July 21, 2018 - Difficult breathing sounds woke me up at 5am. My beloved 14 year old cat which otherwise had so far been in perfect health, was in respiratory distress. Not choking on a fur ball, but short, shallow and noisy breathing by his mouth, eyes open wide, foaming at the mouth type of distress. I tried to calm him, tried to have him interested in fishy oil or water (thought some hair could have stayed stuck), but there was nothing I could. At some point, he just went to the basement to be left alone. I called my clinic, got voice mail, called another clinic which was said to have an emergency service, got another voice mail (using the "emergency" number), not impressed. So I thought I would give it some time. Afterall, he was otherwise perfectly healthy cat.
By noon, the worst seemed to be over but still, he had short and shallow breathing so I called the same clinics I tried at 5am. They could not see my cat, they gave me another clinic's number, who also could not see my cat, who then gave me another number... so I just took it upon myself to look up vets on google again based on proximity and statisfaction rate. This is how I found this clinic and let me tell you, I am an extremely difficult to please person, but they simply wowed me.
From the moment they picked up the phone, they sounded like they genuinly cared. I explained my cat's symptoms, the technician put me on hold very briefly to speak to the vet and came back saying the prognostic was not good (and told me why) but also that they would see my cat if I came right away, which I did.
The clinic was bright, clean, and the staff was welcoming and soft spoken. I hardly waited before seeing the vet. From the moment he walked in the exam room, he seemed genuinely concerned and was very caring for my poor Fred. He did a preliminary physical exam, shared his preliminary diagnosis, explained to me what other tests (blood work, lungs x-ray, etc) he could do (and the risks involved given my pet's distress), the meds he could administer and their purpose, and gave me a quote before proceeding to make sure I was fine with the fees.
He was honnest and told me that there was a real possibility that much could not be done for my old loverboy, even with the tests and treatment plan he was already starting to think about, but his fees were very reasonible for everything that was included and his entire approach made me feel like I could trust him, so gave him the go ahead.
After $553 + taxes for a full exman (no surchage for emergency), a number of blood tests, 2 X-rays (which he showed me and took the time to explain to me), administration of oxygen and a sedative to relieve my cat of some stress caused by his condition, injections on site, plus meds to administer at home for a week before we go back for reassessment, it is too early to tell if my cat can be saved, but I feel like I obtained great quality care for him at a fair price. I therefore highly recommend this clinic.