Willows Veterinary Centre & Referral Service - Solihull Reviews 338

We’ve visited multiple times with our cat Ed after he developed a blood clot and needed specialist scans. Again today with our other Nola, as always Fabio was amazing and very informative.
Reception team excellent and just overall a calming and comforting place to to bring your pet.

Most helpful caring genuine ever. Helped through the most upsetting and stressful time ever. This 24hr care is the very best you could ever wish for your pet.
Thank You Willows .

Cant thank Lucy enough, very professional and she took such good care of my Blue. Was kept up to date with everything. Very knowledgable, explained everything in great detail on findings so i could understand. Communication was definitley top notch, she would call with updates and i didnt have to chase even though she was swamped with other emergencies and it being Christmas. Helped with aftercare and talked through diet plans. Expensive but 1000% worth it. Thank you Lucy, currently dancing around work. Absolute Angel :-).

Jordanna and the team are amazing, Caring and attentive to our situation.

The willows saved Motos life in 2017 Kirsty Rowe gave us an extra 6 years of having Moto in our life and from that day we haven’t used anywhere other than the willows. Highly recommend them and their excellent service.

Your pets life is worth more here and they value you and your pet.

Referred to Willows nutritionist which was a complete waste of money and time! My dog has stopped eating everything except meat. The nutritionist did not listen to this and continued to tell me she needs a diet low in meat content. Also seemed more concerned with her obesity, which considering condition is going to reduce her life considerably, her obesity will never become an issue. This disappointing consultation was topped off with his recommendation of a multi vitamin which you can apparently only get from America at the cost of £130 per month!!

Show me the money! Clinical care without looking at the dog!

We took my 9 year old Cockapoo to Willows veterinary centre with Canine immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (ITP). This is a common clinical disorder in which platelets are destroyed an auto immune disorder.

When we arrived our dog was happy and wagging his tail, despite being already quite ill - he was happy as always. Upon initial examination and questions about his health and insurance it was decided to check his platelet levels, give him so treatment and we could take him home and continue caring for him.

One hour later we were told his anaemia levels had also dropped so they had to admit him. (Not 100% sure I believe this now)
Over the next 4 days we were sporadically updated on our dogs health, always referring to blood levels infrequently commenting on his general health. He was give a blood transfusion to help him. We were told we would be called, and we tried calling many times to get an update, but the calls were always later than promised or planned. We were not even called after his transfusion to tell us the success!

Finally after 4 days I received a call to tell me his blood results were improving and we had "maxed out" on our insurance, so it was OK for us to collect him. They preferred to keep him one more day, but he was OK for collection. This was the first time money was spoken about since the first consultation. It was really obvious they didn't believe there was much money left in my dog, therefore it was OK to discharge him.

When they brought our dog into the waiting area he almost didn't recognise us. It was clear to us they had ignored the general well being of the dog, they didn't care for the patient - they had the money!

We were given medicines to give to our dog. The tablets came with a discharge letter - when the next dos was due and main side effects, but no instructions: what order should we give the tablets; with food or without; could we remove table from plastic pellet? So difficult to know. Surely some basic leaflets / instructions should have been provided?

Overall I regret taking our dog to The Willows veterinary centre. He went in a happy dog and came out broken, but in their eyes healthy. There was not enough care or attention for the way the dog himself was responding to the treatment...just 100% focus on the clinical results and the money they could take.
Four days later we said our sad and last goodbye to our best friend. I can not help reflect on the final days / week of his life. they would have been so much better at home being cared for.

We had our dog treated at Fitzpatrick referral centre in 2019 - what a different experience. They showed so much care for the dog and gave some treatment free as it took us over our insurance yearly maximum. What a difference!

If you are thinking about taking your pet here - my advice...think long and hard - I don't believe they care for the animal.

Spoke with vet with no pet examination or treatment while we were there cost £465. Told us results from our vet that we already knew & that was it . One of first questions was “how much insurance you got ?”. I’d recommend you look at all review sites about willows as if I had seen what so many others had written I’d of avoided & saved myself time & money & my pets health . Already been investigated by the so called Team ! so why say your interested when the only interest is money don’t bother with the reply because you don’t mean it , it’s just to make it look like you care .

The veterinary surgeon was so kind and very helpful,she was so understanding with everything. We couldn't ask for more from her.Thank you very much.

Was referred here what a joke late seeing us the so called vet had a look over the records sent from our vets that cost us £700 didn't examine the dog ask us if we had got insurance told him no said it would cost £2k to 2.5k and we would get results later in the day as we wanted to get the dog fixed we agreeded then he put is lead on our boy didn't even call is name to show him he was friendly we left and after 5 mins called back to be told they had to many sick dogs in and to come and collect him. what a joke and they class there self as a 5 star outfit then to top it of they send us a bill for £465 for this so called vet to see us as he didn't see the dog what a absolute con they also sent us a letter to pay up or they will send it to a collection Company. they did email us to say they were going to investigate but nothing happened look at there TV programme where a vet was repairing a dogs leg and the screw broke and carried on didn't replace the screw ie the dog was backing again ie another massive bill for is incompetence looking at that I think we had a lucky escape. we have got our dog sorted at a proper vets and was a £1000 cheaper then willows the Rob dogs so anyone reading this and you love your pet don't take it here.unless you don't care and have deep pockets. And willows don't bother replying saying sorry because you are not your reviews are appalling left this review on vethelpdirect as its got all 5 star reviews for this rip off outfit and it's been removed sounds like this is there own review site and answering your reply your investigation team did nothing bit like the vet .

5*care and service - the team we’re all so lovely and caring I honestly cannot fault. Very glad our 13 year old shitzu is back to himself today. Thank you for looking after him last night and making him better

Response - i've already phoned in and expressed how unhappy i was, i also emailed after the appointment and expressed i wasnt happy and nothing was done - so no i'm not doing it again thankyou
Poor -
It took well over a week to get the pre auth sorted before booking in an appointment with the nutritionist. 30 minute call costs £260! - the 'vet' would only use 1 dog vitamin company which is in the USA and costs in excess of 150 a month.

Made me feel like a bad owner for wanting to consider a uk company and what's worse actually contradicted the whole reason we were having a call (dog stomach issue) and suggested go buy human grade vitamins but in the same breath said this might upset her stomach.....
Pre auth had been done through my insurance company with just a small amount that i would need to pay towards the consult. I emailed and explain i wasn't happy with the consult and just to bill the insurance, now you would think i might get a reply asking for information or feedback? - but no i just received an email asking me to pay the full amount - they didnt even bother to put it through on my insurance despite it being pre approved! - had to call the department and waste more of my time :)

This is not the first time this has happened with my visits to Willows, you arrive on time for your appointment, take a seat in their waiting room then after a long wait you go back to reception and find out you haven’t been booked in correctly. Today I had a 9am and 10am appointment but it seems I wasn’t booked in for the 9am. It is now 10:30 and still not seen for my 9am
To have a sick animal waiting in a waiting room for 1.30hrs is not good customer services and not acceptable

We have been very well informed and very happy with the service we have received.

Totally money driven
Took four months and seven grand to tell us our beloved dog had incurable cancer
Worst vets we have ever experienced
Corporate greed.
Don’t know how they sleep at night!
Avoid avoid avoid!

I would say the worst vets I’ve ever experienced.
All they care about is money. They will literally make up stuff about ur pet or mis diagnose so they can run “additional” tests. Our experience was so horrendous and long I can’t even go into writing it. But avoid these vets. They care about profits more than anything else. The only time they ever done a decent job in treating out pet is when the cameras were in for a TV show.

Took our poorly cat to the Biddulph Branch and received some very bad news. Basically, he had to be put to sleep. All done with tact and great care by the team there. He slipped away quite painlessly and is now at rest.

The team were fantastic and acted quickly when our rabbit took a turn for the worst and started stumbling and not eating. George greeted us and got a triage organised straight away, Amy was super understanding and listened to everything we had to say to help the diagnosis. Elena was so kind and knowledgable, the whole team really are an asset! So grateful to them all, bunny still isn’t well, but hoping for a good recovery!

Great triage service and really good with the appointment keeping.

Facilities wise is impeccable, they have most things that are needed.

The expertise is off the scale too, very knowledgeable and are also training students there which is great.

I had an extremely disappointing experience with Willows Vets. Our French Bulldog had spinal surgery there and was sent home with a catheter. After just 5 days, the catheter stopped working, and when we tried to reach out to express our concerns, they shockingly told us to go to another vet for help. This was a disgraceful response.

In desperation, I went back to Willows and demanded that they address the issue. By this point, my dog's bladder was so full it was overflowing. They then informed us that we needed to pay an additional £560 to replace the catheter, on top of the nearly £10,000 we had already spent on the surgery. To make matters worse, it turned out that the reason the catheter had failed was because they had initially installed one that was too small for my dog, and it had fallen out. They also left us waiting in the reception for 2 hours, whilst my dog was in pain and discomfort with an overflowing bladder. (See image).

They have since refused to see my dog for a follow up appointment and to remove his catheter. They have told us to go elsewhere! The level of customer service in this place is shocking! AVOID AVOID AVOID

What's truly appalling is the lack of aftercare for my dog. It feels like they took our money and completely forgot about him. This level of service is utterly unacceptable, and I would strongly advise against using Willows Vets.

Poor service for an emergency vets. Still sat waiting after 4 hours it's now 1.30 am. Staff not very friendly and don't bother to speak. No one tells you how long you have to wait and seem quite disinterested