Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota (AERC) — Attraction in Oakdale

As some others, if I could give zero stars, I would. I wasn’t going to leave a review as our experience with AERC was from over a year and a half ago, but our dog is now dealing with issues over what AERC missed. Long story ahead and I will NEVER be returning or ever recommending anyone bring their dog here. Go to Blue Pearl or the U of M.

A year and a half ago after our dog was running outside we noticed him lethargic, drooling excessively, and unable to lay his head down. A friend had mentioned they saw him playing with a stick. We brought him to our normal vet where they took x rays and could see a foreign object in his throat. We came to the conclusion he was running with a stick, poked it in the ground, and got part of it lodged in his throat.

Our vet then referred us to AERC. Upon arrival, we got checked in, waited a few hours, and then finally were brought to a room to talk to Dr. Kathy Rausch. I have never had such an awful experience/interaction with a vet in my life, and I have worked in the field and deal with vets all the time as I own many animals. She proceeded to tell us after looking over our vets x rays that there is nothing in his throat and he needs a CT, even though the x-rays from our vet showed there was something suspiciously there. We asked why, and wondered if a scope down his throat would be a better option. She proceeded to argue with us and not explain why she thought he needed the CT, then told us the CT would cost $4000 alone. She “didn’t grab an estimate so it was a rough guess.” $4000 FOR A CT ON A. DOGS NECK!?! A human is way less than that! We got so frustrated with her we ended up telling her to give us our dog and we are going home, where she commented “fine I’ll get the discharge paperwork.” Later to find on our notes she wrote we were talking in circles and she said she recommended a scope and a CT, but we refused the scope. Excuse me??? We wanted to scope and you told us no, he needs a CT! She wouldn’t explain a single thing and was rude the entire conversation we had with her. Also, if we wanted him to have a CT, we would have to leave him overnight which would cost over $600 just to sit there. They wouldn’t let us take him home and bring him back, he wouldn’t be guaranteed a CT if we did that.

We proceeded to be checked out by a tech (who was wonderful) and we explained what happened. She said a CT is most certainly not $4000 (more like $1200-$1400), and our total estimate was around $4000. Our dog needed help, so after talking to the tech we ended up keeping him there.

He then got a CT where they said there was an abscess in his throat, they tried to drain it with a needle but the fluid was too thick so they sent us home with some antibiotics to hope it would clear on its own. The antibiotics did seem to work, and he went back to normal for the most part, over $4000 later. He would cough once in a while but I figured it was scar tissue.

Fast forward to this week, his neck gets a huge mass and his skin ulcerates, very similar spot to his abscess previously. Our vet is stumped as the fine needle aspirates do not look like a tumor/cancer. They refer us to a specialist and I decided to go to Blue Pearl in Arden Hills. They have been phenomenal to deal with!! They took a CT to find a large abscess and foreign object. Upon surgery, they removed a hunk of a stick. My dog had a piece of a stick in his neck for A YEAR AND A HALF. I am beyond sick about it. Our vet suspected a foreign object back then and AERC had multiple times in the notes there was no foreign object detected. One thing I am grateful for, AERC was not the one to operate on my dog. Like I said I will NEVER be returning or recommending this place. The way we were treated, charged, and what our dog had to go through is insane. I’ve included a picture...

I was very worried about my 14 year old dog, Nelson. He was coughing a lot and had started to slow down a bit, which I thought was normal with his age. Our vet suggested we take him to AERC to be seen. He is my family, so of course I loaded up my 3 young children and senior dog into the car within ten minutes of setting up the appointment. We all had an hour and 15 minute drive to get there. Once we arrived they took Nelson to the back to have vitals taken. He has severe anxiety and we were not allowed to go with him. It was almost lunch time and we were in our own private room by then, the vet came in to talk to us. She explained that he was in distress and needed oxygen. Our options were to keep him in the hospital and do all the tests to see if his lungs or heart were causing the breathing issues or put him down. I was shocked. It was between spending $6,000 to see if our 14 year old dog had a chronic illness that was causing his cough or put him down. I asked if there were meds we could be given to give him some pain management and something to help with his breathing. They said there is nothing they could give that would help him. They kept pushing for putting him down. They also wanted me to do it right then and there. No time for my 3 young children to process what was going on, no time for my husband to come up and see him. Not to mention that my children's grandpa, my husband's father had just died on that day a month earlier. I was not going to do that to them or Nelson. I asked to bring him home. The vet then told me he probably would not make the hour and fifteen minute ride home. Can you imagine my 3 kids watching their dog die in the car on the way home?!? Again I felt pressure to put him down here. I just couldn't do it. I called my vet and asked if we could put him down when we got back into town. They held the spot for us. The AERC vet gave Nelson a sedative to keep him comfortable for the ride home and some meds to help with his lungs. By the time we were discharged it was 3 hours later. When we arrived at home, I still could not put him down knowing he was sedated and I didn't get to see him at the hospital at all. I know he was extra stressed in there so I wanted to see for myself how he was off sedation. We called our vet and they strongly suggested we bring him in to be put down per the AERC orders. I said NO. Now it has been two days since that visit. I think Nelson is still traumatized from his experience but is started to get back to his regular self. Is he 100%, no but he is eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, goes for short walks, and is barking at the mail delivery. He is still a 14 year old dog and I know he doesn't have much time left but I don't think anyone should be pressured into putting your pet down. He clearly still has life still left in him and if I were to have listened to the vet at AERC we all would have missed these extra days, hours, and even minutes spent with him. I do not recommend going here with your pet if they are like family. Forcing a person to put their dog down and even making sure the hometown vet says the same is horrible. Also, the meds he came home with will run out and there are no places to refill it around here. I contacted AERC and they will not fill the prescription either?...

If you’re looking to take your dog in for an emergency c section, this is NOT the place to go. My dog went into labor at home with 3 puppies expected. However, the first puppy was stuck for a good hour before my husband rushed her to the ER. Upon arrival, he was told this breed would need a c section done, not induction. Our dog will be the next in line for surgery. Payment for the procedure and treatment plan was paid upfront, same day.

Long story short, induction was done with oxytocin being administered 3 times. Her labor went on for over 7 hours from the time we dropped her off to the time we picked her up. The first puppy didn’t make it possibly from being stuck too long with facial abnormality, second puppy came out with low temp, and the third puppy was stillborn. C-section was never performed. Vet mentioned C-section is dangerous to the puppies and had our dog had this done, all puppies would have died or had a lower survival rate. The vet was also super confident two of the three puppies had already died in utero; therefore, the outcome of a c-section wouldn’t be any better when initially she wasn’t sure if there was another heart beat she missed during the FAST scan.

I had reached out to the vet about the change in treatment plan. I mentioned the plan was to perform c section, yet an induction was done. She was very quick to tell me the plan did not change and an induction was not performed. Is administering oxytocin not a form of induction? The vet stated she had every intention of having our dog go into surgery, but since there was a delay in surgery, our dog naturally gave birth to which she thought was an amazing thing! She proceeded to tell me repeatedly that just because we dropped our dog off for an emergency c-section, it’s a whole process and takes time to get the dog ready for surgery and that surgery doesn’t happen immediately like in tv shows. I mentioned 2 hours is quite long to have our dog waiting since she has already been pushing 1 hour before we dropped her off.

The vet stated the surgeon came out of surgery and was going to perform the next c section, which would have been our dog, but she had told the surgeon to wait and see if our dog can deliver the second puppy on her own since she was able to deliver the first puppy naturally. I had asked her how long she would have waited with the second puppy before resorting to a c section. She mentioned no more than 30 min to 1 hour. Mind you, our dog didn’t deliver the second puppy until 1.5 hours later.

The vet seemed very nice and sympathetic when I spoke to her; however, she will not admit to the change in plan and states it was the best decision for our dog to have her deliver without c section. She did say she should have done a better job at communicating with us and keeping us updated. She also said when she called, if my husband had been more adamant on wanting a c-section, she would have consulted with the surgeon and had him talk to the surgeon instead. She advised us we should have a scheduled c section done the next time around.

I will be asking for a second opinion. Had I known they weren’t going to perform a c-section, I would have taken my dog elsewhere. Maybe this would have given us a better chance of saving...