One Star for the kindness of the girl…
One Star for the kindness of the girl we dealt with, nothing for the rest.
Our dog had respiratory issues and we attended village Vets for a scan, then a rhinoscopy and and a biospyall in the last few weeks. At that point we had paid over 3,000 euro just to get to the point of a diagnosis.
For the scan, we paid an extra 160 euro for same-day results to be sent to our vet. Two day's later our vet still hadn't received anything from them. We rang Village Vets and got them to send it on. I asked for a refund of the 160 and I was told someone would get back to me. They never did.
Yesterday our dog became very ill with fast laboured breathing. We had about 300 euro left between us and the lady on the reception phone said come to us (60km) as they might be able to set up a payment plan. I really believe this was a ploy to get our custom as the receptionist was answering detailed questions on the phone when we got there. She surely knew the policies of the company regarding payment.
Our dogs chest or lungs was filled with fluid. First there was the charge of 120 to talk to someone, then 200 for a blood test, 90 for a scan then more money for other a steroid injection and some mucuous-clearing medicine.
We were just about to leave when they said his temperature had gone to 40 degrees and he was critical. They said they can do a thoracocentesis (a chest tap) to relieve the fluid but that was another 500. We didn't have that kind of money so we asked if we could set up a direct debit, with the outstanding balance owed going into their account automatically, three days later.
The girl went out to a manager somewhere and came back and said "Sorry, we can't do that". We said we were getting 2,000 euro three days later if they could just give us two days. "Sorry no, we cant do that."
The girl seemed to go out to this manager unseen a few times, just to come back with no everytime. I don't know if draining his fluid would have saved him but to be denied that chance because you don't have half a grand on you there and then.....
So, I think we paid another 250 to put him to sleep. We are going to pay 358 for cremation. In total, to bring him there and have him put to sleep and get his remains in a box is going to cost 1,080 or there abouts.
My experience over three visits to this place is that it's a money printing factory. It's a boom industry, first and foremost and a vetinary practice second.
What hurts the most is, we could have gone to the emergency hospital assigned to our local vets. Things could have turned out so much better. It was the same distance. We might still have our dog with a simple direct debit set up to pay out 3 days later...
I'm stlll wrapping my head around their refusual to perform a potentially life saving procedure because they'd have to wait a few days for a guarenteed payment.....If that doesn't show this companies biggest priority then nothing does.
And when this gets the standard reply trying to justify their costs and how it covers all the staff involved....we dealt with that one very young girl and another very young girl held our other dog on a lead while we said goodbye to our dog. How much did that cost? I genuinely wonder if we were charged for the two or three pieces of tissue we were given for our grief.
The softly spoken young woman was really nice to us. I had to ask her name as she didn't give it as medical professionals are meant to do - that's the kind of feeling of ineptitude you get here.
Honestly, as nice as she was, she seemed like a child, way out of her depth to me. She spoke so quietly and softly, like teenagers do in adult situations. You'll find the staff are almost exclusively young women under the age of 25/30 which had us wondering about their competence in terms of experience.
The place has that feel of trainee doctors who are going to make a lot of fatal mistakes on animals. I can't say that they do, but it's perfectly normal for this to happen with junior medical professionals.
I just kept wondering where are the experienced middle aged men or women here? For these prices, you should be getting the best, and the best become the best after decades of experience.
I'm sure that these young doctors truly adore the animals they care for.
It's this manager level, that doesn't show it's face thats the greedy issue.
In closing, we are heart-broken, we are cleaned out of savings, but there's one thing I can do...advise people to check out other places before coming to Village Vets. Maybe it's as bad everywhere....but avoid this place.








