This place is far from the friendly and caring place it used to be five years ago! It seems that…read moretheir heart got lost somewhere along the way.
Back in 2019, we had all our six feral cats spayed and neutered at the same time. We thought that we had found THE animal hospital that was friendly and caring. When one of our cats swallowed a thread, they were there for us, being kind enough to do only what was necessary in order to respect our budget. Then things changed.
One of our male cats developed a urinary blockage and we took him to Hudson's for emergency care. They kept him from Saturday evening until Tuesday, this being a long weekend. When we were given an estimate in the 2K and were asked for a deposit of $700. During our cat's stay, twice a day, we were given updates on his progress. Tuesday morning, Dr. Cockburn phoned to tell us that our cat was doing better but that he was not out of the woods yet. I asked if she thought it better that we left him for another day or two. The answer was that it would cost $380. Then she told me the bill was for 3K. When I told her that we were told it would be in the 2K, she got mad, telling me that the first bill was only an estimate. When I insisted, telling her that it was already hard to come up with the first amount, she got mad and told me to come and pick up my cat. Seeing that I would have a hard time paying, she offered to have me pay the initial bill and pay the rest by October, the ''rest'' being a few hundred dollars, I thanked her, but preferred to borrow from a friend.
When we got there, we were ushered into an examining room and a Technician came to tell us about our cat. She was very nice, answering all our questions. When she left, the receptionist came in with the credit card terminal to demand payment! Usually people pay at the reception, where they afraid that we would not pay? Only after payment, were we taken to the reception area where our cat was waiting in a traveling box, on the ground, facing towards the back of the box.
When we got home, I noticed that his mouth was all swollen and half of the skin was rubbed off his nose, he was in a pretty bad shape. Next morning, I phoned Hudson's to ask what was wrong with my cat, at that point, he could not drink nor eat, I even mailed them a picture of the cat's mouth. The receptionist told me that Dr Cockburn would call back, she never did.
We had to take our cat to another animal hospital where they diagnosed a really bad case of Calicivirus. That kind of infection does not develop into such a severe state overnight! He had to be treated given subcutaneous fluids at home and care had to be taken not to infect our other cats. In the five years I had my cats, none of them ever suffered from Calicivirus, it seems that our cat caught it at Hudson's, they could at least have told us!
Dr. Cockburn never bothered to tell us that our cat had Calicivirus that needed special care. She didn't even bother to call back! Seeing that his mouth was so badly swollen, and he could not eat nor drink, she could have shown us how to rehydrate our cat through subcutaneous fluid administration, she never did. We were let down because we had no more money!
I am disgusted with this place! They should be made to reimburse me the vet bills I had to pay to fix their negligence. Animal Care is a big bucks business,especially since CoVid19 and it seems that money has gotten to Hudson Hospital's head. I have found another Animal Hospital in Laval, and will go there from now on. Prices are more adapted to one's budget and the people working there are empathetic towards your animal's needs and your situation.