Banfield Pet Hospital review: Veterinarian/cyst removal ( 1 comment)

Banfield in Harrisburg, NC seriously ripped me off. I took my pet to them because she was limping and unable to walk on one rear paw. They duped me into signing up for a Wellness Plan, examined my pet, performed a bacterial impression and told me she had a lot of bacteria on her foot, offered antibiotics and a drug to help with itching. After the course of antibiotics, my pet still couldn't use her paw, take her back in and they charge us for an incredibly expensive cytology examination of the mass in her foot. Results were inconclusive (meaning either inadequate sample or that there was nothing abnormal seen) as it was obvious at this point it was a simple cyst. More antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory and sent home again. My dog still couldn't walk on her rear paw, so we contacted them again and were told to bring her back. The vet starts talking to us about my dog's foot probably requires partial amputation and I'm getting very angry at this point because it is a CYST and the procedure for removal is clearly published. After another examination, they kept her overnight for a cyst removal which cost all of 62 dollars. This was after spending near 700 dollars already for really poor service, nearly a month and a half of my pet being in agonizing pain and the vet ignoring that this is a CYST! In addressing my complaint, the office manager outright refused to reverse the invoice for the unnecessary services, the pain and suffering they forced upon my pet and laughed at me because how could I know how a cyst is handled? Two seconds on Google Scholar produced this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5721324/
I'd been correct the entire time, they just took advantage of us when we needed relief for our pet from an extremely painful issue.