Chippewa Animal Hospital — Attraction in St. Louis

Incredibly frustrating experience here. I brought my cat in for an initial exam due to pain around a broken tooth and was seen by a female doctor. It was to the point where she is having difficulty eating and you can't touch around it without hurting her. She was put on antibiotics and given pain medications until the surgery date. All was well.

I was called for a sooner opening for surgery, and chose to get her in then rather than wait a month. I was unaware this was with Dr. Goss rather than the previous doctor, but I wouldn't have had a problem with it.

The day of the surgery, 2 major mistakes were made. Dr. Goss called me at the end of the day to inform me that there had been an accident. While my cat was under anesthesia, they thought she was fully out, but while moving her she started moving/flailing and she was dropped. She landed on her face. One of her canines was broken and bleeding, and she has a large scrape on her chin. But she okay, they extracted the broken tooth.

When I asked about the tooth she was in for originally, Dr. Goss was completely unaware that was the reason for her visit. They did take xrays, and he did check the tooth, but I don't know where there was miscommunication that he did not see she was given antibiotics at her last appointment and that she has been in pain. So the problem tooth was not touched. If he had called me during this appointment and was unsure, I would have still said to pull it because there is clearly something going on. But he did not know.

So I am still required to pay $850 to pick up my now injured cat with one less canine, and with her problem unaddressed. At the time of pick up I was told by Dr. Goss himself that if she returns for the extraction, it will be free of charge due to the errors. I was still unhappy but at least we have a plan.

Cut to a week later and I call to schedule the extraction, and he is no longer comfortable seeing my cat, and wants to refer me to a specialist.

This is has left a horrible taste in my mouth and I would not refer anyone to see Dr. Goss. We all understand mistakes happen, no one wants it to be their pet, but they were quick to say they are going to make it right before they actually have to deliver.

I now have an injured pet still in pain, $850 less, and am going to have to wait even longer to get her treated since I am going to have to start the process over somewhere else weeks later. But I guess her...

So my Rottweiler cookie has been having some female problems I took her to the vet, play seems really nice small personal ball not really busy. Doctor in the nurses in the secretaries we're all really nice. They gave me some antibiotics for my dog and suggested getting her fixed, give me two weeks prescription of antibiotics so the problems are cleared up in 4 or5 days but keep giving her the meds , a week later we go out of town to visit family we hire a dog sitter for the weekend. Dog sitters only gave her half a prescription, which was two pills twice a day. But the problems hadn't cleared up before we left for the Weeknd like to doctor said it would have. And by the time we had gotten back and it gotten worse. So we contacted the doctor, told him about the changes brought her in for another visit, they gave me another 2-week round of the same antibiotics her. Now it's a week later she can't keep anything down, her problems are only getting worse, and instead of bumping up her surgery to just take out her woman problems, they finally give me a different kind of antibiotics to try, I'm not sure what to do, capitalism has destroyed The helping hand of the people, the lady I dealt with today I had never seen before, she was rude and didn't care about my problems or my dog and all I did was ask her if there's any way the surgery could get bumped up, she said not my doctor not my problem the other secretary in there who I had talked to before just sat there looking at us and didn't say anything. Update,.... I'm now at a emergency vet, do not use this place they are just trying to make money off of the pills the prescribed that they make a premium off of, I think they killed my dog, I'm not sure she's going to make it............ Update, my Cookie didn't make it, never use this vet, they will let your dog die and keep trying to...

We started going to Chippewa Animal hospital about a year ago following repeated disappointment with the service at the Chippewa Banfield. They were a breath of fresh air and we finally felt like our dogs received treatment based off what they needed (not what they could be charged for) This time last week, we had to make the appointment literally every pet owner dreads. Going in we weren't sure of the outcome ahead but had a pretty good feeling it wasn't going to be good. We were still fairly new to the hospital so this was our first time meeting Dr. Julie Nadeau- and I can't begin to express how grateful I am she was the vet to be with us at such a terrible time. Losing our dog that day was horrific but a week later all I continue to think about is how much more comforting she made that moment for us. She confirmed the worst, in the most compassionate way. She did a thorough evaluation of Harper and made certain we could be confident in our decision to let our girl go. Its like she knew we would play the moment over and over in our head and question if what we did was right. She relieved us of that personal torture so we could mourn our dog and celebrate her life like it deserved to be. I remember walking out of the room and seeing tears on her face- a family she never met. It was powerful and appreciated and I'm just really grateful that time was spent with someone that cared not just about our dog, but about us. We aren't quite at the place to adopt again but we will, and when we do we will be seeing Dr. Nadeau- she is amazing.

And kudos to the Chippewa animal hospital receptionist and technicians as well- they too, are wonderful. Thank all of you for making such a terrible day, a positive experience. That's not easy to do. We very much look forward to trusting you with our pets in the...