Suburban Animal Hospital

Reviews 5

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Mike Cat

On Friday July 21st, our family was in the midst of a crisis with our beloved 15 year old dog. We have brought our animals to Suburban animal hospital for the last 11 years. We stopped bringing our 15 year old shepherd to Suburban 2 years ago because of the stress and limitations of getting him in a vehicle. We changed to Doorbell Vet to make his life easier. On Friday our Drifter was suffering from some type of brain disorder or which was causing him to have seizure after seizure. He was scared and of course so were we. We contacted Doorbell Vet and they were working very hard on getting a mobile vet to our door, in the meantime I called Suburban Animal Hospital and spoke to receptionist and told her the situation. For some reason they could not find a record of ever having Drifter or our other 2 dogs at the Hospital. When in fact at the beginning of July this year they had an office visit with our newest dog for a complete physical and shots. After 12 grueling minutes on the phone and still no resolve I explained thru tears, all we needed was to put our beloved dog to sleep so he would no longer be suffering. Again put on hold the receptionist came back after a few minutes to tell me she had spoke to the vet and "unfortunately they did not have any time to perform that service." Our dog suffered for another 1.5 hours waiting for a mobile vet to come to our home and euthanize our beloved Drifter. I waited almost a week to post this review, to make sure emotions did not give in to an unfair review. I sorted thru years of invoices to suburban, the 1,000s of dollars they received from us for treating our dogs, which they cant seem to find a record of. Please think twice before bringing your loved one to this hospital, somewhere along the line I think they have become all about the money and less about the compassion. Doorbell Vet may be a bit more expensive and they are not set up for mobile emergencies but the entire team went above and beyond to make sure our beautiful boy was taken care of as quickly as possible. Donna and Mike Cash, Sadie, Copper Catalano

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Kristy Hoffman

The staff is generally nice but this place gave me some unnecessary headaches. First, their vet was rude with me because I hadnt clipped my new puppys toenails yet. Id never had to clip a dogs nails before so I didnt just charge right in uninformed. He offered to have someone do it for me so I agreed. Despite remaining perfectly still - it was his first time and he didnt know what was happening - they still chopped off too much and made him bleed. So now hes afraid of having his nails cut over a year later. Second, their vet advised me to wait until my dog was at least 9 months old before even considering having him fixed (at which point I suppose he reserved the right to say he wasnt ready yet, going by his wording). I didnt think a vet could be wrong so I accepted this without question - wont be doing that again. I later went to another vet when I moved and she asked if I was going to have him fixed at all. When I explained what Id been told, she very strongly said this was bad advice and there was no reason for a mixed breed dog to wait that long. She said, in fact, it had made the process more difficult because he was fully grown or near it. I wonder if this was done because its more expensive to fix a bigger dog and they thought theyd be the ones doing it... They werent. And finally, when I made the aforementioned move and needed to change vets (my dog gets sick on car rides so minimal driving is always best), this place made me drive 20 minutes one way just to get his records. They refused to fax them directly to my new vet. When we moved again, my second vet didnt hesitate to fax his records and neither did Suburban which was a pleasant surprise. When it didnt appear that the newest vet had gotten them, we called Suburban and they once again said no faxing. Thankfully, the newest vet had indeed gotten the records, they had just misplaced them. So theyre also inconsistent but Im glad this inconsistency resulted in better service than before. I will say that other people there are very nice; theyre just not my favorite.

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Nancy Griffith

I cant say enough about how wonderful the doctors and staff are at Suburban AH! We are always treated as family and we feel very much the same. My husband and I first brought our 2 older cats to SAH when we moved to Henrietta in 1994. They cared for Abigail and Garfield throughout the last few years of their life and then when we adopted 3 litter mates in 2000, everyone at SAH embraced and loved them as we did. The wellness care provided was always thoughtful and in the best interest of our pets. Sadly, because they were the same age, we lost all 3 of our boys over a period of 12 months in 2014 but we did not mourn alone. Dr. Hall and Dr. Fisher both helped us through the process of euthanizing our animals when illness prevailed. They made a difficult experience so much easier to get through because of the tenderness they exhibited toward our loved ones....and toward us. It took us almost a year before we felt ready to adopt -- but when a rescue situation came along last month we knew the time was right. I cant begin to explain how I felt when i made the first appointment for Gracie. Without exception, every doctor and staff member at SAH welcomed us back with such warmth and joy. They are truly family!

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K Lathrop

My dogs have been patients of Suburban Animal Hospital for approximately 15 years. I cannot say enough about Dr.s Fisher, Hall, Bunkenburg and Blair as well as the amazing staff! I was referred to Dr. Fisher in 2000 by a co-worker who spoke highly of Dr. Fisher and the practice. I was thrilled to find a Doctor and practice that I felt had the best interest of my dogs and myself in mind each time we came in, taking the time to explain each option available to us as well as the possible outcomes. Over the years Dr. Fisher has taken the time and special care with all of my dogs, three of which have been disabled. Dr. Fisher has taken the extra steps to address each of their special needs and has referred us on to Cornell or specialists when needed. Dr. Hall has been there to provide acupuncture and a more holistic approach to assist us with each of our dogs special needs as well. The staff has always been friendly and welcoming at each visit or phone call. Additionally, we have had numerous Great Dane fosters through our home over the years and they have all received the same amazing care from all the Doctors and staff that my dogs have received.

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A Private User

I have been to five different vets in the past year searching for the right one. This place is by far the best. I took in my very sick dwarf hamster to Dr. Ziemba after going to two other vets. The first vet was nice, but was not very knowledgeable about small animals (and I had done my research on vets). The second vet was supposed be very good with small animals, but he hardly looked at her at all, gave me his diagnosis, and sent me out with medicine for a disease I knew she didnt have. I came to this Suburban Animal Hospital one evening, and Dr. Ziemba went above and beyond for her. She spent nearly two hours with us, even though we were being "squeezed in" at the last minute. She did absolutely everything she could for her and even had another vet at the hospital look at her as well. Sadly, my hamster did pass away the morning after staying overnight at the hospital, from what Dr. Ziemba best believed was a tumor - but when I went to pick her up, someone had even taken the time to put her in a special little box and decorated it just for her. All future pets of mine will be brought here.

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