Banfield Pet Hospital

On December 29, 2021, sadly my husband and I took our cat to Banfield Pet Clinic in Newcastle, WA to have her euthanatized. We made an appointment for 2:00 pm so that they would be expecting us.

We were placed in a room that allowed us to spend time with our cat in a comfortable setting before the procedure began. After about 15 minutes, the technician came in to explain to us that she would be taking our cat to the back to insert a catheter before the doctor would start the procedure.

Right around the time we began to notice that it was taking quite some time we heard our cat screaming out in pain from their attempts to insert the catheter. This immediately upset me and my husband who lost all control of our emotions and started crying loud enough that we could be heard by all the staff in the clinic. The room had a door that to the back of the clinic so I opened the door to see what was going on and saw two technicians and the veterinarian holding down our cat and the veterinarian having difficulty with inserting the catheter. Once they succeeded they returned our cat with bandages on three of her legs from failed attempts to get the catheter in. The last thing we wanted for our fur baby was to feel any pain before being put to sleep. I thought the whole point of the process was the avoid unnecessary pain.

The first thing the doctor did was acknowledge and apologized that the process was upsetting to us. It would seem to me that once the doctor could see that using a catheter may not be the best option given our cat's demeanor and her parents' distress, that she would have used compassion, and common sense, and administer a sedative to relax our cat first to allow for the catheter to be placed with minimum pain and distress.

The rest of the procedure went smoothly, thank goodness, but the experience left us with a haunting memory that will last a lifetime.

Then to add insult to injury, as we were leaving the room the receptionist at the front desk asked us in the most rudest, uncompassionate tone she could muster up, "Will this [charges] be added to your card on file?" Not I'm sorry for your lost or anything like that.

I have to say this departing experience was so disappointing for us after Banfield Pet clinic had been treating our cat for over 17 years. I will have to think long and hard if I can trust another pet in the future in your care.