A Bittersweet End: Our 3-Day Nightmare with Avva Clinic

Hello everyone.

We wanted to share our experience with Avva clinic, and maybe this review will be helpful for someone who's thinking of taking their pet there. I mean, it's a 24/7 clinic, and a lot of people from other parts of Crimea take their pets there.

The equipment at Avva isn't bad, but I've got huge doubts about the vets' qualifications, and I'm not the only one who feels that way.

Before writing this review, I re-read reviews of this clinic on other websites, and most of them are negative. It seems like the clinic's policy is focused on making money, and saving animals is secondary.

We had to deal with all this, and in the end, we decided to put our cat, Bart, to sleep. I'm still not sure if that was the right decision, but I know that Avva clinic will be the last place I'll turn to for help with my pet.

A little backstory.

Our cat, Bart, was a special guy. He was born from a regular non-purebred cat of my relative, and he was a good, smart, and as I called him, human-like cat.

In his 7-year-old age, before moving to an apartment, we took him to a clinic for castration, and he handled it fine. Before that, we lived in a private house, and Bart would freely roam around. From vet services, we took him for two rabies vaccinations, and also for regular flea and worm treatments every few months.

When he was 15 years old, he started coughing, so I took him to a vet clinic (not Avva), where they did an X-ray and diagnosed bronchitis. They prescribed him Zoocard in a suspension, one dose per day for life. A few days later, on a follow-up visit, the swelling went down. The vet recommended an ultrasound of his heart, which showed that for his age, his heart was in good shape. We didn't follow up with the Zoocard, as the vet recommended, but he remained active for a while.

Our visit to Avva.

On January 3rd of this year, he had a seizure-like episode: convulsions, foam, drool, and screaming. And he almost lost his sight in just two days. Since the cat has been living with my mom, she took him to the vet clinic, and the episode happened around 9 pm. Only Avva was open (the state 24/7 vet clinic was closed).

I'll never forget the look on the doctor's face in Avva when she told us it was a death throes and our cat was dying, despite the low temperature. We spent an hour on a heating pad, followed by IVs, injections, and oxygen therapy. They also took a general blood test and biochemistry analysis. She diagnosed poisoning, although our cat hadn't been outside since mid-December. That night, Bart managed to pull through.

The next day, more IVs were prescribed, and I took him to the vet. He received two IVs of saline solution, and by the end of the second one, he was perked up and no longer wanted to lie down. I asked the doctor if we should give him Zoocard, and she said, 'Absolutely!' The following day, more IVs were prescribed.

At 8 am the next morning, another seizure lasted around two minutes, and we rushed him back to Avva. The new shift of doctors were baffled, and the test results were all within normal limits. The doctor took Bart's blood pressure for a long time and said that even at his age, a normal reading would be 90:160, but Bart's was 160:240. They hooked him up to an IV with potassium to lower his blood pressure, gave him vitamin B12, a diuretic, and examined his eyes, which were likely to be affected by the high blood pressure.

When I asked about the previous diagnosis of poisoning, the doctor said it was possible.

Now that the emotions have worn off, I can see the absurdity of the situation and those words, but back then, we trusted the doctors, who we thought genuinely wanted to help our cat.

During this IV treatment, he had another seizure, which was terrifying and unexpected. The doctor held him while I called for help. The seizure lasted for about 1.5 minutes. He said it was likely a brain problem, possibly a burst blood vessel or a brain tumor, which would require an MRI under general anesthesia, but Bart might not survive it. I asked about an ultrasound, and he said it wouldn't be informative. If they could stabilize his blood pressure, but the problem remained, then it would be up to us to decide what to do next.

The doctor gave me the rest of our potassium bottle for the next day.

I took Bart to my mom's place. A few hours later, she called again, saying he had another seizure, and then five more in the next hour. She said she would call the doctor to discuss euthanasia, as Bart's blood was coming out of his mouth. I just hung up the phone.

I still remember the day the vet came to put our cat, Bart, to sleep. He asked for the test results, which we had sent to him via email. He said Bart had hypertensive crisis, meaning his main organs – kidneys, brain, heart, and eyes – were failing. The vets at Avva hadn't told us this, and there was no treatment, just Zoocardin, which they'd been giving him for the past two years. It was as if the vet was saying, 'Zoocardin is the answer!' If not for it, Bart wouldn't have made it through the first seizure. We were constantly taking him to the hospital, hooking him up to IVs, but he had five seizures in one hour, and we decided to end it for him. I'll always remember his eyes and his cries when we were in the clinic. They gave him two shots, and he fell asleep forever. He was 17 years old. He lived a very fulfilling life and became a beloved family member.

As for the clinic, if we were misled and not given accurate test results, I wouldn't judge them. Maybe they just didn't have the qualifications to interpret the results. Every business has its flaws, and there should be some humanity involved. We knew Bart was old, but the diagnosis of poisoning turning into high blood pressure was hard to understand.

I only have one receipt left from the last day, but we spent around $7,000 in three days.

In the end.

During my time at Avva, I saw many people bringing in their pets. Many of them were put on IVs and given long-term treatment. It's clear that they're making a lot of money, but if they were able to help anyone, I'm glad.

This review is for people to think twice before deciding to go to Avva if they're not getting a clear diagnosis. If they're dragging their feet, it's better to take your pet to another clinic and show them the test results.

If anyone wants to judge us for putting Bart to sleep, that's their right. I'm still struggling to come to terms with our decision, but it was clear that he was suffering during the seizures, and the treatment wasn't working.

I'll always remember Bart as a big, strong, and lively cat.