I recently went to Shawnessy South Pet Hospital to deal with a very sad and difficult decision. Our dog of 14 years had suddenly become very sick. It was an emotional and hard moment for my family and I, and we had many many questions. The staff and vet at Shawnessy South did not hesitate to answer any questions we had, and sat on the floor of the vet room with us as we sobbed and wondered if there were any other options. The vet went over everything with us, in detail, and really helped us to understand the situation so we knew what the right decision would be, and were able to come to the decision on our own. At one point, as the vet was answering our questions, she became emotional and started to cry. This made me really see that she cares deeply about the pets that she deals with, and truly loves animals. They gave us so many options on different things we could do, and it ended up that we had to put our poor sweet girl to sleep. My family and I just could not bear the thought of the cold, stuffy vet room being the last place our dog saw, so the vet offered a different option, to go and sit outside in the grass, in the sun and they would do it there. We sat out in the sun and had the best last moment with our girl that we ever could've asked for. I can't thank Shawnessy South enough, it made a traumatic moment somewhat positive, and I will absolutely be going back there again. It's so nice to feel like someone truly cares in such a difficult moment. Please, if you love your pet, go here!

I took my cat here with a sore leg and had x-rays done. The vet said that everything looked fine but appeared to be bunged up so they sent me home with laxatives and some pain killers. My cat had no problems using the bathroom and his leg was getting worse and worse. I went back and saw a different vet here and they also said nothing seemed to be wrong. I went to another clinic for a second opinion and they said he might need surgery. They sent us to a surgeon and he agreed that he would need surgery. In the mean time my cat was in horrible pain he would be shaking a lot and every time he got up he'd cry. If I got a proper diagnosis in the first place I could have saved my cat from a lot of pain. The vets here seemed inexperienced. I was told by the surgeon that his is a common thing to happen in young male neutered cats.

Our dog "Jersey" was diagnosed with incontinence. She was put on a LIFETIME MEDICATION. This medication was not cheap. We continued to bring Jersey back to SHAWNESSY PET HOSPITAL because she was still peeing. She never just dribbled, she would empty her full bladder. She seemed to only do this when we were not home. Each time we brought Jersey back we had to have more expensive testing done. Her medication was changed and we still had the same problem. Since we had many tests done, we thought that Jersey was diagnosed based on the outcome of the tests. As we found out later after spending over $1,000.00 she was diagnosed on a "GUESS ONLY". We were not aware there is no such test for incontinence. Jersey also developed a rash on her stomach. I feel it was due to her laying in her pee. The vet disagreed and put her on a medication to clear the rash up. The medication did not help so I put some baby diaper cream on it. The rash was gone the next day. SHAWNESSY PET HOSPITAL suggested we run some test to find out if Jersey was having a allergic reaction to something. The tests would have cost us a lot of money. I decided to take Jersey off of all medications and try something else. I read on-line that this could be a behaviour problem. We bought Jersey a large crate and put her in it each time we went out. That was in December of 2012. Jersey has NOT had one accident since that day. She obviously did have a behaviour problem and NOT INCONTINENCE. We were so happy to find out our dog did not have to take a LIFETIME MEDICATION. We contacted SHAWNESSY PET HOSPITAL, but they insist they did nothing wrong. We also had to bring in our cat Smokey in December 2012 to have her put down. She was 18 years old and was feral when we got her. She hated going to the vet and the experience was always horrific. We would have to have her sedated most of the time just to have a check up. Smokey's health was fading and we knew her time was short. We were hoping she would fall peacefully asleep at home. On her last day we noticed she was dragging her back leg. She was still eating and drinking. I think she had a stroke and had no movement in this leg. She was still alert and still trying to walk. She appeared to be in no pain. I decided it would be best to put her down due to her age and her lack of mobility. We phoned SHAWNESSY PET HOSPITAL and requested to have Smokey put down. We said we did not need to have a vet examine her. It was suggested that they could try to save her as a cat's instinct is to fight to live. We understand all this, but we also know the fear this would put into our cat. We wanted her last hours to be calm with as little stress on her as possible. To put Smokey through testing etc. would have been traumatic for her. After the 30 minutes consultation it was finally agreed to have her put down. The experience of holding my dying cat in my arms as the vet continued to advise me on other alternatives was devastating. I could not stop crying. SHAWNESSY PET HOSPITAL suggested I contact the College of physicians. This too turned out to be a JOKE. I won't go into details, but the outcome is your chances of getting any money back are slim to none. The worse thing that could happen is the vet gets fined. "Big Deal." I suggested the vet be more concerned about the animals rather than how much money they could make on one animal. "We have decided NEVER to take a LIVE animal to this clinic again. One last thing. "We are with TRUPANION INSURANCE FOR OUR DOGS." ?????

I took my chocolate lab here for treatment. He was was displaying pain in his stomach, vomitting and no longer eating or drinking water. They ran a few test and told me he has an obstruction in his intestines. To have them run these test they charged me $929.15. I was informed that there was two routes I could take we could go a head with the surgery I won't get into the details of what the vet said since she is denying giving me this advise but the just of it is the surgery would cost me around a couple thousand dollars more or we could put the dog down. Heart broken because I could not afford to pay a couple thousand to have the surgery especially after just droping almost $1000.00 on their diagnosis I decided we would have him put down. I took him home that evening intending to bring him back in the morning. When the morning came I decided to get a second opinion. Thank god I did this because this vet located in Okotoks re ran the test that were performed by Shawnessy South Pet hospital and then decided to to ahead with the surgery. With the same tests being re done and the surgery and after care and all meds my bill came to 1237.03. It blows my mind that they can charge the rates that they do and still have clients. Beware their prices are outragous and I found their sympothy was even worst.

Took new puppy to them after a recommendation from family friend, all was ok with regular needles but puppy had dandriff since we brought her home and I brought it to their attention. They gave her Revolution to see if that would help. A week later puppy started having a rash on her belly so they thought it was a food allgery so I spent $50 on a new bag of food. Went in for last set of needles and rash had gotten worse and she'd been nipping at front legs til patches of hair came off. They did a skin scrape for mange and one vet found nothing and put her on benadryl and meds, rash cleared up but was told to come in the following week. Different vet examined her and did a second skin scrape with negative results for mange but said she'd do some research into scabies and get back to me. Called back that afternoon and vet recommended puppy coming in for a lime dip bath. After researching myself I found this is only used as a last resort for dogs who test positive for mange and have lost a considerable amount of hair. They wanted her to come in for 5 weeks for this bath plus Revolution every 2 weeks for months plus medication all for negative results of mange. Decided to talk to rescue agency and the other pups and mother have no signs of mange or skin irritation. Went to a different vet and they did a skin scrape with negative results then did an allergy test and found she's allergic to grain. So after almost $1000 in bills I find it could have been taken care of with $150 allergy test! The poor pup was put through a high chemical bath for no reason! They tried to have me pump her full of more chemicals and then if all didn't work would then rule it out as a food allergy. One vet at Shawnessy, Tracey, said she was fine, just a skin allergy, the other said she 'may' have scabies and the vet tech 'thinks' she might! I don't recommend their services at all, just want your money, but if you do go there, see Tracey, she actually knows what she's talking about!