My husband and I had an in-person appointment at 12:30 PM Saturday 1/11 for our dog, Marty, for a split dew claw that was still bleeding.
We arrived promptly at 12:30 PM then proceeded to wait for the front desk to figure out her computer. Our dog was obviously uncomfortable at this time. We waited 15 minutes before being taken back to a room. The male vet tech who took us back was kind and told us that we may have to leave our dog. We asked how long it would be and he said a few hours and that our dog needed to be observed after the nail was fixed.
We left at 1:10 PM and stayed in the area. At 4:00 PM, we tried to call three times for a status update and could not get through to anyone. We arrived at the office at 4:15 PM and asked for a status update on our dog. The older woman at the front desk was dismissive and said we would know by 5 PM because that's when they closed.
I stood near the front counter for several minutes and then another woman came to the desk. I believe her name is Laura. She asked if we had been helped and I told her that we wanted to check on our dog and the other woman wouldn't check.
She went to the back and 20 minutes later the vet, Griffith, came out to speak with us. He started the conversation saying, "do you know you had a drop-off appointment?" I told him that all I was asking for was a status update on my dog. He went back to berating me about the drop-off appointment. I told him that all I wanted was a status update and he was "man-splaining" what a drop-off was. I said that I've had many drop-off appointments with Banfield and understand how it works. He walked away before addressing my concerns.
Laura came back, showed us what the charges would be and we agreed.
Shortly after that, we heard a loud squeal from our dog from the back. We could tell it was very painful for him and I stepped outside so I wouldn't have to hear him in pain. The vet eventually came out a few minutes later and told my husband that it would have been ideal to have a sedative ahead of time but we didn't take him in early enough. That was the first time that we heard anything about not being early enough.
Please let us know what happened and how something like this could be avoided. This isn't a car that we dropped off, he's family. We were worried sick when we couldn't get any answers and thought the worst about our dog. It was a traumatizing day and most, if not all, of the trauma could have been avoided.