Bates Animal Hospital: Hunter Bates, DVM

We absolutely love, Dr. Bates and Bates Animal hospital! Always friendly and professional. It is clear that everyone at Bates Animal hospital loves animals. If I could give them more than five stars, I would.

Dr. Bates is the best vet in the Athens area. I switched to Dr. Bates from another local vet who did not know my dog or me after 10 years. Dr. Bates has come to know my dog and has provided spectacular care and consultation as she has aged. She is now 13, and Dr. Bates continues to steer us in the best possible direction for my dog’s health and well-being, making sure we are able to make the most of whatever time she has left. You can tell that he genuinely cares about the animals he treats, as well as the owners as people. I would recommend Dr. Bates to anyone.

Dr. Bates & his staff are a incredibly caring, compassionate, and supportive team. You can rest assured your pet is in the best hands with Dr. Bates. He’s my Vet for life.

I came on here to tell y’all how Dr Bates loves my dogs above all others, because he is so caring and so helpful. However, I’m starting to suspect this is how Dr Bates and his staff treat every patient and pet owner. I cannot express enough how grateful I am to this talented team for the stellar care and expertise they provide. With two senior dogs, my mind always goes to worst case scenario. Dr Bates and his team always ask questions, listen, and provide us the best care and advice. 10/10 recommend this clinic to provide the best care for your furry family members.

This review is going to be a long one, but I find it necessary to give this much detail so you can understand the severity of the issue. The reason I took my cat to Dr. Bates was because of all the positive reviews but my experience with him was quite negative. My cat was sneezing up blood since April of this year, and his solution was to get most of his teeth removed. While I agreed that tooth extraction was necessary because he had a few bad ones I didn’t believe that was the cause of the blood since it was coming directly out of his nose and not his mouth. About 6 weeks after extraction when his gums were completely healed the bloody sneezing continued and now his breathing had become extremely labored, to the point it sounded as if he was snoring, constantly. Of course we took him back to Dr. Bates and he searched for a polyps. He was unable to find one, so we were sent home with steroids. The steroid weren’t helping. We took him back a month later because he stopped eating, completely. We took him back and Dr. Bates solution was to look for a polyps, again. I refused, that wasn’t the issue the month before, I want to try something else. I asked him if it was possible if it were a tumor, because a quick google search of all of Salems symptoms pointed to that possibility. He said it was possible but didn’t have the tools to diagnose that. I was furious. How long did he suspect a tumor and didn’t refer me to someone who could get Salem the care he actually needed? He wanted to charge me for the same procedure done just a month ago instead of actually getting my cat help. Even at that point he said “if you’d like a referral I can send one over to Internal Medicine at the UGA Vet hospital.” Great, except my cat was actively starving to death and immediate intervention was needed, it takes weeks to get an appointment at internal medicine. I asked him if he thought Salem needed to go to the ER he said “You can if you want to.” Then I asked him how much he weighed that day vs. the month before when he was there. He lost over 4 pounds, 4 pounds was over a third of his body weight. Once he realized this, after I pointed it out, he then told me I should take him to the ER. When we arrived to the ER Salem had a high fever, which Dr. Bates neglected to tell me or neglected to check. They immediately suspected a tumor and walked us through the process of getting him diagnosed and treated, except the cost was high and recovery rate was low since Salem was so unwell at this point. He only made it 2 more days before he was so weak and lethargic and bleeding out of his nose constantly. We put him down. I don’t know why Dr. Bates didn’t refer us somewhere else sooner. Maybe Salems odds would have been better, maybe not. Either way he was negligent. I’m happy this isn’t most people experience with Dr. Bates but this was mine and I had to share. Shame on you Dr. Bates. Rest In Peace Salem.