Reader Sara wants to share the experience she had with Petsmart’s dog grooming service. She says that after they accidentally cut her dog’s toenail too close they tried to sell her a product to stop the bleeding.

Sara says:

I wanted to let you know what happened to our dog when we took him to get groomed at Petsmart today. We’ve taken our Lab and Boxer there many times in the past and never had a problem, but today we got a call that they had “nicked” our Boxer’s toenail and were having the on-site vet take a look at him “just in case.” We went up there to find out what was going on.

We went to the grooming salon to check out both dogs. They give you the bill before they release your pets to you and you go in the checkout line to pay. The woman in the salon looked at the bill and said she wanted to check something and told us to go over to the vet to see what was going on with Winston, the Boxer. We noticed smeared bloodstains on the tiled floor both inside and outside the salon. The vet was called out to see us after we waited about ten minutes. He said that the grooming technician accidentally cut the nail to the quick and it was bleeding. He said that the Boxer was full of energy and during the short walk from the salon to the vet’s office the dog “knocked against something” and it started to bleed again. There is an unobstructed path between the salon and the vet’s office. He said that our dog was anxious and his blood pressure was up and he hoped to keep him there while he calmed down and that if we took him home he would probably continue to bleed. He said we could BUY a product to help stop the bleeding. The vet said that nobody was at fault except the dog for “wiggling.”

They blamed the “accident” on a black nail. Boxer’s nails vary between black and white depending on the color of the skin of the toe. When we finally got the dog back to examine, it is very apparent to us that the nail was not a black nail. You can see clearly that the nail was not “nicked” but in fact there is very little left of it. This is definitely a painful condition for a dog and leaves our pet open to infection until it heals.

When I went back to pay, the bill was for full price, without a discount that I thought was forthcoming after the tech wanted to “check something.” I asked, “You are going to charge me full price after hurting my dog?” An assistant manager was called since the manager was not there. While the manager was apologetic, he said the best he could do was offer to give us the doomed nail clipping free because “your dog still got a bath and we didn’t charge you for the vet’s time.” He went on to tell us that in addition to the bleeding from the cut nail the nerve was also damaged. Nice. He eventually did give us the product to stop the bleeding for free.

I understand that nail trimming, especially with an energetic dog, is a difficult task but that is the reason we take our dogs to a professional groomer. We are not brave enough to undertake that task ourselves because we are afraid of injuring our pets. We understand that the vet was consulted for our dog’s injury but we feel that injury was completely preventable if care was taken. Our dog can’t be the only energetic dog the groomers see. When the vet offered to sell us the product to stem the bleeding we were enraged. We also appreciate that the assistant manager offered to get our “trust” back by whatever means he could, but the fact that no meaningful discount was offered was galling. After they hurt your dog and probably make it impossible for him to ever allow his nails to be trimmed again, what could they possibly do?

We were so upset that we didn’t accept the nominal discount for the nail trimming as we just wanted to get our dogs home. I don’t think this is an across the board condemnation against the groomers at Petsmart but this really shouldn’t have happened.

Ouch! Poor puppy. We suggest launching an EECB (executive email carpet bomb) on Petsmart to see if there’s anything more they can do for you. Accidents happen, but haggling over a product to stop the bleeding that they caused is, well, rude.

For more information about launching an EECB, click here.

Also, you’re probably in the market for a new dog groomer, so be sure to check out this information from the Humane Society of the United States.

What do you think Petsmart should have done in this situation?

(Photo: Jenna Belle )

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