Are You and Fido Displeased With Your Current Vet? How to Use Vet Reviews to Find a New Doctor

Two years ago my cat became deathly ill, and my veterinarian recommended that I bring him to an emergency animal hospital. Because I am a cautious person I decided to see if there was more than one animal hospital nearby, and if so, which one was more popular or better reviewed. To my despair I found that there was only one 24 hour emergency animal hospital nearby and it had terrible reviews. I panicked.

When I called the animal hospital I brought up the reviews. I asked the woman who answered the phone what she would think, and where she would bring her pet if it was sick. The woman on the phone told me that she would trust her pets to the doctors at this clinic, and that because not all animals can be saved it is not uncommon for veterinarians to have poor reviews. I had never thought of it that way before but looking back on the reviews it made sense.

Veterinarian reviews can be wildly important to figuring out if a vet will be a good fit for you and your pet, but they must also be taken with a grain of salt. Most veterinarian reviews are done anonymously, on unofficial sites. Remember that people need not provide any credentials to review veterinarian services. For this reason you are likely to encounter reviews from angry customers, who are venting their frustrations and doing so in an exaggerated fashion simply because they can.

People who review vets tend to do so because they either had a wonderful experience, or a horrible experience. A veterinarian review may be utterly scathing, but it could be that way because the person did not appreciate needing to pay as much as they did, or because they lost their pet. When faced with loss, few people will think back on the care providers rationally. A vet review is often subjective to a particular positive or negative diagnosis.

So before you decide that a number of bad reviews means that the vet you had in mind would now be out of the question, try to decide for yourself. If possible, visit the veterinarian and ask questions. When reading bad veterinarian reviews ask yourself if in the same situation you might not think the same way. This is not meant to imply that anyone should disregard the reviews that they find, only that it is wise to consider that some reviews have more validity and weight than others.

5 comments on “Are You and Fido Displeased With Your Current Vet? How to Use Vet Reviews to Find a New Doctor

  1. I think there is some unspoken rule about this on the internet. No matter what forum you are reading or what news story people are commenting on, there will always be more negative comments than positive ones. Something about the anonymity.

  2. I think there is some unspoken rule about this on the internet. No matter what forum you are reading or what news story people are commenting on, there will always be more negative comments than positive ones. Something about the anonymity.

  3. I think there is some unspoken rule about this on the internet. No matter what forum you are reading or what news story people are commenting on, there will always be more negative comments than positive ones. Something about the anonymity.

  4. I think there is some unspoken rule about this on the internet. No matter what forum you are reading or what news story people are commenting on, there will always be more negative comments than positive ones. Something about the anonymity.

  5. I think there is some unspoken rule about this on the internet. No matter what forum you are reading or what news story people are commenting on, there will always be more negative comments than positive ones. Something about the anonymity.

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