Palisades Veterinary Hospital

Dr. Hessian has taken great care of our dogs over the last 10 years. Always takes time to examine your pet and explain what is going on.

I've used Palisades Vet for the past 4 years or so, but will no longer be able to. Two major issues lead to this, combine with a few smaller ones, like messages not getting to the Vet, no response from the owner when "promised" we would hear back, that kind of stuff. The first of the major issues was I took my breeding male cat in because he wasn't eating and was lethargic for multiple days. The Vet did a barium test to look for blockage and said "no issues", 3 days later still not eating or drinking I took him back and was talking with the owner it was mentioned to bring the cat in early for a barium test, I said we already did that, but i asked "why early?" and she said it takes upwards of 6 hours. The first test was "completed good" in under 90 minutes. The second test found major blockage that required surgery and should have easily been found if the first test was completed properly. The second issue is the final reason we will not use them. My 1 year female went through her first heat cycle 3 weeks earlier and was taken in as she had blood on her backside and I took pictures. The vet checked her, said the blood was from a rub on the tail (but the skin wasn't broken), I showed her the backside pictures showing that the blood appears to be from the vaginal area, NO temperature was taken, and the vet said "she should be good, cats don't get Pyometra, that's in dogs, just make sure she isn't getting in tight spots that is causing that abrasion on the underside of her tail". 6 hour later, she had more blood, we did some "google and chatGpt" search and the number one reason that causes this is "Pyometra" which is a very serious and often life threatening condition and all searches showed "if the bleeding is occurring its in the danger zone, seek 'immediate' veterinary help". I called the vet and they just closed and the message said to use an ER vet in Scottsdale. So we did. The vet there took our cats temp as the first thing after showing them the picture with the blood, the knew something was wrong. They took her in the back for a uterus ultrasound and came back in 5 minutes and said "your girl has a temp and indication of Pyometra and she needed emergency surgery". That broke my heart by itself, but then the $5,500 plus surgery that should have been detected at Palisades and could have been completed earlier in the day. I called Palisades and spoke with the owner and informed her that the temp wasn't taken on the vet check that day and it almost cost us our little ones life and that while we incurred additional thousands of dollars having the surgery at a ER we shouldn't be charged the vet check fee when a temp wasn't even taken. The owner gave me their word she would look into and contact me in the next day or two. Its been 4 weeks and still no response. I can't in good conscience recommend Palisades Vet to anyone that truly cares about their pet when such major mistakes are made and then no ownership or action was taken by them.

We trust Dr. Hessian with our furbabies and our pets have been her patients since 1995. She takes her time with us to make sure we understand. She is not judgmental when it comes to services that we may not be ready to undergo for our pets. She is a phenomenal veterinarian!

We were able to get in quickly for a check-up for our recently injured cat. Couldn't have been friendlier or more helpful. Dr Juetten was especially kind and caring . Fountain Hills is fortunate to have a vet like Palisades!