VSES Rochester

Reviews 3

SA

sarah beren

Do not bring your rabbit here unless you have absolutely no other options. The staff at VSES are mostly wonderful - friendly, attentive, concerned. However, their knowledge of rabbit veterinary medicine is lacking. As anyone with rabbits know, when they get sick it becomes life threatening very quickly. One of my rabbits had frequent bouts of GI stasis, a common ailment in rabbits, and almost always got sick late at night which required us to bring her to VSES for fluids, pain meds, and a stay in the incubator until we could bring her to her usual vet in the morning. The last straw was this March when we brought her in for hypothermia with a temp of 96. As usual we asked she placed in the incubator, given pain meds, and IV fluids. During her 8 hour stay they checked her temperature only once, mid-way through her stay, which showed she was not making any improvement. Despite me telling them not to feed her, they force fed her critical care. When I got her to cats and critters in the morning her temp was 92. Cats and critters was able to increase her temperature to 100 in 5 hours, however because she was left untreated for so long at VSES she required another abdominal surgery. Because of the power outages the vet would not have been able to take her home for after care and we did not trust VSES enough to place her back in their care. Ultimately we paid VSES to kill our rabbit. When I questioned VSES about what happened that night they stalled. I waited 30+ minutes at the front desk to get treatment reports from the day before and despite a full 24 hours having passed since her care, her treatment notes had "not been completed". The front desk staff checked with the doctor, who refused to speak with me that day, and didnt return my call for 3 days. She waited to talk with Cats & Critters to see what she "should have" done and then told me thats what she did, although it wasnt recorded on the treatment sheets at all. VSES refused to send me the "completed" records they claimed the doctor had to finish writing 24 hours after treatment. The real kicker came a couple weeks later when VSES had the balls to send me a sympathy letter and ask for a donation in honor of my deceased pet. So yes, some vets at VSES seem to know more about rabbits than others. Our rabbit had successfully had her temp brought up 3 previous times at VSES until Cats and Critters opened and could give her proper treatment. I understand theres no guarantee that a rabbit will respond to treatment, however it is suspicious that she responded to care at Cats & Critters, but not at VSES leading me to believe they did not have the incubator set to the proper temperature, did not have the knowledge to provide gut massage, and failed to check her status and adjust treatment accordingly. They also fed her which is something you should not do unless you are certain there is no blockage, which there appeared to be. Overall it was simply a tragedy until I went to VSES to get my pets records - then it seemed like a cover-up was going on. Having meds & fluids pre-prescribed for giving at home and investing in an incubator will be in my future.

DO

Donna Parks

We brought our beloved cat, Ebony to VSES late last Sat. night. We thought she was having a hairball problem but obviously by Saturday evening we began to feel it was much more. She wasnt eating or drinking and was becoming weak and lethargic. The first vet we saw found that she had a high fever and thought perhaps it was just a virus that could be handled. We got a call in the middle of the night telling us that she was extremely anemic and they were not able to control her temperature with IV fluids or medication. It went down hill from there. We were able to visit with her the next day and she did seem a bit better but again received a call during the night that things were rapidly declining. Her red blood count was way too low and she had a multitude of things going on. We had to decide rather quickly if we wanted to agree to a blood transfusion. After speaking with the vets there and with our own vet we realized that blood transfusions are not easy with cats and we still didnt know the underlying problem. She would have to go through more tests...bone marrow, ultrasounds and perhaps more transfusions and on and on. She was the BEST cat. Never did one thing wrong in her life....sweet....gentle...loving. When we saw her prior to our decision to euthanize her so that she would not suffer it was clear that her soul had already left her body. It was very difficult to take since she seemed perfectly fine a week earlier!! She was only four years old!! I believe we gave her our last gift of love even though our hearts are broken. The vet that mainly took care of Ebony was Sara Brawdy. She could not have been more kind and compassionate. We will never forget her. My only reason for not giving this a five star review is that I have to agree with a few of the other folks on this sight. We so wanted to be with her when they took her back to be examined after we came in. It was extremely stressful for us and I am sure for her to be separated like that before we had to leave her for the night. That sticks in our mind and it hurts. I am sure there are practical reasons for this but it still is hard for us pet parents to understand. We would never leave a child like that and she was our child. As for the cost, we are retired and limited income but we feel the cost was fair for the care that she was given. We appreciated being told up front on the phone that the exam would be $100 and an estimate of what the bill might be after we got there. We would have paid or done most anything to save her but it helped to know what we were facing right from the start. We knew that this wasnt a free clinic and that she had round the clock care.

MA

Marilyn Baber

Sadly I have had to bring 2 cats here under emergency conditions. The first one had fallen off a bed & done something to his back that caused him to be paralyzed. He couldnt stop screaming. We rushed him to VSES after calling them, so they were expecting us & could hear the cat screaming in the background. When I got to the waiting room, there was 1 other person there & she had a seemingly healthy white poodle in a cage. The staff was cooing over the dog while my cat screamed in agony for over 20 minutes. I was crying & desperately trying to get someones attention while they ignored me. Literally ignored me - never even acknowledged I was there. When the cat was finally seen, the person (I dont even know if it was a vet) told me the cat had "probably had a stroke & should be put to sleep." No pain meds - or any meds at all - were given. No comfort to either of us. They were horrible. A few months later, our last cat had a prolapsed bowel. Nothing else was open, so I called ahead again, & rushed the cat to VSES. Again, I was ignored for over an hour - even though there were only 2 people in there. When I was finally seen, there was no discussion of any kind, no information given to me, no choices. I was told bluntly I had to put her to sleep. So, with 2 visits & 2 different cats & a completely different staff both times, I got no meds, no treatment of any kind, no explanations or options & both times the bills were outrageous & no animal I have taken there has survived. This was a few years ago, so I was hoping that this place had gotten better staff over the years, but a good friend of mine had to take her dog here over the past weekend & before they even looked at her dog, they asked her how much money she had. They continued to be unprofessional & downright dreadful - and then told her she would have to put her dog to sleep if she couldnt come up with thousands of dollars for treatment. (They wanted to do a hysterectomy, among other things) My friend took her dog home (with a staggering bill & NO treatment - just threats). She took the dog to a real vet the next day & the dog got treated properly & reasonably (no hysterectomy) and is now doing fine. I am very happy to read in these comments that there is another vet that is open nights & weekends because I love my pets and would never subject them to this place again. No one I saw had any compassion or concern for animals or people - only money. Disgusting. And for some reason, the rating keeps going to 3 1/2. I gave it 1 star & wouldve given it minus stars if I could.