Valley Veterinary Service-Member Aaha

I have never had a bad experience at Valley Vet. In fact, I have only had good experiences there. I have a dog that has a condition for which there was no protocol as so few dogs have ever had this condition. Dr. Shanahan was fabulous and has managed everything with holistic supplements. The entire staff is wonderful. They are all very patient and kind. I would recommend this practice highly! I have been a pet owner for many years and am very familiar with veterinary clinics, hospitals and doctors. Valley Vet is wonderful!

As a Registered Nurse and a person who formally worked in the customer service industry I have an acute since for what it means to provide good healthcare along with good customer service. You will not find this at Lee Valley Vet most likely due to the horrible customer service skills of their Office Manager, Susan Beckwith. These are the issues I have encountered
–Prescription filled for a 32mL of Metacam, but I was given a 10mL bottle which is much smaller than what I was supposed to be given. If I weren’t in the habit of checking all medication given to me (a nurse always checks what medication is given) I may not have noticed the error and would have paid double for what I was given. Trying to solve this problem was an even bigger hassle because the above named Office Manager has to fix these types of things and is rarely in the office, from what I gathered.
–Test done on my dog that I did not approve and were unnecessary when I had an area in her mouth lasered for a growth. I did not end up paying for these tests, but if I wasn’t a nurse, I would have never known how unnecessary these tests were and would not have challenged the tech who told me all of the stuff they did without my consent.
–One of the vets tried to retreat my dog for Lyme’s when her Quant C6 test came back at 32 after being 250. If the quantitative value is 50% less than the original value it means treatment was effective for Lyme’s. Needless to say 6 months later the test was less than 30, which means there is not active infection. Again, if I wasn’t a Nurse I would not have known this and my dog would have been on antibiotics for another month!
–I called for a prescription refill for my dog, was never given a call back that it was OK’d by the doctor and my prescription sat at the front desk for 3 days.
Upon picking up said medication I asked for Heart Guard for a rescue dog I recently adopted. I had left her heart worm test results at home, but told the woman at the front desk, Andrea, that I would drop it off next time I was in the neighborhood. She said it was fine. Well, Susan, the office manager overheard this and with a very cold and rude demeanor told the office assistant not to give me the medication. Now, I work in healthcare and there are rules that I certainly understand, but without even an explanation or a smile this woman turned to walk away like she could care less that I was a paying customer. I told her I had been going to this vet for years and she said she didn’t care and would be happy to forward my dogs’ records to another vet.
Needless to say we are moving to Dr. Reiner at South Street Vet.
I can certainly deal with a few mistakes here and there, but complete disregard for the fact that I am a paying customer by Susan Beckwith is so completely insulting and I expect my animals to be cared for by people with more decency.
As a side note, I have spoken with a few people in the community who also feel this place is going down the tubes. I found South Street because one of the women I work with has had a very bad experience with them as well.

So highly recommend this vet! They have been so helpful and have given our dogs fantastic care! Even after we moved away, they were still willing to give us GREAT advice over the phone! Very appreciative of the fantastic service!