We took our dog to the Dog Lofts for boarding and daily playtime while we were out of town. We had just moved to the area and we saw the reviews about Dog Lofts and figured it was worth a try. The girls at the front desk were nice but not overly "warm" towards us or our dog. I took a glance at the play area, and was very surprised to see it was just a concrete area with very few toys and not as big as we thought. But, it was clean and for being in a city, a fairly good size.
The very next day we receive a call from the Dog Lofts stating our dog had an oral papilloma (a very contagious, but not dangerous, type of "wart" so to speak), and because of this he would not be allowed to remain in play time and had to be transported to the isolation ward. We were aware of the oral papilloma, but the vet we took him to never told us just how contagious it was. Being first time dog owners, this was our mistake and we absolutely understood him not being allowed to have contact with other dogs as it IS very contagious to dogs. We understood 100%, the Dog Lofts said they would transport him free of charge, and said he would still get several walks and one-on-one attention with a human while in isolation.
When we came back from our trip we went to City Vet (where the isolation unit is) across the street to pick up our dog. When we got there and told them who we were there for, the girl at the front desk looked very confused and asked us several times what dog we were there for, both of our names, and other information about our dog. We told her all of this, and she still looked very confused. She then asked us if he was only boarded for one night, which we said was incorrect and that he has been at City Vet for 4 nights. The girl then told us "I have never heard of your dog being here". Of course, this led me to become very nervous, thinking all sorts of things could have happened to our dog. She then said she found our dog in the system, but that he "was not there" at City Vet. We told her what we were told by Dog Lofts, and after looking more closely at the computer said "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh yeah I see it now, he is here." She then started rambling some excuse about why she was unaware of our dog being there as she had not worked in a couple days...yet our dog had been at City Vet for 4 days. I then started questioning her to make sure SOMEONE knew he was back there and was taking care of him, as she put us under the impression that NO ONE knew he was there. She of course explainined that other people knew he was there (which I figured people would not just walk by a dog in a kennel and not see him/feed him, but being a little nervous already it took me a minute to calm down). She then sent someone back to get him, and he comes out and first thing I noticed once he calmed down was a big cut on his nose. I asked the Vet Tech that brought him out what happened, and he just said that is happens to a lot of dogs when they get excited while in the kennels and they scratch their nose on the door when they are trying to stick their nose underneath it. This cut was very red, and I said I wanted someone to come look at it to be extra sure. They assured me it was fine. However, we have boarded our dog several times at other places, and never once has he come back with a cut on his nose. To me, this means perhaps the kennels need to be changed in order to keep dogs from hurting themselves, since this "happens to lots of dogs". The lady at the front desk then told us none of his stuff was at City Vet, but was still at the Dog Lofts. This mean that his collar, harness, toys, and bone that we brought specifically to keep him company had not been with him this whole time. While it was nice that someone brought everything over from Dog Lofts to keep us from making an extra trip, we were still very annoyed at this point.
I am hoping this was just a random, rare occurance, but nonetheless we will still never use the Dog Lofts/City Vet again. The poor professionalism of the staff had us thinking our dog was not even at City Vet, our dog's cut was disregarded as common, and the lady at the front desk never once apologized for causing our anxiety. We will definitely be taking our dog elsewhere so he can get the care he deserves. read more