Animal Medical Center - Worst Vet Ever

Just recently, my sweet little dog, Lily had to be rushed to the vet hospital because we believed she had ingested rat poison. It was one of the worst experiences of my life, and I want to share it with the everyone I know in an effort to make others aware of how horrible this vet is. I just finished this statement today, and have since been posting it, and sending it out all over San Diego, CA.

If you have time, and like to read, please check it out:

Animal Medical Center of East County is, in my opinion, the worst veterinary hospital in San Diego. They care only about money. I had heard this from several people in the past, yet I continued to go to this clinic because it was a nice facility, and I had never had a problem until now.

AMC was my vet for over 5 years. I started going there with my previous dog, Dirk, and have since started going with my current dog, Lily. All visits up to the most recent one have been pleasant, with no problems. In fact, I had even sent the staff a Christmas card in 2011 for their late-night help with Lily after a recent surgery, (done with SNAP - Neuter Scooter). On the other hand, I have never had to bring my pet in for anything more serious than a nail clipping, prescription medication, or a shot.

After recently moving out to a very rural area in Alpine, I discovered that my dog, Lily, had some bruising on her belly. She became lethargic, weak, and made whimper noises when I would try to move her. She was refusing food, yet drinking lots of water, and then I noticed she was nauseous as well. She had moments of excitability then she would be weak again. So, I did some online research, and my upon first search of the web, I came up with the notion that she had ingested rat poison, as we had had rats in the house previously, and I had seen rat traps and what I believed to be poison in the house. I figured that absolutely had to be it. Of course, I wasn't sure, but I couldn't think of anything else it might be. I immediately called my boyfriend, since I was at work at the time. Jason, who was home, rushed her to Animal Medical Center as an emergency. That was Tuesday, January 31, 2012, around 1pm.

Jason called me from the vet hospital to inform me that their staff believed she had eaten the rat poison as well. I was panicking at this point, scared for my dog's life. The vet rushed Lily in for testing, and they gave us an estimate of the costs of the procedures that would save my dog. It came to $794. To be honest, the cost of this vet visit never even crossed my mind as an issue. I couldn't have cared less about the price. I wanted my dog saved, healed, and in my arms as soon as possible. I told Jason to have them proceed with all necessary procedures, and I would figure out the bill later. Payday was 6 days away, no big deal.

Jason then informed me that the vet needed a deposit before they could proceed, since I had recently bounced a check with them. Please note, the aforementioned bounced check was in the amount of $9.50 for pain medication for Lily, after her spay surgery, dated December 7th, 2011. (The surgery was not done with AMC. As I was previously unemployed - I went to the much cheaper Neuter Scooter). I will also add that I was in communication with AMC, on December 19th 2011, regarding this check, (as there was some miscommunication with my bank, and that's why I didn't realize the check had been returned). I talked with a nice woman in the finance dept. who informed me that the check might try to go through again. She told me that she would rather wait for the check to be kicked back one final time, before I made another payment of $9.50. I told her to please call me if the check does get kicked back, so I can take care of it immediately. I never received a call back, nor did I receive any correspondence whatsoever regarding the check, so I simply forgot about it. So, I owed AMC $59.50 for the bounced check. Therefore, I paid AMC $190, (of the $196 that was left in my bank account at that point), giving me $130.50 towards Lily's procedures, and the rest to the balance of the bounced check. Note: We had just moved the previous week, so my account was absolutely drained from the moving expenses, etc., and my next payday wasn't for another week, Monday, the 6th.

The doctor had advised Jason that they would proceed with a blood clot test to find out if rat poison was the diagnosis, and they gave her a vitamin K shot as protocol for rat poison. The blood clot test came back good, showing that rat poison might NOT be the cause of her illness, but they still weren't sure. (Of course not, they wanted more money!) Jason was advised that they would be doing a blood test to find out what was wrong with her for sure. Why they didn't do that test first, I don't know.

Jason came to pick me up from work early that day, around 2pm, and rushed me over to the vet so I could see Lily, and talk to the vet. We stayed for about an hour and a half. Since I had no money at the time, I applied for Care Credit during my visit, but I was declined. I tried some other financial aid numbers while we were there with no luck. Upon leaving, I let the staff know that we would work out the payment upon picking Lily up. I told them, please do the work, whatever is necessary, and I would work the payment out with them the next day. The staff seemed fine with that, and we were told that the blood test results should be back later that night, or first thing in the morning. We left around 4pm feeling better about the situation.

Later that evening, around 6pm, we received a call from one the vet's staff, Donna, asking what we planned on doing about the payment. I was a little surprised with this, and I let them know that we had talked with the staff before leaving, regarding this issue. I took the opportunity to also inquire about Lily's blood test results, and I was told that they had not proceeded with any further diagnosis since we had left, stating that we had DECLINED the procedure. I was shocked. I told them there is no way in hell I would have declined that procedure, and to please proceed immediately! I realized that they had basically been babysitting my dog, without proceeding with diagnostics, and I was furious. Meanwhile they apparently believed she had ingested rat poison and were doing nothing about it. They didn't even contact me for TWO hours after we had left. I was stunned.

When I told them to proceed, I was told they could not proceed with their diagnosis until they received HALF of the "estimated" costs to heal my dog, assuming she ingested rat poison. I argued that they didn't even know if that was the problem! I asked if they could please just do the blood test, which was only $60. I will pause here to state that it took me a good 10 minutes to get that price out of the staff member I was speaking to at that point, Adriana. I went around in circles with her, trying to find out how much the blood test would be. She wouldn't answer my question, and insisted that she speak with Lily's Doctor first, (Jakobe), before telling me anything. I had JUST talked to the doctor before being transferred to Adriana, and Dr. Jakobe told me what had been done: the blood clot test, and the vitamin K injection. I told Adriana this repeatedly, but she was confused, and obviously having a hard time with the English language, so she put me on hold while she discussed the question with Dr. Jakobe. When she finally came back on the line, she said, as I anticipated, that Lily had the blood clot test and the vitamin K injection. Shocking. I then asked, ok, so how much will it be for the blood test? I finally got my answer: $60. I asked if they could simply proceed with the blood test so they could diagnose my dog with something certain, and we could figure out what was going on. Again, I had $6 in my bank account, and I figured $60 would be much more feasible at the moment, than $400.

The staff would not allow me to pay only the $60. I begged and pleaded with them, through hysterical tears, to please help my dog. I would have paid anything to have her back to health; I just could not fulfill the full amount on that day. I repeatedly asked them if there was any way possible I could write them a post-dated check for my next payday, and I asked if I could make payments, etc., since I had been a patient for so long. I was told repeatedly that those options were out of the question because of that ONE bounced check for $9.50, which I had paid back!! I was repeatedly told to ask friends and family for the money, as if I have all kinds of friends and family with money trees in their yards. Everyone that I was able to ask that day wasn't able to hand over the money either. By this time, I was back on the phone with Donna, who stated at one point, "We need more money from you so we can save your baby". This statement appalled me. I felt like they were holding my dog for ransom, basically telling me that I had to cough up $400 or they would let my dog die. This is the picture they were painting for me. They were making it sound like my dog was dying, just so they could get more money out of me, yet they hadn't even come to the conclusion for what was wrong with her! They were impatient, uncaring, and were obviously taking advantage of my vulnerability, which is absolutely cruel, bottom line. I was passed around to numerous staff members, and put on hold for very long periods of time, just to receive repeated information. No one was even trying to help. I was told by Adriana, the most incompetent and unhelpful staff member out of all of the ones I dealt with, "We cannot help your dog if you can't come up with the money first." Adriana also stated, "She's probably stable". Probably. How nice. I actually told her she was evil?I was just that convinced.

Later that evening, after franticly searching for money, Jason was finally able to get the other $270 to the vet, via phone payment. The vets finally proceeded with the testing as requested, and they advised they would have the blood test results in the morning. I went to bed emotionally exhausted, and worried.

The next day, I called the vet about 3 different times before noon, trying to obtain the test results for Lily. I finally heard from them around lunch time, and I was told that they couldn't seem to find anything wrong with her. They said they would do a stool test to see if that was normal, which it did turn out to be normal. As far as they could tell, Lily was perfectly fine. I was once again, appalled and furious. They had held me in helpless angst, hands tied, the previous night, making me believe my dog was about to die. Then, the next day, there was nothing wrong? I paid $400 that I didn't have, and cried my eyes out, just for them to tell me my dog was fine. Not to mention, the vet had forced me to pay "half" of the "estimated" cost, when the full amount ended up being only $493! "Only" compared to the original $794. So, half of $493 is what I should have been asked to pay up front, if anything at all. On top of that, the vet said they would like to keep Lily until 8pm that night, to make sure she was ok. Frustrated, I told the vet I would be there that evening, after work, between 6 and 7 to pick up my dog. I arrived at the vet that night at approximately 6:30. I waited almost 20 minutes before being called into a little room by Donna, who was holding Lily. I entered the room, and I was told that the Dr. had told Donna that I wanted to keep Lily there another night, and that I wanted to talk to the Dr. when I arrived. I almost lost my mind. I told her this was not true, I had specifically told the vet on the phone that I would be there to pick Lily up between 6 and 7pm. I told her to give me my dog, and I was leaving. She seemed taken aback or frustrated by this, and pulled Lily away, (she was still holding her, but she turned so I couldn't grab my dog), and told me she would have to go talk to the Dr. about that, and that Lily still had a catheter in. By then, I wasn't even trying to stay calm. I yelled at her to make it right. I asked her why she even brought Lily into that little room with a catheter still attached to her body, when she knew I was there to pick her up, and she didn't say anything to me at all when I was up front waiting for 20 minutes, with "PICK UP DOG" in huge capital letters on the sign-in sheet. Donna was flustered and could not provide me with any sufficient information, so she left to find the vet.

I went back out front and waited 20 more minutes for them to bring Lily out. Meanwhile I was discussing the additional payment that was due with Donna. She asked me for an additional $93.00, on top of the $400 I had already paid, (for nothing), when I was told earlier that it would be an additional $72.00. So now it was $93.00, ok, for a total of $493.00 for this horrendous visit. I told them I didn't have the money, once and for all, and I wasn't leaving without my dog. Donna gave me an attitude and stated that if I couldn't pay the balance, she would have to speak to a Manager, and she walked off saying, "Now you'll have to wait even longer!" I responded to that by asking her if she really just said that and I called her rude, since she had been. I couldn't believe how I was being treated. After 5 years as a faithful patient!

Donna finally returned with a Manager to discuss the balance. And wouldn't you believe it, they asked me if I would like to set up a payment plan. I just about lost my mind. This sent me reeling. I looked at them, shocked, and I'm not sure what I said at this point, I was seeing red, but it had something to do with the fact that I had BEGGED them to allow me to make payments, the previous night, and they repeatedly refused. Now they decided it would be feasible to give me a payment plan?! After everything I had already been through. They also offered to allow me to provide them with a post-dated check, and I could have spit in their face. Not to be vulgar, but I would like you to visualize how extremely infuriated I was at this point. I had offered them post-dated checks, payment plans, anything, the night before?and they had refused. And now here they were, giving me the option. I was beside myself. The Manager I was dealing with seemed just as surprised as I had been, that this had happened. Donna started talking to the Manager in a low voice that I could still hear, telling her that she had been advised by a different Manager the previous day to NOT allow me a payment plan. The Manager told Donna it was ok, with a very upset look on her face. She looked shocked herself that I was treated this way. I was told that the Manager who denied me a payment plan was sorry, and I told them she had better be. I added that I would call on Monday, when I get paid, as I had told them numerous times, and I would give them their precious $93.00 at that time. They finally allowed me to leave with Lily, after an hour of negotiation.

In the days that followed this vet experience, Lily made a full recovery from whatever it was that was ailing her. I still do not know what was wrong with her, as the incompetent staff at Animal Medical Center, never gave me any real diagnosis. They pillaged my bank account, and gave me the worst experience I've ever had with a veterinary hospital, or any other business for that matter. In light of this unfortunate experience with AMC, I have decided to keep the last $93.00. Had this situation been more properly handled, AMC would have received the full $493.00. If anything, I should receive the $400 back for the hell they put me though. It's such a shame, too. Had AMC handled this in a more appropriate manner, I would not be writing this statement to be posted across San Diego. AMC would have received the full balance of the visit, including that last $93.00, and they would have received it no later than February 6th. And Lily and I would still be faithful patients.

I would advise anyone and everyone to steer clear from this facility, especially if you are not wealthy. There are several other veterinarians in the San Diego area who are far more capable and caring than Animal Medical Center. Although other facilities may not be as "nice" looking, the quality and care is much, much better. Thank you for reading about my experience, and best of luck to anyone in search of a good vet.