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It's hard work being a puppy!

Don't go to banfield!! (Molly's mom)

Well... I might not get to type up all I want to, but I'm really curious how many other people there are that have had negative experiences of any kind with them.

We went to banfield originally because their "wellness plan" with the spay and shots was very affordable for us -- and we even did price comparisons.

It was when Molly felt sick for other things and we took her there -- and then they charge us an arm and a leg for things that don't need that extensive of testing. Which, we didn't know how much we were getting played until we "gave in" and took Molly for a second opinion at another vet. Despite the point that we have a few months left on our "contract" with banfield, we will not be returning there.

First off -- this is nothing against the banfield employees, vets, or anything. Honestly, the vets and the techs were very very nice. It is the business practices of the company that bother me. That and making us think we are saving so much money but then they repeat tests that are unnecessary for the same problems.

So -- about three weeks after we got Molly -- she started having stomach problems. Diarrhea, mostly. We have taken her to Banfield a total of three times for this --- and aside from the first time when the problem first developed, the other two times were because besides the now chronic diarrhea, she also was throwing up, or had blood in her stool. You know, things that are NOT GOOD and are big warning signs of trouble.

So all three times we took her there they did about 203982309482 million tests, and charged us 400 dollars with "no findings" and just told us to give her dewormer and some antibiotics and low residue food. After this last third time, and they did the same and sent her home with the same. Except this time, she started to get MUCH WORSE after coming home. She threw up twice on monday morning and that worried us, but she acted normal later so we decided to watch her and see. Come wednesday, Molly wakes up in the morning and starts projectile vomitting all over the house.

I tell my husband that he needs to take her to his parent's vet -- who are extremely reputable and we've kenneled molly there and I've been nothing but extremely impressed with them (plus the fact that his parents have taken their dogs there for 20 plus years is also comforting). This doctor tells us that Molly probably has permanent internal damage in her intestines & stomach from an infection being untreated early on. As in -- all the crap and tests they did, they still didn't treat her right. I wasn't there, so I don't know the details, but basically Molly will have to eat specially formulated food that is very high in fiber to prevent her from vomitting or having diarrhea. No treats, bones, chewies, nothing. In two days we've seen Molly go from continuous suffering of trying to go potty to relief and her stool is finally normal. He also gave us an additional medication to give her after she eats for a week or so to boost her system.

This --- along with the mange problem I've posted on here some about... See molly went to banfield because she had ONE spot about the size of a half an inch on the side of her face that was losing hair and was "red" and I was concerned about it. They did a skin scrape, and said it was demodectic mange. I saw the slide & everything so I dont think they misdiagnosed her. I just think they mis-treated her. They prescribed Ivermectin along with keflex and also shampoo. She ended up allergic to both medications, even separately they made her throw up horribly and the ivermectin made her face swell, too. -- so they wanted to offer us an "alternative medication" that would cost something like 400 dollars for 5 weeks of treatment and in their words "They cant guarantee she'll only need 5 weeks of treatment." EVERYTHING I read online said that if it wasn't on at least two parts of their body, it was considered local and could be treated MUCH differently than generalized, which often is all over the dogs body. This was about three weeks ago, and I asked my husband to ask them if they had a less costly alternative. They called us back and said that was the only option if we wanted the mange to go away and made it sound like we were bad parents to molly if we didnt drop 400 for a medication that she a. didnt really need and b. we didnt know if she'd be allergic to anyway. My husband and I decided to say no, and wait and see with the mange - and we've been giving her some things to boost her immune system, too.

When she was at the new vet, he asked where the mange was. My husband showed him the one spot on her face, and he asked "Where else?!" and couldn't believe all the expensive treatment that banfield insisted on just for one small spot. He gave her a shot to boost her immune system and in two days, the one spot of mange is practically filled in already.

Honestly, I'm just pissed and sorry to rant so much.... and I don't have all the information straight and so on and so forth. I just want to say this -- be careful who you let treat your dog and make sure they're not really ripping you off.

I feel like a sucker for trusting banfield, because although what my husband and I calculated for the initial cost of spay & shots would have saved us money, -- we've spent upwards of 2000 there just on butt problems and a tiny spot of mange.

I mentioned this to a friend at work that takes his dog to banfield to be careful if his dog gets sick, and he just scoffed me off like I didn't know what i was talking about. Has anyone else had bad experiences with banfield?

All I know... is Molly will never EVER go there again.

Oh, and did I mention at the other vet, for the information about her diarrhea problems & testing for that, info about the mange, full exam, shot to boost immune system, AND special food for molly it was less than 100 dollars... Boy, I wish we weren't that stupid in the first place and took her there when she was 3 months old, she'd probably be a happier dog. :(

Although I think it sucks she needs to be on special food, I think the vet IS right and knows what he is talking about because after going in circles with banfield for so long this is the first time Molly has seen true improvement.

I'm kind of in a bad mood tonight (combination of things) so I think I better stop before I start WWIII.....

But does anyone know any good alternatives to feeding science diet w/d food? I hate to give molly such low quality food, she loved her blue buffalo so much :( not to mention all the treats she cant have! Ah well, she can still go run at the dog park!

:)
Jenni, Molly's mom

The little sore I had on my mouth... is Mange!!

If you remember a week ago or so, mom posted that I had a small abrasion/sore on the side of my mouth and didn't know what it could be. It kept bothering her and she just knew something wasn't right. So she took me to the vet today. The took this metal thingy and scraped my sore and ow it hurt and made me bleed but I still gave the vet kisses because I love him just like everyone else. He let mom see what was under the microscope, but not me, but evidently I have demodectic mange. Anybody else ever had this? The vet said it used to be fairly rare and only seen in pit bull breeds but more and more often other dogs are getting it too. He said it's not contagious to dogs or humans, it can only be passed from the mother to her puppies.

Bummer! The whole deal cost my mom about $130 dollars and that included the vet visit, the diagnostic scrape, my giardia vaccine that I was due for, and then a series of medications for the demodecitc mange: Cephalexin 500 mg, Ivomec .27% & cherry syrup to make it taste better, and P2/S Shampoo to give me baths twice a week.

Whoa! what an ordeal! I am sure glad that mom took me in when she did though, because the vet said some parents wait until their dog has it all over their body before they come in and it takes much longer and more expensive to treat.

Luckily since we caught it with this one spot we may just have to do about 6 wks of treatment, but we will have to wait and see until I get two clean scrapes. Joy! Sounds like I have a fun road ahead. Oh, and my mom gave me that nasty ivomec and I thought I was going to barf even with the cherry syrup. She gave me a treat to chew on afterwards to get rid of the taste and that helped some, but gross, I'm not looking forward to that tomorrow!!

So to all my little puppy friends out there (and even older dogs) if your dog has any small abrasion or area of hair loss, pay the $30 bucks to have a skin scrape done instead of waiting until it gets bad... Mom's sure glad we did!

Weeeeeee!!!!!!! I love to play!!

Hi everyone!!

Today my mom & dad went out shopping and left me at home. I didn't really care, because I just slept the whole time anyways.

Well, the got their taxes back today and they had promised me some new things when they got their taxes back. So they went to petsmart and got me a couple new fetch toys, some shampoo, a shiny new purple colar, and food, of course. They got me this yummy new treats that are freeze-dried meat and they are SO good. And I got a new bigger bowl since the one I had as a puppy was getting to look so tiny!

Get this! I was suppossed to have class tomorrow and turns out it is cancelled!! I am one spoiled dog!! I got last weekend off to go to the doggie day spa and then this weekend no class! WOOOHOOO. But mom says next week I have to go in early to catch up on what I missed from last week.

So instead of class tomorrow, Mom & Dad said we're going to go to Dogwood park here in Jacksonville. I am SO excited!! I love it there!!

Mom took me outside tonight and practiced my obedience training some and then I got to do fun things like play fetch with my cool new toys and go for a walk. Now I'm pooped and sound asleep so mommy can clean & do her homework but she's goofing off online!! I'm going to tell Daddy I was good and everything and she just didn't want to do it!

Well, thats about it for now, I better get back to Puppy-sleep land. Snooooooooore.

*Kisses to all of my Friends*
Molly