Southland Veterinary Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky used to be great. We brought our dog to them, a Rottweiler mix, after another vet decided to spend more time telling us how dangerous his breed was instead of treating him. It turns out our dog had mouth cancer and we were glad we switched.
At first the care was on point. Our dog had regular reminders for his shots, the vets and techs were excited to see him, and we were happy with the thorough treatment he received for his cancer. Dr. Amanda Thomas was amazing.
When our dog started acting strangely after a vacation, we had no idea we would be in for a month of hell thanks to the inattentive, dismissive, and cruel care from Southland Veterinary Hospital.
Dr. Malinda Ferrell is a Dismissive and Incompetent Veterinarian
There are several problems with the vets at Southland. I wish I knew what happened to them but Dr. Malinda Ferrell is the biggest problem. I experienced her as rude and dismissive. Southland Vet insisted what was wrong with our dog was an ear infection. This was without ever looking in his ears and by dismissing our observations — which included videos and detailed accounts of how he was reacting poorly to medication. This failure is also on Dr. Millie Hardigree for failure to perform basic diagnostic procedures. It wasn’t an ear infection.
The third time we brought him in, Dr. Malinda Ferrell insisted she observed him for over eight hours. She also insisted he was fine. That evening we had to bring our dog into the emergency vet yet again. He was not fine. He was barely reacting to anything, walking in circles, unable to eat or go to the bathroom, and running into walls.
Dr. Malinda Ferrell was rude and outright dismissive to any questions and concerns we had. Her responses included “I don’t know, he seems fine” and “Maybe you can take your dog somewhere else.” Now, I understand vets sometimes deal with rather insistent people, but I reckon we were nice the entire time. All we wanted was an answer to why our dog was getting worse and why they insisted there was nothing wrong with him when he was nearly catatonic. We don’t know why Malinda Ferrell and Millie Hardigree decided not to treat our dog as they never indicated there was a problem before.
Malinda Ferrell observed our dog for eight hours and said he was fine. This leads me to believe she barely observed him at all. Five minutes with another vet and he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. If another vet can see that he was blind, deaf, and exhibiting neurological symptoms, why couldn’t Dr. Malinda Ferrell notice these obvious symptoms after eight hours of observation? Again, she probably didn’t observe our dog at all. She didn’t take us seriously.
From Dismissiveness to Cruelty at Southland Veterinary Hospital
After the diagnosis with the other vet, we took our dog to a specialist to see what our options were. This only added to the difficult month and we are still dealing with the grief of this experience. MedVet Cincinnati called Southland Veterinary Hospital to get his records of recent blood tests so they wouldn’t have to draw blood again from our dog.
Southland Veterinary Hospital never responded. They didn’t respond to phone calls, emails, or faxes. This led to our dog being needlessly stuck with another needled. It also led to the specialist having an incomplete history of our dog. This is cruel. It increased the suffering of both our dog and us. To exhibit such cruelty on an animal that is suffering so greatly — I don’t have words to describe it other than barbaric and cold-hearted.
Avoid Southland Vet at All Costs
Our dog ultimately died from a brain tumor. We were robbed of a month of treatment options, whether or not they saved his life, because of the incompetence of Southland Veterinary Hospital. We have no illusions that our dog likely wouldn’t have survived. But because of the dismissiveness and cruelty of Dr. Malinda Ferrell and the ineptitude of Dr. Millie Hardigree, we had a nearly catatonic dog for over a month before we could even begin to explore treatment options.
This shouldn’t happen to anyone. Veterinarians such as Millie Hardigree and Malinda Ferrell should be honest in their assessments and perform due diligence. Their lack of care and refusal of care increased the suffering of our dog exponentially.
We lost our best friend. We likely would’ve lost our best friend anyway. Dog brain tumors are so hard. But he wouldn’t have suffered as much. We wouldn’t have suffered as much. We could have eased his pain and let him live the remainder of his life with relative normalcy before the disease progressed.
Avoid Dr. Malinda Ferrell at Southland Veterinary Hospital at all costs. She is dangerous. Cruel. Dismissive. Dr. Millie Hardigree is inept and inattentive. Make sure you insist they perform basic diagnostic procedures or you could end up suffering along with your pet.
