Animal Emergency and Specialty Hospital of Grand Rapids — Local services in Grand Rapids

This practice is very predatory. They are very sneaky. They are very sketchy. I brought my dog in after she had a focal seizure, her blood tests were done. The vet used any small thing that showed up to keep her overnight ($1500), which in our case was low phosphate levels. If that was all and only all, as I was told, it’s pretty sensible I can wait and find my vet this week for the more probable cause of her seizure. That’s all I needed to know. She doesn’t need to be hospitalized and get an IV for, in our case, as medically reflected, these low phosphate levels; it’s more complicated than that but using medical language is very grabby and gains attention, that’s just basic psychology. It just sounded like all and all that this was an issue for my vet and I to figure out on our own together, really, and (under implication) that wasn’t respected. It was pushed and very inappropriate within contextual consideration. They tried to sneak things into my bill like doing tests that weren’t urgent (my vet can do these), penning her down for 24 hours without disclosure that 12 hour options could otherwise be arranged, and an $80 fee for evaluation by the next vet on the next shift, which was an immediate red flag. It was treated like it was leave her there or she will die. After I declined, I went to the lobby and they told me that somebody would call me in after the papers were printed for discharge. Well, I waited for about 45 minutes in the lobby. It took me going up there to ask. The girl at the counter replied “I actually just printed them!” when the print time on the papers was more than 30min before (it was 3am and slow, don’t kid me). They did this purposely to try to make me rethink my decision, it was obvious. Again, very predatory. She then read for the entire lobby to hear that my dog’s blood tests showed up with low phosphate levels and therefore she could go into a coma because I was taking her home, then she read to me out loud in front of everybody that I was refusing care and needed to sign an agreement that essentially states that if my dog died “we told you so,” again, for everybody to hear. I told her to please stop reading that and she kept going. The shaming was next level. It was awful. I’m HAPPY and more than HAPPY to pay for the immediate blood tests and the assurance that follows that. However I will NOT give into being taken advantage of because of the situation I was in. It wasn’t the money, I make six figures, I paid my $650 for the reassurance, that’s what I went there for (and what the one star is for), no problem. This is the THIRD time I’ve been treated similarly here like this. You prey on vulnerable frantic people. Your practice is disgusting because of the lack of morality and regard for the financial situations of people who love...

I will go straight to the point, bringing a sick pet to the ER is hard, for owners they're family, I wish they would of been more caring, more humane and honest about the condition of my baby dog. we brought him Wednesday night with blood in his urine and bruises all over his body, which happened overnight, he had a previous visit to his vet in the morning, ER was a follow up when we noticed more blood, Staff at front were attentive and quick, first dr. was knowledgeable and we left thinking there was a chance that he was going to be ok or at least trusting they would let us know if thing were not improving. Next day no updates by text until I asked about him, over text they never told us that our doggy was declining, we saw him in the morning and his health was deteriorating, but the 2nd Dr. didn't say much, the nurse told us, he had episode of bloody diarrhea and blood from his nose, in the afternoon they asked us to wait a little longer to visit him because they were going to run more test, we didn't get results until we got there, when the same nurse shared the news our baby had more bloody episodes, the 3rd Dr. was thinking on "sending us home with medication", my doggy at that time , when she was in the room with us, had 3 episodes of bloody diarrhea, 3rd one being just blood, when I asked for the test results Dr started to take a look at the chart saying , well yeah he is deteriorating, numbers are showing a health decline, I demanded HONESTY, I begged her to be honest, my dog was dying in front of our eyes and they were still thinking of keeping him or send him home, we asked to euthanize him and she said Yeah I think that's an option at this point, when a few minutes before she said "he is not there at that point yet", I just hope in the future they can be more transparent, more humane with the pet owners, more considerate. Our doggy took a deep breath and died in our arms, we let the dr. continue the euthanize process but our baby was gone on his own, we saw that, he was not gonna make it and I just wish there was more compassion for pet owners. In 2017 we brought another doggy there and at that time they were doing great, it was tough too, but we left knowing they couldn't help him anymore, they showed to care about him and us, now, I love the new building and the accessibility of location but unfortunately my experience with this young Doctors was not good this time. Please try to put your heart a bit more in our shoes and have a more gentle approach in those stressful terrifying times. I understand sometimes there is nothing else to help those pets but transparency and compassion must go together to soothe the pain of the pets...

I live in northern Michigan where there are no emergency vets that take “exotic animals”, the closest one to me is the Byron Center and it is about two hours away. I typically go there because it is slightly closer than this location and I’ve only had great experiences there. Im always nervous to take my bunny into new vet offices because it is hard to find adequate care for him. I was directed to this location by the Byron Center vet because their exotic animal specialist was gone this weekend and we needed to be seen asap. When I called this location, the woman on the phone was super nice and super helpful. After the 2.5 hour drive, I arrived and they were waiting for my bunny to check in. They immediately took him back to run vitals while I finished filling out his registration forms. It took a little while to hear back on anything - which was completely understandable as this was the busiest I’ve ever seen any vets office. When they called me in to speak with the doctor - Dr. Faith, she was SO helpful and SO informative. There was a lot of information coming at me that I was not used to as this was probably the most serious vet visit I’ve ever had for my bunny, and she happily answered all of my questions and was very sensitive to our situation as I was an emotional wreck. After answering all of my questions, she went back to my bunny and sent in the nurse. I wish I caught the nurses name because she was equally as amazing. She explained the treatment plan, medications, doses, and the costs of everything associated with our visit tonight. While chatting with her, a million new questions popped in my head, and she answered them all - even if it meant running back and fourth a handful of times to double check with the doctor, and she did it with a smile on her face. After signing off on their in office care, they started fluids and gave my bunny nausea medicine. I came home with four new medications for my bunny and I was expecting a $1,000+ bill from all of this. For the care we received and all of the medication we were sent home with, the bill was almost half of that and I was very pleasantly surprised. I also appreciate that they keep an updated schedule with your pets information and what is going on with them in the lobby, it takes away a lot of the worry that comes with the wait times. I’d absolutely recommend this office and I would definitely go back if necessary (though I can only hope it’s never...