and became less playful than normal. Thinking we had the beginning signs of illness we took him in to have him diagnosed with Sand Colic. He showed classic signs of it and, let's be honest, we live in a desert so this is obviously going to be the first thing that jumps out. Little did we know he had terminal lymphatic cancer that would ultimately lead us to euthanize him August 20th.
This review is meant specifically to highlight Dr. Ballard, so I won't spend much time discussing the specifics of the illness. This vet is hands-down the best I've ever dealt with. His level of professionalism was incredible. He was knowledgable, descriptive, thorough, and tactful. I have dealt with many of the other large animal vets at this hospital and I would request him again and again over any other.
Within 5 minutes of bringing our horse to the clinic we knew how serious it was and that we'd likely be losing him that night. Dr. Ballard maintained a positive attitude without ever giving us false hope - ultimately running several tests over several hours and finally leading us to the humane conclusion of letting him go. We were devastated, but trusted Dr. Ballard. He didn't let us down. He gave us peace of mind that we were doing the right thing and let us call the shots - even doing a necropsy for free on the horse we just euthanized so he could give us closure as to what killed him. He was professional with just the right amount of heart and tenderness - it was so comforting to have him be our vet that night.
I just finished speaking with him on the phone a moment ago as he explained to me the results of the final lab test we'd done to find out what kind of cancer our horse had. He reassured us that we did the right thing at the right time - there was no way to save this horse. Lymphoma was the untimely killer and he again offered to meet with me at the clinic and go over any questions I had, show me pictures from the necropsy, or take an in-depth look at the final lab test.
I can't sing his praises enough - and what I've dealt with the other staff members - everyone else reflects his same passion and intelligence.