Ontario Veterinary College

Procedure and knowledge wise, probably the best. Service and communication, it is hit and miss. The first vet was great at communicating and putting himself in our shoes. The second vet was terrible at communicating and had not empathy.

You may have heard wonderful things about OVC ICU small animal hospital in Guelph but I have different story to tell. Story that is hard to believe, story that does not happen at the state of the art facility used by referring veterinarians across the province for treatment and care not readily available in general veterinary practice. Well, it happened to me – the most horrific nightmare and experience imaginable happened to us at OVC small animal hospital and I feel that people need to hear me out in hopes they reconsider entrusting lives of their pets in to hands of OVC. I certainly would never trust them again. To sum up here and also reported for investigation to their regulatory body, here is our heartbreaking story; story which in human health would be considered malpractice in every sense of the word: - OVC veterinarian that took care of my little girl failed to follow mandated standards of care in respect to documentation of administered medications. During review of medical records after my little girl’s death it has come to my attention that it is not clear if IV Lasix was administered (drug that I requested in final attempt to save her since IM Lasix was ineffective). No time, no route, no frequency was recorded which reflects failure to follow standards of care. There was no possibility for misunderstanding of my request. Several people heard me. - Further, corrections were made to the chart (initially reported 2 doses of IM Lasix were corrected to 4 doses of IM Lasix) upon my request to review her medical records. Charts should not be corrected when family requests to see them! If there was discrepancy, this should have been caught by the end of the shift since we are not discussing here minimal things such as bad hair cut. It is life saving drugs that were not properly recorded yet I was told they were administered. We will never know as there is no proof of administration nor route or time of administration. - Repeatedly I had to keep asking for numbers and results of the tests they were doing as I am familiar with them. No one took me seriously as understanding this information my self and wanting to be informed. They failed to inform me accurately which resulted in euthanasia since I thought there was nothing more that could save her. - There was significant 3 week delay in providing me with medical records after initial request for records was made and error in number of IM doses noted. Since 3 weeks passed before I could obtain medical records and with failure to document IV Lasix, any reports now are speculations and in favor of what I want to hear. However, there is no proof that IV was administered as I had requested as last bit of hope in saving her life or at least stabilizing her. - To word it politely, the head of OVC ICU showed no interest in providing me with answers in timely manner after this error was discovered (which provided more time for things to be forgotten). - They further made a mistake in reporting she arrived with IV from referring veterinarian. This is not accurate as I have numerous times asked for IV to be started in Guelph. - It’s been 4 months and I still have no answers. I will never have the answers if the IV Lasix was truly administered – my wish to try everything possible to save her prior to opting for humane euthanasia was taken away due to negligence of veterinarian to document administered medications. - No apology for the grief of never knowing if she could have been saved with IV Lasix, no explanation as to why they failed to adhere to the standards of care has been received. I will take all the proper steps in ensuring this does not happen to your loving pet. Those that don't love what they do should not work in this profession. These little guys can not speak for them selves so it is our duty to ensure they get best care possible. I was in the position to provide this to my little girl and OVC failed her. Stay with your local vet and local emergency clinics (amazing care) without hoping to receive better care at OVC.

Good college. Amazing professors.

My dog suddenly became paralyzed while we were visiting family in Ontario over the holidays. After a brief work up at a small animal clinic, we were sent with an emergency referral to the OVC Companion Animal Clinic. OVC called the clinic back and said they were unable to do an MRI until the following week but assured us they could do other diagnostics. Upon arrival they immediately brought my girl to ICU and sent us back to the waiting room. We had a short consult with a veterinarian who was waiting to speak with the neurologist. Finally called us in to tell us they couldn’t do an MRI until the following week, charged us $250 for ICU Monitoring (which she didn’t need! She was not in life threatening or unstable condition). He proceeded to tell us we could call around to see if we could get in for an MRI sooner at another clinic, but was unable to tell us which clinics had the capability - being from out of province we had no idea who to call.. I have also had to wait over 2 weeks just to receive a copy of the claimform and invoice so that I can submit to my pet insurance company. We decided to wait until we were back home to Calgary to do an MRI with a clinic we can trust... turns out we didn’t need one. The vet we saw could tell immediately that there was something else going on, complete a series of X-rays, and diagnosed her with bone cancer in her neck and she was euthanized. I am livid knowing that OVC should have been able to diagnose her 2 weeks sooner and we wouldn’t have had to put her through additional pain and suffering.

Best vet school in North America