University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine — Attraction in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

4/11/2019 Update: I normally don't go back to edit reviews, especially when it's been a while, but this time, I feel the need to.

Let me preface this by saying: I know this clinic is largely run by veterinary students, who are still learning and being trained. So ti be clear, my issue is not with the experience of the staff. My complaint is with the method they are using, and I assume, are being taught to use, to treat the animals.

When we first brought in our younger dog, we'd had her for less than 48 hours. She was a 3 month old puppy with fleas. We bought the capstar medicine and got her on a flea preventative, quickly, to take care of the flea problem. We threw away her blankets and toys, we bathed her with shampoo that kills fleas, we even had our apartment professionally treated every month. We knew the fleas were gone. And none of the vets could find any evidence of any remaining fleas on her. She continued scratching until she was red and swollen, but the vets insisted it must STILL be the fleas, since that's the most common reason for dogs to scratch. No evidence of fleas, but basically refusing to consider or test for anything else until we jumped through all their flea hoops.

Fast forward a month, and she was still scratching to the point of bleeding and whimpering. Nothing we did could get her to stop, so we took her back in. This time, we were told the next most common thing would be a skin mite, and we should probably treat for that. We requested they do skin scrapes to see what they could find and told them we would pay for whatever testing was needed to figure out what was wrong with her and get her healthy, since she was miserable. They took her back for a LONG time (skin scrapes take like 15 minutes), and then came back with no evidence of mites, even where she was bloody and sore, but insisting we pay over $200 for flea, tick and mite treatment...just in case. We did, and we had to watch her continue to rip herself up for 2 months while we waited to see if the treatment would help her. It didn't.

We went back again. This time, we told them we thought she had an infection. She smelled funny - even after bathing her - her skin was yellowing around the sores, and she had all the symptoms of an infection. They were skeptical, but after explaining the entire experience to that point, they conceded and prescribed her an antibiotic. Finally! She started improving rapidly. She didn't get completely better, but it improved.

Shortly after taking the antibiotic, she started scratching herself up again, and she still smelled funny, so we thought either she needed a little more of the antibiotic to knock the infection out, or she had a yeast infection too. The vet gave us a little more of the antibiotic, which this time didn't help, but wanted to discuss the possibility of an allergy, not a yeast infection, since an allergy was more likely at that point.

Side Note: At my first visit at this clinic, I asked if she might have an allergy and was told my dog was too young to have an allergy at 4 months. Since we were still dealing with the same issue at 8 months, it doesn't make sense for it to be an allergy.

Regardless, once we moved to Omaha, we met with a vet that prescribed her a yeast infection medication, and she cleared up almost overnight. The fishy smell went away, and she started to improve. She may still have an allergy, since she's itchier than most dogs, but she is nowhere near where she was.

Bottom line: This clinic has a habit of just going down a list based on likelihood - not testing and treating and practicing actual veterinary medicine. And my dog ended up suffering needlessly for almost 8 months because of it. Please start actually treating symptoms, UGA. I know your vets are still learning, but they work under the direction of a licensed veterinary professional. My dog suffered needlessly. Don't dont this to other...

I am writing this review out of deep disappointment and heartbreak over how the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine handled my pet’s referral. My regular veterinarian — who has cared for my pet for years — personally called in a referral to UGA, explaining my pet’s condition and the urgency of the situation. Everything was supposed to be set up for us to move forward with care. But when I contacted UGA, I was shocked and frustrated to be told that they would not be accepting the referral.

There was no compassion, no understanding, and no real explanation — just a cold response that left me feeling helpless. My pet is not “just an animal”; they are part of my family. When someone you love is sick or in pain, you expect a medical facility — especially one that teaches and sets the standard for veterinary medicine — to show professionalism, empathy, and commitment to helping. Instead, I was met with indifference.

What hurts the most is that I trusted UGA to be there in a moment of crisis. My vet did everything right by calling ahead, and yet that effort was completely disregarded. The lack of communication between staff and the unwillingness to even consider the referral shows a level of unprofessionalism that I would never have expected from such a highly regarded institution.

Families come to UGA because they believe their pets will be treated with the same care and urgency as a member of the team’s own family. Sadly, that was not my experience. I was left scrambling for help elsewhere, in tears and worried sick, while precious time was wasted.

It’s devastating to feel like the place you counted on for help simply didn’t care. I hope UGA takes a hard look at how their staff handles referrals and communication — because no one should have to go through what I did when their beloved pet’s health is on the line. Our animals deserve better, and so do the families...

UPDATE: We went to a different vet (The Animal Clinic West) the day after visiting here. They did two BASIC tests, a crop swab and fecal stain, that the university refused to do, we found out what was wrong with our baby, which was a bacterial infection of her crop, and got prescribed a simple antibiotic and anti-inflammatory. Our baby bird is now on the tail end of her recovery and is thriving. We're so happy now that we didn't just give up on her like was suggested by the University vet. How simple and inexpensive the diagnosis and treatment for our birds sickness was by our new vet just reassures me that this is NOT a place to take your exotic animal.

ORIGINAL: We are crushed by our experience here. We took in our 4 month old green cheek conure because she was sick and we couldn't find anyone else to treat her in a short enough amount of time. It took over two hundred dollars just to get her in the door while we sat in the parking lot to wait. And this was only for them to call and tell us that they had no idea what was wrong, and to do any of the tests to find out we would have to pay $1000 on the spot and that the rest would total at minimum $2000 more. They only care as long as you have a big bank account. When we said we wouldn't be able to afford it, The vet had the audacity to say if we wanted to avoid the cost of the exam, that we could surrender our bird to be euthanized and dissected by a class of students, OR if we didn't want to do that, she could off the books OD our bird on muscle relaxers to "help her give up and go peacefully at home". This is absolutely dispiccable, and horribly wrong to say to somone who is crying in their car over the phone because we knew our baby was going to die. We begged her to not touch or do anything to our baby. They will never see us, or anyone...