Palo Duro Animal Hospital — Local services in Canyon

I’m the daughter of Karin Weynen. I stand by everything she said and I would like to add that my dog is dead due to a problem believed to be gas because “the x-ray didn’t show anything.” I want to briefly give my perspective, and talk about their awful response to my mom. They should be glad we’re giving them a bad review and not-oh I don’t know-a lawsuit for malpractice. As my mom said, there’s was miscommunication about pricing, not the biggest issue as my dog is dead, but still a major annoyance. We were told that there’s no knots or twists in his stomach and that he just has a lot of gas. He never gave an explanation for why my dog would be throwing up bile, not eating, and not pooping. He seemed dismissive and uninterested. He then spent the majority of the phone call talking about how we need to get our dog trained because he’s difficult to work with and “doesn’t like to be handled.” I understand the rules, but there’s no way for me to objectively judge how bad my dog was as I couldn’t be in there. We tried to ask more questions about the condition of my dog, but got more vague answers. I left Palo Duro Animal Hospital more confused and concerned than when I came in. This is not my first bad experience with Palo Duro Animal Hospital. When I took my other dog, Maddie, there(before COVID), they were still extremely dismissive of me and my parents’ concerns. They handled Maddie roughly and rushed us out the door saying, “it’s just some arthritis!” While giving us medication that made Maddie actively worse(throwing up, not eating, lessened mobility) and didn’t listen to us when we told them that the medication wasn’t helping. We had to figure out how to help Maddie by ourselves. I am just a teenager in high school living with her parents, I don’t have any sort of knowledge related to animal health, but we were basically forced to figure something out to lessen her pain. While I don’t have a degree related to animal health and I can’t diagnose, I know my dogs. I know when their behavior is not normal because I’ve had them since they were babies. Now, their less-than-adequate response. First, spending half a response explaining their fees is a cheap red herring to the actual issue. This is the equivalent to critiquing someone’s grammar when in a Facebook argument. Having to focus on something so small for so long shows that you’ve lost the argument and are just grasping for straws. It also shows where their priorities are. Second, I was in the car with my mom during the phone call. After reading their response, my mother and I spent a long time talking and trying to remember the phone call, and “contrast x-rays, ultrasonic exam or surgery” was never in the conversation. The vet might’ve said something along the lines of “if he doesn’t do better he’ll need further evaluation,” but nothing as detailed as contrast x-rays. If they have a recording of the conversation, I’d love to hear it, but seeing as they wrote, “I believe I told you,” I kinda doubt it. Third, like I said earlier, I know my dog. I had him since he was a baby. I agree that you can’t go from a few sniffles to surgery, but this is where I get frustrated that we weren’t allowed inside as well as our input seemed largely ignored. Need I remind everyone, my dog is dead, and I truly believe if more time, effort, and care were put into his well-being, he would be alive in my bed with me right now. I find it weird that they gave more explanation and condolences that we payed a fee than that they didn’t listen to us. I truly urge everyone to be more picky about their vet. Make sure you choose a vet that lets you go in with your pet and one that listens and tries to work with you. Palo Duro...

Not impressed. My pup was throwing up for 2 days so I took him there to be checked out. Due to covid they don’t allow to accompany the pet. Understandable... BUT... the vet calls to explain what he has found and I got charged $15.00 just for the call! I mean, I didn’t go in because of their own rules! I could have gone to the door and they could have told me everything through the glass door! No call would have been necessary, also- they do the payment over the phone, so they just gave me a total, never mentioned there would be a fee for the call.

Then, all I was told was that he didn’t find anything in the X-rays and that the pup just had a lot of gas. Also, I should really consider to have my pup get socialized bc he did not liked being handled. (Geez... it’s a young puppy!! AND a sick one!) I felt he rushed the phone call, and was annoyed that my pup didn’t behave the way he wanted. All he did was giving me some meds for nausea and that was it. Didn’t ask if I had any questions, nothing. Didn’t tell me what could be causing it or what to look out for. Now, about a week later, my pup is not eating (he lost a lot of weight), he’s having an infection and might need surgery. Thankfully a “concerned” veterinarian is looking after him. She suspects there’s something in his digestive system, soft enough that it didn’t show up in the X-ray and is getting infected. She is working hard to help him. She’ll do contrast X-rays to check where it could be. If we had done this in the beginning, when he was stronger, his chances would have been much better. I pray he will make it.

Be careful where you take you fur-babies. Choose wisely, make sure they let you in with your pet. Watch how they handle your baby, ask questions. I learned it...

Amy Kirkland is the vet we have seen our last few visits and today I had three dogs scheduled for vaccines. I made the appointment over a week ago. She came in the room after waiting 15 minutes and acted like we were a burden as she was going to do an exam on my 20 week pup. I told her we could just get the vaccines and go in if that would be better. The techs then came in after 15 more minutes and gave the vaccines. One tech rolled her eyes when I said we didn’t want heart worm prevention or other things. Needless to say I won’t be returning as this isn’t the first time Amy Kirkland has acted like we were a burden. My post card in the mail said Rabie vaccine ONLY. Idk what a dog needs every year as I’m not in the vet business. My daughter was with me and she was under the impression the attitude is because we aren’t buying all of the suggestions they wanted to sell. I won’t return to this office as this was the second time being treated this way. We had appointments!!!! Dr. Ballenger is the only reason I kept coming to this office and obviously we never see him just her and she seems to not be confident in her vet skills anyway. I have had to draw my own Danes blood before and she said he was dying and needed to take steroids for ever. I weaned him off and that was 2 years ago and he is fine. There are so many veterinary clinics out there and it wasn’t worth the drive from Amarillo to Canyon being treated that...