I wish there was a rating below poor-fair. Our cat was exhibiting symptoms of renal failure. Called Banfield (our regular vet for the past few years) and they said they could schedule an appointment in 5 days or we can do a walk-in. Did a walk-in and sign above desk said "sick and injured animals are seen first." After an hour with nothing happening I asked what the status is and was told they could see my cat only if a previously scheduled appointment did not show up. So much for "sick and injured first." Ended up taking her to the emergency vet in Bowie where regretfully our cat did have onset of kidney failure and had to be put down. Banfield has seriously deteriorated in service over the past two years; over-booked, no concern for animal well-being, impersonal, etc. That's it for us.

I took my cat to the Banfield Clinic in Bowie Md last Sunday because he woke up with a severely swollen ear. We went in for walk in service and initially things seemed like they would be ok. However, the longer we waited, the more things I noticed that made me uncomfortable. The vet techs were not washing their hands or using disinfectant between handling animals. Secondly, when we were finally brought into a room to be seen, we waited an additional 45 minutes between being seen by the vet tech and the vet. When the vet finally did come in to see my cat, the vet made an extremely cursory visual inspection of the ear and immediately declared that surgery would be required. The vet then left the room and sent in a tech 20 minutes later with a cost estimate. The cost estimate I was quoted was $1300 for a very non invasive surgery to drain fluid (specifically a hematoma) from the thin skin of my cats ear.(As an aside, I'm going to another vet clinic with infinitely better customer service and animal care and their HIGHEST price estimate for this procedure is $450 which includes blood work AND medications. I'd like to know where Banfield is getting their pricing from.) Included in that was medications and a cone. I love my cat so I agreed to the estimate just to have a back up plan in place in case I couldn't get seen elsewhere. After I approved the non negotiable estimate, they took my cat in the back to give him an antibiotic and a pain killer as well as to "size" him for a cone. The cone that they sent me home with is a size and a half too small at it's largest sizing. I don't think they even tried it on him. What bothers me most about this though, is that neither the technicians OR the veterinarian gave me any pre surgery instructions other than to drop him off between 7 and 8 am on the day of the surgery. No mention of no food/water/treats for at least 12 hours before surgery. Nothing. In summary, I am EXTRAORDINARILY dissatisfied with this vet clinic and will not be giving them my business again. The only thing this clinic has going for it is the convenience of it being less than 15 minutes away from my home.

Bait and switch plain and simple. We will NEVER go there again! Our final price was nearly $200 higher than quoted.