On November 8th 2014 I had the anguishing experience of having to put my beautiful 160 lb yellow lab, Little Joe down. He was the love of my life and my best friend. It was hard taking him to an unfamiliar vet because I was concerned of the type of care we would receive. With the help of the AMAZING Doctor and staff at Great Lakes Pet Emergencies, it was the most loving and peaceful experience I could ever have hoped for. Thank you so so much to the loving and caring staff. I would NEVER hesitate bringing another pet to you. With kind regards, Linda Bowen Bay City,Mi

We had a GREAT experience. We recently had an evening crisis. We have a diabetic cat who's glucose level crashed. We found her seizing after coming home from work. She wasn't responding to sugar and felt cold. We called and let them know we were coming in. We found a friendly and receptive staff. This isn't a friendly office visit - they start behind closed doors so they can work fast without interference (like an ER.) They worked quickly. They found her glucose extremely low and she was very hypothermic. Dr Bullock explained what he recommended for a course of treatment. We asked for a quote and quickly discussed the quote. We asked why certain items were on the quote and decided with the staff how we wanted to proceed. Once we signed consent for treatment they proceeded to treat her while we were paying. They let us go back to see her before we left. We called a couple times during the evening to check on her progress and received updates. In the morning during the checkout the doctor explained everything and how he thought we should proceed. We received a detailed history of treatment. Our vet asked about our experience and how we felt we were treated (excellent and professionally). He thought knowing the history of our cat that the actions we took were exactly what we should have done. A trip to Great Lakes Pet Emergencies is an EMERGENCY. Like ANY human Emergency Room treatment, cost is a premium. They are open for EMERGENCIES when your vet is closed. They don't have a steady stream of office visits, have the equipment to handle emergencies and provide expensive services. Please think about it, everything considered their prices are fair. As much as we love our pets they are not people - the team both have to pay the bills and get paid. So I understand the payment policy and prices. They can't afford to get stuck with people unable to pay. They offer credit applications for pet care.

Our beloved dog of 16 years has been failing over the last 6 weeks but this week quickly became very sick, and was in incredible pain. I called the Pet Emergencies late evening and told them we were coming in. When we arrived they took us promptly in, we immediately made a decision to end his pain. The entire staff was present, were extremely compassionate to very upset parents, and offered us a private time with our pet, which we declined, wanting to end his suffering as quickly as possible. They explained what would happen step by step, and comforted our wonderful pet, and us, during an extremely difficult process. The staff had nothing but kind words to comfort us. Emergency services are understandably more costly but if we had to take our pet to an after-hours clinic we believe we will receive the most compassionate care at Great Lakes. Thank you for the sympathy card.

The vet was very rude when i took my cat in to be put to sleep (May 24, 2014/Memorial Day weekend, reg vet was closed), never introduced herself when she 1st came into the exam room. My cat was diagnosed by the regular vet as having Lymphoma & or Irritable Bowel Disease for several yrs. On the morning of May 24th she threw up bloody liquids & i knew it wasn't fair to have her continue suffering or throwing up ever single day/2-3 times per day. I made a huge mistake of taking her to this place. They don't keep the pets in the same room with the owners (to keep them calm) instead they took my cat into another room to, per the vet; "put an IV in so they can put her to sleep". Next thing my neighbor & i heard was the loudest hissing & growling thru 2 closed doors. When my neighbor & i both knocked on the closed door where they took my cat (no one at the front desk) no one answered so i opened the door. The vet barreled towards me & very rudely told me; "you can't be knocking & opening this door". When i asked if that was my cat that was hissing & growling & what they did to cause this, she said; "i can't have my employees at risk, we had to give your cat something to calm her down & something to make her sleepy". She never answered what they did to her. When i asked to be taken back to my cat so i could calm her down..the vet in short told me; "NO. That they would bring my cat to me in a few minutes & i needed to go back to the room we were placed in" & shut the door in my face. Another gal (aprox 5-10 min later) brought my cat to the exam room (carrying her on a towel & she was not responsive & completely limp), she told me; "she is very sleepy & relaxed but she can hear you. When you are ready to have her put to sleep just open the door". I asked; "can you prove she can hear me in the shape she's in"? The gal never answered me & walked out. Several minutes later i told my neighbor to open the door as this place has made her suffer enough on her last living day. The vet came in & gave her the injection without ever saying a word to us. About 45 sec later she listened to my cats heart to see if she was gone. Without a word she turned around & walked out. The other gal that brought my cat in on the towel asked if she could listen to her heart & i nodded yes. She stepped back with her head down & i asked her; "is she gone"? The gal kept her head down & said very quietly; "yes". GLPE has a Facebook page & they DO delete any negative comments/postings on how rude they are & what has been done to peoples pets. Check it out for yourselves..there is not 1 single negative comment on there. They pick only the good comments to keep & delete the rest to keep people from finding out the truth. I have posted this same comment to their Fb page & it was deleted 3 times. If you continue to try posting the same comment they will block you. I just recently tried giving a "review" on their Fb page & when tried to post it was told; "you can not post a review because the admin has blocked you from giving a review". I would NOT recommend this place to anyone that cares about their pets. If it's a holiday weekend, try to wait till your regular vet is open or find another emergency vet.

These people have advertised that they care for small/exotic animals. we had an emergency incident with our ferret and rushed her there on their advice over the phone. When we got there the vet didn't show any knowledge of ferrets and talked to us as we were 3 year olds. After she assumed that our baby was OK she told us that we should do xrays and quoted that the bill would be close to $300! Our vet back home would only charge $30 for xrays. These people are obviously only out to make a buck. Extremely unsatisfied and would not recommend to anyone not even in an emergency. I did a better examination myself than she did...