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Updated by user Nov 09, 2021

After months of frustration, serious and potentially illegal business practices, and the death of my beloved service dog, I finally was able to talk to a person at Medvet SLC. This person is in charge of too many things and I know this is a huge part of the problems I've had and seen others having, is that Medvet does not have the adequate staff needed to run an animal hospital and this is another huge problem.

Medvet is charging people for services and care that is not possible without the proper administration and staff in place, and so mistakes are made, and the current staff is burned out! My conversation with Medvet did not resolve anything. They apologized for the major communication issues, agreed that maybe they should tell clients when another vet might be overseeing their pet's care, and Medvet acknowledged the issues, "They feel really bad," "My pet was an excellent learning opportunity for Medvet to improve client/patient experience." They refused to reimburse any money because they said they did nothing wrong medically. So I was forced to put a card on file- which is illegal in Utah, I had a horrific experience during the year I took my dog to MedVet- this was never addressed at the time, and it wasn't really addressed in my phone call either.

Medvet ran up $17,346 in bills but my dog never got a diagnosis and treatment plan, Medvet was too busy trying to deal with Medvet and completely dropped the ball with my dog's care, did not communicate with me about who was seeing my dog, or cancer spreading, and Medvet continued to leave me believing my dog was going to be ok- because they didn't have the exact diagnosis and no one was giving us guidance and taking time to answer questions and the one vet that I never gave consent to treat my dog nor was there a VCPR or consult with this vet- this vet wouldn't even follow-up, lied about labs, made up stories and cost my dog's window to get a biopsy to treat the cancer. As a breast Cancer survivor myself, I cannot believe how much money Medvet charges, and might have been cheaper to take my dog to a real hospital. I am heart-broken that my precious dog, my child, is, "Medvet's learning opportunity to improve client/patient satisfaction." I have never heard of such a thing where a place lacks the integrity and transparency so badly and to refuse to reimburse any funds for what happened but tell me this is their learning opportunity is extremely insulting. My dog suffered and died, after I spent an entire year trying to keep Medvet focused on her care, and doing anything she needed, Medvet took full advantage of my vulnerability and when the big mistakes were made, they just ignored me and doubled down on the desperation I was having in order to save this dog that I loved and that I relied on for my own health.

I am suffering without my dog's aid, and I don't know how long it will take to financially recover from Medvets greed, but I need a replacement service dog and training and under utah code it states anyone who recklessly endangers or kills a service animal is responsible for replacement, training and vet bills incurred. The stress that I've endured from Medvet is truly unimaginable. I feel like they were just reckless altogether bc they didn't have a complete hospital when I was there, they had just opened and still figuring things out. They shouldn't have charged me full price when they were only giving me 25% of the care and service bc they weren't fully staffed and so they weren't a 100% ready to go vet hospital!

This was the absolute worst experience I could have had with a vet, and they rub it in my face that the 17k spent to save my dog is their learning opportunity????? How is it I lose my dog and 17k and it's a win win for Medvet. As a breast cancer survivor and daughter who takes care of her blind disabled Veteran father, we sacrificed a lot to make sure my dog would be ok. We were not prepared to be sacrificing our needs so Medvet could have learning opportunities that should never involve taking full advantage of people.

They prey on vulnerable pet owners by playing "too busy." Medvet lacks the Ethical knowledge and awareness the American Veterinary Association expects them to have in place before they open their doors. If you have morals and want to be treated with respect and know your pet is in honest hands, I would go somewhere other than Medvet. I would advise stay far away from this corporate death trap that is ready to take your money and run. I have to live with myself knowing I let them do more harm than good to my dearest friend, and I will regret this so deeply for the rest of my life- which after the high stress this has been on me, while trying to fight cancer myself, I know it's taken a toll on my health and the suffering I've been having without my service dog is making it that much harder to fight each day for myself.

I am struggling to keep up with so much and I can't help but think what if.........What if we never went to Medvet? I resent how reckless their mismanaged and unethical corporate blob has wrecked my family's life emotionally, psychologically, financially interupted things, and I've never felt so manipulated and taken advantage of to this level of ill communication and brazen unethical practice, in my life.

Updated by user Oct 09, 2021

No one will take time to even give me medical records that have huge chunks of info missing that our primary vet cannot even make sense of what happened.

Original review updated by user Oct 06, 2021

In Oct 2020 my primary vet discovered my service dog had B cells in one lymph node and refered me to medvet oncology. We had a surgery consult that was a drastic surgery and the surgeon actually said, "I might end up yanking out the spleen." This seemed extreme and the oncologist didn't really offer much advice except, "watch and wait." We did, but we're sent back to medvet again in Jan 2021.

We really liked the new oncologist and I felt like my dog was in good hands, until she wasn't. My dog's care had been switched to another doctor without my consent and this doctor withheld critical info from me, abandoned my dog's care and cost us the time to diagnose and at the most critical point, she refused to treat the cancer and let it spread. When I tried to have my concerns addressed I was lectured on how I needed to treat Medvet staff. My dog suffered the last 5 months of her life this was devastating to go through and, now I am suffering and under extreme emotional distress.

Medvet ran up 17k in bills over the last 6 months. They made me keep a card on file and billed it for dates we weren't even there. When I wanted to take it off file, I was told that I would never be able to get reimbursed for the extra charges if I took the card off file. I have yet to be able to speak to a manager or resolve anything and I found out after having to put my dog down that they knew the cancer was spreading but never told me.

The breach in care, lying about lab results, failure to keep records with necessary details needed to give my dog the better outcome, fraudulent billing practices, compounded by communication issues that cost us any hope of remission, cost us my dog's life and it was so traumatizing to watch her suffer through chemo as a desperate last chance and medvet continued to give false hope and engage in unethical practice knowing, it was too late. It is so upsetting to know now, that medvet was never about helping my dog. Medvet was only about helping medvet, and I had to take my dog to her regular vet several times a week for supportive care and to make sure everything that could and should be done was being done, because I no longer trusted Medvet after catching the one doctor in a total lie, and then she lied to the other doctor I did trust, but no one bothered to even sort out the huge issues, instead, I was told, " I'm way to busy and leaving for my summer vacation," and I was forced to rely on the vet who had lied and responsible for my dog's care being dropped and losing our chance to diagnose and treat the cancer. This vets actions and inactions ultimately cost us over 17k in 6 months.

It has been over a month since I lost my beloved service dog, and I am struggling. They have devastated my life. There was never any guidance, and I am sick to find out they had plenty of opportunities to try and diagnose and treat the cancer, but because no one communicated, and the one vet lied about labs, follow up care, she left us hanging and charged us for dates my dog was at another vet. I never got a chance to even meet these people in a video call bc of Covid, so this is the biggest betrayal of trust that could be done to a person.

I am truly heart broken and feel so taken advantage of by this place. The lack of transparency and inability to accept responsibility for major issues is alarming.

I was told, " they feel really bad about what happened." And that, "perhaps they can use this as a learning experience and do a better job next time." There won't be a next time for my dog and I am very upset that I wasn't able to make informed decisions that were in her best interest because I was not given all the information and a vet I didn't even know, much less consent to treat my dog, this vet literally withheld the most important info needed, she lied and made up stories, she caused chaos and confusion and then completely abandoned my dog's care at the most critical point. This vet engaged in a pattern of behaviors that are consistent with malpractice, negligence and incompetence.

User's recommendation: If you go, get copies of everything before it disappears. Do not put your card on file!

Monetary Loss: $17346.

Preferred solution: Full refund.

Location: 349 South 200 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84101

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Elanna D

Emma, please try to contact me. I've written to the website asking if they could share my info with you or visa-versa or find a way to get us in touch without publicly posting contact info.

I tried online to search for your contact info but that was a wild goose chase. My beloved kitty shockingly died at MedVet Salt Lake City the morning after you posted your last update and exactly what you wrote about medical records missing info, his regular vet not being able to make sense of what occurred, etc, is what's happening to me.

Emma Gurley
reply icon Replying to comment of Elanna D

Contact DOPL and fill out the complaint form. You can look at utah code in animal law and also look at AVA ethics.

I'm so sorry to hear about your kitty. I understand how losing your pet child is as bad as losing a human- I actually think it is worse!!! I relied on my sweet baby for medical reasons and am a breast cancer survivor so I am struggling w out her. It is illegal to withhold records and DOPL can assist you in getting them.

If your vet thinks there is issues w record then you can file in small claims court and get your money back. Start with DOPL- the more complaints they get, the more they will take a serious look into the unethical and poorly run medvet that is disrupting the core values of what SLC community is built on and what keeps it connected.

We have to stand up to corporate greed and protect our fellow community by having zero tolerance for the kind of disrespect and nonsense that Medvet uses on vulnerable pet owners. Did they force you to keep a credit card on file?

Elanna D

I commented previously to your review but my comment never showed up! Maybe I told too much of the story, including the fact MedVet gave my sweet kitty a very contra-indicated medicine without any permission to do so and without even asking what medicines he was already taking!!

Then, after he died, they began lying about it, but their vet had already told me what they'd given him, and told me in front of others. I'll skip over the specific details this time about which medications were given and I'll simply say: Same here! I feel your pain Emma! MedVet Salt Lake City made gigantic errors and somehow killed my sweet kitty when they supposedly took him back for IV hydration fluids on Oct 10th.

I've been absolutely devastated for 4 weeks now!. I still can't get anyone to talk to me about what exactly happened. I've called multiple times beginning the day after it happened asking to talk to someone who was there to get a better understanding of what happened. Because I've simply been haunted and can't find any peace whatsoever about the entire matter.

No response, despite being promised each time that someone will call me back. Last time they said it would be passed along to the Director of the entire facility who would get in touch with me. They didn't. The medical record MedVet provided to my cat's regular Dr is also inaccurate and incomplete.

It took him multiple reqauests for them to even provide a record complete enough to say the cat died. His vet, who recommended I take him to the MedVet specialty clinic can't get answers either. He was so perplexed he wanted to do an autopsy. But I'd already buried my sweet boy the night before, which was the same day it happened...a Sunday, when his regular vet was closed and the reason I buried him so quickly is because MedVet said I only had a few hours to do so unless I put my now dead cat, who I called my son 15 years in my fridge or freezer.

He was my first pet so I didn't know. I'd love to talk with you further.

I don't want to publicly post my number and I don't know how this site works well enough to know if we can private message. If you know better than me and can get in touch with me, please, please do!!!!!

Elanna D

Iโ€™ll start by commenting to this reviewer whoโ€™s also in my same city because Iโ€™m not sure I can write my own horrible MedVet experience in full yet. I'm simply too heartbroken and devastated about the way Med-Vet Salt Lake City killed my sweet-precious kitty!!!

Then refuses to even tell me what actually happened. I was devastated and crying in their parking lot for 4 hours with my sweet kitty in the box they brought him to me in. They refused to provide med records to his regular Dr who referred us to their specialty clinic because they had the best imaging and specialists in the valley. They gave my kitty methodone without any consent and without even asking what medications he was already taking, any adverse or allergic drug reactions, etc.

He'd already taken a 12 hour dose o buprenorphine a couple hours before we went to Med-Vet. When they brought my cat out and he was completely messed up, couldn't even stand up, the vet told me in front of others that he'd given Methodone. I said "What's thatt?" He said a pain medicine. I said "Well he's taking buprinex [a brand name for buprenorphine}.

He said "Methodone is 8x stronger" He might have said 6x but I believe it was 8. Whatever it was it was stronger! We had this conversation. After my cat died they are now trying to say they gave no Methodone.

That's a controlled substance!! How can they lie? I still don't know what exactly killed my cat. They said his heart stopped.

He was there to have a feeding tube problem evaluated. There's so so so much more. I'll post more some other time when I'm not in tears. I am absolutely haunted by what they did to my sweet kitty.

He was my son. I bottle fed him when he was born and he was my best buddy, by my side for the next 14 years. When they took him back again after the vet told me about that methodone, it was supposed to simply be for fluids until they specialists came in in a couple hours. The nurse who told me she was the best veterinary nurse in the valley promised me there was no way my little guy was going to die from the double-dose of drugs.

She said his heart and lungs are good. He's just a bit dehydrated. We'll give him fluids. Near as I can tell, and from what one of the nurses did tell me right after he died.

They tried to feed him in his malfunctioning tube after taking him back. He was there because the tube was having a problem and I clearly told them all the details of it and to NOT TRY TO FEED HIM through it. On the partial med records they did provide, in addition to not listing the Methodone, they don't say they fed him. It seems as if he suffocated.

That won't make sense without me providing more info than I can right now. Last thing I want to say is that I've been promised during 5 phone calls to Med-Vet now, beginning the day after he died, that someone would call me/ I asked them if I could just get a better understanding of what exactly occurred after being so shocked he died when they took him back for fluids and insisted no owners were allowed back there with their pets. No one will call to discuss how my cat died. SOMETHING IS VERY VERY WRONG HERE!!!

I sympathize with the poster of this review. I'd love to talk to her. I'm simply devastated and can't believe the supposedly high-tech clinic with all the specialists killed my sweet kitty. They were so irresponsible about their intake.

When the Dr. gave him the Methodone, and we were talking about it, he didn't even seem to know why I'd brought my cat there.

Elanna D

I cannot write my story now because I'm simply heartbroken and devastated about the way Med-Vet Salt Lake City killed my sweet-precious kitty!!! Then refuses to even tell me what actually happened.

I was devastated and crying in their parking lot for 4 hours with my sweet kitty in the box they brought him to me in. They refused to provide med records to his regular Dr who referred us to their specialty clinic because they had the best imaging and specialists in the valley. They gave my kitty methodone without any consent and without even asking what medications he was already taking, any adverse or allergic drug reactions, etc. He'd already taken a 12 hour dose o buprenorphine a couple hours before we went to Med-Vet.

When they brought my cat out and he was completely messed up, couldn't even stand up, the vet told me in front of others that he'd given Methodone. I said "What's thatt?" He said a pain medicine. I said "Well he's taking buprinex [a brand name for buprenorphine}. He said "Methodone is 8x stronger" He might have said 6x but I believe it was 8.

Whatever it was it was stronger! We had this conversation. After my cat died they are now trying to say they gave no Methodone. That's a controlled substance!!

How can they lie? I still don't know what exactly killed my cat. They said his heart stopped. He was there to have a feeding tube problem evaluated.

There's so so so much more. I'll post more some other time when I'm not in tears. I am absolutely haunted by what they did to my sweet kitty. He was my son.

I bottle fed him when he was born and he was my best buddy, by my side for the next 14 years. When they took him back again after the vet told me about that methodone, it was supposed to simply be for fluids until they specialists came in in a couple hours. The nurse who told me she was the best veterinary nurse in the valley promised me there was no way my little guy was going to die from the double-dose of drugs. She said his heart and lungs are good.

He's just a bit dehydrated. We'll give him fluids. Near as I can tell, and from what one of the nurses did tell me right after he died. They tried to feed him in his malfunctioning tube after taking him back.

He was there because the tube was having a problem and I clearly told them all the details of it and to NOT TRY TO FEED HIM through it. On the partial med records they did provide, in addition to not listing the Methodone, they don't say they fed him. It seems as if he suffocated. That won't make sense without me providing more info than I can right now.

Last thing I want to say is that I've been promised during 5 phone calls to Med-Vet now, beginning the day after he died, that someone would call me/ I asked them if I could just get a better understanding of what exactly occurred after being so shocked he died when they took him back for fluids and insisted no owners were allowed back there with their pets. No one will call to discuss how my cat died. SOMETHING IS VERY VERY WRONG HERE!!! I sympathize with the poster of this review.

I'd love to talk to her. I'm simply devastated and can't believe the supposedly high-tech clinic with all the specialists killed my sweet kitty. They were so irresponsible about their intake.

When the Dr. gave him the Methodone, and we were talking about it, he didn't even seem to know why I'd brought the cat there.

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