Whitehouse Animal Hospital

Never Again

I feel that this location was the worst. I adopted my first puppy which was a boxer at the age of 8 weeks. He was white with just a little brown on him. I took him to Whitehouse Animal Hospital for his first shots as this vet was recommended to me. The first visit was really quick as I took him by myself. Dr. Thoma spoke so quickly that I had to keep asking her to repeat herself. By this being my first pet, I was not sure if she hit all of the points or not. For his next set of shots, my fiancé and I took Horus together. We arrived at the appointment 15 mins early as our appointment was for 9:45. There was no one else there but yet we still were not called into the back until 40 mins later. Ok, so now we are in the back and we still sit there and wait for a additional 20 mins. It was not until my fiancé poked his head out of the room and asked how much longer would it be before the doctor would come in. The staff acted as if they were shocked that she had not been in. Less than a minute later, doctor Thoma came in apologizing about the wait. Ok, stuff happens so I moved on. They took a stool sample as usual and checked for a few other things since I let her know that my puppy sometimes did not have an appetite. She left out of the room after the exam and stated that she would be right back with the results. About 15 mins later, she came back in and stated that we could leave. We asked about the results and she stated that she forgot and that we could wait in the front. While sitting there for another 30 mins two women walk in stating that they brought their horses. She runs out and come back in about 20 mins later holding a puppy telling the two staff members to look at her new addition. Meanwhile we are still sitting there waiting. I then stood up and asked the receptionist if we could get the results and at that time Dr. Thoma came back into the front and asked why were we still there. I looked at her and stated we are still waiting for the results. She then apologized and stated that everything was fine.
Two days later which was Monday, Horus really appear that he was getting ill. He still was not eating, was vomiting but no diarrhea. My fiancé took him back in and Dr. Thoma stated that she believed that he was fine. While in the office, he had bile that she could not hold in. The smell was so bad that they removed the entire can from the room and sprayed. She stated that his stool should not smell that way and should not be watery. My fiance asked could it be Pravo and she stated that he is fine and if anything it could be some disease that causes the pancreas to breakdown as she had seen this in another boxer before. The boxer that she was speaking of was an older boxer. Dr. Thoma prescribed some liquid meds and antibiotic pills. Overnight Horus seemed to deteriorate so we called again Tuesday. We were told that Dr. Thoma would be leaving the office early afternoon and that we could bring him Thursday. She assured us that he needed surgery and it would be $600 -$800 and all money needed to be paid up front. I asked if there was a way that we could do a payment arrangement as we could not afford to kick out that much money all at once. Her staff stated that was not an option. I then called around to different vets trying to get him in all while asking around while I was at work about places I could take my baby. My fiancé called to inform me that he begin to foam at the mouth and nose and was not responding. He took him to a vet and we were told that our baby has Pravo and that it was too late.
My baby was 13 weeks old when he passed away which was on 6/22/11. Explaining to my two daughters was the hardest thing I had to ever do. I am so upset that a vet such as Dr. Thoma could not recognize the signs and did not do blood work to determine what was going on but yet wanted to do some surgery and take our money. We lost our beloved pet. Although I know that Dr. Thoma could not prevent him from getting this virus, she could have saved his life. With this being said, I will never go back to this vet nor recommend to anyone.