Animal Hospital of Polaris, in my opinion, consistently engages in acts of deception and fraud.
This clinic offers gorgeous boarding runs at very, very high prices, telling the clients that their pets will be walked six times daily during their hours of 7:00 A.M. To 10:00 P.M. However, this clinic's indoor/outdoor boarding runs and outside, enclosed and graveled exercise area were not permitted under local zoning code and were illegally being used. Area residents initiated a lawsuit, and the new "rule" at Animal Hospital of Polaris was that only one dog at a time could be walked for a potty break, and it had to be on lead (a bather/brusher told me that one dog had gotten away and had run out to busy South Old State Rd. And had to be chased by staff).
I was told that 90 dogs were booked for boarding over a recent holiday. Let's use the figure of only 75 dogs, walked for 5 minutes at a time, six times a day. That comes out to 37.5 hours of dog walking between the hours of 7:00 A.M. And 10:00 p. M, which is, obviously, impossible to do when only one dog at a time is allowed outside. However, there are "activity reports" available for individual owners to review when and how many times their pet (s) were walked. How gullible does the staff at Animal Hospital of Polaris think their clientele is?
The daycare dogs are NOT allowed outside at all. These dogs defecate and urinate on the floor of the daycare room. How these animals maintain housebreaking at home, I do not know, since they are being trained during the day to do their business inside. Owners of the daycare dogs believe that their animals get to go outside for excercise and potty breaks.
In the grooming room, things are no better. Clients are induced to purchase additional services such as toothbrushing, hot oil treatments, and hydro massage treatments, at a cost of $10 individually for each service. The toothbrushing may or may not be given; the hot oil treatment is a quick one spritz from a pump bottle of topical oils applied after the bath, and the hydo massage is a joke.instead of filling up the tub with warm, swirling water to help an arthritic pet, the bather puts the machine in the tub when the bath begins, with the water running and the drain open! At best it is a toe massage!
Customers asking for a bath and brush out for their pet are being ripped off. I saw dog after dog whose faces had never even been washed — they had eye matter stuck in the hair under their eyes AFTER the bath. Rectal areas often had gobs of fecal matter stuck to the hair AFTER the bath and had clearly never had soap or water applied. Top brushing, not the brushing needed to remove tangles and knots, was the norm, and customers were often mocked, ridiculed and made fun of.
A pet owner carried in her dog which had just been hit by a car. The vet tech said the dog was in shock and had either a broken pelvis or broken legs but had been sent away WITHOUT treatment because the owner could not post a $300 deposit. I checked with the vet board and this is not illegal, but I believe it is immoral from someone who says they have "compassionate" care. To make the matter worse, the vet had a donation jar on the front counter asking for donations to treat pets whose owners could not afford the treatment!
The owner, Nikki Eaton, obviously attended vet school but certainly missed the courses in how to treat employees. I witnessed three tirades during business hours; she would tell people that they would have to give up their lunch hours; deride and debase middle management personnel within earshot of employees, and she insisted that a groomer work for free because she had gone by ambulance from work to the emergency room at a hospital and had not been there to groom dogs that were scheduled in. Each of these dogs were given free grooms to be performed by the groomer upon her return to work; all of this without the groomer's knowledge or agreement. This vet, during open hours, stood in the front entryway and screamed at a groomer, "Don't mess with this bitch! I'm the biggest bitch you'll ever see! For once, she was right, but still very unprofessional.
I think this vet bit off more than she could chew when she moved from her old location to this big, 3 plus million dollar facility, and is now willing to do whatever it takes (and I don't mean this in a nice way) to pay the bills. Honesty, ethics, and respect for others don't exist in this building.
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