Pet Paradise Cary — Attraction in Cary

I just had a horrible experience at Newday Veterinary Care, located inside Pet Paradise. I called a few days ago and spoke with Katherine to schedule a first visit for my dog. She confirmed the date of the appointment for today at 11:00am. I literally wrote down the date and time as I was speaking with her, so I am without any doubt that it was correct. I arrived a few minutes early to check in. No one greeted me or my dog and I was looked at blankly when I said I was there for the appointment. The first person I spoke with said there was no appointment and it was only when I told her the name of the person I had spoken with that she took any action. She went and got Katherine, who I discovered is the vet tech. Katherine didn’t acknowledge me or my dog and instead, when I told her we had spoken, blurted out “I never said today. I said June 17th”. Oddly, in the conversation, she also said that she didn’t remember speaking to me but somehow remembered that she hadn’t said the appointment was today. She offered no apology and said we could come back at 12:00 if I wanted to. As I was leaving the building, I turned back and saw her roll her eyes and flick her hair at us. There is not a problem with making a scheduling mistake (it happens) but there was a huge problem with how it was handled. After I left, I realized I could never return to a place that treats clients this way but I wanted to give Dr. Silva some feedback and the benefit of the doubt before leaving a negative review. I called at my scheduled appointment time and asked to speak with Dr. Silva. The person I spoke with said, “Dr. Silva is busy right now. I can get her to call you back later.” I said that was fine and asked with whom I was speaking. The person replied, “Well, I AM Dr. Silva. I am tied up right now but will call you at our appointment time.” I don’t know what’s stranger – a veterinarian impersonating someone else on the phone or her telling me we could talk at our appointment time when it actually WAS our appointment time when we spoke. About 15 minutes later, the phone rang, but it was indeed not Dr Silva (unless she was impersonating the practice manager this time!). Sue, the practice manager, said that Dr. Silva was with a patient, which is also very odd considering it was 15 minutes into my scheduled appointment time. Sue, unfortunately, was very defensive throughout the call. She said that Dr. Silva was impersonating someone else because she picked up the phone by accident and didn’t want to get into a long conversation with me. Apparently, that makes it ok to impersonate someone else on the phone. She then proceeded to say that Katherine must have just been having a bad day. Again, I find it hard to understand how having a bad day in a client-facing position means that is is acceptable to speak to clients rudely and roll your eyes at them. Unfortunately, this practice has lost not only me as a new client but several of my friends and family members. The whole experience and the way I was treated is inexcusable. But the worst part of the whole experience was having a veterinarian (who you are supposed to trust implicitly with your pet) impersonate someone else because she didn’t want to...

TLDR: PP Cary did not monitor our dog for infection or tell us of the severity of her injuries while boarding.

We debated making this post and wanted to give Pet Paradise Cary (PP Cary) an opportunity to try to make it better, but they’ve made it clear that they will not. We are long-time day camp and boarding customers and we generally enjoyed our time there. However, after our dog’s recent boarding stay we cannot trust them or recommend them ever again.

We received a call in the evening on Friday 2/24/23 notifying us that our dog had torn back part of her paw pad. We understand that can happen sometimes and allowed the vet to trim it. The PP Cary team assured us that she didn’t seem to be in any pain and was in good spirits. The vet also told us that it would heal on its own. After that, we appreciated daily check-ins in which they told us that her paw was a bit tender during Saturday play time (2/25) so they were going to keep her dry and in her room the next day (2/26), but she generally seemed fine and the vet/team was keeping an eye on her. We made the decision to have a family member pick her up the next day (2/27) and the PP Cary team allowed her to participate in play group before her go home bath. Supposedly, the vet saw her that day and we expected to come home to a sleepy dog with a tender paw. Instead, a few hours after she was picked up we came home to an incredibly lethargic dog who was in so much pain from her actively bleeding paw that she could barely walk, a huge bleeding sore on her arm, and a bloody mark on her lip where she was likely bit by another dog. We took her to our own vet as soon as possible the next morning where we learned that her paw, arm, and lip were all infected. She had also torn other paw pads that were infected as well. Our vet theorized that her arm wound was the result of her spending so much time laying on the wet cement after her paw injury. Each wound had to be shaved, cleaned, and treated while she was held down by multiple vet staff. This was then followed by days of antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and pain medication.

At no time did PP Cary notify us that she was in so much pain she could barely walk or of the injuries to her arm or lip. The PP Cary vet also did not prescribe any antibiotics or monitor her properly for infection. PP Cary is refusing to take any responsibility and we are incredibly disappointed. We will never take our dog there ever again and we cannot recommend them to...

We set up a “get acquainted” appointment for our two dogs, they were scheduled to do so from 8am-1pm. Our dogs have been to other doggie daycares in the past so we are familiar with structure of temperament tests. That being said, 30 minutes after dropping them off I decide to check the webcams to see how they were getting along. To my surprise I see all “play yards” empty. I check back a couple more times from 8:20 until 11 and during that time only one play yard has dogs that they are circling out. These dogs appear to me in the play area for five minutes and then they go back into the kennel. My dogs never once get play time, they sit in the kennel for three hours straight before I go scoop them up. When I asked the manager what was going on he told me “ play groups don’t start till 9 am”- no one ever told us this nor is this on the website or pamphlets. So if you bring your dog there anytime before 9 they will absolutely be in a kennel. And he also said that “ as denoted on the pamphlet your dog is only guaranteed four hours of play time” which is not mentioned on the website nor was discussed when we called and made the appointment. If I send my dogs to doggie daycare for a whole or even half day of doggie daycare than I fully expect they will be playing and socializing the whole time they are there minus maybe breaks to eat or if they need space for 10-15 minutes. I would never think they would be limited to four hours and that if I wanted them to play more I would have to pay extra money. This is the case for boarding too, you have to pay extra for daycare otherwise they are automatically only getting four hours of play.

If your looking for your dog to get exercise,expound some energy and socialize this isn’t the place. Your dog will spend most of their time in a kennel for “rest”.

As a side note, when I addressed these concerns and just asked for some clarity on procedures, the general manager was unapologetic and defensive and then just resorted to being silent. This speaks volumes in itself.

I am aware this is their first week and need to work out kinks however this is a chain and the general manager has been part of the company for years so that lack of accountability and business model of heavy use of kennels are not something that...