Banfield Pet Hospital

My dog has the Optimum Wellness Plan for puppies with the Basic Early Care option at the Banfield in Phoenix, AZ at Spectrum Mall on West Bethany Home and 19th Avenue. I’ve been enrolled since May 2010 I pay about $25/month including the $139 initial upfront "membership fee". My puppy was neutered on 6/23/10 at about 5 months old. He did well and everything went smooth until about 1.5 months later when I noticed he had a hard piece of plastic string that looked like a suture sticking out of his incision spot. I made an appointment and went in for the doctor to look at it on 8/3/10. Dr. Courtney Steinhauer looked at it and said it was nothing to worry about because the suture is supposed to dissolve and he was fine, just a little scabbing which was normal. I went home and about 3 weeks later, took my puppy to the groomers. When I picked him up, my groomer said, "your puppy still has stitches on his incision area, you should see your vet." I looked at the area again and the scab is now gone and there was a very visible blue outline of a stitch. I made an appointment on 8/23/10 and was seen the same day. Dr. Steinhauer saw my puppy again and this time offered to "speed up" the process by snipping off the tip of the "dissolvable" suture. When he was brought back by the vet tech, the suture was not snipped off at the tip, but the previously present suture was completely taken out and there was a hole where it laid imbedded before. The vet tech continues to tell me that there was some puss that came out when the doctor removed the stitch so now the incision area was infected. I needed to buy antibiotic medication and topical medicated rinse to clean the area now. The antibiotic is Ceftodixime 100MG for $15.73 and the rinse is Chlorhexidine flush for $13.07. So now I'm out $30 and after 2 visits and insisting the suture be taken out... AND my dog has an infection now. When I brought this up, the vet tech proceeded to tell me that the infection could have been from anything... even from the ant bite he has a few centimeters to the right (which WASN'T infected).

I do not understand why it took 2 visit to remove the very obvious stitch that was still there. I can’t say that leaving the stitch in that much longer caused the infection…. but I can’t say it didn’t either. Shouldn’t that be the job of my vet? To ensure that my pet is well cared for?!

I am very unhappy with the care I am getting from Banfield as this is not the first time I’ve been blindsided by extra charges after coming to an office visit. I mean, why should I have to pay for medication and treatment because of someone else’s mistake?