Vet Office closing - found out what happened

[radfringe]

a couple of weeks ago our Vet closed up shop - no warning, just a phone call telling me I have to reschedule the spaying of my cat

vet worked for Petcare Associates, in addition to vet care, the place also does kenneling and grooming. It went under new ownership about a year ago and other than the vet care - the place has gone downhill. In the past we had kenneled our dogs there when we go on vacation, but after meeting the "new owners" last year we went and found another kennel.

well - found out what happened.... http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/13780940.htm
Area kennel probed in 35 dog deathsState: The canines may have contracted the Parvo virus at Pet Care Associates in Kunkle.
By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER [e-mail]

DALLAS TWP. – The state Department of Agriculture is investigating the deaths of approximately 35 dogs that might have contracted the Parvo virus at the Pet Care Associates kennel, the owners of the business confirmed Thursday.

The Kunkle-area kennel, which has been the subject of numerous noise complaints, was shut down by the Department of Agriculture after an inspection conducted around Jan. 20, said Ellen Howarth, regional supervisor of the department’s Bureau of Dog Law enforcement.

The department on Monday filed several citations of failure to provide veterinary care and failure to clean kennels against the owners of the business, Dominic Donovan and Jennifer Barisano, according to District Judge James Tupper’s office.

Contacted Thursday, Barisano said she was unaware any citations had been filed. She said the cleanliness issue was caused by a clogged drain, which has been fixed.

She said she’s tried to obtain veterinary care, but local vets won’t help once they hear Parvo is suspected.


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majority of these dogs are owned by the business owners -- there was a followup article in today's paper about how people can't get their pet's records.

among other things - I want to know why Barisano/Donvan's dogs weren't vaccinated previously for Parvo? I can understand not doing puppies if they were too young, but there were many adult dogs there too.

as far as local vets not helping - load of crap - there are many vets in the area that would make "housecalls" in this situation and treat the dogs there.

as far as getting the records - according to today's article, we can send a request with return/addressed envelope via snail mail, or stop in and request them. Another load of crap - we've been calling and "stopping by" since it was closed down and no one has been there. We'll try to "stop by" today and see if we can get the records. If not then the snail-mail request will be mailed or dropped off at their door.

meanwhile we have a 19yr old cat that needs her meds for hyper-thyroidism. We have a new vet, but without the records, the cat will have to go through bloodwork all over again and that's $100 a pop.

[radfringe]

1. update

we went up to the place to get records - it was locked up

but we did find someone around back who took out letter/envelope and said they would get copies out to us on monday....

yeah right....

[BrklynLiberal]

2. That is really crappy ..for you and the other pet owners!!!!

Perhaps you all could get together and do some legal action to get your records.

[radfringe]

3. been a week since we gave them

the self-addressed envelope and request

still no copies of records. My partner will be making some phone calls this morning to her contact at the local paper....

[Robeson]

4. That's absolutely awful, radfringe. It took 35 deaths to get this....

...situation examined. In my estimation, that's 35 families ruined.

[radfringe]

5. actually - the dogs

belonged to the owners of the place -- he mixes breeds and came up with a "designer" dog for law enforcement

but for the life of me I can't figure out why these dogs weren't innoculated for parvo - it's one of the standard shots that all dogs get. Puppies, if they were too young for the shot, I can understand -- but not the adult dogs. And they had a vet on the premises that worked for them - this was not an independent vet practice renting space.

[China_cat]

6. If you have a recent bottle of the cat's

medication with the name of the med, dosage and instructions on the label, your new vet may be willing to continue it without new blood work. Our new vet did that after our old one retired and before we were allowed to have the records. (Vet who bought ours out was a total bitch, threatened to burn records rather than release them when she found out we wanted to go elsewhere)

[Phentex]

7. That's terrible!

I'm so sorry to hear this. I hope you get your records soon.