Banfield Pet Hospital
reviews and complaints

My dog Clancy has dry eye syndrome, or keraconjunctivitis sicca. To make a long story short, he had an appointment 8/19/09 and the vet who had been treating him wasn't there (she said she would be, which was why I scheduled it for that time), so another one saw him, and recommended an ointment to complement the one being used which, by her own admission, was working great.

When I went to check out, I asked the price of this ointment, which was packaged as a prescription in a Blistex size tube. I was told $26, so I asked to see it. Turns out it was 15% mineral oil and 85% petrolatum, which you know as Vaseline. No inert ingredients, nothing. When I voiced my displeasure to the clerk, she replied, correctly so, that she doesn't set the prices. So I asked to see the vet again, the clerk checked, and I was told she was busy. So of course I tossed the box on the counter, told her that the price was "unethical, " and checked out.

So watch out for these kinds of ripoffs. This tube was about .25 oz, making their price $104/oz. I figure that this is about a 10, 000% profit margin.

Banfield is a huge scam! They've diagnosed him with heart defects (suggested surgery), cushings disease (suggested $1000s to test), diabetes (which they keep coming up with new ways to charge $100s each visit, just to name a few. I have followed the dr's ordered since we got our puppy (now 13), he has health has continued declining but banfield keeps saying I need to more... The service stinks, the dr's are a scam and my biggest regret is ever signing up for the "wellness" plan which has been anything but. Save your money, don't use them.

This was the first, and only time I will use Banfield, or Petsmart for that matter.
My wife, and I have a neighbor who neglects to treat her pets for their fleas. She has two dogs, and three outdoor cats. Needless to say her yard is infested. We have two indoor cats, who ended up with fleas. We apparently carried them in ourselves through the yard. Our cats haven't been outside in years.

A vet friend of mine in Florida recomended Capstar which for those who arent familiar is a small pill that will kill all fleas on your dog, or cat within 30-45 minutes. It is a non prescription item, and it works beautifully. I searched it down, and found a Banfield in the local petsmart, and the girl on the phone says "come on in we have it here."... Cool! Well I drive the 20 minutes there, and when I get to the counter she says, "i'm sorry, but I forgot to tell you that we will need to see your cats first to prove that they have fleas, and you'll have to pay a $35.00 visit fee" Well obviously I didn't want to drive all the way home, and back but I needed the pills. After a few minutes of negotiatng, and two visits by this girl to the "doctor/used car manager" in the back they agreed to let me bring one cat up, and sell me two capstar tabs for what she said would be $12.00 total, after taxes. After driving home, and getting my smaller feline freind in the carrier, Banfield girl calls me back, and informs me that it's not neccesary to bring him up, they will now sell the capstar to me without the visit fee. Now i'm starting to get a little upset. So I drive the 20 minutes for the third time, only to have her tell me that she messed up, on the price, and pills are now $15.00 apeice, and i'm only allowed to by two. $35.00 after taxes for two pills that are non prescription, and the size of baby asprin!

Now, i'm a college educated man, and I knew better, but by now i'm aggrivated just enough to pay it and take my pills, even though I feel like an idiot, because my i've been raked over the coals. I care for my two cats, and I want to fix the problem, and my petowner guilt guided me right into the trap. Come to find out from my friend Michelle in Florida that she sells the same capstar pills for $4.95 each, and I can buy however many I want! I do some research, and the average price for Capstar is 24.95 for six. She is sending me a handfull for cost (3.95 apeice), which will take a couple weeks because she has them on backorder.in the meantime I bought six from 1800petmeds for $28.00 after s/h today.

I will never give Banfield my money again.

My dog was perfectly healthy when I Got her from the pet store. I tsuted the benfield to help my dog with shots. She had no allergy of vaccination and was in perfect health. But on june 2009, I brought my dog to the benfield and they gave her shot. After that my dog is absolutly abnormal. She got reaction to vaccination when she never had it bofore, She is not activle, sleeps a lot and does not want to play at all so I took her to the banfield again in august 2009 and they gave her more shots becasue they said she needed it and they put her in special IV so she wont be reacted to ther vacination again. Then When I picked my dog up. The doctor told she has a heart murmur. Now how in the world she got a heart murmur when she was fine when they tested her in June 2009. And again she had a vaccination reaction. banfield killed my dog. Because they said she will die. So I do not know what to od but I need to find A lawyer and sue thebanfield hospital for making my dog sick and is into near death. Thank you for nothing banfield.

It's quite a simple and heartbreaking story. I took my pet (details withheld due to pending litigation) in for a simple tooth cleaning. Banfield Pet Hospital sent her home with a dislocated hip.

They refuse to acknowledge they may have done anything wrong, or were in any way negligent and/or simply unobservant.

The total charges for this simple tooth cleaning came to over $1, 000, but lucky me...with the Wellness plan I "only" had to pay $350.

The real vet I took my pet to informed me that a normal tooth cleaning on a small pet is actually around $150 to $200 at any reputable vet office.

Tomorrow my pet will be sedated in order for her new, caring doctor to take the appropriate x-rays to determine the extent of damage and if/when my pet may have to have hip surgery.

I will continue to pursue Banfield Pet Hospital in order that no other pet will have to go through what mine is going through right now.

Banfield Pet Hospital does not care for your pet, or for your feelings when your pet is injured by their negligence and ignorance and stupidity.

I will continue to spread the word regarding these facts and about why I hate Banfield Pet Hospital and why you should, too.
http://banfieldhater.blogspot.com/

My husband scheduled an appointment but ended up waiting for the vet for 40 minutes with no explanation or whatsoever given. We also had a coupon but forgot to take with us and they would not honor it. Overall, so unpleasant!

This is the worst vet ever! It was a sunday and my regular vet was closed. I made the difficult decision to have my beloved cat euthanized because she was suffering. I did not want her to have to go through another day of suffering. I went to banfield because 1) they were open on sunday and 2) it was close to my house - thinking that they could not screw up a euthanasia.

When I got there they put us in a room and put on a marketing film on a monitor to watch until they had time to send someone in. It was one of the worst days of my life, so the last thing I wanted to do was watch a film! We were the only customers in the place. I could hear the vet and the technicians in the back room playing with a puppy for about 20 minutes when finally a tech came in. She was completely clueless that I was there to take care of a very difficult task. She kept going in and out of the room bringing a little puppy in with her like it was all a big party.

In the meantime I am crying and suffering and my cat is very afraid and upset. She gave us an estimate of $405 to put my cat down! This included a private cremation and a wooden memorial box which was $238. She showed me a brochure with many different boxes and I asked if the price would go down if I got the cheap plastic one. That question cost me another 45 minutes while she left the room in search of the answer. I finally had to go find her and demand that she get on with the procedure. She said that no matter what box I got the price would not go down - which I knew had to be incorrect, but at this point I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

They wanted to take my cat out of the room to prep her and I said no, that they needed to do it in the room with me - my cat was already scared enough. That cost me another 20 minutes and when they finally came in to prep her, they were not compassionate at all. Finally we were all ready and the vet came in to give the shot. The veterinarian was very unprofessional and not compassionate. I was shocked to find out that they would not let me hold my cat while she was put to sleep! This is unheard of - all vets let your hold your pet!

Anyway, when the deed was done I went out to pay (Any other vet has you pay first so that you can just leave immediately after putting your beloved pet to sleep - but these #s were clueless). Well, when I got home I realized that she charged me for the cremation two times. So I had to call the next day to talk to the manager to get it straightened out. Later in the week they called me to come pick up the remains. When I got there they gave me the remains in a cheap metal box that I could have gotten at the 99 cents store. This is what I paid $238 for! I flipped out on the girl (The same # from sunday) and she said she thought I wanted that cheap box because I had asked about the price. I yelled at her and told her that she made one of the worst experiences of my life so much worse than it already was. The manager called me the next day to tell me that the cremation place was "building" me a nice box for the remains and that they were going to engrave my cat's name on it. Well, when I got the box that they "built" for me, it had a "made in china" sticker on the bottom. At this point I had to see the humor in all of this.

Well, that is my horror story about this place. I would bet any amount of money that most banfield's are the same horrible way. I have heard other terrible stories about banfield too. Do yourself and especially your pet a favor and stay away from this place.

By the way, since then I had my other cat of 14 years put down at my regular vet's office. The entire procedure, including the private cremation cost me under $200. They were extremely compassionate, discreet, quick and they let me hold my cat!

I brought my Japanese Chin in yesterday during the wellness hours to have his blood drawn for heartworm testing. The vet tech held my dogs neck and his little body to try and hold him down while the vet took a needle and stabbed his leg. She did not seem to know how hold my dog down. My dog (who is gentle and never shawn any aggression in the three years of his life) started to hiss and nip the air showing signs of great fear and distress. The vet jabbed his little leg and he yelped in pain. It was a terrible sight that still haunts me. I called my regular vet today to inquire how they handle taking blood from little dogs and they told me that they take the blood from their neck and two to three techs hold the dog. I am so sorry that I went to Banfields to save the 60.00 for the office visit to a regular vet. I learned my lesson. I will never go to Banfields again. I am going to call the store and complain to the manager. And the vet at Banfields had the nerve, arrogance, and ignorance to tell me that my dog behaved this way because I was in the room and he was trying to get me to feel bad for him. I feel so sad for the poor helpless animals who cannot defend themselves and find themselves in the hands of incompetent vets like the one I met yesterday.

Never take your pet to banfield. Our cat was given an ear wash for what was prescribed to be an ear infection at the banfield in chandler, az. During the course of the ear wash treatment, which was very rough (In fact, our cat jumped and hissed for the first time in 11 years when the tech pushed the cotton ball way down into his ear), they ruptured his ear drum. Within a day, he was severely lethargic and would not eat. His head was shaking uncontrollably and he could not walk without falling. We had to rush him to an emergency hospital and he stayed there for four nights. One month later, we are still having to syringe feed him, give him three medications and watch our perfectly healthy kitty (Before we took him to banfield) stumble when he walks and see his 45 degree head tilt to the right. He is unable to jump more than two feet without falling. We believe that he will eventually get better;however, it could take another month and his head may always tilt to the right. We complained to banfield and they say 'he had the condition when he came to see us" that is ridiculous.in fact, during the course of his treatment at the emergency hospital we came to find out that he never even had an ear infection. Bad diagnosis;terrible treatment - do not go there

We just had a horrible experience with banfield in fredericksburg, va. One of my customers took a pup they just purchased from me there for a routine vet check and shot. They wound up killing the puppy "or so they say"... They gave the puppy a shot of benadryl in case it had a reaction to the puppy shot they were about to give it. For starters, I as the breeder had already given it it's first shot and there was no problem (S). After administration of the benadryl the puppy started having seizures. The client was told it needed to go to the emerg. Vet to a tune of $1200 - $1600. They also explained they didn't have that type of funds. They too signed the puppy over. The puppy died (Or so they say). We wanted to get the puppy back to have our own tests run... Banfield said they would do an autopsy... Guess what — they say it died from the benadryl. Then they cremated the pup... They had said they were doing this for free.in order for the clients to even get the ashes they want $200. This is disgusting! As they ran the autopsy and they cremated the pup — there is no proof left of what happened to the pup!

As of recently we have removed both of our dogs from Banfield's care based on suspicion of fraud/scams. We inherited a beautiful staffordshire terror named Sadie. She was three years old when we got her, but i knew her long before that. (She belonged to an ex-boyfriends family) Anyways, as responsible pet owners we took her to Banfield to get all of her shots because her previous owners couldn't afford to have this procedure done and we wanted to make sure she was in good health. In a superficial light, she appeared perfectly healthy: Great appetite, very strong, clever, and willing to learn. (She's a big baby though) The very first day we had her there, she didnt mind the nurses or this new environment and they did all sorts of tests on her and said she was perfectly normal and healthy. Since my other dog, a [censored]zu is on their wellness plan we put Sadie on it as well. Well when you're put on the wellness plan then Banfield will do little procedures to see just how healthy your dog is. X-rays and blood tests and such. I'll go fast forward: Doctor says she has heart worms. BUT get this, she only has "Male" heart worms and to ensure that no females ever show up we need to do the treatment. Her serum test was negative .I now know, after talking to a different vet that the explination the Banfield doctor gave me was a bit...wrong. But we did the treatment anyways. The first month she was okay, we followed the doctors orders and she was back to normal in no time, but she needed to get her second dose! We took her in and this time she went into anaphylactic shock! We were charged for whatever extra expenses for what they had to do to save her and we didnt complain. We paid it and were happy that she was alive and not brain damaged. Happy ending right? No.

Two weeks later I wake up in bed and Sadie is panting REALLY hard like she was having one of my asthma attacks. She couldnt catch her breath and didnt sleep the entire night. Right away i took her into Banfield the next day. They never explained what was wrong with her, they kept her for the day and gave her fluids, i suppose they thought she was dehydrated. They gave her a type of...i guess albuteral for dogs kind of thing and sent her home. She continued to pant but it was at least lighter so she could sleep. This isnt the end.

Another two weeks passed and i noticed that it was taking her longer to get up than usual. It was around the time in which she could be active again but climbing stairs was a chore for her. She's stumbled down stairs on her belly or when she tries to walk she'll just collapse until she's ready to try walking again. Worried, I took her into the vet again. Note: We only took her in to have her leg examined right?

This time when we took Sadie to Banfield i felt like such a horrible person for taking her out of the car. She was terrified to go into the store! When it was time to see the doctor they had to put a mussel on her because they were scared she would bite. She's never been aggressive to anyone EVER. I had to put the mussel on her myself and she wasn't happy about it and neither was I. For a dog to even get that emotional to see this man, i should have known that was a bad sign. The Banfield doctor examined Sadies legs and said they were perfectly fine, she had reflexes to them still and no damaged appeared to have been done. He noted that she had two lumps on the leg that she didn't want to move and prescribed her meds for it. He also noted that every now and then she had a little cough and immediately diagnosed that she had a 'doggy cold' as he called it. Doggy cold? I would have accepted allergies. He prescribed her some cough pills and sent us home, before that he did blood tests...not even sure why but we just wanted her to get better so we let him draw blood and he gave her a cocktail of antibiotics for her cold. This is still not the end!

We took her home and her leg got worse and worse as we gave her the benedril and cough medicine. Her cough got much much worse as well and she resorted to throwing up. If throwing up wasn't bad, she not only lost the use of her right leg but her left one as well. I have to carry my 'baby' around the house or outside if she needs to go to the bathroom. I get a call from my doctor saying that Sadie has gone into congestive heart failure and liver failure. That something was given to her to cause her bile levels in her blood to become 9x what they were only 4 months prior. I know people say "You don't know what your dog gets into", but in this case, this girl is like a tick to me. Always at my side, so I know 150% that she didn't get into anything poisonous. She's leash walked, and isn't fed freely so something didn't just 'fall' into her food.

After that incident I took her to a nonbanfield doctor to get a second opinion. Because at this point, at the time, i couldnt afford to have all the testing done again I gave them a copy of the paper work banfield had done on her. (Medical history for dogs) The doctor looked at the liver work and explained everything to me so i could understand what this meant for my Sadie. She prescibed her two medications that have helped stop her vomiting and promotes liver cell growth.

I must say that so far Sadie is A LOT more spirited, her appetite is back. She's adapted to not having the use of her legs so she uses the bathroom in her own...interesting way hehe, she doesn't mind being carried around but as the days go by she's working very hard to use her legs and walk like a normal dog again. We were so close to having to put her down because she was so so sick.

The new doctor explained that Banfield had given her something that was toxic to her liver, that it might have been an overdose of some sort. We have spent over $2, 000 on this dog at Banfield only to watch her get worse and worse. It wasnt until we took her somewhere else that she began to improve.

The only reason our [censored]zu is alive and well is because we have NEVER followed Banfields instructions on him. They told us he was in congestive heart failure and 10 years later he's still chasing cars and little kids around like a puppy.

I'm sure ill get one person that will flame about responsibility and having a pet costs money, sure. It takes a lot of responsibility, but if its the vets fault for why she's this way have anything to do with how much i make? i felt like they were abusing the love an owner has for their dog and how they are willing to do anything for an animal they love. They can charge you 50 bucks for amoxacillin when its only 25 bucks for a human. (and the human gets a bigger dose!) Banfield is nice and convenient, we've been taking our [censored]zu there for years JUST to get his shots and he's okay, I would limit their services just to that. I dont know if they dont care or if they just werent trained properly or if the nurses (who btw arent REAL nurses) don't know what they're talking about.

Simply, I feel abused by Banfield. They've used my love for Sadie against me. I didn't ask for my money back, its not about the money. It's about what they did to her...that they put this poor dog through all that hell for money. Every time she went to Banfield she got worse and worse and worse, didn't matter what they injected into her. I'm not going to go on about how a much of a bad man the vet was or what money grubbing jerks Banfield is. There's enough bashing here as it is but until the "I LOVE BANFIELD SO MUCH" people are put in our shoes, I dont think they'll understand. Its one great big emotional rollercoaster, wondering if your best cuddly friend will be with you tomorrow because of some stupid, irresponsible mistake.

You want to talk responsibility? Tell it to Banfield.

"Treat you like Family" Yeah...put me in a nasty cage by myself, be rough with me, and so you'll never have to deal with me again, inject me with something that may kill me. Wonder if there's a 'mal-practice' for vets.

[protected] I agreed to teeth cleaning services totalling $224.90 with an authorized range in writing of $230.15 to $287.68. Dr. Lerner called and said that he heard a heart murmur and that $500 to $600 in heart tests would be required before he would put my dog under general anesthesia. I declined and went to pick up my dog. Instead of charging me for an office visit $34.95, I was charged for blood work of an additional $103.50 which was not included on the original treatment plan nor was I called for approval for the blood work. When I complained, they refused to release my dog until I paid the charges. If the blood work is standard for teeth cleaning, then I should have been told about it up front and the costs included with the others on the treatment plan pending my approval.

Please read about Banfield before you take your pet to them. I am not the only individual with a horrible story. I can relate to so much that has been posted on them. They are a scam and are all about making money. With that said, I wish I was writing about how they ripped me off (which they did on several occasions). However, I am writing to tell my story about Charlie (a beautiful, strong Weimaraner puppy)
I took Charlie in on March 17th with all of the papers that the breeder gave me. One of the documents was specifically on "Immunodeficiency Syndrome". It basically, stated that this breed (among others) can have this syndrome and that there is no way of knowing which puppy does. So it basically talks about the risk of over vaccinating this type of dog. I showed it to them, the vet read it and did not say much more than "ok". It specifically stated which vaccines that are not 'recommended". To make this story a little shorter, they went ahead and vaccinated Charlie they way that THEY wanted (they said after Charlie died that it is THEIR protocol) Charlie received about four shots that they and three weeks later they had me back in there for boosters. Two days after his boosters Charlie had a severe reaction that left him, death, blind and neurologically damaged (to the point that he could not even walk) mind you that he was transfered to Annapolis Emergency Vet Hospital earlier that day because when I took him to Banfield that morning that he had a reaction, they couldn't do anything with him. He was bleeding from the nose, had a temperature of 106 and his eyes were shut close because his whole face was so swollen. Later that day they called me to tell me that I had to put him down.
Bandfield incorrectly filled out his forms that day. Wrote that his overall condition was "EXCELLENT", his vision NORMAL. When I brought this up to them they said that they were rushed filling out his report because of his condition. That because of his condition, the report was not the priority. Now, this is what they faxed to the emergency room. You don't fax something like that if it is not "correct" They have an excuse for everything. By the way if it was such an emergency then whay did the fax take over an hour to be sent to the emergency room? Their excuse, "we were having technical problems with the fax". What about the vet's response to my breeder when my breeder asked about Charlie's white blood cell count? He says, "normal". Paper work? 129. Range 17-60. What they said, "sorry" we should have looked at the blood work result instead of just answering. This is the vet saying this...
Anyway, today is 5/18. Charlie passed away 0n 4/25. I am still fighting with them. I have asked them to pay for my emergency bill and the bill of that day with them (which by the way the initial bill started at $900.00 and all of the sudden you question the bill and it was brought to 466.00. I questioned things like restraining Charlie for an x-ray (they wante dto charge me 44.00 just for that. I was like he is not even moving, that is when they started reducing and taking things of the initial bill. They have always done this. What does this say about them? If this is what the dog needs, then why do they change the treatment and bill when you question it? They are a scam.
Anyway, I have gone to them on several occasions. I am fighting this. They said that this is a rear condition. I don't disagree, however, you are the vet and when I brought them that document on that initial visit, you did nothing. And I don't care if it only happens to 4 in 1 1000. Charlie was one of them. They should have taken a different route to vaccinating him if the risk is there. I have done so much research and have found plenty of documments by other vets, that apperantly is there. They never gave me a choice. They never said, we really don't feel like is enough of a risk to take a different action. Therefore, you can trust us or go some where else. Or lets look into this and see what is the safest route. If you really investigate all the vaccines that they give in that damn place, you will find that some are not even recommended or realy even needed. It is there way of making money, for you to come back for boosters. They buy the shots for $3 a pop and charge you $50+ a pop.
They make me sick to the stomach. Where we are standing right now, is that they offered to pay for my medical bill at the emergency room, void the treatment that Charlie got there that day, void his well ness plan as well as my other dog's plan ( I asked for it too, since I told them that I no longer trust them).
For who ever disagrees with me... think about this...
why would they want to settle and pay for something if they were not wrong? I told them that it was mal practice, neglegience, from their part. I asked for them to also pay $1, 200.00 (that is what i payed for Charlie) they refuse. Tomorrow I am meeting with a lawyer at 9:00 a.m. and will be advice if I should take their offer or if I should fight this (to pay for everything that I have asked for). I told them after talking to them today and hearing what they had to offer that I would contact them after I speak with the lawyer. This is not about the money (money is needed, I invested a lot of money on this dog) With the wellness plan, their bills, and the emergency bill and what I payed for him it all adds up to $3, 000.
Buy them paying me back, is them taking responsibility for what they did. They can't give me Charlie back. I will log on again soon and will let you know the final result. I have been fighting this for over three weeks and have not stopped. They are rude, don't return calls. You have to physically show up at their door step for them to take you seriously. They realized that I was not messing around... and finally now they want to settle. Their reputation is horrible. Read around and you will see how everyone's story is somewhat alike. They are awful and should be written up. I will file a complaint with their license department. I hate them and I do also agree that their staff is rude and don't know what they are doing.
They don't care about the client. They act like they care for your pet, but they care more about how much money they can make from you. If they cared at all about Charlie, then they would have been more careful with all the vaccines... If you have something negative or feel that you have to write a comment on what I wrote to defend them. do your self a favor... read about Immunideficiency syndrome in Weimaraners first, and then tell me if there is not enough articles written out there for them to have been more cautios...
I hope this will save atleast one dog.

I took my chihuahua puppy in to banfield for an eye infection. They told me to leave him there for a couple of hours for antibiotic shots and to scrape his skin for a culture. No sooner did I get home, then they called and said he was ready to go. By the time I got there, one hour had elapsed from the time I dropped him off. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the invoice (You pay before they even print it out!) that they had charged me $30 for "hospitalization ward fee."huh? I drove back and asked for an explanation. They said it was something new and that, if I wasn't on their wellness plan, I had to pay it. I wrote to the corporate office and someone called me back, saying that they should have been charging it all along, but had dropped the ball. That's why I was never charged for my cat for the last year and a half. I said "fine. From now on, i'll just hold my pet out in the waiting area until you're ready to do shots or lab work." I was told i'd be charged anyway! Never have I had a vet in private practice take my animal in the back, then try to tack on a "hospitalization" fee! My dog was there for only one hour! They told me they'd take off the $30 charge just this one time, but when I went back to pick up pills for the dog a few days later, I had to go thru the whole thing again, because they had not made the adjustment. The vets there are fresh out of school, and very quick to suggest going to a specialist, or running unnecessary tests. I don't have $500 every 2 months for this! It's ridiculous, to say the least... I will not be going back.

II went to Banfield with two of my three dogs for wellness care. I was encouraged to join the plans and I did at $59.00 a month. Well the first time they saw my older dog (Bear a 9 year Pompeian) they kept him for a physical and when the dog went home he was really sick. His left side hurt when he was picked up and blood was coming out with his stool. I contacted them and they told me it was nothing to do with what they did to the dog. I still took the dog to another vet and he said he was probably sore from the restrains they use at times to hold dogs to examine them. The blood in his stool was related to stress cause during the 7 hours spent at Banfield that day. I called Banfield and they denied using any such procedure with my dog.

Well, it is a lot of money to pay each month without service and I decided to take the five-month-old puppy to be neutered, since this was included in the plan. The day they examine him I was concern because he had a cherry eye. They recommended fixing his eye during the time he be being neutered. Now the neutering procedure was included in the plan and they were only going to charge me for medication. Well, when I picked up my dog his eye looked full of blood and he had a huge amount of discharge coming out of his eye. I was concern the next day and stayed home from work to see if giving him his medicine would alleviate his eye. He was worst-when I talk to Banfield they did not offer to see him, but sent me to a specialist that was going to charge me $250.00 for consulting services. I told them I could not afford to take him and they recommend another doctor 20 miles away from where I live. We need to get so type of class action sue against these butchers. How many more animals are going to be hurt or kill in the hands of these people.

Do NOT sign up for the Banfield wellness plan. You get "trapped" in this plan and they make it difficult for you to terminate your membership. Both my husband and I were laid off from our jobs and we can no longer afford extra expenses such as this plan. We are forced to keep paying it until the contract is up. It was a mistake to sign up for this for as long as we have. I totally regret being sucked into it nd their customer service is completely unhelpful.

04/13/2009 My fiance came home from work while I was at the airport dropping my nephew off. He called and said that our 13 week teacup yorkie was laying on his back with his legs stiff in the air. He then proceeded to bring our puppy up to Banfield Vet located inside of pet smart. I met him there shortly after they had taken Max (our puppy) back. They called me back and told me they want to try to save our dog but needed to do blood work. The cost of that was to be over 400 dollars.. We explained that we dont have that kind of money and that was the start of the visit. They then explained to us that our puppy may have liver shunt. Which if he did have it that he would need a 2000. dollar surgery.And that was not even going to guarantee his life. The Vet told us that this puppy was suffering and we needed to make a decision quick. We had no other choice but to put the puppy to sleep. SO we thought. After deciding to do that the nurse came out with a 234. dollar bill to put Max to sleep. We then told her we didnt have that kind of money either. She rolled her eyes and went back in with the bill. Came back out and said we can do it free but you will need to sign him over to us. WE struggled with the decision for sometime and then decided that it would be best. It was going to cost a lot of money to keep this poor puppy up to par. We walked in the back and said our goodbyes. Both distraut.We walked out to our vehicles and was heading home. The lady from Banfield came out and asked us to come back in and that the Doctor wanted to speak with us. This is AFTER we signed the papers to have Max put to sleep. I can't remember what exactly he wanted but to throw more bills in our face.
Shelby a lady that works in Pet Smart came out and handed us this number for a lady named Joanne Courture. She is the director of Li'l lapdog rescue of Central Fl. She came rushing up quick. this lady was soon going to save our puppy. Shelby came out in the parking lot to explain what the nurse was saying at Banfield Vet. After the Vet nurse came out to get us, Shelby a Pet smart employee asked her what was going on for she has seen us in there before. the nurse said " Well they can't afford to get the puppy better so I guess I will be taking him home!
My jaw just hit the ground! I just signed to have my puppy whom we all love so much to sleep and thats not what they are even planning on doing? Who gave this woman the athority to keep my puppy? And it's to my understanding I am not the only one this has happened to. Fortunatly for us we were able to go in and get Max and hand him over to Joanne so she could get him the help he needed. The nurse's jaw dropped when i went in and told her we were taking our puppy. Max's condition is still just stable but he is in great hands. After trying to rip me off with a 400 bill not including a 2000. surgery bill. These people have played with my emotions. They look down on you because you can't shell out that kind of money and then want to tell you that they are gonna put your dog to sleep and slip him out the back door? We have a full bread yorkie. akc registered. and this lady saw that as a money making opportunity. I lknow that the pet smart employee will talk as well as the gentleman that brought his puppy there too. And i hope if you help me with this many others will speak up as well and we can to stop this from happening to other pet owners.
I was told that if I complained to corperate from shelby the pet smart employee, that they will just shrug it off and never investigate the matter. The office manager at the Vet will be sent a letter and they will lay low for awhile. Then when nobody is looking they will try to screw another average working American family. That is suffering with the economy crisis we have going on.