I will never bring my dog (Alice) here again! The veterinarian (vet) seemed OK (with my one-time experience), but the administrator(s) did not care about me or Alice. They did not care about my experience with them, nor did they care about providing any semblance of service! Moreover, they bombarded me with emails pushing the sales of everything under the sun, akin to old-school car salesmen. Would you like Alice to have a rubberized undercoating to go with her vaccine? No...No I don't.
Background story; as short as I can tell you:
I am a medical doctor that diagnosed, but unsuccessfully DIY treated a canine fungal ear infection. After a week of DIY treatment without significant positive results, I acknowledged the need for a vet to prescribe antibiotics. Since Alice, my 2.5 year old female Wheaten Terrier mix, was due three vaccinations, I thought it would be a win-win situation to take her to the clinic. In Sandy Animal Clinic's credit, I was able to make an appointment with a vet a week earlier than most other Sandy clinics (within two, rather than three weeks).
On July 1st, 2025 at 5pm (thirty-minutes before closing), Alice and I saw a Sandy Animal Clinic veterinarian. Our interaction was but 5 minutes. During our brief 5 minutes, he visually inspected Alice's upper ear canal (no otoscope) and confirmed a fungal ear infection with inflammation (otitis). We spent 3 of those minutes discussing why Alice would not receive antibiotic ear drops, as I expected and preferred, but rather, would receive a one-time topical ear pack (Oti-Pack?).
Although it is part of the initial, first-time visit, and I was billed, NO Wellness exam was performed, i.e., weight and vital signs: pulse, breathing rate, heart and lungs, eyes, ears, skin and coat, mouth and teeth. I suppose this was convenient and simple for them. Nonetheless, Alice received her vaccinations and topical ear pack.
Upon checkout, the problems started:
1) They did not have Alice's (my dog's) medical history upon arrival; though I was assured they would when I made the appointment 2 weeks prior. Note, I did not ask them to pull the records. They said they do it automatically with the information I provide (microchip#, adoption site, adoption ID, etc.)
2) When I arrived, I nonetheless provided them with physical copies of all records, yet, they did not fully incorporate (other than vaccinations) those records with their own (i.e., microchip#)
3) I spent 30min+ waiting for them to correct clerical errors with billing (they did not apply the first-visit deposit).
4) They could not spell my first name correctly--I spelled my first name over the phone 2 weeks prior, and at least 4x during the appointment; They also had my credit card with the name written, yet, they still got it wrong!
5) A tech informed me that it could be up to 18 days for Alice's ear infection to clear up, and I should followed up if it had not cleared by then. Hence, the following problems...
Follow-up problems:
1) Alice's ear infection, though marginally improved, had not cleared. Upon some elementary research, I found that the medication administered is for Otitis Externa (outer ear), which now looked well, whereas, she likely had Otitis Media to Otitis Interna (middle to inner ear, respectively), which was still infected.
2) I called the clinic and asked if I could get antibiotic ear drops instead of an ear pack. They agreed to provide the prescription, upon payment, which I contested. They stated that they would have honored (/absorbed) the treatment, if, and only if, I would have initiated the follow-up within 14-days or less (I was told to follow-up after 18 days!). Note: other reviews on this platform have attested to this same criticism!
3) I, therefore, contested the Wellness Exam that was not performed. I requested credit from this exam go towards the new treatment. The office manager would not discuss the possibility that a mistake in this establishment was made. Instead, she proceeded to gaslight.
FOLLOW UP:
Per them, I tried to make contact many times to discuss, but spoke to no one!
Please stay away from this place.
On Sunday, we took our cat to the VEG with concerns of a possible urinary blockage/UTI. They couldn’t find what was wrong and told us to follow up with our regular clinic, so we scheduled an appointment with Sandy Animal Clinic for Tuesday.
The plan was to do an X-ray and urine sample. Since he wouldn’t cooperate for the X-ray (they tried without sedating him, but he was not letting them), they decided to put him under anesthesia and keep him for several hours.
When we picked him up, we were told it was a UTI and sent home with medication. When we got home and took him out of the carrier, he was holding his front left paw up.
Later, that paw was swollen to three times its size. I called the clinic and was told, “it’s probably from the catheter during anesthesia, it should go away.”
We scheduled a follow up for Friday in case it did not improve. And it did NOT!
At the follow up visit, we were seen by another “doctor”, and the first thing he asked was:
“He is an outdoor cat, right?” (That’s the moment when we knew they would take zero responsibility for what they did to our cat)
He told us he has a fever and an infection and that,
“He probably got into a fight with another cat.”
Make that make sense. Our cat had not been outside since Saturday. He was home recovering from all procedures he had at the ER and then at Sandy Animal Clinic. The swelling appeared immediately after Sandy Animal Clinic handled him.
When I explained my concerns about this timeline, I was told: “It could have happened earlier (like last week) and just now started to swell.”
Which I absolutely did not agree with. And then, instead of addressing the concern, I was asked: “Are you a vet?”
No, I am not. But I do know my cat did not walk into your clinic with a swollen, infected paw and somehow leave with one by coincidence. If the paw was infected before that, how did two clinics, including yours, miss that?
But that is not even all!!!!
At checkout, another staff member said:
“It probably happened when they were trying to hold him flat for the X-ray.”
So we have three scenarios of what happened from three different staff members:
*The catheter from anesthesia (which the “doctor” said our cat didn’t have during anesthesia)
*A fight with another cat (because obviously he is an outdoor cat, doohhh)
*Was pulled when trying to hold him flat for the X-ray
This clinic will not take responsibility for what they have done to our cat. Instead, we were given a HUGE attitude from a “doctor” and another prescription.
We were also told he may now need surgery if it becomes an abscess. Oh, and “we won’t charge you for the visit” does not fix this.
If you are the “doctor” who saw us today, you should be ashamed of yourself.
