Banfield Pet Hospital
Reviews and Complaints

How did they commit malpractice?

You must have a bad doctor. I'm so sorry. The doctors at my Banfield do a really nice job, though I have never done anything more than a spay/neuter surgery.

It’s our mission to provide our clients and their Pets with high quality medicine and exceptional client experiences on every visit. We apologize that your visit to one of our hospitals was unsatisfactory. To address your specific concern, and to help us improve our overall service, we would appreciate it if you would call us at [protected] to tell us what happened.

Karen,
We have made attempts to contact you about your situation but have been unsuccessful. Please feel free to call [protected] to discuss and resolve this issue with one of our Wellness Plan advocates. For your privacy, and because this is a medical case, we need to keep your information confidential and cannot discuss the specifics online. We hope the best for Leroy, and we look forward to speaking with you.

Thank you,
Banfield The Pet Hospital

This is just my opinion, based on what you've written...I think that the suture that was placed in you puppy was not dissovlable because it were, it would have already defiantly dissolved after a month and half. It was likely a non absorbable suture. I also think that you should not have been charged for antibiotics after they removed the sutures, when it appears to be the fault of the practice for placing the wrong type of suture to begin with. Non absorbable suture can cause a nidus for infection, which is why when they are placed on the outside of the skin (they are never to be placed inside the body) they have to be removed after the incision is healed. Mistakes happen, no one is prefect, but it's important to admit to those mishaps and at least there should have been no charge for you to get the sutures removed and the antibiotics that your pup needed as well as an office visit. You shouldn't, however, make this a reflection of banfield because every place is different, every vet and ever vet clinic--banfield or not.

Shawbunny- Thank you for providing this feedback. We apologize that your visits to one of our hospitals did not meet your expectation. We strive to provide our clients and their pets with high quality medicine and exceptional client experiences on every visit. We would like the opportunity to speak with you directly so we can gather more information about your visits. The number to our Client Advocate Team is [protected]. If you are still not satisfied and wish to cancel your Wellness Plan please call our Wellness Plan Team at [protected] to discuss cancellation options. Thank you again for your feedback.

Yes I agree.
As a former employee as a CSC at the Mckinney, Texas # 0624, location off of 75N..I can tell you the main reason is lack of training----& lack of professional behavior of the staff as influenced by management.

At this particular location the more experienced CSC (6 whole months on the job) who was assigned to train me - would regularly discuss how her husband was younger than her, ( show me pictures from her cell phone in direct violation of Banfield regulations) whine, how she wished her mother-in -law would bring her one of the mother -in law's prescription Zolofts or how her husband gave her one of his prescription darvocets the previous evening...Once she even discussed how hung over she was in front of the office manager and all the Dr's so I guess that was typical for that store--Other stores may be managed in a more professional manner...
None the less I was in awe of their lack of concern for the pet and constant methods of overcharging and lying to meet store production goals...
At one point one of the pet nurses actually came up to me and said quote "Management sucks here- I don't know if you realize it but you are on your own"

After 2 months even in this struggling economy I gave my notice--the place was just an unsafe place to work no MSDS sheets for bottles unlabeled.
DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT WORKING THERE OR TAKING IN A PET TO THIS LOCATION- in Mckinney Texas # 0624

I recently set up an appointment at Banfield in ATL for a 5pm appt for what appeared to be an ear infection for my 8 yr old chihuhua. After sitting in the waiting area until 6:30 (closing time 7), our regular vet was closed and this was our first visit. After taking him into the back the Vet came in and said there was not only an infection but also a tumor in his ear. He said his ear canal was closed and showed me the tumor on a diagram while quoting the price of surgery and selling the wellness plan for discount on the procedure. In my pet's best interest I set up an appt for the suregery after they had to restart the computers because the workers had closed for the day. All the while I hadn't seen my dog since we were brought in until after I paid. Along with the fact that my dog had a wellness exam with his regular vet of 6yrs a month prior I brought him there 2 days later for a 2nd opinion. Needless to say they brought in a video scope and went into the canal and said there was no tumor just build and inflamation from the infection, they showed me as oppossed to telling me with now idea where my dog is. The $50 follow up saved me from the $1500 quote for the surgery initially suggested. A week later his fine and well, if you are like me and our pet is part of your family, be cautious and seek a second opinion. I've been to Banfield one time and that was the last.

My 5-month-old GSD was on the Banfield "plan." Took him in 3/23/11 for a limp (after he had escaped and was missing for 12 hours) and he was diagnosed as having "pano" without X-rays or bloodwork. We were told by Susan Valashinas that it was unrelated to being out, if anything the overexertion caused the inflammation. We were also told by Valashinas (owner/vet) to rest him on Rimadyl and Tramadol for 2 weeks and come back for x-rays if he was unimproved.

We were told that on the plan our discount would put us at $479-$559 for sedation and x-rays. This turned out to be MORE than what we spent (a total of $456) at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine Emergency Room in Raleigh for EMERGENCY care with an exam, x-rays with sedation, blood, neuro consult, and a week's worth of meds for home. This was also more than ANY OTHER VETERINARIAN in a 20 mile radius, including our local emergency clinic.

After taking our puppy to another local vet, we were told that his case was severe and it was unbelievable that Valashinas diagnosed him without a workup. The second vet told us to rush to the Emergency Room at the Teaching Hospital over TWO hours away because it was that severe. Our beautiful baby was diagnosed with a L4-L5 compression fracture, which due to the 2-week delay, caused irreversible nerve damage and rear end paralysis. We now have to put him down, yet still continue to pay for our "plan" at Banfield. We are in the process of working with the Client Advocate Team at Banfield Headquarters to fix this. They are launching an immediate investigation into this veterinarian and we are also filing a complaint with the NCBVM (state board). Susan Valashinas also has multiple complaints against her that have been filed since she has been in practice.

Two different vets (the local vet that we took him to when he worsened and the vet at the hospital) diagnosed the fracture on palpation. It was confirmed via X-ray, yet Valashinas *missed* all of this during her physical. Due to her incompetence, we are losing a member of our family. DO NOT TAKE YOUR PETS HERE!

screw banfield they are kids out of vet school with no confidence and hurt my babyboy when taking his temperature no other vet hurt him, never again, i wouldn't take a pidgeon there

I found Banfield vets in Portland Or to be the worst vets I ever visited. They are incompitent and very unprofessional. I would not ever reccomend them or use them ever. This was in [protected], so you can see they have been terrible forever. I think this was the original office since it is located 2 blocks from the Banfield freeway here in Portland Or. They really do suck!

Overall, the cost of what you're paying for the puppy wellness plan seems to add up to the correct amount of what you'd be normally paying for shots, tests, appointments, and getting your pet fixed. However, you'd be a fool to purchase the wellness plan at any point after. i.e. when your puppy is an adult
As far as the extra charges are concerned, I would refuse to pay for any hidden fees, and I would cancel my credit card at any point that they charged for hidden fees and undiscussed costs

first of all, the director of pet nursing is basically the manager of the branch of the pet hospital, so if you have a problem, you should take it up with them and not the senior management because you would get a faster response. If you did that, you probably would have received a sincere appology and it probably wouldn't have happened again. Second, your dog is a chihuahua, of course its gonna bite. pit bulls are better behaved than they are! and third, if they had to draw blood, the natural reaction of the dog is to bite. the groomers aren't sticking the dog with a needle so OF COURSE ITS NOT GONNA TRY AND BITE!

Please consider giving us a call to discuss your situation: [protected]. We'd like to talk about what happened.
Thank you.

Banfield in Deptford, NJ killed my 6 year old Pomeranian. I am devasted!

that is horrible. I agree no one should ever thake their animals there. if you look them up they are just slaughtered with bad reviews similar in style. It is unfortunate that this happened to you. SHEPMOM you should be a little more considerate. She is not looking for a solution but rather warning the public. It is useless to try and cut her down for not doing otherwise. the past is the past.

Why did you not take your pet somewhere else if you were not satisfied with the treatment you were getting there?

I bought a kitten over the internet & had it shipped to me from Iowa. The kitten arrived sick the evening of July 29th, the next evening I took it to Petsmart to Banfield. They charged me $248.00 for a vet to tell me she could not read the xrays, didn't really know if anything was wrong or not. They gave me some MILD antibiotics with some papers that told me the kitten had a mild infection, nothing to worry about. The vet sent me off telling me take the cat someplace else if it got worse. They were closing & wanted to go home. I did take the kitten to another REAL vet 2 days later as the antibiotics did not seem to be working... in short a couple of days later the kitten DIED. DO NOT USE BANFIELD PET HOSPITALS!

We purchased a puppy on 12-21-07 and within 24 hours we noticed that she was having some problems with diorama. I went on line, performed a fair amount of research and discovered that this is fairly common problem with puppies. Potential common causes were stress due to leaving mom or littermates, changes in food or drinking water and eating random things off the ground, which this puppy was prone to do. We decided to monitor her, continue feeding her and giving her bottled water (which we drink ourselves).

After about 24 hours the problem had not resolved itself. I researched on line and discovered that several reliable web sites recommended that �½ teaspoon of Pepto-Bismol be given for ever 10 pounds and as she was only 2 pounds we gave her 2 to 3 drops out of a dropper every 6 hours for 24 hours. They said if she wasnâ��t better to take her to the vet.

We took her to Banfield Pet Hospital at White Oak in Garner NC, which is located in the Pet Smart at the White Oak Shopping Center in Garner on Christmas Eve.

I took the puppy in, requested an appointment and described to the receptionist her symptoms (diarrhea, not eating and difficulty drinking). The receptionist told me to hold my pet on my lap, not to let her down on the floor or touch the walls because the symptoms I describes were associated with Parvo which was highly contagious. She could hardly answer our questions or provide any level of service because she kept calling other customers on the phone to remind them of them of wellness appointments�like literally kept calling and talking to them right in the middle of talking to me. This didn�t make me think they were very concerned about my puppy or very customer oriented.

In any event I had to sell an expensive piece of personal property for practically nothing to raise the money to take her to the vet so when the nurse came back with a long list of testing to get me to sign up for I very politely explained to her that I had managed to scrape together $200.00 and wanted us to work together to prioritize testing and treatment options to try to help my pet as much as possible with my limited resources. I must admit that she was NOT very supportive of my plight, stated that �people come in here all the time wanting us to help them with their pets and have no money� and she was not helpful in terms of helping me prioritize testing and treatment on a limited budget.

We ended up testing the puppy for Parvo and for parasites. The office visit and testing ate up over half my $200.00 budget. The puppy was negative for the Parvo and positive for a large number of parasites. The nurse explained that for her to have that number of parasites she might have contracted worms in vitro from the mother. She was only 8 weeks old, weighed a little less than 2 pounds and had been de-wormed on 12-18-07.

The nurse came back with a long list of further testing, blood work, IV Therapy, Medications, Vitamin Supplements and Special Pet Food the cost of which was total beyond my reach. I once again explained that I had worked hart to come up with money I did bring and that I could not afford all the things they were recommending. I asked for help deciding how to prioritize. She was pretty stubborn and I eventually decided on the two medicines, a subcutaneous IV to get some extra fluids into her, the vitamins and the special puppy food.

I told the nurse that I used to work in an emergency room and that when people came in with similar problems the usual course of treatment was to give them something to treat whatever was causing the diarrhea (in this case the two kinds of medications), give them an IV to temporarily get some fluids into them (I opted for the subcutaneous IV) and then give them something like Donagel to combat the diarrhea itself (which was not given as an option). The nurse tried to convince me for a second time to leave my puppy there and pay several hundreds of dollars, which she knew I didn�t have for pet IVs to treat the diarrhea. I asked if there was anything like Donagel for puppies. At that point she refused to talk to me further, brought my puppy back to me and asked the vet to come in and talk to me.

The vet was very agitated, seemed upset and I very politely explained to her that I was not trying to be difficult but was just wondering if there was anything like Donagel for puppies. She stated, �you have to be very careful with the medication you are talking about because she is a small puppy�that medication is out of date and it is illegal to dispense out of date medication�we are not allowed to do that�. The vet again tried to talk me into leaving my puppy there and paying for over a thousand dollars of IVs and other testing. She told me she could not help me prioritize care because she might get sued if something went wrong. She further stated that if there was a bad outcome here they could not be held responsible because they had �offered� me additional testing and IV therapy, which I had refused (simple math equation: limited $ = limited medical care). It felt like there was little hope for my pet so they made up a long list of testing/treatment recommendations totaling over a thousand dollars (which few people I know could afford to pay in cold hard cash up front) specifically so that if anything happened they could blame it on the fact that the pet owner �declined� some of these services.

Let me just say that in people land if a doctor or hospital does not have the medication to save your life they are required by law to obtain it from another pharmacy or hospital. Banfield is a national chain with multiple locations in my local area and in retrospect they could have referred me to pick it up at another location. If I had gone to another location they would have charged me another office visit (I called another Banfield about 30 minutes from my home). Also in people land doctors and nurses are caring compassionate individuals who are actually interested in saving your life. This is apparently not so for the staff at Banfield who appeared to be more interested in monetary issues and avoiding being sued that whether or not my puppy lived. They seemed actually angry that I would not come off some credit cards and just charge up thousands of dollars in care for my pet. They did not even send me home with a pamphlet on purchasing pet insurance or their infamous wellness plan. In retrospect I realize this is because they did not expect my puppy to survive. Putting her down was an option I never got.

To be quite honest if I had that kind of money or charging capabilities I would have spent it to save my pets life because I loved my pet more than my money. I spent every single cent I had to my name that day at Banfield, they refused to let me pay them 3 days after when I got paid, I was treated very disrespectfully for merely asking for an anti-diarrhea medication and my puppy died a day and half later.

I believe in their over zealousness to avoid doing things that might get them sued they failed to provide the minimum quality of care necessary to keep my pet alive. I believe that they should have made the medication I requested to combat the diarrhea available for me to purchase even if they had to contact another Banfield rather than suggesting I pay money I didn't have to keep her IVs for days on end or purchase vitamin supplements and special food when I had already told them she was refusing food. All she did was puke that all up anyway. Something to combat the diarrhea would have at least given us a fighting chance. If we could have controlled the diarrhea she may have began eating again. Also their attitude was really out of line. I have worked with nurses and doctors all my life and never have seen or heard of anything like this. Why in the world the nurse just stopped talking to me I will never know. In human land we have the right and responsibility to ask questions about our medical care but apparently at Banfield this is grounds for the medical staff to get antagonistic and refuse to continue talking to you. Also when the nurse stopped talking to me and sent the vet in I could actually overhear the nurse angrily talking to another staff about me. Can't tell you how unprofessional that was! I was actually nice and respectful when talking to their staff and unfortunately can't say the same about them. Who has the responsibility to be professional and courteous the customer or the healthcare professional? They actually seemed insulted that I walked in the door with limited amount of resources. I told them point blank that I was not expecting miracles but just some help prioritizing care because of limited resources. The impression I got was that they were actually insulted that they were being asked to provide medical care for only $200.00. I guess the sky should always be the limit because once you set that standard everyone understands that once you have a sick pet the money in your wallets and bank accounts will grow wings.

The kicker is that my sick puppy was seen on Christmas Eve in a store located in a Pet Smart and the lines were long. When I was given the medications the vet gave me a little card and told me to �give it to them up front and they will get the food for you�. I went up front, waited in a long line, gave the cashier the card and she looked at me like I had two heads. She sent me back to Banfield and the receptionist there showed me where the medication was. I then drug my sick puppy back up front, stood in the same long line all over again and was finely able to check out the food she never ate.

Sorry for the ridiculously long post but this whole experience was ridiculously long, tedious and the really difficult part was watching my pet die a slow painful death on Christmas when she probably should have been put down. She was 8 weeks old, weighed less than 2 pounds, had an excessive number of two types of parasites and received de-worming medication again prior to the recommended time frame. What do you think her chances of survival were? Would you have at least given me the option of having her put down? She whined off and on all of Christmas day, we spent all day holding and cleaning her. It was pretty pitiful. The message I got from Banfield is that only wealthy people willing to spend hundreds or even thousands on their animals should be pet owners.

First of all you are dumb for buying a kitten over the internet and having it Shipped to you...Are you a ###ing ###? Of course it was sick you [censored] it came from a ###ing puppy mill then you have the nerve to blame banfield for your kitten diying...YOUR DUMB i hope you dont have children cause they are probably dumb too.

I called store #0273 on 05-31-08 to ask if I could bring my dog in (prince) a 7pd yorkiepoo to see if I could bring him in to get his yearly shots and explained to them that I was from Kansas Banfield here in Atlanta, visiting and needed these shots. They said come on in were not busy. I said go ahead and call and get records from Kansas so we could be prepared they agreed. well I got there they made me wait a half hour before they told me they did not even call Kansas to get Princes records and tried to call them in the room by this time a hour had lapsed and Kansas Banfield was closed so they could not obtain his records and could not give him his shots that day. So they recommended I go to store#0280 the next day Sunday 06-01-08 the next day and call first and have them retrieve his records before we showed up and that it would all be taken care of that day. As disappointed as I was after waiting an hour to hear this I agreed and left that evening. On 06-01-08 I called store#0280 and explained the situation they told me no problem to come on in that there was an hour wait but they would go ahead and call the Kansas store and retrieve prince’s records. I headed.

to make a long story short, you could have avoided all this and called your home banfield yourself to get the records faxed over.

It’s our mission to provide our clients and their Pets with high quality medicine and exceptional client experiences on every visit, at every locatio. We apologize that your visit to one of our hospitals was unsatisfactory. To address your specific concern, and to help us improve our overall service, we would appreciate it if you would call us at [protected] to tell us what happened.

Which Banfield? They are ran independantly, the one in Franklin Tn which is the first one I ever used is Great. Great Vet and wonderful staff. So I figured they were all that way. Moved to Scottsdale Az went to Banfield. Not a good place. So you need to clarify where this hospital is and who the vet is. The one in Franklin Tn in Petsmart is the best vet. I have ever had and I have had animals my entire life. Now only if I could find one here in Scottsdale like Dr Coffeen! So far have only been to one Banfield here. What was suggested to me, was to go in watch the staff. Talk with th evet and interview them like you would hire anyone. So that is what I am going ot do. As all Banfields are not the same!

I've taken my sick cat to Banfield and they were impolite and I felt that all they wanted was my money. They sold me these pills that weere too large for my cat to swallow when I tried returning them, they were like 'Oh, we can't possibly take them back." Can someone just close these hospital Carpetbaggers?

I'm sorry, but I have had veterinary technician experience at Banfield as well as animal shelters and you cannot blame Banfield for the death of your pet. Did you ever consider going to the person that sold you the puppy to find out why it was so sick to begin with? As far as the parasites, depending on what they were (most likely hookworms and roundworms), did you personally see the pet get de-wormed the first time, or was this something the person that you got the dog from told you? I agree, Banfield pet care can get expensive, but it is NOT an emergency clinic. And if you had gone to an emergency clinic, they see dollar signs just as much, if not more from you than a corporation like Banfield does. Banfield's goal is to educate the public on PREVENTATIVE care. I can certainly understand where you are coming from, because I have also felt cheated by veterinarians in the past. I have a diabetic cat that I have spent close to $10, 000 dollars on ( which i know people must think is ridiculous), and after years of failed treatments all it took was a little self education and one specialist with a kind heart to make my baby well again. I apologize for the way you were mistreated at this Banfield. Just like any business, some places have their bad apples, but some places actually have people that care about the well being of your animals. A lot of the bad attitude might have had something to do with the fact that you waited 3 days ( which is a lot of time to a puppy) until Christmas Eve to get the dog treated. I realize that is no excuse. The receptionist was not wrong to tell you to keep your puppy off of the floor. Puppies should not be anywhere besides home until they are FULLY vaccinated. On top of that, Parvo is highly contagious and you could be endangering the lives of everyone else's puppies. The fluids were definitely necessary. When you are talking about medications, I can only guess that you are talking about antibiotics or de-worming medication. The special food was probably A/D, which is the only food that sick puppies will eat, and it's easy to feed by hand if necessary. As for vitamins, the dog has NO nutrients in it's body if it's infested with worms. None of this stuff sounds unnecessary to me. I'm SURE they could have found a solution for the vomiting, however, which disappoints me. I agree that more could have been done to save the life of your pet, but if you thought it was not going to cost a crud load of money (which your shelter/breeder/whoever should reimbursing you for) I am afraid you were wrong. ANY clinic is going to be that way, and if you weren't happy, you could have driven all night to find someone that would have shown you some compassion with the price. I guarantee it would have taken you that long.

It sounds to me like Banfield killed your puppy. I recently bought a Mastiff puppy who became ill like what you described about a week after I brought him into my home. Puking, bloody stool, not eating. I took him to a local 24/7 emergency vet clinic. As a walk in and first time patient there I was in an exam room and speaking to a vet who actually seemed like he cared about my dog within 15 minutes. We tested for parvo..negative. He gave me a strong dewormer, a weeks worth of antibiotics and a weeks worth of nausia pills and said it was most likely parasites in the intestines, which the worming pill would kill. Two days later my puppy was back to rampaging through the house and eating more than a small elephant. My total vet bill, including medication was $56. I did not get charged the emergency fee due to the fact that the vet had an emergency surgery while we were waiting on the parvo test results so I sat in the exam room for over an hour. They apologized and waived the extra fees for my time.

I used to take all of my animals to Banfield. They over vaccinate, tell you your animals need vaccinations against things that are not a concern in your area, and care way more about money than your pet. Thier wellness plans are a horrible money sink and dont do much at all for you if anything other than routine shots come up. I allowed them to operate on one of my dogs to remove a lump on his tail...they did something wrong and ended up killing all the blood flow to his tail. It required amputation...which they tried to charge me for as well. I won that fight and did not pay for them to fix what they caused.

And to anyone reading this DO NOT purchase their wellness plans. They are horrible. I had two dogs on their plans...about 36$ a month. I changed my home phone number and then a few weeks later I got a new debit card. When the plans failed to bill on the old card, they just kept racking up the amounts for 6 months, never notifiying me by mail. I went to make an appointment one day and the receptionist informed me I owed them $500 which had been sent to collections, told me to come back when I had taken care of that and reinstated the plans...oh and that I would have to pay the initial fee again since they had lapsed. I called their billing people and settled my "debt". Two months later I started getting bills from an outside collection agency who says they have no records of me making any payment. I called the Banfield people, and they at first tried to tell me that I would have to prove to the collection agency that I had paid...after a heated discussion they agreed to contact them.

Banfield - Great Customer Service and Pet Care!

Take your pets to a local vet. This supports local business, and usually better care. It took me a while to find a local vet and one that was economical. I refuse to take my animals their, it is a rip off and all they care about is making money.

My dog had a required routine vaccination and I was told he would need a booster in three weeks. Returned for the booster and they wanted to do another exam. I said nothing had changed in his health in three weeks and all he needed was a booster. The nurse said it was their policy to administer an exam. I told her it was not required and I should not have to pay for an office visit. I told her to get a manager to discuss this. Manager said exam was required to "protect my pet" from getting an injection if he was sick. My pet is not sick. I told her their policy was unfair to consumers, and she could charge me $40 now and lose me as a customer forever or do what was reasonable and waive the exam. She would not allow the injection without the exam. So, after a total of SIX MINUTES of exam total, one each by the nurse and the vet, guess what... my dog was healthy and could receive his booster shot! This was after waiting 12 minutes in the consult room after I checked in on time. I have NEVER received prompt attention, I guess this is their strategy to keep you on site for at least half an hour, including waiting to check out and pay, so you don't realize how stupidly expensive their $40 office visit is. They got their last dollars from me. I am NEVER going back to them. Advice to all - take your pet to an injection clinic for routine vaccinations.