3 years ago
They have injured our dog twice now and haven't in...
They have injured our dog twice now and haven't informed us. CUT HIS LIP, DEFORMED HIM. He is a tiny mini poodle.
We will no longer be going to La de Paws after years of loyalty. Our dog is a pill to deal with and we realize that. He isn't very social and takes a while to warm up to people. He had a great groomer at La de Paws for years, however, his first injury surprisingly happened with her almost a year ago. We still don't now what happened, but at the time we had picked him up, his demeanor was completely different from when we had dropped him off. We had been told they couldn't trim his chest as usual because he was getting upset. In retrospect, we think they didn't trim it because they didn't want us to see his injury. He was crying and would snarl at us if we tried touching his chest which he hadn't done before going to La de Paws that day, he normally lets his family pet wherever no questions. When we would somehow manage to feel around, we could feel a huge scab like injury that wasn't there prior, yet couldn't fully see because of his dark fur. It felt so weird! Like a bone was out of place or super swollen as well underneath the scab, kid you not. We called and asked if anything happened and they denied it or were simply unaware it had happened under their care. Either way, we feel like there was no way they wouldn't have known they had caused an injury like that...there's no way our dog didn't act out or cry out when it happened. He seemed so melancholy for weeks after that. He wouldn't let us touch his chest again for months. In the meantime we were told to get him on sleeping pills before they'd accept him back because he had bit a groomer on a different occassion. We complied and know that a bite can hurt but come on, he's a tiny poodle not some huge scary dog, but now we sort of realize why he hated that place, they were hurting him! We realize it wasn't on purpose, duh, but a dog doesn't know that and at the same time they still they never let us know so we could get him care or reevaluate going there all together. Our suspicions were confirmed the last time we took him there about two months ago.
It was basically the same story as the first time except this time it was his mouth. They hadn't trimmed his snout area as usual because we were told he wouldn't let them. His demeanor was so bad and he was completely different from when we dropped him off. He was slobbering constantly and his breath reaked! He wouldn't let us touch his face at all. We were so confused. We knew something had happened again and we weren't told. Mind you, our dog was on sleeping pills during that visit. After a few weeks we called a vet and was told to wait a little longer to see if it was simply just something in his temperament that was causing him to get agitated with us and others. We know him better and knew something was off. We knew La de Paws wouldn't confess to anything so we decided to try somewhere new.
We tried a mobile groomer this week and he was completely fine! This was so surprising bc we were scared how he'd act with a stranger. The groomer told us it was probably the atmosphere of going where there were so many dogs around that he was probably getting stressed. We realize most people's dogs aren't stressed by that type of environment and that our dog is a different case. This is not what's upsetting. It's the fact that the mobile groomer uncovered something HORRIFYING. She was able to easily trim his face and uncovered a completely cut upper lip. HE LOOKS LIKE HE HAS A HAIR LIP NOW. It is SO bad. It is now completely healed wrong because La de Paws didn't let us know what had happened. There is no way they were unaware that they cut a good inch into his lip. There had to have been a lot of crying on our dog's end or a reaction of some sort. There had to have been blood which means they covered it up somehow by putting an oitment or something to stop the bleeding. And then once again they didn't finish the haircut around his face so we wouldn't see the injury. IT'S ABSOLUTELY CRAZY AND UNACCEPTABLE...