Veterinary Internal Medicine

I have been taking both of my dogs to Vet Internal Medicine for about 3 years now (one of the two has also gone to the surgeon next door three times– it has been an expensive journey in my house!). I have always had great service. Both of my dogs have inflammatory bowel disease. They were both scoped and diagnosed through the internal vet. One dog sees Dr. Torres and the other sees Dr. Chiapella. I have nothing but nice things to say about both of these vets. They are clearly two busy ladies, but every time I am in they each take the time to talk to me and get all the stats on my pups. The office staff is always helpful and the vet techs are great, too. Both of my pups are now on steroids and generally pretty healthy (as healthy as you can be with messed up bowels and stomachs).
I just want to be clear that these specialty vets are VERY expensive. I am not even kidding when I say that I have probably spent $ 10,000 on my dogs between stomach issues and surgeries. Please be aware of this. You may spend a pretty penny on your dog before they can figure out what’s wrong. It is just the way it is, sadly. Also regarding the other review about the dog with heart cancer, I am so sorry to hear to hear this :(I am not an expert but I don’t think heart cancer is something an internist will necessarily be able catch. From what I know of cancers in dogs, they tend to be very hard to diagnose because so many of the symptoms that are manifested could be a sign of just about anything. One of my dogs was thought to a have thyroid issue, Addison’s disease, diabetes, and potentially stomach cancer. It was a very stressful couple of years of trying to figure it out and I wouldn’t wish it on anything. I also want to add that the Vet Internal Medicine and the ER vet next door saved one of my dog’s lives back in 2010. She was diagnosed with HGE and was near death (vomiting copious amounts of blood and stomach tissues– very frightening). If it wasn’t for the quick action of both of those vets, she would have died.
Vets are expensive, I get it. I understand bad reviews of a vet because our pets are often extended members of our families and it is so hard to see them suffer, especially when we feel like someone could do more. I just wanted to share my own experience because I thought it was really important to let people know my wonderful experience at Vet Internal Medicine.

I wanted to like this place when we first brought in our sick dog. We just wanted some answers in order to make our dog happy and healthy again. Our vet, Carings Hands in Bristow, recommended that we come to Veterinary Internal Medicine. We had brought her in a few times in May to get checked because she was having several different issues-​chronic diarrhea, panting, etc.
My boyfriend spent a lot of time and money on various tests (multiple ultrasounds etc). The ultrasound only was of her stomach and showed inflammation throughout. The doctor said that our dog either had inflammatory bowel disease or cancer. When we asked about this, she said that she hasn’t seen a case like this. However, she also told us that it didn’t «seem» like cancer because our dog still was acting normal and healthy.
We decided to get a second opinion from a more experienced doctor, Burnbaum. The office gave us a hard time when we wanted to switch to a different doctor which didn’t make much sense. It was our decision. Anyway, Burnbaum followed closely with what the original vet said. I don’t know if this is because she didn’t want to step on another doctor’s toes.
We went on believing that our dog had inflammatory bowel disease up until August 6^th. Our dog was not moving much and we were deeply concerned. I called the Veterinary Internal Medicine, but was told that we would have to wait until around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. We could not wait so my boyfriend took her in to South Paws. They took us immediately and found out what the problem was immediately from an ultrasound: our dog had heart cancer.
When a dog is sick, one would think that they would look all through out the body to see if they could find a diagnosis. If they would’ve looked up a little higher, they would’ve been able to see the tumor on her heart and we could’ve put her on chemo. We could’ve gotten a few more months with her instead of one more day.
It just felt that the practice seemed more interested in making money than the well-​being of our dog. If our dog had inflammation throughout her whole body and a non-​cancerous tumor on her spleen, why wouldn’t they look elsewhere?