SAGE - Specialty Veterinary & Emergency Care

1)  I took my dog in, due to her constant weight loss.  The more I fed her the same dry dog food she had been eating for the past 12 yrs (chicken & rice) the more weight she was losing; therefore, I kept feeding her and adding more treats, getting desperate and scared.  The doctor (nameless for now) suggested multiple intestinal, blood, liver (organ) tests, all coming back negative.  These tests were ran during a series of a week. The next tests suggested were for cancer and when I indicated "I don't do cancer" now realizing I might have to put her down, then and only then did the doctor suggest that I change her food.  Naturally, she couldn't tell me over the phone; instead, she waited till I cried myself to sleep for 2 nights, phoned and left me a message 2 days later when she realized I meant it.  WALA!  That was it!  My dog was allergic to her food, finding out later from another doctor, she has allergies and allergic to all meats.
2)  My girlfriend 5 days ago went to Sage to put down her dog. They would not allow her to go in.  They gave her dog a pain killer, sedative and the fatal shot (so they said), then came to her as she was waiting in the waiting room and said the fatal shot did not take and they have to do it again.  She would not tell me what they charged her, as she was extremely upset while she was telling me, over the loss, but said it was very expensive and charged her for all 4 shots.

Our 12 week old puppy ate some fabric and unfortunately it quickly moved into her intestines. Sage personnel were incredibly professional and friendly starting with the front desk staff, to technicians who took as much time as we needed to get comfortable with everything, to the Doctor who was caring and professional. Unfortunately our puppy required surgery which was expensive, but it was the right thing to do at an appropriate cost. Puppy is quickly recovering. We would definitely return their again (but hope we don’t have to).

I have used Sage for specialty veterinary services for approximately four years. The specialty section can get a bit pricey since we are talking about oncology, neurology and intensive surgical procedures...but, you get what you pay for. They are up front about what the costs will be, but that is an owner's choice as to how much to invest in pet care. I am a very proactive pet owner and do not just follow the doctors orders on choosing care. I like to discuss the pros and cons and have a say in what treatments we will and won't pursue. After disagreeing with the doctors on one occasion, that doctor called me two weeks later to tell me I made the right choice (even though she did not find the data supporting my decision until after the fact). I respected the fact that she called me to tell me that. Most doctors would not have called, they would just let it go .After that situation, we continued to use Sage for specialty care and had a great relationship with all of the doctors we needed for our pet's care. Unfortunately, we lost that pet early last year after a valient fight with cancer and kidney failure.
I will continue to use Sage for specialty and emergency care. Their entire staff feels as if your pet is part of their family and everyone has a vested interest in giving them the best quality of life they can have.

They were extremely expensive. It was over $500 to feed him some charcoal, check him out and keep him for about 6 hours. They seemed very thorough; that's probably why they run up the price so much. They are an emergency vet so people don't go there unless they are very concerned about their pets and I think they take advantage of them. They are responsive. They are there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We were there for probably 3 hours; we had to leave him and then come back. There are several emergency vet hospitals so we might try another one if we needed one.