On Tuesday afternoon October 11, 2022 around 3pm, our 3 small dogs attended their slated “tech” appointment to have their booster shot of a vaccine previously given a month prior. Keep in mind a booster is simply a fortifier of an original vaccine. The original vaccine caused no problems or extraordinary reactions in our 3 small dogs.
I had requested the shots be given in a private room since we had 3 animals. However, the vet tech came out in the lobby and said she would take them away because no room was available. South Bosque Veterinary Clinic suspiciously uses this “remove the pet” protocol almost exclusively compared to most other vets around town.
Now…we know why: If something goes wrong, it is difficult to prove since you were not an eyewitness to the problem or incident. The tech brought them back less than 10 minutes later all on their leash. So far so good, but keep in mind these are hyper, barking chihuahua anxiety filled dogs who were barking all over the place.
I, Kurt Thompson, (the complainant) walked them around the facility for about 10 minutes before getting them in the car. At home, they usually like to relax on the couch or bed. I usually try to get them to go out and go pee pee every couple of hours to avoid accidents in the house.
As it got later and later, I noticed 2 of the 3 dogs, Maynard (male 13 years old) and Celine (female 5 ½ years old) had not moved from where they went after arriving back from the appointment. Colleen had been moving around. I told Maynard time to go pee pee and reached to pick him up and he cried. I tried again and he yelped and cried. I went to grab Celine off the bed. She growled and cried.
I then went and got my wife, Laura. I said, something is not right with Maynard and Celine. You can’t pick them up because they are hurting too much. After she found that both indeed had some type of pain, she asked me what the clinic did. ( she wasn’t there at the clinic for the booster). I said just a simple booster shout in their front left shoulder or…so i was told.
She, too, immediately suspected foul-play because she said they are having pain in their belly so how could it be a booster shot?
They finally came down on their own, but both were limping from their rear legs. This was the convincer. Something had injured their abdomens and something had hurt their rear legs to enough degree to make them both limp. Colleen, our other dog that had also allegedly got the booster had no symptoms at all. Oddly, the left shoulder where allegedly they received the booster shot was not sore to the touch for them. ONLY their belly and rear leg. Both my wife and I concluded something horribly went wrong as both dogs were injured in areas located far away from their treatment area.
Extremely angry, I found a contact form for South Bosque Veterinary Clinic because I wanted to make my complaint in writing. I wrote a very accusatory, emotional, angry email about the fact our 2 beloved small chihuahua mixed dogs were hurt and injured in such a way leading us to conclude it may have been some type of abuse. I also labeled it “rough handling” just in case they had an incompetent, poorly trained tech that was harshly stabbing them with the vaccine. Yet, we knew that was not likely since both injured dogs showed no sign of injury or soreness on the left front shoulder where the booster vaccine should have been administered.
PLEASE SEE ATTACHED EMAIL SENT TO SOUTH BOSQUE VETERINARY CLINIC.
I wrote an email expecting to receive an email that night October 11, 2022 because I wanted things to be in writing. Irritatingly, The following day, October 12, 2022, I received a missed call and subsequent voicemail by Jered Johnston claiming to be the owner of South Bosque Veterinary Clinic.
I tried to get back to him the same day, but oddly, the line was busy. I say oddly because in the last 15-20 years, I can’t remember actually getting a busy signal. I almost always get a voicemail or some type of computerized response.
I think I actually made contact the day after Jered Johnston’s voicemail on October 12, 2022 which would have made it Thursday October 13, 2022 that I made contact. The receptionist said he wasn’t available, but took my message.
While I had her on the phone, I asked about making a first time appointment for 2 brand new 3 week old female chihuahua puppies we had just saved from going to the animal shelter.
She said usually they do that after the puppies are 8 weeks old so she made an appointment for us with these 2 cute little ones each (only about a 1/2 pound each) in December.
Almost immediately after hanging up, I received a call from Dr. Jered Johnston.
Not happy that he hadn’t EMAILED instead, at least we were going to get to the bottom of what might have happened….or, so I thought.
Jered Johnston introduced himself as Dr. not Jered. Jered is not my doctor nor is he our pet’s doctor. Further, I had never met nor had heard of him before. So, when someone tries to gain instant respect or power by using “Dr.” on me, I usually want to call that individual butt-head or bozo.
What Jered had to say flabbergasted me because it was the opposite I was expecting. He began criticizing my email. He said it was rude and accusatory and he wouldn’t stand for that tone about his practice. He immediately transitioned into this statement which he would repeat another 5-7 times during our 10 minute phone conversation:
“Mr. Thompson, you obviously do not trust us. You are no longer welcomed at South Bosque. We will be happy to send your pet’s records to whomever you choose.” I told Jered: Hey, you are making an assumption about me when I am directly in communication with you. If I don’t trust you or your staff, I will be the one to let you know NOT YOU! So, there is no “obviously” to your assertion that I don’t trust your clinic. Jered, at this point, I don’t trust whomever is responsible for hurting our 2 pets. I also don’t trust your protocol of removing pets from the sight of the owner while performing most of your services.
The purpose of my email to you was to alert you to a serious and possibly dangerous situation: Someone working at your clinic harming animals. Someone at your clinic is abusing animals. Someone working at your clinic ill-trained and “rough-handling” pets through incompetence. I want this investigated and let’s get to the bottom of what happened. Further, Just a week ago, we adopted or saved two precious little female chihuahua puppies from going to the Waco animal control. We already have an appointment scheduled. We only have one mandate: We don’t want those 2 little girls to leave our sight.
Dr. Jered Johnston: “Mr. Thompson, you obviously don’t trust us here and as far as bringing new pets, that won’t happen. I will cancel those appointments as soon as we get off the phone.” I injected again: THERE IS NO OBVIOUSLY here. You are talking directly to me. Stop talking to me like I am a bystander looking in.
Jered then said Mr. Thompson I 100% guarantee that nothing like what you described could have happened here. There is absolutely nobody that would harm an animal working at our clinic. I then replied …but you weren’t there. Did you follow my 3 dogs every second once they were out of my site? Did you have eyes on them the entire time? What about video?
Jered replied that our pets were taken to an area near several doctor’s offices and it would be impossible for anything to happen. He said they didn’t have cameras or video.
I could have sworn I saw cameras at least in the lobby area, but I may be mistaken.
I told Jered that regardless of his belief system, SOMETHING, SOME HARM had come to our pets. Were they kicked? Were they tripped upon? Were they handled too rough? Or did someone abuse them by stabbing them with a syringe in their abdomen and rear hind legs? SOMETHING HAPPENED!
Jered: “Mr. Thompson, you obviously don’t trust our clinic and we won’t be able to serve you any more.”
At this time, I did lose my composure and began calling Jered names and lashing out at him via the phone. His tone deaf responses had caused me to turn a corner. I told him that he didn’t know who he was dealing with and that I have a substantial social media following. I would be writing blogs, making videos, social posts and official complaints to make sure anyone else continuing to use South Bosque Veterinary Clinic be privy to a potential animal abuser lurking there.
Jered: “Mr. Thompson, you obviously don’t trust our clinic. We will be happy to send your pet’s records wherever you want.”
I interrupted Dr. Jered Johnston and told him our conversation was over as it was a complete waste of my time and had not made any progress to finding out what had happened to Celine and Maynard.
I hung up the phone.
After my conversation with Dr. Jered Johnston, I now officially, DO NOT TRUST JERED JOHNSTON! Yes, his incompetence ( unable to form a logical conclusion and take action on a serious matter) and his intransigence ( obnoxiously sticking to an erroneous script that he repeated to me over and over with no ability to consider events, logic, or the welfare of his clients pets) have now convinced me that HE is the one not to be trusted. Since he represented himself as the owner, well, one could certainly begin to have doubts about trusting the entire clinic.
Dr. Johnston NEVER inquired about Celine and Maynard and if their condition had improved or what had been done. He never offered to have us bring them in so he could personally examine and see what might be wrong.
He never took responsibility for his clinic and the staff that work there.
He never accepted the fact our pets were hurt under HIS care and authority.
In essence, DR. JERED KENT JOHNSTON gaslighted us!
Very very sad to hear this about South Bosque Veterinary Clinic but I’m not surprised. We had a bad experience with them years ago and similar to your situation they put all the blame on us and accepted no responsibility for their actions. You’re not going to get anything from them but at least you’re alerting others who might consider them.
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