Banfield Pet Hospital review: Pet in critical condition

My dog is a 6 year old German Shepherd and was brought in to the Banfield Pet Hospital of Jacksonville, North Carolina. (1335 Western Blvd, Jacksonville, NC, 28546). He was brought in due to Melena, black tarry stool, indicating some sort of GI bleeding. He has had a stomach ulcer in the past, so this was what we believed it was again. Once in, a full blood panel was preformed, readings for any bacteria or virus, negative and his PCV at 0930 on Thursday Feb 16th, 2023, was 44. At this time that was within what is deemed normal range. They administered medication for the ulcer and kept him there. Returning later with medication I needed to pick up, he looked worse than before. My wife had expressed her concern and X-rays were conducted to rule out a blockage, mass, or large amounts of liquid in abdomen. They came back normal, but my wife stated that something was still wrong due to his "drunk walk", no desire for treats, and looking very fatigued. The doctors assured, this is just because he is in pain due to the ulcer and after some time with the medication he will get better. She suggested another blood panel to get another PCV reading due to her concern that our dog had gone anemic. Again, we were told it was not necessary and that he is completely fine, this is all just due to discomfort, and it will resolve itself with medications. This is also concerning because after speaking with numerous other Veterinarians, they all stated if a PCV level was checked for concern of a GI bleed in the morning, an additional should have been done in the afternoon/evening to confirm no decline in level. We brought him home that evening on Feb 16th and continued to watch him. Briefly, he seemed slightly better, eating a small amount of the canned bland food that was recommended. I felt comfortable at this point that the doctors were right and went to bed around 10pm, however my wife still felt something was wrong and stayed up with him all night. At 0230 in the morning of Friday Feb 17th my wife woke me up informing me we must get him to an emergency clinic immediately. He was stumbling everywhere, could barely move and his heart rate was between 160 and 180bpm. When we got him to the Swansboro Emergency Pet Hospital, they rushed him back and began a blood draw and getting him hooked up. Within 30 minutes, the doctor on duty had come out to inform us that our German Shepherd was anemic with a PCV level of 20 and a blood pressure so low they could not even get a reading. We had two options at that moment, opt for trying a blood transfusion or euthanizing him. Without hesitation we told them to start the transfusion. They did not have his type in house, but luckily, one of their donors of that type made it in and they pulled it just in time. During the first blood transfusion, he had a heart VPC that lasted 90 seconds and did not resolve until lidocaine was administered. This as well as atrial flutters, serious dehydration, extremity swelling, and many other issues are still present and being monitored and corrected at Swansboro. As of Saturday, Feb 18th, he is still at the Swansboro Emergency hospital and just went through his second blood transfusion. He still has a long way to go, but the doctors seem optimistic. We have no idea how long he will need the 24/7 care and blood transfusions to get him stable, but one thing we do know is that this all could have been caught sooner with a second blood PCV test at Banfield on Thursday Feb 16th. If me and my wife saw even a small drop from the original 44 that morning, we would have taken him rght away. Instead, we were assured he would be just fine and ended up rushing our critical condition dog to an emergency vet hours later, nearly loosing him and still unsure if he is going to make it out alive.

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