AIt took me a while to come up with the words to write this review. We first used Quakertown Vet when we needed to have surgery with our female canine, Bella and had an amazing experience. The surgery went well, all procedures were explained to us and Dr. DeNardo was a very experienced vet. The second and third time we used them was for our male canine, Buster, after he started having seizures. These two emergency vets were again, amazing and very knowledgeable. They explained everything to us, answered any questions we had, as well as being, very patient oriented and telling us what kind of labs/tests we needed to have completed. This is why I gave them a 3 star review (which I have considered only giving 2 based on this next experience). I wish I could say our fourth experience using them was better.
First I would like to say that I have tried bringing these concerns to the attention of Adele (Their business manager) who seemed to make an excuse for everything. My husband and I have been in emergency medicine for 8+ years, we are not clueless to diseases, acute emergencies, pathology, procedures and are well educated. We brought in our fur baby, Buster, into the ER after erratic behavior he started having throughout the day. This behavior then worsened, requiring immediate evaluation. Since that morning he was refusing to eat, he began vomiting and drooling, as well as, becoming increasingly lethargic and exhibited class signs of hiding. We then realized that we had not seen him have a bowel movement since the day previously (at night we would leave him out and then let him back in). When my husband arrived home from working a 13 hour shift in the ER and before my shift on the ambulance, we took him down to Quakertown. This is where we met Dr. Jacquelyn McCutcheon. I wish I could give you the same review that other people have mentioned about her but we did not have a good experience with her. We explained everything that we had noticed with buster and she kept brushing off his GI complaints. She insisted his erratic behavior was a seizure and said he may have just had an “upset belly”. His seizures have always been grand mal, predictable and come in twos, threes and fours. He has never had a simple focal seizure. She suggested we should have labs and an X-ray done but said that she would suggest our primary doctor do them later in the day. She said they could do them there, but she did not think that was necessary. This was even after we explained to her that we both worked and that neither my husband or I would be home to take him. She insisted that she thought he could have pancreatitis (which was very possible because of his use of potassium bromide, which she never explained to us, our primary told us that gem) and said she would give him Cerenia SQ. She said that would make him feel better then sent us home. 15 hours later our primary found the complete bowel obstruction WE thought he had and sent him to Quakertown immediately for emergency surgery. Unfortunately he did not have a happy ending. He passed away 1 week and 2 hours later from the moment we saw her.
After experiencing all the ups and downs of his treatment, then his death AND 6500 later, their lack of empathy made it feel like we were picking up an order from a meat market. Pay your bill, meet at the back door where no one can see you and take the remains. There was little sympathy from them. It almost seemed routine.
Since then, I attempted to speak to Adele about how McCutcheon could have missed this OR why their standard practice is to suggest procedures be done at the primary vet instead of there when it is an emergency but she seemed to make excuses. She accused me of being consumed by grief and said I needed to give it time. She said that their practice would investigate our case and call me back within a few days to week. Well, she has given me over 4 weeks to sit on it. No response, no phone call. I’ve recently reached out multiple times but again, no response. After speaking with 3 other animal hospitals in the area, it seems pretty clear that more should have been done. I was told those things should have been done including an abdominal X-RAY and labs but why Quakertown believe that this should not be done? Why does Quakertown believe it is okay to just push it off to your primary vet so they “don’t step on any toes”? (That came straight out of Adele’s mouth). This experience has really made me question things and really think of the reason’s why we actually used them in the first place. I really hope they can fix this. I really hope they choose to change their policy and offer ALL clients informed consent to have these tests done. Informed consent meaning offering the service, the price of the services AND the risks of refusing these services NOT just saying we should go to a primary for it. I don’t want anyone to every experience what we have when it could have been avoided. Since you can’t take the time to take my phone calls, hopefully you’ll read this and FIX these problem areas but since you've already responded to my review on facebook, I know you won't fix those problems. I don't know how you can call yourself an EMERGENCY vet when you refer back to your vet.