Banfield Pet Hospital

After our previous vet almost killed our dog with a misdiagnosis and an inappropriate treatment plan, we brought her to Banfield Pet Hospital. We were not very optimistic based on our prior experience with the other vet. Our pup was a mess! Dr. Hille was simply AWESOME! She came up with a treatment plan and was very up front about the cost, prognosis and risks. She was very honest about the fact that she had never performed the procedure she was planning, but she was very reassuring. She had done her research and was confident in the outcome. Our once very sick little dog is now almost completely back to her old self. I cannot recommend Dr. Hille and the entire staff at this pet hospital enough. The pet wellness plan is also a very good deal. We had already spent hundreds of dollars on worthless treatment at our prior vet. For $ 40 and some change each month, we now have most maintenance things covered and affordable care should anything else go wrong. I’ve read complaints about the rotating vets, but we have had no problem or resistance to setting specific appointments with our preferred vet.

I am a pediatrician and take my dog to Banfield. I love the wellness plans they offer, which can include spaying and dental services. Each vet I’ve seen has been very compassionate and professional. I (and my dog) especially love seeing Dr. Hilly, and recently had a great appointment with Dr.Reed. The rooms are very clean, and I feel like I am never waiting more than a couple minutes to see the vet. I definitely recommend Banfield, especially to new pet owners.

I have the wellness plan, and I’ve taken my cat here several times. There is no consistency with the veterinarians, and because of their policy that they won’t prescribe medication to an animal they haven’t seen, I have to take my cat in every time he needs a refill on a medication he’s been on for close to a decade. The same vet is never available twice. They don’t seem to keep accurate records of his medical history, because they ask me the same questions about his seizures every single time. On top of this, today one of the staff members, Sarah, was so incredibly rude to me, telling me it was my fault that I didn’t refill my cat’s medication in time causing him to have a seizure. This was without knowing any background about why I had to wait so long to refill the prescription, or knowing anything about me or my cat. She was yelling at me up at the checkout! I have never experienced such poor customer service in any establishment. I will never bring my cat here again, and I cancelled my wellness plan. I will say that the vet tech, I think his name was Ahmed, treated my cat well, cleaning him up with a towel in a very gentle way.

Dr Reed was great with my difficult 11 yr old lab. He is very nervous and has bitten in the past. She took time to listen and make him comfortable. By far the best he’s done at the vet. Highly recommended.

I have been going to one of the highest rated vet clinics in Portland for years, and made the switch to Banfield. The reason was because teeth cleaning prices are insane every place except here! I was quoted almost $ 1300 from my old place and from nearly every place for my pup’s teeth. At Banfield, the tooth cleaning comes with their cheapest plan, at around $ 35 a month. You really can’t beat that. She did have to have one extraction which made it a little more, but still not even half of the other estimate. They were soooo good with her and called to ask about the extraction as well as let me know her progress. They even let me keep her tooth! They remember her each time we come in. This weekend, I added my second dog to their senior plan and plan on doing the same with my third dog. Of course it was the price that got me in the door, but I really like everyone that works there. They make my dogs and I feel welcome and comfortable. I’ll miss my other vet place but I won’t miss the money I’m saving.

I have had 1 cat enrolled in their care plan since last September 2014. He has feline leukemia and once I found out knew that he would likely need plenty of care. In the span of the 11 months he has been in care he has had dental work done, blood draws, IVs, etc. He is not an easy case. We’ve met with several different doctors at both the location on né 82^nd and the location on 21^st. Recently we needed to upgrade our wellness plan to the biggest one they have for cats. When I was charged for that days visit, that months normal cost of $ 42 and the new fee of $ 32 all in the span of a few days I called their business line to sort things out. I waited over 15 minutes to speak to someone. I had been told I owed $ 15 to upgrade and that was it. I spoke to someone named Rosie who was condescending and rude. She even told me the hospital did me a courtesy for upgrading my plan early and was clearly losing patience with me as I explained that in office I was told something completely different. Most of the vets appear caring and nice, and I will continue to take my cat here until the end of this plan, but I think it should be really clear that the people doing the veterinary work and the people handling the money are very different and when you are spoken to like garbage after spending far over hundreds of dollars at this establishment I will never refer anyone to Banfield.

I really think Banfield is amazing. I have encountered one thing I do not like very much. I adopted a cat from the humane society a few months ago, took him into Banfield and get him on a plan and was excited about it. Well, the poor guy ended up having FIP, I had to put him down and now they wont let me out of my plan, that I used twice during two office visits. I have to keep paying for entire year on a cat is not alive. That’s pretty shitty, I adopted another cat and I am trying to decide if I will use thier services again. What if he gets sick as well and I’m stuck with another years worth of payments on his wellness plan. I hope they evaluate this part of the plan, its a horrible policy and makes me feel shitty for trying to adopt a pet that needed a home.

So now that I’ve been going here for over a year I wanted to update my experience. They’ve now lost one of their doctors so it’s just Dr. Hille and Dr. Black. The place always feels like they are overwhelmed when I go in, and I don’t like interacting with a stressed out vet. I’ve never had that when I’ve worked with private practice vets. These doctors are being pressured by corporate Banfield to produce revenue so they have to see a ton of pets every day. They work at least 11 hours a day when they are there and it’s just too much. The technicians are actually really friendly, nice and seem calm compared to the front desk people and the doctors. I’ve now also had mix ups in appointments, very long wait times both in the room as well as in the waiting area, and yet there seems to be only one other pet in a room when I’m there! The practice manager Audra is great with everyone, but seems to be trying to do everyone’s job since they seem a bit understaffed. Yet she’s always upbeat and friendly and pays attention to the pets. The great part about this place is that they are there from 8 — 7 seven days a week.

This was the closest pet hospital to us so we went there for a year whenever my dog had an issue. We really love the atmosphere. The doctors and assistants seem very very nice and knowledgeable. My dog LOVES going there because he thinks he just gets spoiled there! We are moving to another city and we are very sad having to go to another doctor/​hospital!

Came in to pick up my cat’s prescription food (cause he’s soooooooooooo needy) and anyway it should have taken like 2 seconds but it took more like 20 minutes. There was only one person working the front and a big line of people waiting to be helped. I understand being busy but I had to wait 20 minutes to buy a bag of cat food while other people went through scheduling and stuff. They were very very nice, but maybe need to staff up at busy times.

Oh man. Thank goodness for this place. Lifesavers.
I’m housesitting/​petsitting for a friend who’s vacationing in sunny Mexico. Her dog is the best ever and now I want a dog just like her all the time forever. She’s cute and energetic and loving and has the best ears and the best snout and likes to burrow and snuggle and I just love her.
Which is why when I got out of the shower the other day to see that she had gotten into a dark chocolate bar that my mom gifted me for Christmas and was buried deep in a bag within a bag on the floor, I panicked. Dogs can’t eat chocolate, right? Or is that not really a thing, fingers crossed?
I had no idea. So I Googled. And turns out my vegan preference for deliciously dark & rich chocolate bars this time resulted in Puppy’s almost-​literally death-​by-​chocolate. Turns out, the darker the chocolate, the more dangerous.
She didn’t eat too much, but I wasn’t taking any chances. This little cutie needs to live! So I called her vet, Banfield Pet Hospital on Weidler, hoping they’d be all, «Oh, gosh, she didn’t eat that much. She’ll be fine. You can totally go see Pretty In Pink at Laurelhurst with your friends.» But INSTEAD, they were all, «How big is she? 23 pounds? How much did she eat? 2 squares? Um, bring her in IMMEDIATELY.»
*gulp*
So I got dressed and Puppy and I hustled our way over to Banfield. Everyone was so nice!!! They made it seem like it was totally going to be OK, but also a totally good thing that I called and brought her in, which is the perfect balance when you’re pet-​sitting and you’re not sure if you almost killed your friend’s dog.
They made her throw up, and got out all of that pesky killer chocolate, then made sure she was fine before reassuring me again that she’d be fine but I did the right thing by bringing her in.
Phew.
I took my little troublemaker home, cooked up some rice with chicken broth that the doctor recommended, and stayed in and cuddled her all night. She’s fine, and I’m so so thankful that everyone at Banfield was professional and nice and funny (you shoulda heard them exclaiming when she threw up – they were so proud/​grossed out, it was hilarious).
Also, they have a wicked fancy coffee maker in the office that by the time I figured out how to use it, I decided I didn’t want coffee after all, but there were lots of cool flavor packs and buttons to press.
Lessons learned:
~ DON’T KEEP YOUR CHOCOLATE ANYWHERE NEAR WHERE YOUR FRIEND’S DOG CAN FIND IT.
~ Dark Chocolate *is* poisonous to dogs – white chocolate and milk chocolate are mild-​moderate, semi-​sweet chocolate is moderate, baker’s chocolate is severe.
~ Banfield Pet Hospital saved the day and I love them and now my friend in Mexico has a dog that’s still alive. *wipes brow, pours huge glass of wine*