Small Animal Clinic

Write a Review334-844-4690

CLOSED NOW - Opens at 7:45am

I read the other two reviews here and I totally disagree. Over the past 9 years we have had two animals go to the vet school clinic. They have had excellent treatment and the staff is caring and compassionate. In fact, we are going there tomorrow to get a diagnosis on a 13 year old cat who might have cancer. It is up to a pet owner to decide when their beloved pet has had enough treatment. It is up to the clinic to give you options. We love this place!

We took our dog there a few months ago with a broken leg. They did the surgery and put a pin in her leg. They kept her longer than they said they would. I think it was to rack up a nice bill. Then told me I had to take her to the back for bandage changes like twice a week. After her leg popped open exposing the pin about 3 times. They decided to take the pin out. And then started with the bandage changes again. This racked up a nice bill of over 3000. Which I paid and had a payment arrangement with them for the last couple hundred dollars. Well My new puppy got sick and is almost dead. We took her in and they refused to see her unless I paid money. I didn't have any money so I asked if she could be put on the payment arrangement for my other dog. Well The lady in charge was flat out rude to me and told me she didn't tell me I could finish paying after Christmas. And she didn't remember telling me that. Now my son's puppy is gonna die because I didn't have the money to pay for an emergency. I would never take another animal there. They don't care about your pet. They just want the money.

I am writing this review about the Auburn University Small Animal Clinic because of my distaste for them and recent experiences with my girlfriend's dog.



Background on the dog:

My girlfriend has a 9 year old Scottish Terrier that was been diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure. She was diagnosed at the AU Small Animal Clinic. In case you are unaware of that disease it is Chronic Kidney Failure, where the animal's kidneys do not function properly anymore and it is difficult to catch in the early stages and there is no cure.



Treatment: We were given a strict treatment (not cure) for the scottish terrier. A k/d renal diet, phosphorous binder, pepcid AC, and subcutaneous fluid injections.

Subcutaneous fluid injections require you to lift up the skin of the dog and insert a needle and using an IV bag, basically pump these hydrating fluids under the dogs skin.

The dog's body will then absorb the fluids because the amount of water the dog drinks per day is not enough and the fluids help to wash out the toxins from her body. We had to do 300mL of this every other day. It got to the point where Toto (the dog) could not tolerate being poked every other day so we learned of an implant by the AU Small Animal Clinic. The implant was a tube that goes under her skin and a catheter sticking out of her body where fluids can be painlessly injected. They expressed how this was a new technology and was just coming into use.



The Clinic: During this course of treatment Toto has gone to the vet multiple times. The staff is extraordinarily slow and consists of primarily intern students. One actual doctor is usually on staff and is always a different doctor every time we went, which means we had to spend at least 30 minutes every visit explaining Toto's situation, telling them what needs to be done and essentially telling them how to do it because none of the interns were familiar with the disease and none of the doctors were very familiar either nor did they actually want to do anything because the surgeon that put the implant in Toto was never there and couldn't consult him/her.



With the Implant in, we now had to do 400mL daily (it was peculiar as to why we had to inject more fluids when her blood work came back better than 2 weeks prior...the bags are about $10 each and hold 1000mL each, btw). Recently the implant site has become infected, and began to leak out of the site. We went to the vet and they told us not to worry about it leaking but offered expensive options that will only lead to other expensive options.

Their suggestions, as we compared with other nurses at different veterinarians, are unnecessary and reflect their desire for money than actual care for animals. We took Toto recently to a veterinarian in Birmingham, AL because of our distaste for the AU Small Animal Clinic and they removed the implant and said Toto only has weeks to live. They said those implants haven't been used in years because they are so prone to infection, clogging, and overall failure. They did this whole procedure and more for significantly less than what the AU Small Animal Clinic priced it at. Also we now only have to inject 200mL every other day.



Recommendation: I recommend highly against going to the Auburn University Small Animal Clinic for anything. They are very expensive, don't care about your pets, will use any excuse possible to charge you, and seem to neglect referencing records. Last visit it took us over 2 hours just to get more fluid bags and food. The staff member kept coming back to ask us what we needed because she kept forgetting.



I am a student at Auburn University and I love the school and have heard great things about the Veterinarian School here, but this Clinic reflects poorly on the school. Do not go to this vet.