A Vet Clinic That Only Cares About Your Money - My Extremely Negative Review

A Vet Clinic That Only Cares About Your Money - My Extremely Negative Review

I'm still shaking just thinking about writing this review. I've been putting it off for ages, but I really hope it reaches as many people as possible, especially those in Chelyabinsk, so NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES take your pet there. If you're looking for a clinic based on searches like 'best veterinary clinic in Chelyabinsk', 'where to treat a cat in Chelyabinsk', or 'veterinarian Denisov Chelyabinsk reviews', then you really should read this review.

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To avoid any issues with the website's rules and to prevent the clinic owner from saying that this review was written by their 'competitors', I won't be mentioning any surnames or clinic names. If you live in Chelyabinsk and/or are interested, please contact me via private message.

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And another thing that won't be discussed further:

I won't be mentioning any surnames, either in the text or in photos, but the clinic is called 'Veterinary Clinic of Dr. Denisov' or 'Veterinary Practice of Dr. Denisov'. The owner's surname is Denisov, and their IP address also has the surname Denisov. I've discussed this with the administration of the irecommend website.

Let's get started.

In October last year (2024), we got a cat. She had worms, fleas, and conjunctivitis, and we quickly sorted out the first two problems, but the discharge from her eyes kept appearing from time to time. I'd never dealt with cat problems before, so we thought it might be residual issues that would soon pass or just mucus after sleep. Here's how our cat looked when she first arrived:

Veterinary Clinic DenisovAfter about a month, our cat started getting a third eyelid, which shouldn't normally happen:Veterinary ophthalmologist ChelyabinskWe decided to take her to the vet, and as someone who relies on reviews, I started looking for the best one. And then we stumbled upon - ta-da - Veterinary Clinic of Dr. Denisov. The reviews were all glowing ('best clinic', 'saved our pet', 'Dr. Denisov is a god'), and the rating was 4.8 (4.5 now, by the way) - wow, what a wait!The main concern was the visibility of the third eyelid, so we needed an ophthalmologist or an ophthalmologist-therapist. At other vet clinics, we'd have to wait a few days for an appointment, but at Veterinary Clinic of Dr. Denisov, we could book an appointment for the same day, which we did.

Complaints: third eyelid visible, cat sneezing, dried-up mucus around the nose.

I took my cat to see an ophthalmologist, who recommended we run some tests for infections. She also did a fluorescein test, which involves applying a special dye to the cat's eye to see if there are any corneal abrasions. The vet shows me the cat's eye and says, 'Look, you can see the scratches on the cornea, that's a corneal ulcer.' Maybe this is a clever tactic: showing owners something and saying, 'See, your pet has this, and that.' But who says it's True? You're not a vet, and the person in front of you is just a human being.

The vet prescribed some medication to improve the eye's condition.

Veterinarian Chelyabinsk reviewsI was naive and thought, 'Great, this will all be over soon, and my cat won't be sick anymore, and we won't have to trek all the way to the other side of town after work!' Yeah, right.There was a moment that left me with mixed feelings. I was following this vet clinic's group on VK, and they posted a photo of a vet holding a cat that looked suspiciously like mine. I thought my phone was glitching, but a friend confirmed it was probably my cat, even the markings on her paws matched. I still don't know if it was her or not, but the situation is weird. If you want to take a selfie, ask, but why do it in secret?

We first visited this vet clinic on November 25, and the next appointment was on November 29. We got the test results, which said the herpesvirus wasn't found. But the vet said, 'It's hard to catch,' and there's a high chance the results might be False negatives.' For some reason, these words were forgotten, and she focused on the eye.

I asked the vet if maybe it was the herpesvirus and we should try treating it. She said something vague and said it wasn't herpes. I believed her.

There were no changes to the eye at all. The vet says, 'Your cat has a rare form of conjunctivitis that only occurs in dogs. In my practice, I only had one cat with this condition, and it's hard to treat.' Wow! If this disease only occurs in dogs, maybe we should question our assumptions about the disease and consider something else?

No, let's not. Let's just add another medication:

Veterinarian Denis ChelyabinskMy cat wasn't getting better, and I saw the situation getting worse, but I thought it was a reaction to the medication, and it would all be okay soon.Here's what our cat looked like when we first brought her to the vet on November 25:

Denisova Vet ClinicBut let's get to the situation a week later, on December 2nd:Follicular conjunctivitis in a kittenAt that moment, I didn't think to myself, 'Maybe I should take my kitten to a different vet.' No, I thought, 'Lord, now we're really in a tough spot. We've got a rare disease in a cat, and we're stuck with this clinic!' So, on December 2nd, we came back for a follow-up appointment, and I told the vet that things were getting worse. The vet looked at my kitten, said everything was bad, and told me to buy these medications:Vet Clinic ChelyabinskThree medications, three times a day. Each medication had to be administered with a 10-minute gap between them. We used to wake up at 6 am for work, but now we had to wake up at 5 am. The medication routine wasn't exactly a thrill for my kitten, so we had to swaddle her like a baby:Best vet clinic in ChelyabinskNothing worked. By the time of our next appointment on December 7th, my boyfriend said, 'Let's get a second opinion. Maybe it's something different. Let's go to a different vet.' And I said, 'No, I trust this clinic 100%. They have great reviews.'I know what you're thinking - maybe I was just blinded by my trust in the clinic. But the thing is, the clinic only responds to positive reviews on 2GIS, and ignores the negative ones. And amidst all the positive reviews, the negative ones get lost.

By the way, during the treatment, I also wrote a positive review for them on 2GIS. They responded to it. After realizing what was going on, I deleted that review and wrote a negative one. Of course, I didn't get a response, and they even blocked me on their VKontakte group.

Aside from my fear for my kitten's health and the feeling that only this clinic could help us, there were some practical aspects that I liked. For instance, I appreciated how they sent us the test results via email. It was convenient, and I could access it anytime. In other clinics, they just gave me a printout.

Now, I'm not going to sugarcoat it - their treatment was subpar, and I'd give them a 0/10 for that. But I'll give them 10/10 for making it easy to click a button and get our test results. Go figure!

Dr. Denisova's Veterinary PracticeWhen we were waiting for our turn, we got to observe the other animals being brought in. It wasn't just cats and dogs, of course. They had parrots, turtles, ferrets, and even a rabbit. They even posted on their group page that they had brought in a chicken. It's great that there's a clinic in our city that can accommodate exotic pets. But it's a shame that Denisova Vet Clinic can't even handle common diseases in cats and dogs.

We were also swayed by the financial aspects: they didn't charge us for repeat visits, and we only paid for the prescribed medications. They asked us how much we'd spent, but to be honest, the total wasn't that high – especially considering we wouldn't have had to pay an extra 1000 rubles per visit. Most of the medications cost between 200 and 400 rubles and didn't run out even after the treatment course was over. The most expensive one was the Re kavari gel for 1300 rubles. What didn't work – that's a different story. We spent a decent amount on gas, but I won't count that as part of the treatment costs.

What really got to us wasn't the cost, but the lack of progress, which brought on a lot of stress: the cat was anxious, my partner was tired, and I was constantly crying and beating myself up.

On December 7th, we went back to this vet clinic. The doctor said there was no positive dynamics, so we're going to give the cat shots for four days, and if that doesn't work, we'll be looking at surgery to remove the folicles. And even that's not a guarantee. The administrators told us the surgery would cost around 11-13 thousand rubles.

Vet clinic of Dr. DenisovWe've probably already guessed that the shots didn't work?I told my friend about this situation, and she, like my partner, suggested we go to a different clinic to see what they have to say.

It was New Year's magic and circumstance that saved us from the surgery. When we went back for another check-up after the shots, the doctor said she was going on vacation, after the vacation it was New Year's, and she needed to be present for the surgery, so we had to come in for the surgery between January 3rd and 5th. I mentioned I wanted to get the cat spayed in February and asked if frequent anesthesia would be a problem. The doctor replied that six months was a great age, and we could go ahead with the spay. I had planned to only get the cat spayed in this clinic and only with Dr. Denisov – I had some blind trust and admiration for this person's professionalism. Then, at the beginning of January, I called another clinic to schedule the spay for soon, and they told me six months was too early, and they spay cats between seven and nine months old.

And then the doctor told me their conversation with the doctor: "I talked to our chief doctor, told him about this case, folicular conjunctivitis in the cat, medications didn't work, I suggest we do surgery to remove the folicles. He says we can remove the third eyelid in general. I tell him, why be so radical, maybe this will help." And something just clicked in me.

Dr. Denisov, the clinic owner, suggests not worrying and just cutting off the third eyelid. What???

We came home, and I suddenly turned on my critical thinking.

I've been reading reviews for almost 10 years now, and in most cases, I can spot a fake from a real one. As a job seeker, I know where to look for employee reviews and how to detect manipulation. But when I saw the fake reviews on 2GIS for this vet clinic, my mind went blank. At that point, we had just visited the clinic for the first time, relying on positive articles and glowing reviews about the 'best surgeon' and 'top vet clinic in Chelyabinsk.' I didn't even bother checking other review sites. It wasn't until I started researching other resources that I got really scared.

To avoid being too judgmental, I've attached a link to one of the websites that actually has real reviews about Denisova - READ MORE

You can also try searching online with phrases like 'Denisova vet clinic Chelyabinsk reviews', 'Denisova vet clinic reviews', and so on. Don't just stop at the first few links in your browser; keep digging.

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I also recommend reading not just recent reviews, but also the ones from 5-10-15 years ago, especially if they mention the same surnames. Let me give you an example from my own life. I found a job opening that seemed great, but there were no reviews about the company. By coincidence, I stumbled upon a review from a former employee, written 5 years ago, just a couple of hours before my interview. I asked the employer about the review during the interview, but they couldn't provide a clear answer, simply saying it was 5 years ago. Long story short, everything turned out just as the former employee had described. And it's because the same people who ran the company in 2020 are still in charge in 2025. The same goes for Denisova - he's still a vet, still running his clinic, and still doing surgeries like he used to.

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In the end, we went to a different vet clinic, armed with our research and questions about whether the surgery was even necessary. The first thing they asked was, 'Did you visit Denisova's clinic?' We said yes, and they replied, 'They just want to cut something.' The doctor in that clinic then told us that some of the medications we'd been prescribed were incompatible. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if we'd continued treatment with Denisova...

The doctor examined our cat, performed the same test with fluorescein, and told us it was just a common herpesvirus that's easy to treat, and no surgery was needed. We bought the prescribed medication, and within 10 days, our cat's third eyelid started to return to normal. She also stopped sneezing and producing mucus, which Denisova's clinic had brushed off as a general immune system issue.

It's been six months now since my kitty made a full recovery.

Eye Specialist and Therapist in ChelyabinskMy little sweetheart, my gorgeous girl, is back to her old tricks - chasing butterflies and making us laugh with her goofy antics.So, let's sum it up:

The meds we were prescribed didn't mix well.They pushed for surgery that wasn't really necessary.They didn't even treat the herpes virus, which is super easy to cure.

Thanks for reading my review.