Castle Rock Cat Hospital — Local services in Castle Rock

Not sure where to start with this place, but here goes.

Brought my cat there to establish her as a new patient. I told Dr Walkup in our first visit that a vet 5 years ago saw bad dental issues and recommended getting her teeth cleaned every year and that our cat would usually need to have teeth removed every year based on the dental damage - it's genetic and just how it is.

That has been true - every year she's had very painful problems in her teeth and so every year she's had those teeth removed.

I explained all this in our first visit and said we should plan on having her x-rayed each year given that every year these problems have occurred. Dr Walkup was immediately confrontational and said she isn't going to do that proactively, despite our cat needing it every single year. Our entire first and second visits were like this - it felt like every single thing was an argument and she knows best about everything. Completely unwilling to listen at all

Fast forward and since she won't proactively check this stuff, our cat gets an abscess in her mouth and her face puffs up. I call and they cannot see her for two days - no emergency appointments and my cat's face is puffed up. If an abscess bursts it can be deadly. This place doesn't care - come in two days.

We get there two days later and Dr Walkup agrees "oh yeah we'll need to do that surgery you told me about. Unfortunately we have no surgery slots for 28 days." She put our cat on an antibiotic for A MONTH. This is unheard of, absurd, nuts.

We wait a month, cat gets surgery, two teeth removed. All of this could have been prevented - lots of pain for my cat, us monitoring her abscess for days antibiotics for a month, if this obstinate and obnoxious vet would have just engaged in conversation and listened instead of needing to argue and prove she's right vs the past 5 years of experience our cat has had with good vets.

When we picked up our cat, no discharge instructions at all. I had to ask the vet to come tell me what we need to do and she was annoyed at even having to tell us. Every other vet we've been at provides printed instructions and talks us through it - give her this med for a day, give her this antibiotic for the next week post-surgery, today she'll be woozy from the anesthesia, if you see blood dripping from the surgery site call us, etc. Every other place we've been to (we've moved a few times so had different vets) provided this in written format + took care to talk through it. This place provided nothing and the vet was annoyed at having to tell me any of it.

Then we get home and I realize they left white medical tape wrapped around our cat's arm where they had done her IV for the surgery. Every other place that has done this left a non-sticky wrap on that area so it could easily come off. This place left medical tape that was stuck to her fur and skin. I called and asked what to do about it and the front desk person said "yeah just pull it off". I started to do that and it ripped off fur and left her skin bleeding. I called back so angry and this time they said "oh you aren't supposed to pull it off, it will come off naturally"

Ultimately my beef with this place is the vet just wants to argue and be right, not do what's best for the animal. Every single visit, even checkups, were argumentative at best. She caused my cat needless pain and suffering, as well as risk of a bad infection. They aren't staffed properly if they can't do an emergency appt for 2 days and they can't do a surgery for 30 days.

Final icing on the cake - we went to another place and we're really happy. The new place had to call repeatedly for weeks to try to get our cat's past records. Castle Rock Cat Hospital would say they'd send them, then never do so,...

You cannot underestimate the cost, damage and stress hyperthyroidism is causing you and your cat until you experience I-131 treatment, when everything you have been agonizing over stops.

We had two cats with the disease, one of which had been on felimazole for over a year (the other had been undiagnosed and so received no meds). The cost of medication, medicating, testing, vomiting, horrible diarrhea, cat bathing, endless food changes, and clear physiological distress on the medicated cat were constant stresses for all of us. The un-medicated cat suffered horrible bouts of vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss and hid under the bed; we were convinced a previously removed malignant tumor had metastasized and was killing her. But no further tests showed cancer – only hyperthyroidism.

After treatment (the medicated cat requiring two treatments his numbers were so high), both cats are gaining healthy weight, eating less, urinating more normally, relaxed around each other, more social and sleeping better. The manic behavior is gone, the aggressive behavior is gone, sleeping under the bed is over, the ravenous eating without gain and drinking huge amounts of water are over. We are spending less on food and litter, on constant laundry and rug cleaners and trips to the vet. We have our cats back... and Cat Specialist did it all without traumatizing our animals. We can honestly say that if we lived closer they would be our new vet, and if a specialist is ever needed, we will return to them for treatment.

We cannot recommend them or I-131 enough, especially if your cat has trouble with felimazole and you are exhausted by keeping up with the disease. I would do the treatment for any cat I would ever own, no matter the age: quality of life – yours and the cat’s makes age...

If you are in or close to the Castle Rock, CO area this place is a godsend for cat owners. We have two 12 year old domestic long haired. One, Xander is a love to us and a screamer to strangers trying to give him shot. It's our fault we adore both our boys and taken extra care to feed whole nutritious foods and they've had no cause for a vet. Until Xander got a bacterial infection and after that last shot done at our house, our vet suggested we try the cat specialists (hint # 1-- referred by another veterinarian).

So we reluctantly put him in his carrier and drove to their facility for our appointment. Xander was miserable, howling, confused, angry.

The very nice office person greeted us and took us to a private room (thank goodness). Another person gave us a thorough interview and then Dr. Lavallee entered. What a spark of sunshine. Open, positive, smart and very compassionate to Xander's misery. She told us how they'll relax him first and to the exam and then gave us a prescription to calm him down for the next visit.

What ever happened there, totally cured us of the fear of going to the vet. I 'm not joking in the least. We're ready to take Xander in for some dental work and I'm so much less anxious. Dr. Lavallee called and left a detailed report on their Blood and Urine results. I feel blessed that they're both in good health.

Give the Cat Specialists a try if you want to have personalized treatment for you and...