Canyon Pet Hospital

We have been going there for years. Service has always been excellent. Recently we lost our wonderful old dog. So we got a beautiful little puppy, undoubtedly our last dog considering our age. Just shy of her second birthday she developed impacted anal glands. The vet said that there would be no problem removing them. This has been a nightmare. Either something went wrong with the surgery, and I have no reason to believe that, or there were complications after. To their credit the vet took our beautiful puppy back and worked on her gratis for a week. Didn't help. She was clearly in distress and pooping all over the place. We did everything the vet recommended, medicine, new diet, everything but nothing worked. So eventually we decided to end this. I'm terminally ill with no idea how long I have to live. Could be months or years. Coming to terms with that was far easier than deciding to end the life of our wonderful little friend. Up to this point we had no problems with what the vet had done. But that changed today. The exchange got REALLY heated on both sides. None of that can be documented because no one else saw it. But it was pointed. They refused to put our wonderful little friend down. As we left the owner came out and stopped us. After making a totally horrible comment about our attitude he said: "You are terrible people for wanting to put down a perfectly healthy puppy just because you are too weak to deal with this." I'd rate this experience as worse than learning I have terminal cancer.

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On September 29, 2014, my wife and I took our two Yorkie puppies to Canyon Pet Hospital for a pre op exam so that we could have them spayed. We wanted Canyon Pet to do the work because we had very good experiences with them in the past. My wife and I even preached to others of how wonderful they are. No more. During the pre op exam, we explained that we would have to drive over an hour to get there and my wife could not sit upright for long periods of time due to pain. She is in a wheelchair and suffers a lot when sitting in it. The vet told us to tell the intake personnel our situation and they would move our girls up the priority list to accommodate us. Since every room has a mission statement posted and that mission claimed to have a facility that “meets all the needs of our clients and their pets” we had no reason to believe that the vet spoke anything but the truth.

On October 14, we woke at 5 AM to prepare for the trip to Flagstaff and on our arrival informed the lady behind the desk of what the vet had told us and again informed the intake tech who said she would take care of it. When we pressed for a ballpark time when we could pick them up she explained that they would have to stay for two hours for observation following the surgery so it would be early afternoon. We left our little girls and went to see what we could do in Flagstaff. A little after 12:30 we called to see the status. We were told that they were not going in until AFTER a waiting “neuter” operation was completed. Some quick math indicated that we would not be able to pick the girls up until after 4PM and more than likely closer to 5. We told them to get our animals ready because we could not wait that long as we had told them repeatedly during the intake.

Then it got bad. My wife made me promise to let her handle things. We went into the reception area and she expressed her anger at the lies we had been told and she wanted to see the office manager. We were quickly rushed to a room so that no one else could witness the effects of Canyon Pet’s error and when we decided we had been hidden long enough, my wife opened the door and was met by the guy who had been working in the parking lot on some general maintenance issues. He had no ID, did not introduce himself and began yelling at my wife. I was doing a fair job of keeping my promise but he continued to verbally abuse my wife because HIS staff had screwed up. When I decided to put an end to his abusing my wife, he literally tried to goad me into a physical confrontation. The only thing that I can compare him to is a 19 year old frat boy who spent too much time at a keg party. When I asked him his name he turned his back to me and yelled “Chris“ and a couple of muffled syllables. When I asked him to repeat it he then turned and yelled “Did I stutter?” I told him that he had his back to me when he answered and he turned away again with a gesture of his right hand and yelled “I OWN this place. Look it up”

The web site invites you to write to him with your concerns. Don’t bother. Chris Miller is not an accountable person. Mistakes can happen. A man owns up to them. A child blames others.

Incidentally, he charged US for the luxury of his abuse.

Called day of and did not have an appointment, was able to walk in and was helped promptly and courteously.

They are very good with animals. The first few times, I went in with the puppy. After a while, I saw that they handled the pets really well, so I just let him go back in there.

Aside from not liking the 50-mile ride from our home to the hospital in Flagstaff, our cat did exceptionally well. His surgery was successful and he was sent home with Yesterday's News litter and pain medication (which made him too drowsy to jump and play as he normally does). As to the "B" rating, it didn't have to do with the surgery, but with so many different people at the hospital who dealt with his case. We were told that we would be called the morning after the surgery to let us know when to pick him up, but we weren't. When we tried to call, we didn't get through (answering service picked up) and we had to call again and demand the hospital. As we were leaving, we were told by the nurse that they would call the next day to see how he was doing; they didn't. So, I recommend them for the clean facility, the ability of the doctors and staff, and having the expertise to use laser for declawing (which is much easier on the cat), but pet owners must be pro-active and not expect to speak or deal with people who may not know your pet's condition (e.g., the nurse releasing our cat didn't know if he had sutures or glue because she wasn't the nurse in the operating room).

They do a very good job and will continue to take our cats to them in the future.

Dog starting showing strange symptoms, looked like parvo to me. They ran test after test after test. It wasn't until she started having seizures did they listen to me. They were going to keep her overnight - but put her to sleep instead.

All procedures were done exactly when and as promised. The staff is lovingly caring with the pets. They take pictures of your pet and have a file you can access on their website. I think this is the best vet I've ever dealt with and have dealt with many across the country from FL to MA to CA and more. I'm pleased that I know they have emergency services and boarding all in one beautiful, new facility. Appointments are available on weekends and after normal business hours, too!

Please see my comments above and may I add that Canyon Pet Hospital has been our vet for three years. In which time besides caring for Rip the have helped us with caring for two senior Boxers, (Mac and Dublin) who are physically no longer with us but spiritually always will be.