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Today I dropped off my dog at Banfield Pet Hospital for have his teeth cleaned. As instructed, I did not feed him past 8pm the prior evening.

His appointment was for 8:00am the following day. When we arrived at 8:00am things seemed to be fine. They were ready for him and all seemed good. They told me that I could pick him up between 3:00 - 5:00 pm that afternoon.

I got a phone call from Banfield, telling me that he JUST got out of surgery and won't be ready till 4:00 pm. They said they were "backed-up" with other dental procedures. They took him in at 8:00 am and they said they were starting the procedure then. What happened?

Did a bus load of dogs and cats come in to have their teeth cleaned, so they bumped my dog.

I can't imagine the distress he went through, having to wait for 5.5 hours in a cage with no food and water. I am very disappointed with Banfield and hope someone else reads this and goes somewhere else.

Location: Chandler, Arizona

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Guest

Dogs stay in the hospital for this length because it is a surgery! This means pre anesthetic bloodwork has to be pulled and run, pre Jed's given after exam, then the anesthetic event, then recovery before going home.

This is not a short event. And, your pet is not the only surgical patient.

In the human world, I had an outpatient anesthetic event, in the hospital for 8 hours after a 12 hour fast, not allowed to be alone for two days post. It's no different

Guest

I am skeptical to bring my dog in for teeth clean tomorrow. Glad I read this.

I want to see my dogs teeth X-ray before they start saying they need to remove teeth.? Why do our dogs have to be at the vet for 12 hours just for cleaning?

They do 5 dogs a day.

Also ask if the vet has a breathing machine for oxygen if needed.

Some vets don't !!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1265257

It is definitely a good idea to ask for dental radiographs to verify if teeth need to be removed, but unless you are trained to read them, then you, as just an owner, are not going to be able to tell much just by looking at them unless SEVERE changes are present. Most subtle changes can be quite difficult to see - just so you are aware.

Also, like in human medicine, even an outpatient procedure takes several hours. Your pet must be checked-in, examined, have pre-anesthetic bloodwork drawn, run & interpreted, have the procedure, and then be monitored for a few hours after recovery before being allowed to go home. A 8-12 hour stay is completely reasonable for this when multiple animals are been seen.

Not sure what breathing machine you are worried about, but if your pet is having an ANESTHETIC cleaning (not one of those voodoo non-anesthetic cleanings, which are worthless & very risky) then absolutely the hospital should have an anesthetic machine and your pet should be intubated (have an endotracheal tube in it's airway to prevent fluid aspiration and secure the airway).

I would never recommend doing a dental with IV drugs only and no ET tube. For reference it is policy that Banfield does not do non-anesthetic dental cleanings & always intubates for dental cleanings or other surgeries so you shouldn't have to worry about that.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1265257

They aren't there for 12 hours. I dropped off Chewie at seven and picked him up at three after his annual checkup and physical. Look at your bill that details everything that was done , maybe the time frame will make more sense.

Guest

Which Banfield? I took my dog early this morning, wasn't ready until 4pm

Guest

Yes, that's it. Dozens of animals came in after you and were cleaned before yours.

Banfield did this to make you mad. It isn't possible that the animal before yours may have come in for a cleaning but needed an extraction, or that some other animals that went ahead of yours had complications.

You poor thing! You were told your dog would be ready between 3 and 5 and was ready at 4!

How awful! You should sue them!

I'm sure everything at your job goes precisely as planned and nothing is ever delayed as much as an hour..

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-803822

Jeff, I believe you may have missed the point. Her dog sat there for hours without eating.

My dog had his teeth done this week and Banfield didn't get to him until around 2pm. That means my dog didn't eat for 19 hours. For some dogs that might not be a problem for, but for my dog not eating for 12 hours is a huge challenge. My dog is hungry all the time, and I mean all the time.

He's on an eating schedule and he starts pacing the floor 30-45 minutes before dinner.

The day after my dog came home, he started urinating about every hour or so, in which we started seeing blood. I spent $200 last night taking him to a vet hospital to find out he has a UTI.

When I took him back to Banfield this morning, to my horror he lost 3 pounds in the 2 days since his cleaning.

We don't know why he's losing weight but they are working on figuring out what's going on. Yes, they knew there was an issue with weight loss prior to the teeth cleaning. I was told to double up on his food; he now gets 2 cups of food twice a day rather than 1 cup 2 x day.

Bottom line is going 12 - 19 hours without eating might not impact all dogs, it does impact others.

Maybe Banfield should accept animals throughout the morning based on the time they are scheduled for their procedure rather than having them all dropped off between 7:00 - 7:30 am. Every time I've had surgery, it was no eating 12 hours prior to surgery. If my surgery is scheduled for 10am, it's no eating after 10pm. Surgery scheduled for 10 means you arrive at 9am and you go in for the actual procedure within 30 minutes of your scheduled time.

You don't go in at 7am, lay in a bed until 2pm for something that was scheduled for 10am.

Humans have logic and can understand emergencies and if they have to go a few extra hours without eating while dogs don't. They just know they are starved and are sitting in a cold lonely kennel and don't understand what's going on.

As stated in the original posting, there was concern about the "distress" the lack of food, water, and sitting in a kennel for over 5 hours causes.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-951884

I am sure they hydrated the dog and kept a close eye on him. Anesthetic cleaning is an involved process requiring endotracheal intubation, ventilation, IV hydration and vital sign monitoring among other things.

It isn't like it is with humans.

Pre procedure blood work has to be checked. I have never been less than happy with the care my dog has received at Banfield and we feel completely confident in their thoroughness with his care.

Guest

I have not heard good things about Banfield.

A friend of mine took her dog to get fixed.

He came home and his tounge was blue. He stated breathing very slow. She took him back and the doctor had put a whole in his lung with the breathing tube. I understand things happen but they were not very friendly about it.

It costed $2000 to correct the problem. I would think Banfield would have covered the cost to correct the lung. Banfield agreed to split the cost. She paid $1000 and banfield paid $1000.

She wanted to cancel her policy with Banfield and they still wanted to charge her stating that she was under contract. After fighting with Banfield they finally let her out of the contact.

As I said things happen, i understand but they could be a little less money hungery when they almost kill your pet, I think! Just saying!

Banfield P

@DukeBudBoy,

We hope your chihuahua is doing better today. If not, please call your Banfield in Jacksonville to let them know his symptoms. The hospital team should be happy to help you.

We also apologize if communication wasn't better about his care surrounding the surgery. If you still have any questions after reaching out to your Banfield, please feel welcome to call our client advocate team directly at 877.500.2288.

Guest

My five year-old, six pound Chihuahua had dental cleaning done last Monday. After a few days on antibiotics he starting having diarrhea, and now refuses to eat anything.

We stopped the medicene a few days ago but he still won't eat.

His surgery was at Banfield in Jacksonville, Fl. My husband states the hospital did not give him any kind of pre-or post-op procedures to follow.

Not sure if we should take him back for a follow-up visit? Not sure I trust this place anymore. Why isn't he eating?

Banfield P

From all of us at Banfield, our hearts go out to Minnieรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs family. In addition to being a practice of veterinary professionals, Banfield is a practice of pet loversรขโ‚ฌโ€we understand that losing a member of the family is extremely difficult and we are saddened by the loss of Minnie.

Regarding Minnie's story in Cape Coral: Minnieรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs passing was an unforeseen event and our doctors did everything possible to save her life.

Banfield takes every precaution to make anesthesia related procedures safe but occasionally despite every effort, complications still arise. Minnieรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs doctor has spoken with her family and is helping to provide support and answer any remaining questions.

Banfield P

We came across the comments on this forum today, and we want to extend the opportunity for each of you to call our customer advocacy team to discuss your visits and concerns. The number is 877-500-2288. If you do call, we can address your specific issue, and your feedback will help us continue to improve our services. We strive to provide our clients and their Pets with high quality medicine and exceptional client experiences on every visit, and we apologize that your visits to any of our hospitals were unsatisfactory.

Thank you,

Banfield The Pet Hospital

Guest

LPN and Vet Tech must work or are sleeping with someone that works at Banfield Pet Hospital. To make excuses for this vet that has killed, endangered, lied, overcharged, and mocked the emotions of those they are doing this to, has to have some standing with the company.

What a bold statement "I promise you, you pet was in no way mistreated or abused for the time you claimed", for a vet that no longer has a rating with the better business burrow, I bet you wouldnรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt stake your job on that promise, unless you work for them.

Guest

Wow im not surprised being that my appointment for a wellness check up visit for my dog turned out the same way where i dropped my dog off at 745 was supposed to pick him up at 2 then was told he wouldn't be ready till 3 got there at 315 was told they would be done by 4 i stayed and walked around the store and at 4 was told it would only take one more hour. So being pissed I told them at 4 to bring me my dog now and forget the visit since I didnt see any new customers come in within the last 30 min to cause any hold up.

They refused to bring me my dog so I headed back and was pulled away from the door and the receptionist told me she would check on him and came back to say we will see him now and he will be out in 10 min and explained that they hadnt even started his exam. As if i wasnt already mad enough the exam report stated a slight abnormality noted which was never discussed or shared with me until i went back to ask and they said it was mild dental tartar. WELL being that i am a dental hygienist and dental tartar is my job and I 100% know my dog is free from any i told her to show me where this supposed tartar is and she told me it is hard to see without even trying so i opened my dogs mouth (which he did happily since i brush his teeth often) and she had nothing else to say other than at his age 2 1/2 most dogs have tartar so they just mark the check box so I gladly pointed out the heavy tartar build up on her own teeth and told her that is what she should look for.

That visit just made me understand that all there patients are treated as if they are all the same kind of like a dental HMO office does where you sometimes get tx you dont truly need. Sorry you went through a full day visit too i know how you feel if you truly love your pet you hate to see them neglected like that!!!

Guest

At least Doglover's pet came home. my sister's healthy three-year-old daschund was killed yesterday while having her teeth cleaned at Banfield in Cape Coral, Florida.

Guest

A typical surgery day for any hospital consists of this: 9:00 a.m: Pulling blood work from the animals to make sure all organs and things are functioning healthy enough for them to be put under anesthesia. This is also the time that you would have things like exams, anal glads expressed, etc.

. . finished. The doctors look over the dogs.

9:30-12:00: The animals are placed with a catheter, given pre-medications, and then finally go in for surgery. A usual dental can take anyway where from 30 minutes to an 1 hour, depending on how bad the teeth are. If you have four surgeries, rooms and (let's just throw this in) an emergency walk in, it CAN take a while for them to get the surgeries through. Most nurses I know like to have all surgeries done before noon, and will not schedule more than three or four.

12:00 - 5:00: The animals come up from anesthesia and, if everything goes correctly, the animals are sent back to their kennels with a warmer to regulate body temperature. It can take a few hours for them to be fully up and awake. I know that my hospital wants the dog to be WALKING before we allow them to go home.

The point is, yes, this is reasonable for your dog to have been brought in at 8:00, had surgery, and been ready to go between 3-5.

He wasn't in his kennel being starved to death. He was recovering from SURGERY. It is just like a human surgery - human doctors will not allow you to eat before surgery.

The no food isn't to be mean - it is to keep you pet from vomiting under anesthesia and possibly choking. I promise you, you pet was in no way mistreated or abused for the time you claimed.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-195026

That is exactly how I understood it to be at Banfield so was not upset when he was ready at 3:30 approximately as predicted. And so right they aren't being starved !

The owner would be so much more upset had she fed her dog, he vomited under anesthesia and got aspiration pneumonia!! Would of course been the vets fault !

I love my dogs but how spoiled can a dog be that can't fast for a day ? These owners should spend a day or two at a shelter to see some really starving mistreated animals that come in !!!

Guest

In order for a pet to be discharged from the hospital, they need to be able to be fully conscious and alert for the pets own safety. Do you think Banfield has only one surgery to do a day?

Be realistic, this is surgery. It takes time to perform the surgery and time to heal. Would you expect to be in and out of an anesthetic surgery within a few hours?

I'm not quite sure what your complaint is.. seeing as he was ready to go when promised.

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