NOAH'S BRANDYWINE ANIMAL HEALTHCARE CENTER

I feel like that come up with a lot of ways to charge you. I felt like it was awfully expensive.

It cost a lot. When we get a checkup, it's a lot. The price was $150 for each. They keep good records. They remind us when the dogs need a booster or their annual check or shots. They send us a reminder, and they keep a track of that. They have always been good with the dogs.

Brandywine and the Noah's system is our choice in pet care. The staff is excellent, but once was extraordinary.

We usually go yearly and I have been going there for about 10 years. If you have something done for your pet they call to follow-up the next couple of days to see how your pet is doing. We had a pet put down one time and we got a card from them that was signed by all the people so we thought that was nice. I will use them again in the future.

My mother passed away in May and I inherited her (huge) black and tan Coon hound mix, Amadan. I currently live in an apartment (employer furnished so I can t break my lease and move) that doesn't t accept dogs and a friend reluctantly agreed to foster him until I find a new job. A couple of months ago Amadan started attacking my friends dog for no apparent reason. Both dogs have required stitches. Dr. Shepherd not only took care of their wounds, but has gone out of his way to help us resolve the problem. A few of the fights were captured on videotape and he took the time to watch the videos and gave us his opinion and suggestions. Since the reason for the fights isn t clear (to humans anyway), he took the time to upload some of the videos to a list server he is on and gave us other vets. opinions. He has also given us a lot of useful articles to read regarding sibling rivalry . It is difficult to find someone willing to foster a 100 lb dog and I am deeply grateful for Dr. Shepherd s continuing help. Without his help Amadan probably would have ended up in a shelter.

Not long after we had moved to New Castle my dog, Kujo, jumped off our back porch and hurt his right rear leg. He was diagnosed at the emergency vet's as having a broken toe and a torn ACL. The toe had to be amputated and the ACL needed surgery. LONG story short, it took five surgeries to finally get the ligament repaired correctly. After surgery number four, Kujo started showing subtle signs of pain. I took him to the emergency vet's and they said he was fine. The following week he started yelping a little every now and then, and I took him back twice that week. Both times I was told that he was fine. The following week he started jumping up and running in a circle crying out in pain. I took him in four times that week and each time they said he was fine. I even took a video of it and showed it to the vet, her response was that he was putting on a show for me. To make me happy, she set up an appointment with the surgeon. The surgeon took the KE brace off and said that the pain was caused by the leg muscles and that therapy would help him. As I was leaving that appointment, I contacted Dr. Shepherd s office to set up an appointment for a second opinion. I explained the problem and how much pain he was in. The receptionist set up a firm appointment for the next morning and said that they would try to work him in that afternoon, no guarantees though. Since he had never been seen at this office, I was really surprised when they called a few hours later and told me that they would be able to see him that day. I was impressed with the office from the beginning. The receptionist contacted the other vet a few times in an attempt to get Kujo s records. They did not want to send them. I called to see why they weren t sending the records and I was told that they would fax them. Kujo s nightmare had been going on for a little over four months and they only managed to fax three pages. The receptionist called again to get the remaining records. They told her they would fax them and never did. They later claimed that they were given the wrong fax number, but could not explain how the three pages made it to the office. When Kujo and I got to the office we were greeted and taken to an exam room immediately. When Dr. Shepherd came into the exam room, he immediately sat on the floor and started talking to Kujo (who was trying to get as far away as he possibly could) instead of immediately trying to examine him. Kujo responded very well and even went up to Dr. Shepherd on his own. I was really impressed when Dr. Shepherd did NOT muzzle him even though it was obvious Kujo was in a lot of pain and the exam would probably cause a bit more pain. Dr. Shepherd had never met Kujo before so he wouldn t know what a sweetie he really was and, lets face it, a big black dog with the name Kujo is enough to scare a lot of people off all on its own :)It took Dr. Shepherd less than 15 min to determine what was wrong. He explained all of the treatment options.

We were very frustrated that after having made a second, explicit appointment, we were still not going to be able to see the vet. The office manager gets distracted, doesn't see patients quickly, and tries to ''upsell'' services, at multiple ''interaction points.''When the vet finally did see us, we gave him feedback on his overall service, office management, etc. We have had some recurring issues; and feel their prices are high. Some of our feedback was arguably unprofessional - we were under the stress of having our dog sick and not able to walk on all four paws. But, the way the vet handled the situation was also unprofessional and not customer focused. He didn't acknowledge any wrongdoing or possible improvement. We requested to have our records mailed to us, and to close out our account. He wrote a handwritten letter (the most personal contact we had had with him!) defending his office efficiency, telling us we were rude, and were not welcome to come back to their office.