Michigan State University Veterinary Medical Center — Local services in East Lansing

I’d like to preface this review by saying that I understand the nuance of this situation, and that it’s not entirely this clinic’s fault. I understand that 1. It is an ER, so wait times will always be longer. 2. There is a need for immediate compensation before treatment. ( I don’t agree with this, but whatever.) 3. Medical professionals need to stay detached from the situation. 4. Rules can’t be bent for that One Person. 5. I know the doctor said that they “couldn’t know for sure what her condition truly was without x-rays”, so they didn’t explicitly claim my kitty would die of her ailment.

Having said that, I am EXTREMELY disgusted with my experience here. I brought my sick kitten in after she began to have trouble breathing from what was possibly pneumonia. After several hours of her being in the exam room, we were quoted around 800-1k for X-rays and potential bloodwork, which we couldn’t pay. Ironically enough, even if we could pay they said they were at capacity and wouldn’t be able to treat her ANYWAYS. Not only that, but they charged me slightly over $200 just to tell me that my cat was having trouble breathing… Yeah. I’m pretty sure that’s why I brought her there. I understand that as a pet owner I need to be financially responsible for my pet, but the timing was extremely bad as I had just paid several bills this week. I tried explaining that I couldn’t pay, and they refused to treat my cat.

I tried shopping around to see if anywhere else would potentially take a payment plan and treat her upfront, but I couldn’t find anyone. At this point, they said my baby was struggling to breathe even on oxygen and while it was never explicitly stated, it was clear they thought she was going to die. Seeing as I couldn’t find anyone who could show a sliver of empathy and treat my cat, I tried discussing other options and it became clear that putting her down was most likely the only viable option. They had told me that antibiotics might help, but they wouldn’t prescribe them unless they “knew for sure” when it was EXTREMELY obvious she had pneumonia. Found out later in the day after she’d been euthanized that there’s a vet north of here who would’ve treated her without worrying about money upfront. Lovely, my cat died for NO REASON.

All the time I spent here was a complete waste, if I had known they wouldn’t treat her I would’ve tried my best to help her myself, although that probably wouldn’t have gone far. Ultimately I had to have her put down, and it was extremely traumatizing for me and my girlfriend. We had JUST adopted this kitten a week and a half ago and already loved her so so much, seeing her die was NOT how we expected our morning to go.

I understand all the nuance of this situation, but what I’m really upset about is the fact that they refuse to treat animals without payment. The doctor tried making the argument that “at human ERs, people can get treated upfront because they have insurance, etc.”, which is an extremely laughable comment considering you can get emergency healthcare regardless of being insured or not. I don’t understand why the standards for an animal are different. I would’ve been willing to put down a deposit and work out a plan, but they just “don’t do that”. So great, now my precious baby is DEAD because of bad timing.

I am absolutely disgusted, and I feel the doctor working with us had little to no empathy for us in this situation. I understand this is likely a daily occurrence for them, and they also can’t change the rules. However, I feel extremely upset over all of this and nothing can make it better because my...

You May Never Get Test Results or Hear Back From Doctor

There’s so many layers of things that went wrong going here. My pet was there for nine hours. Once we finally were seen, we were told that they could not perform the test that my pet needed because it was the weekend, and that I’d have to come back on the weekday, readmit my pet, undergo triage again, and pay for a whole additional assessment fee all over again.

Given my pet was throwing up blood and may have needed emergency surgery, we decided to do what tests we could to rule out any immediate danger best we could. They recommended other tests (in lieu of the one she couldn’t have) which totaled to about a twelve hundred dollars. It is worth noting that this amount would have been higher had they been able to run all the tests that they wanted to run, which they couldn't even do despite being emergency services.

Hours later, when some of the tests results came back, I was told that there were "suspicious" indicators on my pet's xray, but that my pet could likely go home and be monitored on the condition that another doctor would read the test results in the morning to doubly verify that she does not need emergency surgery. I never received a follow up call from that doctor, nor from whomever else they were going to have look at the results. As far as I know, no other doctor ever looked at the results. As if this wasn’t enough, the experience keeps getting worse.

One of the blood tests they ordered had results that would take a week to come in. They said they would call us to notify us of the results. It has been three weeks and we have never received a single call about this test or the other tests. Like any other concerned pet owner would, we kept calling to have the results communicated to us by the doctor. Every time I have called (we have called a handful of times over three weeks), I was told by phone that the doctor would take a look at the test results and call me when they had a moment to communicate them to me. I have never received any call, indication about the status of my pet’s health, or heard a word from a doctor, nurse, or any provider since walking out of the door that day despite spending over nine hours and twelve hundred dollars at the time of service.

After much desperation and running out of any other options, I came up with the idea to call my pet's regular vet and have them formally request my cat’s medical records from the hospital. Much to my frustration, the blood test that they said would take a week to come back isn’t even in the medical records, but I was charged for it. There is no evidence that they actually sent my pet's blood for that analysis at all. Also, it should be noted that requesting the records like this this wasn’t really a fix for the situation, not just because of the missing test, but because the medical records require interpretation from a doctor but I can’t get in with the normal vet for weeks and the ER won’t return any of my calls. When I finally got my hands on the records today, there were worrisome notes that my pet needed additional imaging due to severe issues with her GI, rib issues and heart enlargement—none of which was mentioned to me. It’s shocking.

I wouldn’t recommend going here unless you genuinely have no other option and you’re worried for the immediate safety of your pet. That’s the situation I was in, but even then I’m still left empty handed and abandoned.

The only positive thing I can say about the place is that the folks manning the front desk are kind and helpful and so was the vet...

I'm giving 5 stars and just sharing my entire experience so folks can make up their own minds. I had taken my little Toy Fox Terrier (about to turn 14) to our regular vet last Monday, due to some symptoms he was having. They referred me to several different ERs that could perform an abdominal ultrasound. While MSU was not a top pick for my vet (and was about an hour and 15 min away), they were the only ones that told me they could get to it that day. Unfortunately, they were not able to do it that evening so he stayed overnight to be monitored. The next day they told me they could not tell if it was foreign matter or a tumor but would do the ultrasound to see if it would show. Afterwards, they were fairly confident that it was foreign matter so told me the cost of abdominal explore surgery (5-7k) and shared the risks (both during surgery and what could happen afterwards). They were able to take the foreign object out but his breathing was in the 80s (they wanted it in the 90s) and they put in a feeding tube (something the surgeon had told me might be necessary, prior to surgery, if she suspected he may not have an appetite to eat). So my sweet boy was in the hospital until Friday, when I was told he was good to go home as they seemed able to manage his pain and he was eating well for them. Long story short, my sweet boy never did eat once I got him home. He would drink water and let me syringe some broth/pumpkin and his medication in his mouth but, by 1:30 a.m. on Sat, I knew he was suffering too much. I took him to a local ER who was able to give him an injection of pain meds, put a fentanyl patch on his leg (something MSU had initially mentioned doing but didn't, for whatever reason) and gave me something to hopefully help improve his appetite. Took him back home but he just continued to not seem well and I noticed at 1:30 p.m. he was leaking quite a bit of fluid and his incision appeared infected. Took him back to local vet to do a wound culture and gave him antibiotics. We went back home and he seemed to sleep a little but still seemed miserable. By 8 p.m., he would not even let me syringe anything into his mouth so I made the very hard decision to end his suffering (because having him suffer thru another surgery just wasn't an option). I cannot even begin to share how heartbreaking this entire experience has been. Living with the guilt that I contributed to making the last 5 days of his life absolutely miserable is likely to haunt me forever. I know hindsight is 20/20 but I feel the guilt I would have had by not moving forward with surgery and just arranging to have someone come home to end his (more limited) suffering would have been easier to manage than this and that is simply due to how much pain I know my poor boy must have been in all those days (esp being away from home & me as he absolutely hated going to the vet/hospital). So think long and hard about what you are willing to put your dog thru and whether it's truly for them or yourself (sometimes saying goodbye sooner will be easier for both of you). If you move forward with surgery and they are in hospital for that many days, request a check for fluids around incision before their...