Maricopa Animal Hospital
reviews and complaints

My uncle was trying to do the right thing and get his dog spayed and wanted to have it done at a vet clinic not a spay and neuter clinic due to the horror stories who had heard. He received a voucher through Pinal County and found out MAH participated in this program. My uncle had asked my mom if she would take his dog in since he would not be able to due to schedule conflicts w/ work and she agreed. So on the morning of 3/911she went in and the front desk lady took the dog and explained that since this was a special program they do not do blood work and that was the end of the conversation. My uncle came in that evening and picked her up and took her home.
Later that night she seemed realy out of it so he called the emergency clinic that was on Marciopa Animal Hospitals answering service and they said it all sounded normal. His 12 yr old son stayed w/ her through the night and early Thursday morning felt her take a deep breath and that was it she had passed away. The next morning the ver clinic called to check on her and he said she died and wanted to speak to the vet to try and get some answers of why his dog is now dead. I have worked as a vet tech myself for a lot of years and recommend to have them check her abdomen for internal bleeding. My mom had called and they advised to open her abdomen it would be $285 and this was not something my uncle could afford so him and his son put there beloved pet to rest.
Finally on 3/14/11 a vet not even the one who performed the surgery called my uncle and she advised that because it was the voucher program there was no monitoring done and oh yea her blood was not clotting well. WHAT! I think that it important to know so that definently leads to believe she may have died to internal bleeding.
The front staff tried to say they advised my uncle of this when he picked her up which was never discussed.
I had contacted this vet office myself pretending I had a voucher and wanted to know how the process worked. The woman I spoke with advised that it covers a basic spay which is $110 and pets need to have there shots, no bloodwork is done so can make them high risk, and they use a different anesthetic. I asked what the difference was and she said regular spay they use propaflo and iso gas (which is the safest way if anyone did not know) but for the voucher program they use dorm, dex and propaflo (this is a nasty cocktail that puts them out and is not as safe) I asked if they monitor the animals and she assured me they do. When I explained really why I was calling and that my uncles dog died and he was told by the vet they are not monitored she became very defensive. She tried to say that we should take responsibility and she explained that because no bloodwork she was high risk and could die. I advised if this was explained then they would have elected to do the bloodwork. I also advised that I did not understand why they would not open her abdomen to check for internal bleeding which the only thing she said was no vet would ever do that for no money, I advised that she was wrong and any moral vet would especially if they did not believe it was there error. Earlier in the call I had mentioned my experience as a vet tech so she stated you know as a vet tech that bloodwork is important and will not deny that but I have assisted in thousands of spau & neuters and never lost one even ones that did not have bloodwork. I asked her that if I am wrong correct me but if the vet did not suture the dog correctly she could have had internal bleeding and that will kill her. She started to say well but I said yes or no she said yes but if your uncle would have done the bloodwork then this probably wouldn't have happened. Later on Monday my uncle and mom went in, my mom picked up her pets records (obviously they would never ever go back there) and my uncle picked up his and also had a meeting w/ the vet. In the end they never had any compassion and kept putting the blame on my poor uncle.