San Diego Bay Animal Hospital — Attraction in San Diego

I’m not sure what happened to this place. We have been here a few times when we first moved to San Diego and we liked how they treated our senior dog and our new puppy. After she passed we started bringing our senior Husky here due to having onset seizures at age 10 due to what was believed to be a brain tumor. We were assigned Dr. Webb, she was the most compassionate doctors we ever had, we were so happy to have her as our Vet.

Fast forward 6 months (we had to come back every 6 months for blood work so our Husky could stay on his Phenobarbital) and we find out Dr. Webb moved, it was a bummer but the front end staff was always so kind to us we decided to try a new Vet there. And that’s when everything went sideways.

Even though we had a yearly exam done 6 months prior, our new Vet said before they could do the blood panel we have to get a new exam so she could get familiar with our dog, even though we had one done with Dr. Webb, we just figured they would keep paper work so they have record but I guess not. At this point we had to get his medicine so we felt very forced to do this, so we agreed to the exam. She maybe spent 5 mins with our dog, checked his heart beat and teeth and thats about it. Then she wants to do all these vaccines on our Husky and we try to avoid them due to the worry of it triggering our dogs seizures, he also wasn’t very active so we didn’t plan on taking him places he would be around other dogs anymore. When we asked if the vaccines would trigger a seizure we were assured that it wouldn’t. Three hours later after leaving the vet, sure enough my Husky is having full grand mal seizures, he was seizure free for 7 months prior to this point, pretty large coincidence. We contacted the vet after he gets through his episodes and were told to up his medication dosage and that sometimes vaccines can trigger a seizure… What!? At this rate we are upset but just do what we are told. Also the blood panel they tried to charge us for was almost double the cost the first time we went, we had to ask to get it down and compare it to our first visit bill, which they eventually did. Worst part about all of this is the Doctor just seemed checked out and not compassionate at all.

Now another 6 months go by and we schedule a blood panel for end of March because they wouldn’t continue his medication unless we get it done, the medication that has been keeping him alive and we were told if we take him off of it he will seizure. We get a quote and it’s more expensive than the previous time and this time wouldn’t be including the vaccines or exam. I asked how exactly does a blood test go up that much in 6 months to be more expensive than all the things we had done the previous visit, I was told it was due to inflation. Sure… you bet.

Unfortunately we never could make it to this appointment due to our Husky having multiple seizures this morning. We knew his time was up, we have never seen him in this bad of shape. This is where the most heart breaking part of all this happens. We called to set up an appointment for our dog to be euthanized today, when we received a response from the Doctor, we were told we had to pay for $155 exam first! Are kidding me? I’ve lived with my dog the past year having seizures and you want me to get an exam first to make sure there isn’t something you can give him to keep him alive? HE HAD 11 SEIZURES IN 5 HOURS! He didn’t even have that many seizures in the past year combined. His quality of life was gone, he couldn’t walk, he had labored breathing, his eyes would not stop darting, he couldn’t get out of the postictal stage yet you want to give an exam? I have never had a Vet tell me that they will make the hardest decision of owning a pet for me.

Luckily we found a Vet closer to us this evening that took us in, completely understanding and compassionate as I ugly cried in front of all of them. They also charged us $300 less for same services. Putting down a dog is extremely difficult but Dr. Allison Luecking made today even more...

When it was discovered that my Malinois, Jax was going to need a TPLO done on his right knee I really didn't know where to turn. My vet gave me a list of vets who preformed this surgery but there were only 3 names on it. 2 of them were too far away and the other one, Pet Emergency and Specialty Center in La Mesa wanted $225 just for the consultation so I hit the Internet. The first vet I found was San Diego Bay Animal Hospital. Their website was well designed and informative and their customer comments were great so I gave them a call. After I told the receptionist what that I was looking for a surgeon to preform a TPLO she told me that the doctor would call me back within 30 minutes, which he did. I told him what my vet and the radiologist had said about Jax's x-rays and their belief that he needed the TPLO surgery. Dr. Ferenstein told me that he would review the scans to make sure he agreed with their assessment and would have the receptionist call me back to schedule a consultation. The receptionist called me back within 10 minutes and scheduled me to come in the following week. BTW, the cost of the consult was 1/2 their normal office visit charge of $48 so it only cost me $24.

On March 3, I met with Dr. Ferenstein who agreed with my vet that Jax would need the surgery. He went over all the steps and the costs. The TPLO package that includes the pre-op tests, surgery, medications and the followup x-rays was $3,142.96. They do require a $500 downpayment when surgery is scheduled.

At the time my husband and I had 2 pre-paid not refundable vacations scheduled thru the end of March so I asked the doctor if it would cause Jax any further damage if we waited. He let me know that I wasn't a terrible person for wanting to wait a bit and he was booked up thru the 3rd week in March anyway:-). So we scheduled Jax's surgery for 3/29. He stayed overnight and I was able to pick him up the following day. Jax was sent home with sedatives, antibiotics and anti inflammatory meds. The sedatives were a god send. It's critical that the dogs do not run, play, jump etc and Mals are very high energy dogs:-)

Jax had his staples removed in April 13 and was doing great.

He had his first of two follow-up x-rays yesterday and everything is healing up on schedule:-). Yay!

The staff is always friendly (except one who ignored me for 15 minutes when I was dropping off a urine sample but maybe she was having a bad day) and the office, exam rooms and bathroom are always clean and smell nice.

Anyway, I would HIGHLY and without any reservation recommend San Diego Bay Animal Hospital for all your pets needs, it's what...

Disappointed.

It's very obvious to me these people like their Sundays and wanna run out of the office as early and quick as possible. The girl told me they close at 2 p.m today. I think you should check your Yelp hours (4:30) or maybe your google search results because it says 3:30. Just another example of my confusion...

I was really excited about this place because it's conveniently located and my first experience was good. However, little did i know my return visit wasn't so promising. My cat had a UTI so i came in for antibiotics and a check up. I left paying $140 for oral medication (that read on the label give twice a day for 14 days) and some pain meds...I told the vet i wanted the oral antibiotics because it was the cheapest and only costs $34 versus the one time shot which is about $60. Well to make a long story short, her antibiotics ran out after 7 days. So I called the office and said she doesn't have enough medication and they told me to come in and that they made a mistake (over the phone the girl said she was supposed to have it for 10 days) but the label read 14 days. No one mentioned to be i'd have to come back again for more medicine!

Anyway, I am super confused by this point so I drive over there to pick up her remaining medicine thinking this was just a simple mistake. Then the girl tells me it's going to be ANOTHER $34! So now this medicine has cost me $70. When the previous week the vet recommended the $60 one-time shot. I took the antibiotics because it was the CHEAPER option. So now, i have to shove oral antibiotics down my cats mouth for two weeks when I could have saved money and time giving it to her one time.

I spoke to Holly who didn't offer me any help. She explained they made a mistake and someone should have told me it was gonna be 2 packages of cat medicine. She offered to take 10% off of my $34 purchase. I wouldn't have even bought the medicine but I had to because I can't give my cat half a dosage of medicine. I was left with no choice and I declined to get the 10% off. It was never about saving $10 or %10. It was about the time wasted and the inconsistency and LACK OF COMMUNICATION.

I felt like I was being rushed and no one was explaining anything to me. I wasn't happy with how Holly handled the situation at all when I explained it to her. The girl behind the front desk promised me "there was no malicious intention behind it." HAH! Well, I would like to hope so! I understand mistake happen but no general oral cat antibiotic should cost $70. I looked up the price online and let me tell ya - it's not worth $70. I would have just got my...