We have been going to Charlotte animal hospital with all of our pets since 2001. Dr. McDonough is one of the best vets i have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. That being said over the last 4 to 5 years the clinic has been changing. I wasn't sure why until I looked it up and found Dr. McDonough and Cronin sold to a corporation. It is obvious in so many ways. My very first experience with the clinic was when I had a puppy eat something (Dr. McDonough guessed a skink or frog) and was seizing eyes swelling out of their sockets, it was bad. Doc said he would keep him and try everything he could, but he admitted he wasn't sure anything would work. He saved my baby and I thought I would have to pawn my soul to pay the bill, but 3 days in the hospital ended up costing less than 200.00. (This was in 2001) Because of that experience I was dedicated to Dr. McDonough. Well because of the changes in the last few years, it feels like they want to push treatments for money not for the good of the animal, last year we started moving some of our pets over to another vet. We kept one there because Dr. Cronin had seen him last and told us he thought he likely had cancer and told us what to look for because we did not want to put our boy through a ton of testing just to end up putting him down. So a little over a year later, the symptoms Dr. Cronin had described had manifested and we made the terrible decision that it was time to put our big boy down. We made an appointment and took him into the clinic. Dr. Kimbler spent less than 2 minutes with our boy, literally felt one mass, listened to his lung sounds, felt his hips and then declared that she would not be putting him down today that she wasn't comfortable with it. She said we could take him home for 2 weeks on pain meds and if there wasn't any improvement that we could bring him back and she would do it then. This was the final straw for me with this clinic. I told them we would take him home but we would NEVER be back. I stated that the clinic seems to be money grabbing. I left with our baby while my wife tried to talk to another vet. That was unsuccessful because the other 2 vets didn't want to over step Kimbler. So we leave with our dogs records. After a week and following Dr. Kimbler's plan of care and his health continuing to decline, we took him to another vet. Upon arriving at the other vet, I open his records and all I can say to all of you is ask for copies of your records. Throughout the notes made it reads as though we requested treatments for our dogs that were actually recommended by the vets and we agreed to because they recommended them. Also in the records was a letter that we would no longer be clients of Charlotte Animal Hospital because we would not listen and openly communicate with the vet. This was such a joke for so many reasons but the 2 most obvious reasons, we said we would never be back, and Dr. Kimbler did not even listen to everything we had to say.
We after a discussion with the other vet, she definitely felt that our baby had cancer and that it had progressed to his brain and that things might get much worse more rapidly than we could imagine. After she spent 45 minutes examining him (which is far more than we could have ever expected) and going through all options with us, we made the decision to move ahead with the euthanasia. This vet didn't admit until after we finally made our decision that she was relieved because she truly believed that was in out boy's best interest.
I am sad that Charlotte Animal Hospital has become this money machine, but I am so glad that we have found a wonderful vet that is consistent for our babies. It isn't like Charlotte Animal where you never know what vet will come through the door. The vets at Charlotte Animal don't get to know your animal. Be leary of this vet. She is one of the worst I have ever encountered in my life and I have had animals throughout my 51 years. Kimbler does not listen nor does she care. I would rate her a negative 10 if I could.