Pet owners beware! This review is being written in the hopes that others with pets, especially those with dogs, will seriously consider against using Rabun Animal Hospital, for the care and wellness of their best friend. First, let me say that what I am writing about in this review happened a little over a year ago. It has taken all this time for me to be able to write about the suffering this hospital and staff put my beautiful dog through in the last few days of his life. To this day, I am still grieving. My dog was diagnosed by Rabun Animal Hospital with liver failure in March 2014. The hospital admitted him to their care on a Monday morning so that they could perform further blood work and then later that evening, they were to start my dog on a series of intravenous fluids, which he would stay on during the night. The next morning when I went to visit him, he was brought out by an assistant, soaking wet, shaking and freezing cold. When I asked the assistant why he was wet, she said something vague about him having an "accident" during the night, because he had been on an I.V., and that they had just bathed him. To be clear here, the temperature that morning was 41 degrees and the staff knew that I was there to take him outside for a walk. This was my first indication that Rabun Animal Hospital had little concern for the comfort and well being of my dog. Further, when I asked the assistant to please take him to the back to dry and warm him, then to bring him back to me so that I could visit and walk with him, she never bothered to return. When I approached my dogs doctor about the incident, I found that no one had even considered taking him for a walk the previous night, a period of over 12 hours, and that because of his weak condition, he had urinated on himself, and then had remained soaked in his own urine all night. My dog was a very proud and noble being and for me to know that he had to spend one of the last nights of his life in this horrible condition, this broke my heart.
According to that female doctor, overnight patients, even the terminally ill, were expected to urinate in their pens at night. They expected them to be able, as she put it, "to urinate in one part of their pen and sleep in another", apparently even if they were dying. When I asked that doctor if I could please stay with him myself that night so that he did not have to go through another terrible night like the one before, she actually laughed, saying that was not possible, that it was against insurance regulations. Though what she said next really upset me. She said that they did actually have someone who they could get to walk the dogs at night, for a small charge, and that she would see if they would be able to walk my dog that night. Fortunately I was able to transfer my little buddy to a specialty hospital that afternoon so that he did not have to suffer another night at Rabun Animal Hospital, and we were able to go for one last ride together. The hospital, Upstate Veterinary Specialists in Greenville, SC, walked my dog several times each night while he was in their care. They did all they could to make my beautiful friend comfortable in his last days. I will always be grateful to them for their compassion and care. It was not until a few months later that I was composed enough to be able to talk to the owner and head veterinarian of Rabun Animal Hospital concerning the mistreatment my dog had received while in his hospitals care. The owner apologized and assured me that they would be "addressing my concerns", as he put it, and that the office manager would be in touch with me, as soon as they got to the bottom of the situation. Other than a brief message left on my answering machine by the office manager a few days later as she was on her way out for a vacation, to this day, I have not heard a single word from anyone at that hospital. Up to that terrible day in March, when my dog was diagnosed with liver failure, I had taken him for a complete physical, blood work included, twice a year, every year, for the past three years to Rabun Animal Hospital, and I thought that they really cared for him. I now realize that when a few days later, after he was no longer in their care, and I had settled the final bill with them, they no longer had any use for me, and were no longer concerned with any mistreatment my best friend had suffered while in their care. I loved my dog very much, and felt strongly compelled to write this review, which is the first review I have ever written, about anything. Please take to heart what I have written here, and if you really love your "Best Friend", then please BEWARE of Rabun Animal Hospital. read more
