CVETS - Columbia Veterinary Emergency Trauma and Specialty

Shelly Fuller

We arrived with a sweet five year old dog who had suddenly developed paralysis in her back legs. They walked us through every option that would benefit and not benefit her. We chose to proceed with a risky surgery. The docs were very thorough with us and let us know when she was going into surgery and called us when she came out—this was in the middle of the night. Our sweet girl had to stay at CVETS for 5 nights. She received the best care from the doctors, nurses, and front desk. We were able to call any time to check on her and we were able to set up visits with just her in a room for as long as we needed. Our poor girl’s bladder erupted and became septic. We were called in as a family and had to make a hard choice. The doctors were loving, nurturing, and so caring and sensitive to our needs as a family. CVETS truly care about your pet and will do whatever it takes for the health and quality of life for your pet. Thanks to amazing staff who walked with us during this hard time and even cared for us after losing our girl. Forever grateful for your kindness and love as a staff.

Lainey Strack

My family and I took my dog here because he was acting abnormally tired, couldn’t breathe well, and then after a few days he had a seizure. I took him to CVETS and waited about 3 hours for him to be seen. I understand they are an emergency vet clinic, but I feel that difficulty breathing and seizing should have some sort of priority. They ran several tests and then said that seizures could just happen sometimes as dogs age (he was six) but we had a bad feeling so we asked them to monitor him overnight. The next day they told us he did well overnight and sent him home, again telling us to monitor him. He has another seizure the next day and we take him there again, we wait just as long as the last time. We tell them that his breathing has been more labored (which is obvious because he’s constantly snorting and breathing noisily) and they prescribed him a cough medication and sent him home again, not listening to our concerns. They ended up sending the wrong prescription to the pharmacy so we had to wait another day to pick it up. That day he died during his third seizure. I don’t know if his death could’ve been prevented but I know that he wouldn’t be helped by cough medication even if we had gotten it in time. Not to mention they charged us several thousand dollars for his treatment over the span of about a week. We called to tell them that he stopped breathing and asked if there was anything we could do and all they said was to bring him in, despite us being a 40 minute drive away. We brought him and they offered to cremate him and said nothing else related to his treatment. I’ve seen other reviews having similar experiences, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take your pet here if it is your only option.

Luke & Megan Shiver

Saved our dog’s life after she ate something toxic. Everyone was very thorough and knowledgeable and kind.

rymoplays

Man, this is hard to post. But I feel like I need to in case it helps someone else going through the situation we went through. Our boy fell suddenly ill and we rushed him to CVETS as they are the only emergency vet within an hour of us and it was after hours. Over the next couple of weeks, we spent ~5k$ and over 40 hours at CVETS, only to end up with an incorrect diagnosis and then a “we’re not sure”. Our boy was refused the life saving treatment he needed (that only CVETS could provide) because it was “only a bandaid on the problem unless you want to pursue a surgery that will cost you another $10-15k and he’ll probably die anyway”. Ultimately, we were told to take our boy home and “do a necropsy after he dies if you really want answers”. Even though this didn’t feel right to me, I felt like I was up against a brick wall and didn’t want to push back and upset anyone. So we took him home and I started consulting with a veterinarian friend out of state who reviewed our records and agreed that this was ridiculous. The next morning, I tearfully called every vet I could find within 100 miles to try to get in for a second opinion. We found a fantastic vet who took us right away and quoted us $450-1,000 for the same surgery CVETS told us would be $10-15k. It ended up being $550. Can you imagine the frustration we felt? After spending 5k and getting no answer, we paid $550 and not only got an answer, but they fixed the problem. Unfortunately, we lost our boy several hours later due to complications related to the treatment CVETS refused (again, they were the only facility that could provide it within a few hours of us). We spent weeks watching our boy decline and felt so hopeless. And I can’t help but feel like if we hadn’t wasted our time and money at CVETS, our boy would still be here. All this to say, CVETS has a lot of specialties and equipment that other vets can’t provide. We saw several vets/ techs in our many visits and a couple were wonderful. And I understand in many cases, cost of treatment is out of their hands. Some were clearly very burned out and made us feel like we were ridiculous, crazy, and wasting their time. Also be prepared to wait 12+ hours with no news as they are very busy. At one point we were told to make a follow up appointment for an urgent diagnostic procedure with a specialist (that would have cost thousands more and turned out to be completely unnecessary) and were given an appointment SIX WEEKS out. For a consultation only, not the procedure. We also had some issues with being double charged, incorrect d/c paperwork, forgotten meds, but I understand these things happen in a busy facility. There’s nothing I can do to bring my boy back now, but I just want people to know, if you’re feeling like something isn’t right with what you’re hearing/being charged, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE seek a second opinion. It might make all the difference for your baby.