For as long as I can remember, my parents have always put their trust in our family veterinarian, Dr. Sherbyn Ostrich. VMD. He started an animal clinic back in the 70's called, Cacoosing Animal Hospital. He was doing so well that he hired Dr. Carl Veltri who graduated from the very prestigious Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. During this time, Dr. Ostrich was elected as President of the American Veterinary Medical Association and also President of the Pennsylvania Veterinary Association. Aware that he would be gone for three years and would have little time to work at the hospital, he decided to sell his practice to the VCA Animal Hospital, a decision he had expressed to me that he would later regret!
No longer able to take our cats to Dr. Ostrich, we eventually ended up taking our cats to the "new" VCA Hospital in the same location simply because Dr. Veltri was still a part of them. A couple of months ago, we noticed a lump in the middle of Midnight's tail. Concerned, we took him to VCA. The vet, one of many new vets that come and go there, diagnosed his lump as a cyst and told us that we should "keep an eye on it" to make sure there was no change in size, color, etc. I would have preferred to have him seen by Dr. Veltri, but you are never guaranteed he will be working at the hospital when you have to make an appointment.
We decided to get a second opinion after we saw a recent article in our local newspaper which featured Berks County Vets, one of them being Dr. Ostrich who had very recently started another animal clinic called, "Eagle's Peak Animal Clinic. "Ah ha!" I said to my husband, "we found him again!" So we immediately took him to see Dr. Ostrich this past week and upon due examination, he informed us that Midnight had a blocked gland and that is what was causing his cyst. He sterilized the lump and then cauterized it really good as to not cause an infection, and for only HALF of the fee which VCA would have charged us, we walked out with him knowing that he was in the best of hands!
The next day, I called VCA to find out if Mr. Earl Gray's ashes had come back yet (since they had already sent me the bill a day later after telling me it would take about 2 weeks to get them back and then failed to call me when they did ... after all, they had already gotten their money), I immediately had all of our cats medical records transferred from VCA to Eagle's Peak Animal Clinic. Nuff said.
Let me tell you just how much integrity Dr. Ostrich has. A few months before he opened Eagle's Peak, he had decided to go back to the place where he started his practice in the first place, before it was sold to VCA Hospital. It wasn't very long before he left and I immediately thought to myself, "I'll bet he didn't like what was going on there." And, after speaking with him this week, I found out that I was right! In my opinion, VCA Hospitals are the greediest of the greedy, the most heartless of the veterinary businesses there are. They would rather see you put your beloved pet down then work with you on paying their extremely high and very insane vet bills! There is absolutely no question in my mind what-so-ever that they are ALL about the money, NOT the well-being of the animals they treat! Personally, VCA Hospitals make me sick and I will never go back to them ever again. Period!
So, what makes him so good? Well, other than the fact that Dr. Ostrich has managed to save my parents dogs and our kitties in the past, while other vets were "resting on their laurels," Dr. Ostrich continued to educate himself throughout the years which only served to add to his long-time experience and knowledge of animals. I am extremely grateful to have found him after all these many years and I will continue to put my complete faith in him to take of our fur babies.
