I’m extremely disappointed with my recent experience with Cumberland Animal Hospital. I brought my dogs here for their regular checkups in March and had hoped this would be a veterinary office I could rely on when my pets needed care.
Recently, one of my dogs was clearly in pain, and I considered the situation urgent enough that he needed to be seen as soon as possible. I called while I was on my way and explained what was happening. The person I spoke with asked me, “Is he breathing?” When I said yes, I was essentially told that it wasn’t really an emergency and that they didn’t have anything available until several hours later.
I understand that veterinary offices have full schedules and that true life-threatening emergencies have to be prioritized. What bothered me was how quickly my dog’s condition seemed to be dismissed simply because he was breathing. An animal can be breathing and still be experiencing significant pain or have a serious medical issue that requires prompt evaluation.
When your pet is hurting, you’re already scared and looking to the veterinary professionals you trust for guidance. I would have expected more compassion, more questions about his symptoms, and some type of guidance about what I should do or where I should take him if they couldn’t see him promptly.
Unfortunately, this experience made me question whether I can rely on Cumberland Animal Hospital when something happens outside of a routine appointment. Routine checkups are important, but knowing your veterinarian will take your concerns seriously when your pet is in pain is even more important to me.
*** Response after business commented***
Thank you for taking the time to respond. I appreciate the offer to speak with the hospital manager, but I don’t feel a phone call is necessary. I shared my experience simply because I felt it was important feedback for both the hospital and other pet owners.
Unfortunately, the interaction I experienced—particularly while trying to find care for a pet who was clearly in pain—was enough for me to make the decision to seek veterinary care elsewhere. I was fortunate to find another local hospital that was able to see him within about 30 minutes.
I’m not looking for anything further from Cumberland regarding my experience. I sincerely hope the feedback is taken constructively and, where appropriate, used to improve how similar situations are handled in the future. Ultimately, what changes or feedback are implemented internally is up to your team.
I wish the hospital and its staff the best moving forward
UPDATE on my experience with Cumberland Animal Hospital:
I wanted to share an update because I think it’s only fair to acknowledge what happened after my original post.
Charles, who manages the location, personally reached out to me about my experience. I have to say, that means a lot and says something about the leadership and the people who genuinely want the best for Cumberland.
As someone who works in the customer service industry, I understand that sometimes an entire business can be represented—or misrepresented—by a single interaction. One bad experience, or one person not living up to the values and level of service an organization expects, doesn’t always tell the whole story. Unfortunately, those situations do happen.
While I’ve decided that I’ll still be taking my pets to another clinic moving forward, I genuinely appreciate that Charles took the time to reach out, listen, and acknowledge my concerns. You can’t change an experience that already happened, but how you respond to it afterward absolutely matters.
I also want to thank everyone who shared recommendations for other veterinary clinics, as well as those who shared their own experiences—both positive and negative—with Cumberland. Everyone has a different story and experience to tell.
Since I was willing to publicly share my negative experience, I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t also publicly share that Cumberland’s leadership followed up and made an effort to address it. I think that deserves to be acknowledged as well.
Dr. Allison Edward's saved my baby cats life. We are in the process of moving 24 hours away. Our beloved cat became deathly ill with a urinary obstruction. She was so compassionate and caring. The whole team was amazing from reception to vet tech. I dont think I've ever had a vet who truly made time for us and really cared. She took the time to update us herself even on her day off. I hope she knows how much we appreciate her and I now know what to look for in our next vet at our next home. Thank you Cumberland Animal Hospital. We'd be starting our next chapter of life very differently if not for all of you.
I took my cat here a little over a month ago and they were very kind, I called on short notice and was allowed to bring him in minutes before they stopped doing drop ins. For that, I am so immensely grateful. My only problem was that when given information regarding his condition, they were very brief and I wasn't told about specifics other than speaking about his "levels" which was simply put as just levels. The prognosis was an iv treatment and the staff was, again, the kindest but with the kind of decision I had to make for my cat, I would have rather known the nitty gritty and had other issues ruled out. I took him to a different emergency hospital a day later and felt way more certain in the decision I had to make since they showed me charts and numbers and talked about quality of life vs longterm treatment, whereas Cumberland kept details more vague. They also listened when I had told them about his history and alarmingly rapid decline and ruled out any other possible outcome other than euthanasia. I'm very grateful I got more time with him because of the iv treatment but with the uncertainty I had, it only prolonged the inevitable by giving me false hope. Again, I really do appreciate how compassionate the staff was, but I wish they could have looked into everything else before laying euthanasia out on the table even if that was the right call regardless.
