Healthy Petz Veterinary Hospital, LLC

My vet closed unexpectedly. My oldest dog is beginning heart failure and Healthy Petz got us in quickly. They were great! Everything was explained carefully and I left knowing they cared about my sweet old man-dog. Highly recommend

In the past 11 years, we have tried every vet around Columbia. We rescue all kinds of animals, and a caring, helpful, and honest vet is essential to us – always has been. Finding Dr. Zavarro at Healthy Petz was wonderful, but then it wasn’t. I had to have my 200+ lbs English Mastiff seen. The vet seeing him was a smaller woman, and she had a vet tech in with her. Now, the clinic had been told on occasions in the past that my dog does not like feeling pinned down, but I can safely assume poor notes were taken. I was holding him steady from one side, and the vet was examining him from the other side when the vet tech decided to climb on his haunches. Needless to say, he snapped at the vet, who was closest to his face. There was no injury, but I find out today that the notes about the incident say that he lunged at her neck and the trigger was “unknown.” Thus, she won’t see him anymore. This was some time ago, and he’s been seen there since. However, he was recently attacked by another dog, and he had injuries that needed medical attention. I knew he would need sedation, and explained that when I made the appointment. When I took him to drop him off today, I was asked to put a muzzle on him before leaving. I reluctantly agreed, only to find out that they don’t have any muzzles that will fit him. I wasn’t even certain what the muzzle was for, as this had never been necessary, even after the “incident.” They told me that I could go buy one and bring him back. I explained that I wasn’t buying a muzzle for a dog that didn’t need one, and I asked if I needed to find a new vet. They said I did not, but still had no solution. The vet (not the same one from before) would not even allow me to bring my dog close enough for her to see the injury; I wasn’t even allowed on her side of the room and had to maintain control of his leash at all times. She was terrified. I explained that this entire scenario was ridiculous, and that if all of this had changed, and this was now a necessity, they should have informed me over the phone when I made the appointment, and they could have informed me that they did not have the necessary equipment to treat my dog. The vet then claimed it wasn’t her fault, as this was only the third dog over 200 lbs that she had ever seen. I explained to her that her lack of experience with these dogs did not excuse her lack of equipment. And if the lack of familiarity with the breed was a problem, then she could have looked at his records beforehand and recused herself. My entire world was turned upside down this morning, and I’m trying to find a good vet again that can treat my dog’s injuries ASAP. But, I will NEVER go back to this place, and I would do my absolute best to steer you away as well.

We have only used this Vet service a couple times, but so far we find the facility very clean, the staff is helpful and compassionate.

This place needs to work on their communication and being more kind. I have been a customer for several years and never have been told how my dog was acting during his time there during day boarding. I know that my dog has anxiety and is medicated during his stay but this last visit they said they were nervous about him hurting himself - it’s disturbing knowing that a vets office that offers boarding can’t handle dogs with anxiety. The worst part is how they handled the situation. Peggy in boarding is rude and not good at communicating how your dog is doing during boarding. She stated that my dog would have to be medicated prior to me dropping him off for day boarding and threatened that if he wasn’t they were not going to accept him. I stated that no one had ever asked me to do that for previous visits and she rudely stated that she was informing me today and that her name was Peggy and that her and the vets had discussed it the last time he had been boarded. I replied that no one had ever said anything about any behavior at any other pick up (he had even been there for 2 weeks straight last year and no one ever said anything he was doing during his stay) Finally after until several times my dog has been boarded, I find out last week that my dog was throwing himself against the kennel door and they told me after my dog had been boarded over a dozen times. This last time they finally decided to tell me to premedicate my dog prior to doing drop off for day boarding and then once I picked him up they came out with a video and stated to me this is what he does. The problem is that if they had been telling me these things the many times I had boarded my dog then we could have done something different - like giving him a different anxiety medication. This place has officially lost my business and I urge anyone contemplating on leaving their pet there or taking their pet there for care to reconsider - apparently having a dog with anxiety is way out of their scope and Peggy needs to be nicer to clients - just her demeanor probably made my dog have more anxiety.

My dog roams my property of 5 acres and recently got in an altercation with some sort of animal. He had a nasty gash on his right flank so I took him to a 24/7 ER in Franklin at 8:30 PM. They charged me $150 just to look at him and wanted to charge me $1300 on top of that to take care of his 1.5" gash. I decided to go to Healthy Petz in the morning instead. Lacking sleep that night and still furious about what I was quoted the previous day I went into Healthy Petz insisting I just needed antibiotics and would take care of my dog myself. Due to my demeanor and demands which were that of a child not getting his way they refused to help me without examining my dog, naturally. I left fuming thinking all this place wanted to do was bleed me for as much money as they could as the last place attempted to. I calmed down when I got home and realized I was telling the expert what he needed to do and that I did not need his advice. Stupid, I know. I went back about a half hour later and apologized. The care he gave my dog was significantly better than the unnecessary pain I was going to cause him by doing what I believed he needed. The doctor was amazing and I'm glad I came back and ate crow. We can get emotional when it comes to our pets, but the doctor there really cared and wasn't trying to take advantage of that fact. I can't recommend this place enough.