The Oaks Vets

Sep 15th, 2022

Please use caution when using this vet, cat owners especially. My boy was having breathing issues and on the first visit the vet (a young guy who is lucky i can't remember his name) seemed more interested in rushing me out so he could go home. He even seemed annoyed at Tiggs walking around the table and pushed him into the carrier. The vet said it could be astma and gave steroids. This didn't help so i returned a week later. He again seemed uninterested and suggested an x ray but he said due to his age (8 nearly 9) he wasn't 'overly concerned' about heart issues and seemed to talk me out of it regarding the price. He actually said i had the option to just do nothing. I chose to try an inhaler. What makes me sick though is that the vet noted a significant weight gain in the space of a week and DIDN'T THINK TO INVESTIGATE. Instead he seemed to not believe me when I said his appetite had dropped and he was barely eating. Well I know now that this was likely fluid build up. Yes,you guessed it, around his heart. Tiggs got worse to the point he was struggling and having more attacks, i booked in again and was told to go to Saltcoats (again this woman was speaking 100mph and seemed uninterested but said she would book an x ray for the following morning). That evening he nearly died. It was absolutely awful. We took him to an emergency vet who saved his life. The next day (Thursday) Oaks, after having him there for hours, decided not to do the x ray but to charge a ridiculous cost to send the bloods (which MBM vets had collected) to a lab. MBM had drained fluid after finding a pericardial effusion and for one day he seemed back to himself and eating again. But on the friday evening the breathing difficulties began again and i stayed up with him. He lay on my chest and I knew he had had enough. Its one of the worst pains i have ever felt. We returned to Saltcoats on Saturday morning where i was told the blood results hadn't been back yet and they had no idea what was causing the attacks but given how quickly the fluid had built up it seemed to be a particularly aggressive cause. To his credit, the male vet at Saltcoats was genuinely caring and gave me time. He was very kind. I could tell he liked cats unlike the guy at Dundonald. I made the difficult decision to let Tiggs go and i was told that because of the circumstances the cost of the blood tests would be refunded. I never found out the cause and it has haunted me since. Not only that, the costs were deducted from the cost of eurhenasia and cremation which, looking at the bill, they had written as being around 400 before deducting the blood tests. That is a disgusting amount. Having always owned cats and having had to sadly euthenise my eldest girl at another vet only 5 months previous, i know for a fact this is blatant overcharging. It gets worse. I was phoned a week later, thinking it was regarding the ashes. No. It was them asking about a second cat they had on file, who they had not asked after in SEVEN YEARS, saying that they noticed he was due his vaccinations and would i be interested in making an appointment? I.e. more money. Also, I specifically requested a paw print as this was something very meaningful to me. I waited and waited but nothing appeared. Then, when i went to pick up his ashes, i asked where the paw print was. The receptionist said i should have received it and that it had been listed as being out to post 2 weeks ago. Lo and behold three days later the card appeared. Clearly they had forgotten to send this which to me sums up the uncaring nature of some of the staff. Again i am referring to the Dundonald vet in particular who, had he properly looked at the signs, could have helped discover the cause sooner instead of allowing my boy to suffer at such a young age. I intend to never use this vet again.
Jul 6th, 2022

Jul 4th, 2022

Barking great
May 11th, 2022

Seems to have gone a little downhill since change of vets
Mar 30th, 2022