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Veterinary Recommendations?


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#16 Dartmore

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Posted 16 September 2006 - 10:41 AM

I'm getting to be a fan of Lakeside Pet Hospital. The staff & expertise at Folsom Vet Hospital are great, but Lakeside takes care to closely diagnose & treatment my dog. Lakeside's "bedside" manner is awesome and they're not hesitant to give a prognosis.

We like Banfield the one time we went there but they recommended Advantix for fleas & ticks. Not good. Advantix is well known for nasty side effects in some animals - so risky that most vets won't even sell it.

#17 szmomof4

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Posted 16 September 2006 - 01:19 PM

QUOTE(Dartmore @ Sep 16 2006, 11:41 AM) View Post

I'm getting to be a fan of Lakeside Pet Hospital. The staff & expertise at Folsom Vet Hospital are great, but Lakeside takes care to closely diagnose & treatment my dog. Lakeside's "bedside" manner is awesome and they're not hesitant to give a prognosis.

We like Banfield the one time we went there but they recommended Advantix for fleas & ticks. Not good. Advantix is well known for nasty side effects in some animals - so risky that most vets won't even sell it.

I agree, We used to see Dr. Pfeil and for the last year Dr. Kaplow. When our dog was very ill, Dr. Kaplow's bedside manner and care of our dog cemented that we will only go there. The office staff is great too... When I had 2 babies in car seats, I would drive up and they would bring my dog food order to the car for me. It was great not to have to unload the kids.



#18 folsominthefall

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Posted 18 September 2006 - 06:36 PM

I know it's very out of the way, but I drove all the way up to Auburn tonight to see my old vet, Dr. Rice at the Evening Pet Clinic on Flood Rd. Their regular hours of operation allow for night appointments and he's always been awesome to my kids. Most places have day hours and if you need night hours, you end up having to pay extra to go to emergency clinics.

PS -- don't anyone tell him I called him "old" -- k??

#19 Bill Z

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Posted 30 November 2007 - 03:46 PM

QUOTE(ilovefolsom @ Sep 10 2006, 08:00 AM) View Post
Can anyone recommend a good veterinarian in Folsom that isn't a rip off? I've been taking my cat to Banfield inside of PetCo but have quickly discovered they're pricey. Anyone have any good recommendations?


I like PetVets. They have always been good with my dogs.

Hi Pachango
I would rather be Backpacking


#20 Gina99

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Posted 01 December 2007 - 08:35 AM

I love Lakeside. All of the staff and Dr.s (especially Kaplo) are wonderful. One time when I was leaving, the door to my cat carrier came off and the cat came out, getting underneath the car. The next thing I know Dr. Kaplo and his entire staff are surrounding my car making sure she is safe and that I could get to her. Really funny now that I think of it.

#21 Folsom-res

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Posted 28 December 2007 - 08:09 PM

We just went to Banfield (inside Petsmart on Ironpoint) and have to say that our previous poor experiences were repeated. We arrived early for a 5:30 appointment and had still not been seen by 6:00 pm when we finally left. The vet that we've seen on duty there seems to really enjoy shooting the breeze with customers about non-treatment topics (and at great length) while other customers with appointments sit in the little rooms waiting and waiting. At the exceedingly high prices Banfield charges one would expect reasonably prompt service. A quick search online for "Banfield Sucks" yields stories of many far worse issues about Banfield. For instance: Banfield Sucks. Their "wellness plan" seems to have a lot more to do with their financial wellness than your pet's wellness.

Although I don't have a recommendation for an alternate in Folsom I do want to share with everyone that the UC Davis Veterinary Teaching Hospital is one of the best facilities in the nation and only 40 minutes away. If your pet has a serious issue, it is absolutely worth the drive. They offer advanced and cutting edge treatments there that even the better vets in this region simply can't. In fact, they develop and test new treatments there that won't be available at local vets for years.

A few years ago we had a healthy middle-aged cat that suddenly developed a blood clot. We rushed him to a vet and they told us that he would be dead in a few hours and that we should put him to sleep immediately. Being stubborn I decided to rush him to another vet to get a second opinion. The second vet told us the same thing - no hope. I basically begged the vet, pleading "there must be something someone somewhere can do". The vet finally mentioned "well you could try taking him to UC Davis. They'll probably just tell you the same thing and he might be dead before you get there anyway. It's an extreme long shot but maybe they have something experimental that they could try. They develop treatments there that we've never even heard of, much less have access to." We didn't even know there was an animal hospital on campus at UC Davis but we were willing to try anything.

So we raced across town to UC Davis. The student there (you are usually diagnosed first by a senior student, then a vet instructor comes and does their own diagnosis while the student watches) basically agreed with the other two vet's diagnosis. Then the instructor came in. He looked at our cat and then asked us to hold on while he got someone else. He came back with a woman doctor who looked at our cat and said that they had been experimenting with using a "clot buster" drug developed for humans in small animals. It turns out that this woman was one of the department heads and one of the world's leading researchers in this area of veterinary medicine. Since every vet had agreed that our cat would be dead in a few hours we told them to go ahead with the experimental drug. They admitted our cat into their intensive care unit where he was cared for 24/7 by experienced students (they have to be near graduating to participate). They were literally with him constantly over the next several days. The drug worked completely and our cat fully recovered. Four days later he was discharged - healthy and purring up a storm. It was truly miraculous. They did warn us that blood clots like this become chronic in cats that get them and that the odds were extremely high that he would have another one and that he might not survive twice. Within a year he did develop another smaller, much less serious clot and at that time we talked to them about any available treatments. They worked with us to put him on a human blood thinner. Although experimental in small animals it worked amazingly well. The only downside was that it was a bit expensive for a pet medication (even though we were using much smaller doses than humans). As another indication of how unique this hospital is, they worked out how we could mail-order the human medicine in bulk directly from Canada. This cut the cost dramatically (and they didn't make a penny on it since we were ordering it ourselves). I don't think a for-profit vet would have done the same - even if they knew about this experimental treatment.

In the end our cat lived another three years with very high quality of life. His successful treatment also ended up advancing the state of veterinary medicine, perhaps helping thousands of other cats in the future. His case was written up by his medical team at UC Davis and featured in an international veterinary treatment magazine (they were even nice enough to send us a copy of the magazine). After our cat passed away, we got phone calls from several of the doctors and students just to tell us what a special cat he was.

I can't recommend UC Davis enough. The level of treatment our cat received was quite literally better than any medical treatment I've ever seen a human get. My spouse and I would often say (only half-jokingly) that we wished our HMO doctors were as cutting edge and skilled as our cat's doctors. Even more amazing, the prices were actually less than Banfield. The downside is that you have to drive 40 minutes and the appointments can sometimes take longer there due to the teaching aspect of the hospital (which they warn you about in advance). However after our recent experience of waiting so long for the most minor of treatments at Banfield I think we'll just make the drive to UC Davis even for minor things. Frankly I'd rather have my dollars supporting the fantastic research and education that they are doing there.

Maybe knowing about the UC Davis veterinary teaching hospital will someday help you (or someone you know) give your beloved dog or cat extra years of healthy life when they are literally minutes from being euthanized.





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