Avian & Exotic Animal Hospital, Inc. — Local services in San Diego

This review will be only in the dealings we had with a one Mr Jeffrey R. Jenkins DVM and bed side manners and how he spoke to us we are real people not paid to give false happy review this is me and my wife first time we went there and what and how he handle and spoke to us and so fourth on our bunny My wife witness it cause we had him on speaker each time we had him phone so she witness it too we pick this place cause it not alot of choice ro take rabbit etc when needing help so we pick this one this review is how he talk to us and first most what eek me and my wife heard I myself let that be he alway said he, he when giving updates on My bunny and we have a girl her name was CHER my husband brought her in this past Wednesday September 17 2025 early in the morning he didn't realize they open at nine am he thought 8am two of the office clerks got at him and said come back we open at nine am I guess one over hears and Said no we can get him in we got in My husband heard this and Here is why and where this is why doing review what some of the things came out of his mouth Dr Jenkins will now begin to have in this review why here is some major statement he had made directly to my husband so u will be aware first one it'd about the statement he brought up to my husband something on the line pulling him to the side and saying u iam going to do what can so don't write me a bad review we are anyway that the first one, along with making sure he told my husband to cough up the 700 Dollars before anything else get done those are the first next so fourth I was be able to witness some of the statements Dr. Jenkins we heard him all next via phone who we had on speaker as stated we brought CHER in our female hollylop bunnybl come January 15; until this and going here she was going to be 1 years old here the next part and am sharing the truth and have nothing to gain from this at all or me and my wife we are telling the truth so it Wednesdays evening close to his closing time by like 6pm here where he gave his swore statements and the update exactly some of thek where Cher going in the direction we like to see she was eating and poop the foot test as well was good he says so here the two questions my other half ask and I was there first my other half ask do u think she die in the night or tonight he said I don't see anything or sign of her dying in the night next questions will there be someone with her during the night he then Answer Dr Jenkins oh no we lock up we all go home at 6pm I keep tv monitor on my animals that it no one there doing check up in the middle of the night cause anything could change now fast-forward to the next day it Thursday September 18;Cher stayed there one night we went by Dr Jenkins word that she on the right path and good the next day about ten am on September 18;2025 Dr Jenkins called and said Cher didn't make it due to her heart but yesterday Wednesday he said to us she would not or show sign of dying in the night and did anyway on Thursday the 700 dollars we gave to him he only reimbursed us 75.00 dollars on the set income we live on a gave to him I feel on Wednesday he knew Cher was dying or dead took the 700 dollars to just to have as he does other as well I read in other people review I saw and livid because he thought 80.00 would make up for a dead bunny would of advice if there a death or sudden death Dr Jenkins should return all the clinic animals funds to the people who come see him not just half and also if he truly knows that the animals is going to die that same day and tell them don't lead them on or take there money and pay it all back not the 75.00 out of 700.00 he kept on our Rabbit CHER there in conclusion something not right going on over there as I stand behind all the other bad reviews he got and need BBC to come do a real inspection on Dr Jenkins and his practice and shut it down since my bad review is now added to the many he already has me and my wife are telling our experience the truth what happen so people can see for themselves what really goes on there we are...

this review is posted as a response to Dr Gillet’s reply to our initial review:

“prolonged neglect” is a very wild and inaccurate statement to make. you don’t know anything about me or my care for waffles during his life with us. we took him to the vet for his annual checkup because we loved and cared about him. during the time between his first visit with you and his emergency visit on the 10th we tried 17 days worth of medication because we loved and cared about him. a follow up visit was absolutely in our plans.

during that month we tried 4 different types of hay (wafer cut, second cut, all natural and all natural hay with carrots mixed in), hay sticks, hay cubes, and literally anything we could try to get him to eat hay while we did his meds. but you know what else? those are things we did for him throughout his whole life which you never cared to ask. when i showed up with waffles you didn’t ask me a single question on his care and the things we tried to do in between his first visit and his death. no attempt was made to inquire for information about his care, so it’s really unprofessional for you to say he was neglected. i can post receipts of everything i’ve ever bought for him, his cage setup, my amazon wishlist for him, his daily feeding schedule and the things he was fed, etc. WE NEVER NEGLECTED HIM. we brought a separate guinea pig in with waffles for his annual checkup and you said absolutely nothing about him and his care so “prolonged neglect” is a lie. wouldn’t our other piggie be “neglected” if they lived together?

that is an extremely crazy and harmful take considering when we took waffles and our other guinea pig for their ANNUAL visit nothing was ever said about improper care. you said cinnamon was healthy and we made a health plan to get waffles back on track. you’re acting as though we took waffles in a month ago already knowing he was sick which isn’t the case. we took him for an annual checkup, we expressed some concerns that we were unsure if they were actual concerns and were given a HUGE list of potential things we could try and what the issue may be. mind you, it was never expressed to us that there was any MAJOR issues going on, especially dental related health. we left that appointment with you optimistic about his care plan.

the morning of his passing we called hours before things got bad stating our concern for his health. we were told to bring him on the following day at 8am and that you believed he would be okay until then. i’m not saying this to place blame on you but to emphasis that we loved him and never wanted this to happen this way.

the main purpose of our initial review was to comment on your bedside manner, not your veterinary skills. your response is very telling of how you took this criticism. you decided to take our critique and reply with something very disappointing. we have had good veterinary experience with our other pets with you, but we cannot overlook your bedside manner, which has only been highlighted in your response. no other pet parent should have to go through the emotional toll of losing a pet and then receive cold attitude from the vet. we loved waffles with all of our hearts and we are grieving his loss. your response is very telling of our one and only complaint- your bedside manner. i hope for future pet parents that you’re much kinder to them than...

DO NOT TAKE YOUR PETS HERE!! I took my pet snake to be seen here in August because he was regurgitating his food, and the vet I got (a female) was very friendly and did a physical exam of my ball python. She determined he had an upper respiratory infection and he received a liquid feed and I was sent home with injections to give him every 3 days for a month. In September once his injections were done, I fed him and he did fine. October comes and he ate fine again, then he started the process of shedding. In November, he still had not finished shedding and I noticed he looked like he was losing weight. I took him in to be seen again to this vet on November 11th, and Dr. Jenkins was the one who took the appointment. He didn't do any sort of physical exam whatsoever, he just picked him up briefly and then set him back down telling me the issue was the snakes husbandry, and that I needed to keep it more humid and warmer in his terrarium. I was already doing this because of the long shed he had so I was surprised this is what Dr. Jenkins thought. The entire appointment was basically taken up by the vet talking about himself, telling us how he had so much experience with snakes and the type he had at home, instead of focusing on my pet snake or doing an actual exam on him.

I left and went to buy more items from a pet store to put in my terrarium to make sure the humidity and heat were even more controlled. When I got home I noticed my snake was bleeding from a lifted scale on his body that directly exposed his flesh instead of new shed. I called the vets office to try to get some advice since I had literally just left their office an hour before. The office was closed and I left a voicemail urging them to call me back the following day. They never called me back. A couple of days later my snake looked like he lost a lot more weight and I took him to be seen at a different vet, an emergency one in Mission Valley. The care he received there was such a difference, they actually examined him and injected him with some fluids and meds, and they gave me an ointment to apply to his open wound. Since this was an emergency vet, they told me to do a follow up appointment with a regular vet the following day and they gave me a list of options since I told them I was not happy with the service we received at Avian & Exotics with Dr. Jenkins. 2 of the vet techs shared their similar negative experiences they had with him as well, when they took their own exotic animals to him.

The next day I made an appointment at a different vet in La Mesa for a follow up, but unfortunately before we made it to the appointment my pet snake passed away. The vet at the new place in La Mesa told me that if my snake would have gotten blood work done, it could have been determined what kind of infection he had and perhaps it could have been treated in time. It's extremely upsetting and frustrating that my pet passed away in just a weeks time from being seen by Dr. Jenkins, and no type of tests were administered or even an actual physical exam during his appointment, where he could have also seen the wound that I saw when we got home. Of course there's no way of knowing if the true infection could have been treated in time, but I definitely know that the lack of care and negligence that occurred played a direct role in the last days that my...