Astoria Veterinary Group

Reviews 3

AL

Aleksandra Flora

I strongly agree with most recent reviews here. Do NOT take your beloved pets to Astoria Veterinary Group. They will not cure your pets. All they care about is making money! They take advantage of you when yiu are at our weakest and worried about your pet and cant think clearly about finances. My husband took our sweet cat Fuzzball to them on Friday evening on November 27, 2015. They made him wait for over an hour and then rushed him in, confused him, scared him, took the cat away from him into another room and sent him back to the waiting room where the support staff proceeded to pressure him to take a credit card out with a huge APR to pay for procedures for the cat. They did this even before they did any blood work to find out if the cat had anything truly wrong with him. They started procedures on our cat in another room without our consent, without explaining anything. They took our cat in the back room and butchered him. Next thing, our cat was given medicine, again without telling us for what purpose, the cat had a terrible reaction and they put him on oxygen. Meanwhile my husband was in the waiting room being asked: "How much money can you spend? $5,000?" When my husband said he would gladly pay but needs to know what he is paying for they kept talking about the credit card and then said: "The procedure will cost the amount of money you get approved for by the credit card company" WHO SAYS THIS? We were worried about our cat and instead of giving Fuzzball good care and appropriate treatment they kept talking about money. Thats when I picked up the phone and called them out on trying to forcibly extort money from my husband . I said we were not paying anything until we know what is going on with Fuzzball. Then the vet nervously got on the phone with me. Dr. Hirsch then admitted there was really no emergency with Fuzzball, everything was looking good and said the blood work came back fine. Fuzzball was ok when he came in there. But before they did any blood work, they misdiagnosed him, gave him medicine and did multiple procedures without our consent. Then the vet proceed to say he wanted to do "exploritary surgery." WHY? If the cat was ok, why not let my husband in to see him and take him home? The vet brought up this bogus surgery in order to COVER UP that they already hurt Fuzzball. Our beautiful cat went into shock from the anesthesia they gave him without our concent. Instead of trying to save his life, they took him off oxygen, quickly stuffed Fuzzball back into the cat bag and charged my husband $60 and rushed him out of the office, without any information about what drugs they gave to the cat, what was wrong with the cat, or how to nurse the cat back to health once he was back home. What happened next will haunt me for the rest of my life. Fuzzball came home paralyzed with bulging eyes, gasping for air and cry meowing in excruciating pain. He suffered greatly during his last hours in this world. Who releases a cat in this condition? Why not admit to my husband they made a mistake and they needed to keep the cat and try to save him? They killed our cat. They killed Fuzzball by torturing him first. It was intentional and malicious. Their staff was negligent. The vet misdiagnosed and didnt follow proper protocol. They dont have any compassion. The doctor didnt follow ethical behavior and shouldnt be allowed to treat any animals ever again. Astoria Veterinary Group needs to be investigated immediately and shut down for trying to scam people while their animals are being treated. Or in most cases, mistreated and abused. Please do not take your dog or a cat or any pet there.

DA

Dagny Juell

I adore Dr. Weltz. He is amazing with our cats. He makes good decisions and is competent, kind, and practical. The problem is the front desk staff and the lack of good service. Specifically Luceli and Brittany. As an example: -despite multiple requests and sharing how offensive I find this, it took over one year to have my name, not just my husbands, on our account - who knew I stepped back into the 1940s? -front desk staff do not listen and are curt each and every time we are in - furthermore, I have never called and not been put on hold - not once - could the issue be that they are overworked? -will not use email (which is the real crime) despite having an email account - first place I have been to that they do not actively use email - why should I come in to receive copies of lab results I paid for or call to wait incessantly to make an appointment when in fact sending an email is quicker and provides for documentary evidence - I am not passive about this, I have contacted the practice multiple times over this issue and front desk staff do nothing and management does not respond -we set our appointments for first thing in the morning as much as possible - we have never not had to wait which is stressful when there are dogs inside the small waiting area and we bring in sick cats -more then once, despite my request in person and on the phone, did not share lab results with pharmacy so medication for a seriously ill cat was unreasonably and dangerously delayed -Luceli even had the audacity to tell me she was doing me a favour by sharing the blood tests with the pharmacy and asked me to interpret the results (I am not a vet) - she even suggested I was giving her "attitude" when I told her I am not a vet and cannot interpret blood results. I am not a passive aggressive customer. I pay for a service and the practice is not a charity that I am lucky to be part of. I have called to discuss the poor service and the manager has never gotten back to me. I have emailed with no response. My cats have lived in multiple countries and we have had multiple vets. This practice is by far the worst I have experienced in terms of the lack of customer service. And again, I am paying for a service I am entitled to receive. The practice is not doing my a favour. I come only for Dr. Weltz - if he left we would go with him and if he worked at a different practice in addition to this one, we would go there too.

AM

Amanda Kuchinski

I have taken all of my animals here for years but today I decided to actually write a review! I took my fat cat in this morning to get his very first shave for the summer. I spent 6 hours waiting at home worrying like a crazy person, and then ended up just driving over to the clinic to see what was taking so long. When I walked in around 2 pm the place was crazy...phones ringing off the hook, about 10 people and 5 animals in the waiting area. I asked about my cats status (trying to not sound completely crazy) and the receptionist there (pretty curly haired girl) actually took time out to check on him twice, and then actually came up to me in the waiting area and stood there and told me the full detailed procedure of grooming a cat (I work customer service at a day care and I know what its like to try to deal with a worried "parent" while the phones are ringing and you are super busy). She totally calmed my nerves and I really appreciated it! The only bad thing I would say at all is that once I finally got my cat back, the nurse who brought him back to me decided to give me a full rant about how heavy my cat is and how I am killing him with food and how he is going to get diabetes etc.... (all the while not listening to me when I told him that my cat has already lost 2 pounds since his last check up 6 months ago) But that probably wouldnt have bothered me as much if I wasnt so emotional and already feeling guilty about putting my cat through that grooming. ALL IN ALL though, the grooming looked amazing and my cat is happy and much cooler, and even though I was freaking out about the time it took, I actually really appreciated that they took that time and care with little boy. Wonderful vet clinic and I highly recommend it!