A Small Animal Hospital

I am writing this review after utilizing their boarding services. I had previously used their services for a week in July when I went on vacation.
On September 8^th, 2015 I picked up my pug after leaving him in the care of ASAH for the Labor Day weekend. Upon picking him up, I said that I was there to pick up my dog, and after looking him up in their system proceeded to retrieve him. The technician did not bring him straight out, instead she brought him in the back and I heard a spraying sound, then she brought him out. He was still wet from his bath, but he was overly excited which isn’t normal for my dog.
At first I thought that maybe the technician sprayed him down to wet his coat to give the appearance of a bath, but then I noticed his foot had a blood stain on it. I then asked her what she was spraying on my dog, and then she tells me that it was a hydrogen peroxide spray to clean the blood on his foot. I was then told that while trimming his nails she got too close to the quick, which happens.
I understand this happens, but what I’m livid about was the fact that it took me asking questions to find out my dog was injured in the care of ASAH. Instead of being upfront, they chose to be secretive and try to mask my dog’s injury. When my dog got in my car, I noticed fresh blood marks on the seat and then I noticed his foot still bleeding. I got him home and then cleaned and bandaged his paw, then immediately got on the phone to ASAH.
The technician was surprised that his foot was still bleeding, and apologized but that is where the pleasantries ended. I asked to speak with her supervisor, I was told that she wouldn’t be in for another 20 – 30 minutes, but she will leave a message and get back with me after that time. Almost an hour elapsed so I drove down there in person to speak with her. The technician said that she was in a surgery and it will be 20 – 30 minutes, so I said that I’ll wait. 2 minutes later the technician told me that I can come back and speak with her.
What I am assuming is the veterinarian was in the middle of suturing up a dog, and after exchanging pleasantries she apologized but her body language and demeanor was anything but apologetic. I then explain to her that I understand nail trimmings are hazardous (that’s why I take him to the vet to get his nails cut) but I expect to be told when my dog is injured under your care. She then proceeds to tell me that this is a common injury and that she wouldn’t normally tell dog owners that this type of injury occurred and that she will not discipline her technician for it. I told her that I’m not looking for her to be disciplined; I just want to know why I wasn’t told about the injury that was sustained under your care.
She then counters again that this is a common injury and she wouldn’t tell the owners about it, I then counter and tell her that any injury sustained under your care should be told to the owner regardless, and then she begins to tell me the intricacies of nail trimming and how dangerous it is to a dog. I then tell her that yes, I get it; I understand that this type of injury happens, its common when doing this type procedure, but why wasn’t I told about it? Why did it take me asking questions of what she was spraying on my dog to find out?
Then she proceeds to give me excuses, as in the color of my dogs nails hide the quick and it’s hard to judge where to make the cut. I then tell her that normally that would be true, but my dog is a pug that has clear nails, not black that is common with most breeds. After telling her that she then tells me that my dog «bit her technician during the procedure, did you know that?» No I didn’t know that, but that is a moot point for one (she should be trained in the first place), and two my dog has never bit anyone, not even my two and six year old kids that play rough at times with him, but judging by my dog’s unusual behavior when picking him up, I can tell that he was under extreme duress.
After inquiring once again why wasn’t I told, she then tells me something to effect of «you don’t seem sorry that your dog bit my technician». If it wasn’t clear earlier, it was crystal clear now, she could care less about how I feel as a loyal dog owner, so I then told her that I am never bringing my dog back here, turn around and walk away. Mind you all this was said as she was suturing up a dog on the table.
Things could have been very much different if she offered real options, like reviewing her policy on information that is given to the owners and maybe even speaking with me one and one for another. What she fails to realize is that we are entrusting the care of our pets to them in our stead. There is a high level of trust and responsibility that comes with that. We don’t know what they are doing to our pets; we have no way to know if they are hurt except for odd behavior and physical signs of injury. With all that being said, I will never take my dog there again, ever.

This place is terrible. The facility itself is dirty and the customer service is horrible. Dr. Amy’s toddler is just roaming care free around the entire place which is totally inappropriate. She ends up in the exam room and disrupts everything. Dr. Amy will try to charge you for every little thing and does not answer your questions fully if she doesn’t think she can get more money out of you. I will not be bringing my dog back there.

This vet is the most down right dirty institution in Washington State. They will try to charge you every penny the minute you walk through the door that’s if your dog is still standing considering that they have an extremely aggressive dog just prowling around the facility. This dog challenged my dog the minute we were through the door and it almost ended in a fight. After which the vet tried to dig for any and all reason to engage in expensive surgery on a perfectly healthy animal. Upon our first kenneling experience, the vet forgot to administer detrimental medication. Go somewhere else, the staff is rude and the overall experience is a fail. I will be reporting this company to the BBB tomorrow. Thank you for wasting our time.

If you care about your animals at all… DO NOT bring them to A Small Animal Hospital! Not only was Dr. Mark Besola (who I’ve been told is still currently working there) was convicted of Child Pornography including a BESTIALITY video! A veterinarian owns bestiality video.
As if that is not enough, the staff is SO rude, curt, only cares about making money and does NOT have your beloved pets best interest at heart. I would take my dog to a shelter for boarding before letting anyone associated with this «business» care for my animal with whom I consider family!!!

I DO NOT RECOMMEND SMALL ANIMAL HOSPITAL!
Recently, I came upon an accident involving a dog that was hit by a car. The driver left the scene and to make a long story short I ended up taking the dog in my car to the nearest Vet– A Small Animal Hospital. The dog did not have tags nor was it micro-​chipped. The first thing I was told was that since I brought the animal in, I would be financially responsible. Apparently that also meant I was responsible for deciding whether it lived or died then? Unfortunately the dog had not made it, and I was then told it would be a $ 65 fee if I wanted them to dispose of the body. So here I am, being a Good Samaritan, first, I nearly had to make a life or death decision for an unknown dog and now I had to pay to dispose of the body. The only other option they gave me was to drive the body to The Humane Society in Tacoma. Meanwhile, they had not removed the dog from my car, I was already running 25 minutes late for an appointment, and had a subsequent event to be at which left me no other option but to pay the fee.
Four days later, at the urging of friends, I contacted a couple of other veterinary offices and discovered that they would not handle the situation in that manner, whether a Good Samaritan brought in an animal, dead or alive. I then began to question whether the receptionist who assisted on Saturday had charged me in error. Apparently normal practice is to hold the animal until Animal Control could pick them up at no charge to me. So I called A Small Animal Hospital, and I was shocked at the response I got from the Owner, Dr. Amy Besola.
As soon as I told Dr. Amy that I was calling about the incident involving the hit and run accident with the dog, Dr. Amy’s demeanor changed. She curtly told me that the dog had been reunited with it’s family and that they were having a private cremation. When I politely asked for clarification, wondering what my $ 65 was for if the owners were also being charged:
* She became rude, snippy and belligerent saying that if I wanted to get any sort of reimbursement, I would have to be reimbursed personally by the owners.
* She continued to get angry and verbally attack me any time I calmly asked if I could speak, so I was never able to ask my questions.
* She said she did not want to «be in the middle of this» and that she would pass my information on to the owners and hung up on me!
She later called back to apologize for being «short» with me, but it was a little too late for that. There was no reason for her to react the way she did earlier. I had not asked for any money back, I was polite on the phone, and I simply wanted to get an explanation of the charges and to determine they were correct in the first place, since other veterinary offices did not charge. In her call back I was given unnecessary information on King Co. Animal Control and their procedures with unknown deceased animals, her personal business expenses that needed to be passed on to the consumer, etc. Simply put, when the owners came forward, why wasn’t my credit card refunded and the fees incurred for the cremation charged to them? Wouldn’t that have been the appropriate thing to do? If they had shown up at the time of the incident, they would have had to pay, so why not after the fact?
I feel that the owners and staff here seem to have a lack of professionalism and compassion. When the staff admittedly told me that they would not stop to help an animal for fear of having to be responsible for the vet expenses, what does this tell you about their compassion for animals? Is this the kind of place you want to go knowing this and how the Doctor treated me? It seems to me that MAKING MONEY is their ONLY passion, NOT their love of animals.

That place is the worst! Dr. Amy’s brother Mark… who was also a Vet there was convicted of child pornagraphy in 2012.
Furthermore, they have lousy customer service and a down right rude owner. No compassion shown to animals so beware.

My 15 year old cat started acting sick, sneezing, drippy nose. So I brought her in to ASAH, The same place I’ve been taking her for her whole life.
I guess she had a mild upper respiratory infection. They said they would hive her a 20 day antibiotic Shot That would clear it up. She also needed a leukemia vaccine so we did that while we were there.
Mind you I’ve been taking my cat here for 15 years.
The vet said my cat needed fluids and high nutrient food And that her ears were dirty and needed to be cleaned. I said okay, that I could do that at home.
She Said «I’ll get you some drops for her ears you can take home»
So everything gets done and I go up front to pay, And they say $ 320!!!
I said why is it so much? The receptionist then began to rattle off all these charges:
Antibiotics
Leukemia vaccine
I V fluids
Prescription ear drops
Prescription liquid cat food
General exam
Blood test
Ear cleaning
WHAT IN THE HELL.
she didnt tell me that those things were being done to my cat, ask me, or anything. I had no idea. My cat didn’t even NEED half of that stuff.
Then the receptionist and another worker start copping an attitude about me paying. i told them about the surprise charges and work done and they acted like they didnt care. apparently I’m supposed to pay the full amount RIGHT NOW so they started giving me snark. I asked them if they could bill me and one said «uh, no.» in a scoffing manner.
I told them I didn’t have that much money right now and the manager came out and was like «well we can’t take the medicine OUT of your cat».
I had never seen either receptionist or that manager there before. I asked for Dr. Besola and they said he didn’t own the place anymore. the manager was very rude and kept saying «our policy is that you pay the full amount now»
I told him that I didn’t know about or authorize the procedures that were done to my cat and he just shrugged and said «that’s not our fault»
«we can’t do anything about it»

I was a potential customer for boarding services.
I have no opinions of the actual care that the veterinarians provide. I originally came to ASAH looking to board my pet cat with diabetes. I use a different service for my cat’s care. Over a month before the cat needed to be boarded, I did my due diligence by going to their website. I did research in regards to see if I needed to fill out any paperwork or if I needed to provide past vaccination history.
The website did not provide a lot of information regards boarding, nor do they provide the fee schedule. I also called to get a price quote on the boarding of my cat. I informed the person on the phone that my cat was diabetic and if there were any extra fees or anything else that I needed to provide or be aware of if I boarded with them. She told me no. She did inform me there will be a tiny bit of paperwork that I needed to fill out.
The next week, I went into the clinic to fill out the paperwork and to get a list of the proof of vaccinations that I needed to provide them before boarding my diabetic cat. The person that helped me was different than the one that helped me on the phone. I again informed the person that my cat was diabetic and if there is any additional costs and/​or information they needed. He told me no. I also asked if I provided copies of the most recent treatments/​vaccinations records as proof of recent treatment. He said that should suffice.
So the week of the scheduled boarding, I had my partner call in to confirm the boarding along with getting information on whether or not we needed to pay the full price up front. It seems we were misquoted twice. My partner was given additional fees in regards to providing the cat with his insulin shots. The new price quote was almost double the original amount that was given. We were also told that our veterinarian had to fax in the records.
I was later told this by my partner and was upset. I immediately called to express my frustration and to attempt to get things clear. A gentlemen veterinarian answered the phone. I politely told him I was upset in regards to what was told to my partner and explained the situation. I explained how I inquired not once, but twice in regards to any additional care/​fees for my diabetic cat and was misinformed about the price and the records needed.
The veterinarian explained the needed for the extra costs. I wasn’t complaining about the extra cost, but the fact that I was misinformed. He also stated they needed faxed records because he needed to know what the cat’s fructosamine level was. In all honesty, I did not know what a fructosamine level/​reading was. I informed the veterinarian that my cat was diagnosed earlier this year with diabetes and we monitor his blood sugar levels twice a day along with having performed two separate glucose curve tests. I then stated the 7 and 30 day averages and that they were in normal/​good levels, but was never aware of fructosamine levels or if my own veterinarian performed that test. The veterinarian then became extremely condescending and stated that he’s been a veterinarian for over 20 years and that’s what is done and for someone who has a diabetic cat should know this information.
That only made me even more upset. I didn’t have my cat’s records in front of me. I was out of town. I then expressed my frustrations with just being misquoted. I wasn’t asking for any free services. The veterinarian then stated because they don’t treat my cat, that we didn’t «have» to use their services for boarding.
That was the last straw. I later cancelled my reservation and went with a different service. At least their website was extremely informative, up front, and their employees gave us all the information we needed the FIRST time when we inquired.
As I stated in the beginning, I have no anecdotal evidence in regards to the actual treatment/​care they provide. Their clinic environment seemed to be very welcoming and it was cool that they have clinic pets. Perhaps my attitude could have been less upset on the phone when I called the last time, however the veterinarian did not have to be condescending with me. I later called my own veterinarian asking about my cat’s fructosamine levels, and she stated that it wasn’t necessary and they used the HbA 1c tests and the twice a day monitoring I provided is more than sufficient with controlling the cat’s diabetes.
I was a potential customer. I did my due diligence ahead of time to inquire about their services and provided them with sufficient information to get a correct price quote. I was misinformed twice. The veterinarian treated me as if I was in the wrong.
This bad experience was a good thing for me in the end. I don’t think I would have felt my cat was in good hands being boarded with a staff that doesn’t seem to communicate properly.

Horrible experience!
Performed things to my dog durning surgery without permission. Extra hidden charges!

We have been taking our dogs to Dr Amy Besola since we moved to Federal Way 23 years ago. We find her to be very effective at treating our dogs and very concerned with us as clients. She has gone out of her way many times to accommodate our needs. We have contacted her many times while out of state for advice and counsel regarding treatment. She has a wide range of contacts in the veterinarian community and has been able to refer us to specialist and emergency treatments repeatedly. We have no complaints and feel very confident our dog receives the finest care when she is attending their needs.

They were affordable and friendly. Loved the three big cats they keep, my daughter liked them a lot. My dog has a bad rash on her back and hasn’t been herself. We got her diagnosed quickly with allergies and an ear infection. She got an exam, 2 medication injections, and a topical for $ 120. The doctor was professional and nice. We will return.
I got an appointment the same day. No long lines like at the clinics. Service was personable. Diagnosis was accurate. Two hours later my dog isn’t itching and biting herself everywhere.
They take Pet Assure pet insurance.

this Animal Hospital is AMAZING– True hospitable bed side manner, a Pure heart to help animals, and a Stellar Customers service. Dr. Amelia has certainly discovered her calling in life as a helper for animals and their distraught human Parents! I was a different hospital for my 8 year old Yorkie-​Poo who has a severely inflamed eye I was told it was Glaucoma. They promptly told me this is SEVERE emergency and I need to go to an more capable hospital… Well right across the street was A Small Animal Hospital. I Walked in to this Country cottage hometown feel type hospital and felt right at home. The assistant and receptionist staff was SUPER friendly and VERY helpful. They PROMPTLY got me in for only a $ 15 extra after hours charge (another hospital wanted $ 350 for an after hours visit) Dr. Amy walked into the room with her happy and sunny personality and knew she was the Dr. for us. She ran Full tests, blood work, eye pressure tests the Works for my aging little doggie. She took the time to CORRECTLY evaluate, prescribed the correct meds and next day my dogs eye was about 85% better… no Glaucoma yet for my little one… Thank you Small Animal Hospital for your caring way and wonderful hearts. This is my FIRST review on Unilocal and It went to the Absolute BEST ANIMAL DOCTORS AROUND :)

Dec 2012
All I can say is– Now that I have switched Vets is that these people Honestly SUCK! They are over priced and have slowly learned that they arent as smart as I orginally thought. They are great for «check ups», but anything else… they just give your dog shots and random pills— They don’t actually take time to fix the problem for good. They just want to quickest most expensive «quick fix» :-/​
Which I refuse to take my pup there anymore!
Below is my orginal post from Feb 2012…
Feb 2012
I have been taking my puppy there since she was 9 weeks. Both doctors are amazing, kind and knowledgeable. They have been there for me and my pup from simple things like check ups and more serve things like very bad stomach problems. Every time I cal or go in l get great customer service and the answers I need. Prices are very good and you can see they really CARE about your pet! :)

We are looking for a new vet for our 2 cats. I called this vet last week to find out if I could come check out their facility. I was told by Doctor Besola that that would be fine. Well, today I swing by there, only to be turned away by a very rude receptionist. Apparently they now suddenly have a policy that does not allow anyone in the back. And the person who told me otherwise «must have been one of the new people» — uhm, and here I thought he was one of the owners /​veterinarians.
Seriously? I’m not sure why anyone would let a place care for their pets if you’re not allow to check the place out first. Also, it’s not like I live around the corner, so being turned away after calling first it extremely rude and very inconvenient.
«Eek! Methinks not» indeed.

1. I was able to get an appointment the next day
2. There was no long waiting line
3. Friendly and knowledgeable staff
Dr. Mark is the best! My 1 year old cat fell 4 stories from my window. He took great care of kitty. My new baby Chihuahua puppy had her routine check up/​shots. Dr. Mark has great bedside manner, he explains everything to you and you don’t feel a sense of being rushed.
It’s a very laid back clinic. The clinic is about 45 min away from my residence but it’s worth the drive!!!
Best of all prices are VERY reasonable. You can’t find a place that’s professional AND reasonable anywhere in Seattle.
Either you’re stuck at some crappy clinic waiting for hours (why bother setting up appointments?) with Vets that see animals one after another after another who can’t even remember you or your pet.
OR
Pay the big bucks for overpriced services.