There's no where else I would take my pets, regardless of the drive. Crawford Road Animal Hospital has been our vet for over 13years now and we have had nothing but good experiences with all of our animals. We've fought cancer with one of our dogs with them. TPLO issues & congestive heart failure with one of our dogs. And just this week, a dire emergency where my "puppy" swallowed his ball. I could have taken him to somewhere in Columbus faster but knew his best chance was in the hands of Crawford Rd and Dr "Jeni" Newbolt. She has been amazing with all of our animals & has always been incredibly compassionate to not only our dog's needs, but our needs as well. Whether it be in our babies' final hour or near death emergency, they have maintained the upmost in care & service and we will be forever grateful to them for that. Living in Valley, AL and working in Columbus, GA, Crawford Road is obviously not the most convenient place for us but I couldn't imagine my boys in anyone else's care.

Now that we have received his ashes back I am going public with our story of our horrible experience and Crawford Road Animal Hospital. Our experience was not with Dr. Forston but with the other vet in the practice Dr. Jeni On Sept 4th 2012 we took my mother's 16 year old retired service dog in to be euthanized. He had a large cancerous tumor on the side of his mouth but his entire body was riddled with cancer and he could not walk on his own anymore. They made us carry him in his crate into the room ourselves, which is not that bad but most places the techs will come carry the dog in on a stretcher. Once we got into the room the tech came in and wanted us to pick him up to weigh him to gauge the dosage of the injection, we told her that picking him up was very painful for him and that he weighed 65lbs at his last vet visit and due to the cancer he was considerably less than that now could they please just dose him at 65lbs and leave him in peace. The answer was no, she then said you can just lift him on that scale right there to which I said "He will FIGHT it because my mother is disabled and he would never let her pick him up" so we lifted him crate and all onto the scale and he weighed 55lbs with the crate. Then the tech said I will take him back and put a catheter in, again he could not walk on his own, lifting him hurt him and he would have been very upset at being seperated from my mother so we asked if they could just do it in the room, again the answer was no, so they decided to just inject it straight into his leg. The tech then left to prepare the injection. After a while both the tech and Dr. Newbolt came in and Dr. Newbolt said "We brought a muzzle since you said something about biting". I said nobody said anything about biting this dog has NEVER bitten anyone in his entire life he is the sweetest dog ever. Dr. Newbolt then looked straight into my mother's face and said "Well you know if he bites one of us we will have to CUT HIS HEAD OFF and send it to the state." She told somebody who was already grieving the loss of their companion for the past 13 years that they would have to cut his head off, which was completely callous and inappropriate. My 16 year old son who was also in the room was appalled and very upset that they were talking about cutting the head off of the dog that had been a part of every day of almost his entire life! I will admit I got ugly and told Dr. Newbolt you don't have to be an evil b*tch about it! They then argued with us over being near his head during his last moments, I finally gave in and moved away from his head where he couldn't see me anymore. Then Dr. Newbolt insistently brought up the muzzle again, she then tried to put the muzzle on him... now remember the dog had a large painful tumor in his mouth and on his jaw. He jerked his head away when she tried to touch his mouth with the muzzle and that is when I loudly said you cannot muzzle him he has a painful bleeding tumor on the side of his mouth! At that point the vet tech behind me actually LAUGHED. We were experiencing one of the worst moments of our lives and she was laughing. Dr. Newbolt and the vet tech made a very painful and hard moment in our lives 100 times worse. Instead of our dogs last moments on earth being peaceful and calm, he was stressed and anxious because of the tension in the room and them trying to muzzle him. The only saving grace was that in his very final moments he was looking directly into my mother's eyes and saw and felt the tremendous love that was there for him. These two so called professionals acted very inappropriately and made our already bad day horrible. I will NEVER EVER use their services again, and I will warn anyone seeking a veterinary clinic to stay far away from them!