VCA Animal Hospital would have potentially blinded...

VCA Animal Hospital would have potentially blinded my dog Sillian had I not double checked the wrong medication they gave us!!!!!! I am so stressed and angry.

I took Sillian, my dog, to the VCA Animal Hospital Pets are People Too today 12/29/17 at 1:30pm, and we waited 2 hours. We left at 3:35pm. It took an hour to see the Dr. Natalia Gracia, and another to get the Fluorescein eye stain test and blood serum done. We were told before Sillian was taken back to get the stain test that she has a corneal ulcer by Doctor Natalia Gracia. I was then told by the vet tech when we were going over the payment plan that the ointment Sillian is getting will not have steroids in it, because steroids would hinder the healing process and make the ulcer worse. It also literally says that on the VCA Animal Hospital website not to use steroids when treating ulcers that they hinder the healing process and could lead to serious complications. Well not knowing the cream was in fact a steroidal cream, I get home and administer the medication.

Shortly afterwards I start reading the pamphlet inside the box the medicine came in, and it says it contains corticosteroids I peel the prescription label off the box of the medication and see in the name of the medicine the word Hydrocortisone -thank god I know from experience that that means steroid (too bad people who actually work at a vet clinic apparently can not make that simple distinction). I call the vet hoping that they just forgot to tell us that they didn t find an ulcer with the stain test and did indeed give us the correct medication. NOPE! I talk to another veterinarian on duty after hours, and he pulls up her papers and sees that she does have an ulcer and says she should not be getting steroids. I told him I was going to immediately come back to get the correct medication. He seemed shell shocked. I asked, Is she ok though? I put the steroid cream in her eye earlier. He says that it shouldn t set her back too much .doesn t tell me to bring her back in to flush out her eye or anything. CLEARLY this is unsettling.

I brought Sillian back with me to the office, and when I get there the front desk receptionists Colin barely opens the door to hand me the new meds and says, No charge. LOL ..uh yeah bro no we are coming in and the vet is going to make sure my dog is ok and CLEARLY it will be no charge!!! You guys screwed up the meds!!!!! YEAH NO CHARGE! We asked for the veterinarian that I talked to on the phone and the front desk receptionist Colin literally told me he didn t know where the doctor was lolol WHAT?! Clearly he was trying to just shoo me away and not have to deal, but your office just gave my dog harmful meds so sorry man you're going to have to man up and not lie about not knowing where people are in your building and go get me the veterinarian I JUST talked to on the phone to make sure my dog's eye is ok!!!! I didn't say any of that I just stayed there with my eyes wide with disbelief that someone was that insensitive. He said, "I could get you a vet tech though," and we said no we will wait on the veterinarian.

So Colin's apparently illusive and unfindable veterinarian, Dr. Ollie Neil comes from the back and tells us to go back to a room with him and says that he is sorry and embarrassed by what happened and that a manager will be notified tomorrow about what happened (We'll see). He washed her eye out with a saline solution to wash out the steroid cream. He actually explained to us the treatment process and that it takes 6 weeks to treat and that he likes to check up on the dogs about once a week to see if its progressing smoothly. The vet Natalia Gracia we had before said nothing about a follow up and nothing about a heal time of 6 weeks!!!!!

What we are hoping will happen is I get a refund for the visit today and won t have to pay for follow up check ups with her eye. I am so upset. They could have made her worse and she could ve had to have surgery or even worse lost her sight. I'll see tomorrow if the manager's treatment of this malpractice gets any better.