Pet Care Veterinary Hospital: Hawkins III William DVM

Had to have my best friend put down. They were great.

Very biased, BUT amazing veterinary hospital with doctors and staff second to none. Nice lobby, plenty of room to wait with your pet away from exuberant dogs. Friendly (busy!) receptionists move quickly to help direct very sick pets to nursing staff. 24 hour care available at Mendocino location along with access to specialists and advanced testing and treatment...hard to find a better place for very sick or injured pets and those needing wellness careud83dudc3e✅♥ufe0f

I’ve taken pets to Mendocino Pet Care since they opened. In past 12-months, local owners were bought out by national company. Changes have not been good.nnWanting to give a fair and objective review, so I rated 4 categories based on visits past 1.5 years.nnFor compassionate, professional, helpful, knowledgeable staff I gave 1 star. Of interactions with more than 15 doctors, nurses, technicians, & support staff, only 2 people bring rating up to 1 star. Others have been some combination of unhelpful, inexperienced, deceptive, uncaring, money hungry, with a low concern & tolerance for animals & people.nnFor reasonable prices for products & services they earn 0 stars. Pet Care was always more pricey but before the conveniences, stellar staff & facilities made it worth it. Facilities continue to be clean, well maintained, have nice decor & size & be comfortable. They still earn 5 stars.nnFor ease of getting an appointment, under new owners, they dropped from 5 to 1 star. I used to be able to get appointments 7 days a week at nonemergency prices either same day or within 24 hours. Convenient! Now, it takes 7-days or longer.nnTo further illustrate why 2 star rating, here is recap of last visit, an annual exam to update shots. Booked with first available vet for date 2 weeks in advance. This vet, who I’d never met before, seemed more interested in how much money she could get me to spend than about my dog.nnI asked about a sore place on dog’s back that he had scratched raw and was weeping. It was a cyst, she said. It could become serious, if not treated. Recommended a blood panel to make sure it wasn’t dangerous yet & to determine overall dog health. She said ONLY cure was surgery at $1500 just for anesthesia. Anything else done while he was under would cost more. She was disappointed his teeth didn’t need cleaning too. With just cyst, cost estimate was $1800 - $2300. She was impatient with anything she couldn’t charge me more for. I asked her to look at his ears several times. She never did. Visit cost $300+. I was going out of town & would think about surgery. Doubtful about finding money for it.nn3 days later, day before leaving on car trip, dog had diarrhea. Called to ask Pet Care if they could give me an anti-diarrheal since they’d just seen him & he’d had blood panel & I was leaving in morning. Nope. I had to bring him in & it would be more costly ER visit. I said nothing had changed in his appearance since visit, your going to ask me questions that you can ask on phone. Nope, they had to see him. I replied sarcastically that I’d send him in to be looked at while I waited in car. I hung up. Support person called back that she’d explain to doctor & see what could be done. I reminded that I was leaving in a.m. Pet Care is open 24 hours. Got call mid morning next day. I could wait a couple days & see if it cleared up but I had to bring him in. I’d already left on car trip. I was annoyed.nnIn WA I went to vet I had used there before. They apologized they couldn’t get me in right away, scheduled for 48 hours later & gave supplement to help before visit.nnSupplement cleared it up but decided to keep appt for 2nd opinion. Vet also said it was a cyst. But treatment he recommended was to put a cloth soaked in warm water & Epsom salts on it for 5 minutes 3x a day. It cleared up within 4-days!