Boston Street Animal Hospital LLC

Reviews 3

SU

Suzanne Bailey

My dog is 15.5 years old and we have gone to BSAH twice. Each time, the vet, Gregory Burbelo, did not call Ramon by his name but preferred to call him "old man." During our first visit, Ramon had a stomach ulcer and I asked questions about the cause of such a condition which Dr. Gregory did not seem to care for. I thought everyone has a bad day so chalked it up as that. Our second visit was when Ramon had redness and cloudiness in his eyes which caused a great concern to me. The staff were great including the technicians and receptionist team. Things went downhill when Dr. Burbelo came in and called me by the wrong name. I nicely reminded him of my name and he appeared annoyed. He also called Ramon "old man" or she. Neither are a great way to describe a male patient. I let the staff know that Ramon did not like to be picked up when they went to place him on the table for the exam. Dr. Burbelo told me he wanted to do a stain on Ramons eyes and seemed very put out when I asked what it was and what it would do. I have no vet training and consider stain to be something on furniture so I wanted to know exactly what would happen to my dogs EYES. I dont believe this is unreasonable. After the stain, I was told Ramon had ulcers on his corneas which could be the result of a scratch and I asked how this would happen since he is an indoor dog and both eyes had them in the same place. Dr. Burbelo let me know "that he did not live with us therefore he would not know how it happened." My question was a general question based on his experience as a vet. He proceeded to tell me that Ramon had infection in his teeth and when we started discussing cleaning them, removing teeth, etc. Dr. Burbelo told me that he could not discuss his TEETH AND EYES even though he was the one that brought up the teeth. I explained that we were there today so we should address everything. Dr. Burbelo gave me the card of Dr. Hyman, an ophthalmologist, and verbally told me another doctors name to call. When I asked to make sure it was Dr. Hyman I should call because that was the card he had given me, he abruptly me informed that the practice had SEVERAL doctors. I am not sure how I would have known this. Ramon was returned to the room being carried and was very stressed. He does not like to be picked up as I had mentioned earlier in the visit. The technician then came in to show me how to do the drops. Since Ramon was stressed and I felt a little stressed with the diagnosis, I asked her for a minute so Ramon especially would be in a better place. I was informed that she had other patients which was great because she could go to them while Ramon got a little more calm (he is 15.5 and cannot really see or hear). She did not appear to want to give us a minute. Dr. Burbelo came in annoyed and said for her to give us a minute. The technician left and I told Dr. Burbelo that the visit seemed a little hostile and I felt that it is important to call patients by their correct names and answer questions. He pointed his finger to me and angrily told me that I am a difficult client and "he does not like my personality." He yelled for someone to come "and get me out of there" as he pushed the door into Ramon. The technician came in and kindly showed me how to use the drops. Ramon and I went downstairs and I paid the bill. Needless to say, I do not recommend this office if you need a place where you can ask basic questions about your pet and receive courteous, knowledgeable answers. I am Ramons advocate as he cannot speak for himself and think that advocating for him is not being difficult but trying to ensure that he has the best care and I make the best decisions for him based on reliable information I receive from professionals I am paying to give me that knowledge. BSAH is not one of those professionals.

JU

Juliana

I took 2 of my kittens to this vet about a week or two after I had adopted them. I was mostly concerned about one of them because of his cloudy eye, him being underweight, lethargic, and having diarrhea. My other cat seemed healthy but actually ended up having ear mites and so treatment was administered to her. I was given an antibiotic for my sick kitten. My vet made me very nervous telling me my kitten was very underweight and that he might have this rare disease given his symptoms and that he had a respiratory illness (he mentioned the rare disease more than a couple of times) but it usually is herpes. He didnt give me any drops for the kittens eye so I was worried about that after. I was charged over 400 dollars for both kittens for that, deworming, they got my kittens to poop during the visit (which not sure how they did it that quickly but at least half of the things were done in another room so I couldnt see what was going on) in order to do fecal tests, and a bunch of other things that they deemed necessary. I get the fecal test results back, and the results are that nothing out of the ordinary was found. This makes me feel relieved. So now fast forward 1.5 months later. I take out the kittens bed from the closet. They havent used it since the first week they were adopted (I had placed it in the bathroom and had kept them in the bathroom for the first few days). I find dead segments of tapeworms ALL over the bed, which I had never noticed before because I had placed a sweater on the cat bed. I was able to figure this out because I compared them to the photos online and sure enough they are dried tapeworms. Then, I also find these dry pieces of tapeworms on my bed. And then later, I observe my sick cats poop closely, and find that he has living tapeworms in his poop. Clearly, my cat has had tapeworms since the beginning and now still has them. I dont understand how they did the fecal tests and found nothing, and aso dewormed them yet my cat still has worms. So yeah, I feel like they didnt do their job right because now Im very concerned about my kitten who was had tapeworms for MONTHS and unfortunately didnt realize it myself until today, and the treatments/exams/medicine was twice more expensive than the vet Im going to now. Plus, he still has all his other symptoms even though he did put on some weight and is somewhat less lethargic now. Also, my other kitty STILL has earmites!

A

A Private User

I took my dog for shots and a checkup. First of all, he thought he was a girl dog despite having seen him before and having the dog right in front of him...honest mistake I guess. Then he starts trying to sell me on some bogus homeopathic supplements to buy. I asked him what was in it, what its mechanism of action was, etc. but he couldnt even tell me what was in it or how it worked, just that it was homeopathic and promoted "wellness". then he said the stuff was good for people too. Of course I went home and looked up this company and they had changed their name a few times and had been under investigation for fraud. Stereotypical bunk science and quack medicine. I dont expect a full med school explanation but I would expect a doctor to understand the mechanism of action when prescribing a drug or supplement. This stuff had no vitamins or medicine or anything. It was total snake oil. Later on I found out that this dude was all into Scientology and didnt believe in medicine, preferring the frequently debunked pseudoscience of "homeopathy" which states that water retains the "essence" of a chemical or substance even when diluted to the point where there are no remaining molecules of the substance. I may be a layman but I know BS when I smell it. Long story short, Im sure the guy means well but his dangerous disregard for science and medicine means I will be staying far away. Id rather drive over to Fed Hill to see Dr. T or over to Fells Point for Docside. They always are glad to tell me what is in the stuff they are prescribing for my dog and how it works.