The Ralph Veterinary Referral Centre Reviews 44

My Seven year old ESS joined the Research programme at The Ralph in Marlow in Bucks. He had realignment surgery in November and December 2020. He suffered from Bilateral IOHC and ED.He is now deceased aged 7 !
He was accepted onto programme having had previously had surgery, we were told this wasn’t a problem.
In the 15 months post operative period he never recovered from the surgery, he suffered repeated infections,pain,chronic limping and the off loading of weight led to problems with shoulders ,sacral and lumbar spine , tail junction and hips.
The advice from the surgeon was “give it time “ ,”Can’t be related to the surgery “, “ the infection isn’t caused by surgery “, “ take him off all those meds” and “get him exercising.”whilst giving this advice my dog was crippled with pain caused by infections which vet denied could be a possibility and couldn’t even walk outside to toilet, I had to carry him.
The post surgical advice has led to such appalling postural change that so much irreversible collateral damage occurred His front legs became seriously deformed in the operative and post op period.
The vet showed a total disregard for other veterinary professionals and ignored their diagnosis of infections of the post operative site based on short video clips. Even though he was told of classic symptoms of high temperature in the elbows and chronic limping. A full assessment of my dog by an independent vet clinic was startling in its diagnosis of the amount of damage that had occurred because of surgery but this was not deemed as relevant because he hadn’t been pointlessly scanned under general anaesthesia as the damage had already occurred.
The vets only offer was to do more surgery on the elbows in spite of being told he was far too frail for surgery let alone a 14 hour round trip to the clinic for a scan. Ironically the surgery he offered was similar to the failed surgery his innovative method was meant to correct .So my dog was removed from the study for not attending the final scan!
My dog was taking a cocktail of drugs to reduce inflammation, control his pain and protect his organs. At one point we were told to stop the meds without any regard to weaning him off slowly or consideration to why he needed them and the impact the removal would have. He was taking Amantadine ,paracetamol ,metacam ,weekly cartrophen, denamarin and dasuquin alongside hydrotherapy and phsiotherapy to try and keep him comfortable. Sadly we were no longer able to control his pain as his whole MSK system was compromised and had to make the decision to Put to Sleep on March 19th 2022!
I joined the study as a member of a support group page on fB. I subsequently found the surgeon to be the moderator who was using it to recruit dogs for his study. I found him to be manipulative, blocking negative comments ,blocking members and ending discussions which didn’t suit him under the guise of keeping it a positive site. Hardly a professional approach which didn’t allow informed choice. Indeed I received a direct threat to remove me from the page if I didn’t behave ! The clinic itself removed it’s complaints procedure from its site within a couple of days of my complaint and said they were updating it. They refused several requests of mine to receive said policy and failed to adhere to their own stated protocols. The clinic is blasé and casual thinking nothing of disregarding data protection law when it comes to complaints.
Going to The Ralph proved to be emotionally damaging ,financially crippling (£14,000)and deadly. RIP My beautiful boy Bramble aged 7 ,taken far too young 19.3 22


I dont recommend these people.. ignore owners.

I have a dog which was attacked & her leg was damaged at the joints. This has been ignored not only by these people but my own vets.

They ignored my concerns & operated on my dog making her condition worse. Not all common procedures go well if you ignore underlying issues which the Ralph has. She has deformitys which were ignored because these people think they know better & even then ignore each other & think that one consultant think they know more then the other. I've had no consistency been disrespected. Mugged off completely.

After operation on my dog & making it even harder for her to walk then tell me how I was right & my dog has hip dysplasia? When I ask if by them ignoring me & operating on my dog without knowing her full condition IGNORED? Complaints are not being addressed & IGNORED my Google reviews & comments on Facebook are being removed by the Ralph.

These people have little respect for pet owners & still my complaints haven't been addressed.

These people are unregulated. Use & abuse pets & pull on owners heartstrings

Very disappointed with our experience at the Ralph. Sadly they misdiagnosed the illness of our dog which sadly resulted in her dying. I wouldn’t recommend.

We were referred to The Ralph when our boy Max fell ill. It has been a long journey for us as a family with a very sad ending after his diagnosis of lymphoma 😭.
We as a family can not fault them. They are all professionals and are very kind and caring.
I especially want to thank Cecilia and her team for the amazing support they have given us.

Thank you guys from the bottom of our hearts you are by far the best vets Ive had the pleasure to meet.
Max Price and family