Reviews of Metro Animal Emergency Clinic in Dartmouth

After calling around to 4 vets and being refused as they were "fully booked" I was told by one vet clinic to call the metro emergency in Burnside. I was surprised as I thought they were only opened for after hours. I called with hopes to get my dig in for an ear infection that was getting g any better. I explained to the front desk what was going on. She turned me down saying it wasn't an emergency. NOT AN EMERGENCY?! Ok so my dog isn't on his deathbed but he is suffering from this ear infection. The other clinics could see him but 3 days later. What shape would he be in by then? It would be an emergency than as the infection would be worse and possibly go into the bloodstream. So instead of seeing him now and stopping what could turn into an emergency it's better for the dog to wait 3 days. Lord where is this so called compassion they claim to have. I asked the front desk why they call the clinic an emergency and in the past I remember bringing my pets there for anything and what if I waited until after hours to bring him over. Again I was refused because it wasn't considered life threatening. I again asked when dud this change cause we could always bring pets in after hours when your own vet clinic closed. She asked me to hold and then Diana came on the phone. Apparently she is the office manager. She preceeded to tell me the clinic is basically for life threatening aminals and if they seen my dig for an ear infection it takes time away from a dog who is dying and if thats what I wanted. Of course not but my dog is supposed to suffer cause no one will see him. Hiw long would it take to see a dog to look at the ear and prescribe meds. 3 hours??? So Diana gave me a number to call to see if they would help us. No sooner I dud I hang up Diana had a big write up about abusive behavior, rudeness, manners etc towards the front desk. Like really I WAS NOT abusive or did I was use foul language. Trust me if I were you would have known the difference. I was frustrated as my dog needs attention and NO ONE would help. But if it makes Diana feel like she has power by putting up posts on Facebook how she comes to the aid of her staff well so be it. As far as everyone making comments on her post about how rude people can be and that the staff at Metro emergency are great than your pet must have made the cut to be seen. Before taking one side.....get the facts from both sides first.

Never in my life have I been so disgusted and felt so disrespected as I have after our recent experience with Metro. I have updated this review to reflect further developments. My partner and I brought our cat to Metro on death's door, suffering from a severe blockage. He wouldn’t make it through the night without treatment. Running a fever with a bladder that is about to burst, the staff at the hospital waited two hours before stabilizing him. Why? Upon giving a treatment recommendation they informed us they wouldn't begin any treatment until they got a deposit of $1000. Not even insert a catheter and release the pressure on his bladder.

Being that it is after 1am at this point, we don't have access to the funds we need until the next day. We even sent financial documents proving we had the funds available. Didn’t matter. The doctor proceeded to tell my partner who is crying her eyes out, that our cat is in pain, and he is going to die if we don't get them the deposit, because they can't start doing any treatment otherwise. They needed a “show of good faith”, as they put it. Despite the fact that we were actively calling family to help secure a deposit, they were content to wait before they would begin treating our dying cat.

If my pet was dying and I didn't want to bother to pay to save him, I wouldn't have brought him to you in the middle of the night and waited several hours, calling friends and family to come up with the deposit so you would attempt to save his life. I get that you want to mitigate financial risks, but the fact that this clinic told us as a policy, they won't start doing any treatment, even just the bare minimum basic triage of draining his bladder to keep him alive, until getting a deposit…it felt like they didn’t trust we had the intent to pay them. Fortunately, after multiple attempts, we were able to connect with a family member who came through to help us get the deposit.



What came after is honestly what leaves the real sour taste in our mouths.

The next morning, the office manager Diana Stevens called us to inform us that this kind of behaviour is not tolerated at the hospital. Surely this must be an apology, right? Wrong. She had seen my one star Google Review from the night before, and it was clear she was bothered that I posted it because she mentioned it several times. Rather than trying to understand what happened, she came out on the offensive and insisted her highly trained staff would never refuse to treat an animal because of a deposit, going so far as to accuse us of lying. She claimed they started treating him immediately (even though when I called to check up on our cat 3.5 hours after bringing him in, I was told by the staff member who answered the phone that they were just then putting in a catheter, only after we paid our deposit).

How can we not be upset when we’re being told information that directly contradicts everything we were told the night before? Something doesn’t add up.

Next, Diana brought out a ridiculous accusation, saying that allegedly she was told we were verbally abusive when we came in, and that as a result we will not have access to any treatment for any of our animals going forward through their clinic, and that we were to pick up our cat that day and never return (as if we ever would after being spoken to this way). Not once did she try to assess the situation and clarify any potential miscommunication.

Coming off the immense stress of the night before, to then have a confrontational call from the office manager just to berate us and accuse us of lying...I'm still having trouble processing it. My partner was crying all last night and this morning because of this experience, and I am just truly so disappointed in how the entire situation was handled. I'm not sorry for leaving my one star Google Review, as the retaliatory response from Diana Stevens only reinforced our decision to never use Metro again.