Noah's Ark Animal Clinic of West Chester — Local services in West Chester Township

Not one to publicly discuss businesses but I felt this one was necessary.

We have taken our new puppy to Noah’s Ark West Chester for her vet needs besides the day we found her. Our dog is estimated 4 months old and we literally found her in a sewer drain. We had to call fire and police to get her out. We decided to keep her, she was emaciated, scared of everything, and very timid. We have a primary vet in Kettering who she saw and she did fine (this will be important later), but we decided to take her to Noah’s Ark after her initial health issues subsided just to get her spayed and vaccinated on their puppy plan. This is once again not the first time she’s been to a vet with us. My husband takes her and he calls me after. She was BALLISTIC. Would not let the vet in the room because she was barking, growling, and backing herself into the corner. This was a shock to us, but they gave us some medicine to give her overnight and the next morning and to come back in the morning to try again. The only differences we could note between our primary vet and Noah’s ark is our vet gave her a food distraction as well as the vet was NOT wearing a white coat. Since at this point we had her for only about a week, we were guessing this could be a trigger. We explained and asked if they had any lick mats or anything they could use to distract her and if the vet could take off the white coat to see if that’s a trigger for her. They said “we will see what we can do.” The vet comes in in a white coat and has no food or distraction, treat, etc. Same reaction. I recognize we don’t know her well at this point but also felt VERY frustrated that we offer solutions that could be her trigger to change and the staff did not try to accommodate or see what could help her be more responsive. Our dog got spayed on June 4th. She was of course sedated as soon as we got there but even after having her for a month she did MUCH better. Techs were fine, everything was fine. (Yay! Meeting people is getting easier!) After she was sedated they finished her vaccines, spayed her, and microchipped as well. We had to pick her up early because we were told she was lunging at the crate. We picked her up and she was drowsy and out of it (to be expected). We were not sure if she was lunging as when we got there she was still completely out of it. But also I understand for safety and comfort of the staff. Once we picked her up, I looked at her stomach and she was SLICED UP. Like… I was lost for words. We immediately emailed a picture to the vet and they said oh it’s just razor burn! We can offer a cream for it but just razor burn…. THAT IS NOT RAZOR BURN! Are you kidding me? They called Connor the following day to do a check in and said “MAYBE one of the blades was messing up on the clippers, but it’s just razor burn!” They offered us a cream “free of charge” for the “razor burn” but also made a comment it’s good for lacerations as well. I have photos.

The fact that we were open about her situation and her being new to us and unsure of her triggers, and to be met with little to no assistance or willingness to try anything to make her comfortable was one thing. Slicing her stomach completely and not telling us is another. She is scared of the vet (at least this one) and this whole experience has done nothing but make it worse. Dogs who are rescued still deserve care. Dogs who are scared still deserve care.

I have gone to Noah’s Ark (OTHER LOCATIONS) in the past and had no issues. Please do not support Noah’s Ark in...

I am not one to leave reviews, especially negative reviews, however I feel this information is important for future patients. My dog got caught on a fence, leaving her with a quarter size laceration on her hip. I chose this vet because (1) her family vet is closed Saturday afternoon & (2) I had a good experience with this network at the Colerain location less two years ago when I adopted her and they removed a golf ball sized tumor that the previous owners did not want to remove. Her biopsy and procedure to remove the tumor less two years ago was around 800$, which was very reasonable compared to other vets. For these reasons, I chose to take her to this network again as I felt it was urgent and needed to get stitched up to prevent infection rather than waiting until Monday when her family vet opened. I called 2 1/2 hours prior to close to ask if they could help, the receptionist was very friendly and said yes but it would be an ER charge as she would have to skip the line in case she needed sutures with them closing soon, no problem I completely understood, appreciated the price transparency, and drove the 50 minutes to have her seen. I get there and I’m put in a room immediately, the tech was very nice & the doctor came in shortly after. She was not in the room very long and informed me that she believed she needed stitches but she was not sure she could do them today due to me arriving an 1 1/2 before they closed. They took my dog to get shaved that way they could take a better look and came back with an estimate. I am usually a “do what you need to do at all costs” type of person, especially with my animals, but the estimate I received was absolutely insane. I was quoted almost 1k to repair a wound the size of a quarter. I was prepared for it to be pricey, but not the cost of my mortgage pricey and I declined the service. The tech who came in to give me the estimate explained the charges.. 165$ for blood work, 250$ for repair, 32$ to shave the area, 52$ to wake her up after “surgery”, IV placement, fluids, four injections, medication to go home with, etc. I did not understand the reasoning for all these services and why she could not receive a local anesthetic and be stitched up and sent home with some antibiotics. She is an older, well behaved dog, who sat still when the tech cleaned her up and I didn’t feel putting her to sleep was necessary yet alone blood work etc, she is healthy and up to date on all vaccines. When I received the estimate I asked if I could call my husband to discuss the price and the tech informed me I only had 5-10 minutes to make a decision as they closed in an hour. This was a recurring statement and I felt awful for bringing her in close to closing already but I didn’t feel it was a good idea to wait until Monday. I asked for alternatives & they informed me she could go home with medication but the wound would “not heal correctly”. No further explain as to what that meant, what medications etc. After todays visit I will never return to this network, the lack of compassion and the hurry to leave on time sent me home in tears with a dog with an open wound and a 200$ bill. I understand wanting to leave on time, they deserve to go home to their families as much as anyone else, but compassion and communication could have gone a long way here. I do want to say, the gentleman who cleaned her up was one of the only employees who gave me any short of information, he was very kind and empathetic and I hope some of the other employees...

Don't take your pet here for anything other than vaccines or flea treatments.

I don't trust that they are capable of treating animals for anything other than minor things. If your pet is ill take them somewhere else or you'll be wasting your money and your time. I first took my dog there in January because he was drinking water excessively and he was coughing and hacking. They tested him for Cushing's disease and said that he was positive but they said that they would have to do a second test that required him to stay and do more blood work. The test came back negative and they did nothing for him. I've taken him back twice because he is still hacking and he is coughing up phlegm and his eyes are draining and his coughing has progressed and he has breathing problems now. Dr Brown who first examined him this month told me that he has inflamed airways but there's nothing scary to worry about and she prescribed him Temaril p which she said was an antihistamine and a steroid. She gave me the impression that if this didn't work that they would try something else. She wanted to schedule him for dental cleaning which means he would have to be sedated I told her I didn't want to do that with him breathing like that. I gave him all of the medication and he is still not better. I called and left a message for doctor Brown to ask what the next step would be and she had a receptionist call me back to tell me that the only thing they could do is send out his X-rays to a radiologists and it would be $160 for that. I decided to take him back a couple days later hoping that another doctor would examine him and have some more ideas of what to do.

Dr Rhodes saw him and all she did was look Dr Brown's notes and asked me what the problem was and I explained what I've been happening with him since January. Dr Rhodes just repeated the same thing that Dr Brown did and told me that they would have to send out the x-rays. I don't even think she examined him. She told me that she never looked at the x-rays that was taken before. I asked Dr Rhodes if that was it and if they had anything else they could give him for his breathing and she. She told me that he could have COPD and I asked her how they diagnose something like that and she said that they don't diagnose heart failure, that he would have to be sent to a pulmonologist and that are not trained to read chest x-rays that they would have to be sent to a radiologist.

I don't trust that they know what they're doing. I might as well just take him to another vet that can actually diagnose my pet and that will at least try to come up with an actual treatment plan for him. All of this sending the x-rays out makes no sense because they can't treat the pet for the illness anyway so why waste the money letting then send out the x-ray when they will just send you to a specialist that will do their own x-rays. I'm very disappointed in both doctors and will never go back...