Banfield Pet Hospital

They have taken great care of my animals.

posted: 07/16/2023

We visited the Banfield Pet Hospital inside PetSmart at Forest Lakes on 5.25.19 because a day or two before my mother had noticed that our 10 year old Brussels Griffon, Juju was just not acting her normal self. I woke up that morning with a text for my mother asking me to keep an eye on her, due to her not acting right. This being a dog that the second you take a step is right on our heels is suddenly not moving at all. So I immediately called Banfield to see if they had an opening or when was the soonest they could see us. They were able to see us that afternoon, we were hopeful... We arrived for our appointment, no one seemed to know why we were there, even though I had given explicit detail when making the appointment. While waiting to be seen Juju had used the restroom all over me. She hadn't been eating or drinking, at least not that we had seen. Who I assume was a Tech decided to take her to the back, she said they were going to do blood work. That is all we were told. She was then brought back, someone else walked into the room - she never introduced herself. They proceeded to tell us that they took a fecal sample along with blood and it would take about 10 minutes to get the results. Once the results were done they said that their primary concern had been her liver or her kidneys, but that they were fine. Everything else on her bloodwork was all over the place though. They told us she probably just got into something - which we highly doubted - and it was irritating her gut which was why she wasn't eating or drinking so she was just very dehydrated. They gave us 3 options - take her somewhere that could do continuous IV fluids (Bc a 'Pet Hospital' can't do that?), give her subcutaneous fluids, or euthanize her! Needless to say the last option was off the table. We went for the subcutaneous fluids and antibiotics and hoped for the best because they didn't seem too concerned, and after all they were the professionals, right? Well this went on for 2 more days. We couldn't get her to eat or drink. We managed to get some fluids in her only by force feeding her with a syringe. So by Monday afternoon (Memorial Day) I'd had enough and we went to the Emergency Vet. Before even running a single test they knew what was wrong. She wasn't showing any of the classic symptoms but they suspected that she had an infected uterus, which was life threatening. The worst part for us at this point was realizing we had already taken her to a vet and they completely missed this! They charged us $300 and did absolutely nothing. They did an X-Ray to confirm, which it did along with a mass. So her life was a risk and she needed emergency surgery. At this point she was so weak she would most likely not have survived the surgery. So we had to make to horrible decision to end her suffering, even though it was the hardest thing for us. I have waited this long to write a review for Banfield because I have been very angry. They claim to be a Pet Hospital, yet when we really needed a pet hospital they got it totally wrong and maybe if we had known what the real problem was sooner we might have had a chance to save our sweet girl. I write this as a warning. Make sure you trust the vet you take your animals to, I can promise you we will not be taking any of our pets back to Banfield and if I could give a negative rating I would.

posted: 06/16/2019

Me and my pets went in for an appointment on 21st February at around 5 o'clock. When I walked in at exactly, 5:03 I was greeted by two very nice ladies at the front desk which was very helpful and comforting on the situation when someone walked out from the back door she was very rude, very demanding, saying that if I wasn't there at exactly 5 o'clock they won't gonna tell me because I had a 5: 30 appointment. Which also was the 5: 30 appointment. She said that the vet was not good away because she had to go somewhere else at exactly 6 o'clock. If you knew that the vet had to go exactly 6 o'clock then why would did you take a five and a 5:30?! I was actually early to my appointment, but my pet has motion sickness so I was dealing with that in the parking lots right outside. And I have never had such a horrible experience at a Vet. When they took my pet and they didn't even take five minutes to actually take a good look at them. It was like one or two minutes until I got them back. She just kept on saying that you had to get there on time as if I got the 30 minutes late she raised her voice at me. rolled her eye. Look me up and down not only to me but to her own co-workers. This is so unacceptable. I am seriously considering taking both of my pets out.

posted: 02/23/2023

UPDATE: 2 weeks later and still haven’t been contacted by anyone at Banfield, as promised. Took a clients dog in for shots and a suspected UTI. #1, you never see or speak to a vet. You aren’t allowed in exam room. #2, because we could not collect a urine sample manually, I was told they have no other option to check for a UTI so too bad. Really terrible that they don’t even have the capability to diagnose and treat a simple UTI. I have to take the poor dog to my vet for treatment. If I could give less than 1 star I would. Buying an “insurance plan” from them is a rip off because they are NOT a full service vet and don’t even own an ultrasound machine. Disgusting that they keep conning people into buying these “plans.” I never once saw an actual veterinarian. Still waiting for someone to contact me!!! Fortunately I took dog to my vet, they performed a super easy cystocentesis, diagnosed a UTI, and gave her medication so thanks to my wonderful non-Banfield vet, the dog is finally on the road to recovery. Its a shame she had to suffer 2 additional days because of the incompetence and lack of concern shown by Dr Keller at Banfield Charlottesville.

posted: 03/08/2023

We are RVers with Yorkies. It's important to have a good medical team always available, and Banfield fills the bill. Every place we visit in the US is close enough to a Banfield that I don't have any anxieties.

posted: 10/13/2020