Precious Paws Animal Hospital

This place—Dr. Hemenway in particular—should be avoided at all costs. They are a price-gouging, lazy, cold, and ineffectual practice. Hemenway offers absolutely no guidance and rarely gives a straight answer, instead choosing to be intentionally vague. He is evasive, aloof, and can’t be bothered to point you in the right direction for anything. Now, let’s talk about their price-gouging: • $200 emergency fee for existing patients. • $30 fee for nail clipping. • Conversations about your pet’s treatment that could easily be handled over the phone are forced into office visits, disguised as “consultations.” These visits provide no real information, no answers, and—insultingly—they sometimes admit that bringing in your pet is optional. Calling it “nickel-and-diming” is an understatement. It’s closer to exploitation or outright robbery. Next, the laziness: The techs are inexperienced and appear untrained. They’re sweet (most of them, anyway), but completely incompetent. You can also sense toxicity among the staff just by watching them interact—clearly, the dysfunction starts at the top. One “consultation” I had with Dr. Hemenway after my cat was diagnosed with diabetes went as follows: Me: I was told Lantus Glarg is probably the best place to start with insulin. Hemenway: Well, would you like to start with that? Me: I’m asking what your thoughts are. Hemenway: I think you should go with what makes you comfortable. There are dozens of different insulins. Me: Okay… and you don’t have a preference? Hemenway: Well, I think there are lots of options, and ultimately, it’s up to you. This is the level of care and expertise you can expect. They also failed to inform me that my cat had a UTI. Hemenway’s vagueness and refusal to provide real medical direction nearly killed my cat. He told me to start with one unit of insulin and increase it “as needed” based on symptoms, only occasionally checking blood sugar. He failed to explain that insulin doses should be maintained for at least a week to determine efficacy. He also didn’t mention blood sugar curves or how essential they are to getting an actual read on diabetes. Because of this, my cat ended up in ketoacidosis, and if I hadn’t had $8,000 on hand for emergency hospitalization, he wouldn’t have made it. When I realized my cat was in a medical emergency, I rushed him into precious paws because that is/was my vet. They ran some tests and charged me nearly $650, but that was it. I explicitly told them, “Just give him whatever he needs, I will pay for it.” Later, they called to confirm my cat was in ketoacidosis but said they couldn’t monitor him past a certain time, so I needed to find another facility. Again, I said, “Do whatever is necessary. Anything he needs, just give it to him.” After an hour and a half of securing an emergency facility, I called Precious Paws to notify them where I was taking him and asked what treatment they had given him in the meantime. They had given him nothing. Their excuse? “You never instructed us to.” They then claimed that since I was coming to pick him up soon, they “didn’t have the time.” I nearly lost it. You have a young, sick, and dying cat in your care, and after explicitly telling you to do whatever was needed, you just… did nothing? No IV? No insulin? No treatment whatsoever? His blood glucose was so high it had turned his blood acidic. They had no real answer when confronted other than claiming it wasn’t their responsibility. So yeah—stay away. Far, far away.

We were very pleased with the care that our sweet feline received since we moved to Delaware 5 years ago.... until 3 weeks ago when she became lethargic, stopped eating, drinking and not interacting each day as she would normally. We took her in after 3 days off her food and drink. Dr. Hemenway was the only vet available that Friday. He told us "it could be 100 different things with cats". No offer to X-ray, ultrasound or any other diagnostic. After 2 more visits over 10 days with Dr. Lovins still no diagnosis even after we were told they performed an X-ray & ultrasound. Her condition worsened. Finally, 5 days before she died we took her to an urgent care vet who performed several X-rays of her chest. He was quite thorough and showed us her condition on the screen. She had asthma/bronchitis in her lungs which led to congestive heart failure. Needless to say, we are heartbroken that we did not take her to this urgent care vet 2 weeks earlier. We may have been able to save her. We question WHY Precious Paws could not detect something so life threatening 2 weeks before? Sadly, we did not receive condolences from either Dr. Hemenway or Dr. Lovins but only from the vet techs.

I recently brought my dog, Buster, to Dr. Hemenway at Precious Paws in a complete panic. Our dog was in a critical condition, and we were terrified. Dr. Hemenway and his staff immediately took him in and did everything possible to save his life. Thanks to his quick actions and expert care, our beloved Buster is still with us today. We are forever grateful for Dr. Hemenway’s dedication and skill as well has his receptionists kindness and promptness. Despite it being late in the day, he took the time to reassure us, answer all our questions, and ensure our dog received the best care. Not only did he go above and beyond to save Buster, but he also provided his services at a very reasonable cost. Unlike other places that might have charged us much more, he was fair and compassionate in his pricing. We deeply appreciate his honesty and integrity. We can't thank him enough for his compassion and professionalism. If you're looking for a vet who truly cares about both your pet and your peace of mind, I highly recommend Dr. Hemenway at Precious Paws!! ❤️

They have completely redeemed themselves with me. My pup was sick so I brought her in. The front desk was friendly and professional. No attitude this time. Tech was great and DVM as well. I will return.

In my 35 years of pet ownership (various pets & vets) Precious Paws is hands down the worst. As others have mentioned, Dr. Hemenway has horrible bedside manner; had me in tears on the phone with his gruffness about my poor cat's condition making it sound hopeless without an ounce of compassion. Then performed a procedure that could have killed him before I arrived at the office (he was told to wait)! Refused to give me even a ballpark of when my cat's labs would be back (something like they'll get to it when they get to it) - though the girl at the desk was able to tell me it generally was a few days. Then he recommended the wrong specialist (an internist) when in fact the cat needed a cardiologist (who properly diagnosed and treated his condition) after I changed vets to a doctor who knew what she was talking about. My other cat who is 16 with a heart condition was scheduled by Dr. Lovins for a dental; thank goodness I changed vets before he had that done as the new vet let me know that under no circumstances should a cat with heart disease have a dental (requiring anesthesia). Further, of all the times I took either cat in for something there was NO follow up to see how they were doing (on meds or otherwise). They just don't care, but worse, they are incompetent.