I've been taking my pets to Hufnagel for over 25 years. I began hearing solicitous rumors regarding him and his practice about 5 years in but disregarded them mainly out of convenience and my pets mainly needed routine care and seemingly he provided adequate care. He preformed ACL surgery on a large dog of mine and the surgery went well and never required followup. Now I question whether my dog needed the surgery at all.
I recently took my German shepherd in for a standard vasectomy. When I picked him up after the surgery I was handed an envelope and was told to give the dog the pills if I ever brought him in again. They were sedatives. I was shocked. I have taken him to various vets since and all described him as normally aggressive and even passive. He was VERY groggy and took him a good day to come around. 3 days later, he was still not himself and upon closer examination I noticed what I thought was blood in his scrotum. I immediately phoned the office and was told that Hufnagel would not available and if it were an emergency I would have to take him to another vet for examination. I asked the receptionist to tell him of the problem. I was in Donegal at the time and went to the Animal Medical Center in Somerset. After his exam, the doctor explained that a full neuter would need to be preformed to eliminate the infection. They couldn't understand why a full neuter wasn't done in the first place and wouldn't comment on Hufnagels surgery but recommended other practices for follow up. One of the vets there knew Hufnagel. They needed to get him stabilized prior to the surgery and wanted to keep him over the weekend to watch and stabilize him with IV fluids etc and that the surgery would be done on Monday and should be able to pick him up Monday afternoon. I got a call Monday morning and was told he was not a candidate for surgery and was sent home with a bunch of antibiotics and was told I may as well take him home and give him his meds and nurse him back. His lower right side had swelled to a bursting point. They could not tell me if he would recover. I was devastated.
I nursed him back and took him to Dr Altman (GREAT vet) in New Castle for follow up and she prescribed additional antibiotics but was happy with his progress. He is fine now, thank God. Over the last few years, I have noticed Dr. Hufnagel growing more distant, short, uncompassionate, and rough with the dog. He has taken care of my 3 dogs and numerous cats over the 25 years. I have been to his home. I have met his wife. I have made numerous visits to his office and made numerous phone calls asked that he call me back regarding this issue - not that I should have had to do that. HE should have called me back to ask how the dog was as soon as he got the message that the surgery went bad. I cant tell you how disappointed I was with his lack of professionalism, care, regard, courtesy and simple decency. Recently I got a form letter from him asking me to find another vet due to my dissatisfaction and it mentioned his records would be attached to the letter. No records were attached. I have heard many stories about him over the years and was willing to disregard those and gave him the benefit of the doubt and have been satisfied with his work up until now. I realize now that all those stories are true. This was a routine surgery. He is a big dog. I can see if he were tiny and the surgery would be more challenging. Moreover, it's not so much the incompetence as it is his lack of care. If he doesn't enjoy his work anymore, he should retire. I had to spend $2,000 to save the dogs life for a botched $400 surgery. I didn't need a letter from Hufnagel inviting me to find another vet.
This "doctor" deserves no stars!!! FIND ANOTHER VET even if you they are a bit out of the way. You and your pets will be happier, healthier and wealthier.
