Best Friends Animal Hospital

Amazing and caring staff. It’s hard to find a vet that will see exotic pets and they were so accommodating and caring towards our sweet mouse. They really are best friends to animals!

This is such a sad review for me to have to leave. Best Friends Animal Hospital was bought out by a large corporation I think sometime last year. It has absolutely gone downhill since. I have been bringing my fur babies to Dr Clarkson for 17 years. Their staff was never anything less than exceptional. Tricia and Suzanne at the front desk are so missed. Since Tricia left, they now have a machine where you have to leave a voicemail. That would have never ever happened. They don’t even answer the phones anymore. I have left countless messages for Dr Clarkson and they never gave her the messages to call me back. They have forced the vets to keep patients so separated between vets that if I have an issue with my pet and Dr Clarkson is not there, I cannot be helped until Dr Clarkson is back in the office, unless I make an appointment. And I’m talking for things as simple as refilling a prescription that my dog has been on for years. It’s clearly written in the chart, but yet they won’t take care of me until De.Clarkson is back. I started back in November interviewing different vets because I knew there was no way I could continue with this practice. The icing on the cake was today. Over the weekend situations came up with two of my dogs. One of them I even had to take to the emergency ER over the weekend. I wanted to schedule an appointment this week for follow up with Dr Clarkson and then to have my other dog seen for an issue. I called, I had to leave a voicemail (and that was even after pressing option 2 which said I could hold to speak to a person) and not speak to anybody at 9:10 AM. Then I left another voicemail around 3:30 PM and I sent them an email at the same time. Around 5:15 I left another voicemail and I also sent a message through Facebook messenger asking for a phone call back today. It is now 6:40 PM and I have not received a phone call. This is over the top unacceptable. I tried all day to be able to speak to my vet office and no one answered the phone nor did they call me back after multiple voicemails. I ended up calling one of the other vets that I interviewed, and I was able to schedule an appointment for Wednesday afternoon. What an original concept, somebody actually answered the phone and took my call at the other vet. I absolutely loved this practice. I loved every staff member and every vet. This is heartbreaking and actually brings tears to my eyes to know that Dr. Clarkson and Dr. Fugent’s legacy of such a building such wonderful, family oriented and full of love practice is absolutely destroyed. Stay away.

Dr Clarkson has been my vet for 40 years, providing excellent care for all seven of the dogs I’ve had in that time period. I’ve never had any reason to even consider making a change - until now. I called last Thursday when one of my dogs was suffering from vomiting & diarrhea. I got voice mail, so I left a message for someone to call me. When I hadn’t heard back by Saturday morning, I called back, only to learn they are no longer open on Saturdays. Their voice mail greeting recommended an emergency vet that was 35 minutes away, even though there are at least three of them that are much closer. I’m told Dr Clarkson will be retiring in May. Time to find a new vet.

Like other reviewers, I am more saddened about this review than angry - although there is some of that. We are new clients, now ex clients, due to all of the problems listed in other reviews: horrible communications, lack of follow up, zero customer service, and just poor care. One of the doctors there diagnosed our fur baby with a horrible immune deficiency and put him on 20mg (!!!) of prednisone a day. Nobody even explained this to us until we realized that the prednisone was making him crazy and causing him to lose bladder control. When we took him to another vet (Wellness Animal Hospital on Honore - we like these ladies!), they basically told us that the condition that Best Friends had identified is common to the breed, and to wean him off of the prednisone STAT. When Wellness requested his records from Best Friends, they couldn't get a return call or response, so I literally drove up there to get his records. They were not surprised by the request and when I mentioned to the woman who was helping me that I felt badly about their staffing issues, she literally started crying. Like I said, more sad than angry, but stay away from this place.

Dr. Weber and the staff are AMAZING! They truly care about you and your pet. When our bearded dragon, Pip, was at the end of his life she allowed our family to come say goodbye before he was euthanized. She was thoughtful and knowledgeable about exotic pets, and all of the staff are so friendly! They even sent us a sympathy card!