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.
What a tremendous recommendation. I only wish I could commute with my fur babies. You are blessed!
ReplyDeleteWOW! So glad you have someone you can trust with your fur babies again!
ReplyDeleteBig Hugs Kim ;o) So happy you found your Dr. again ;o)
ReplyDeleteYour favorite doctor has earned your respect and trust for the reasons that you have written here. To many doctors, vets and human...are to sterile in their hearts to make any kind of difference in our lives. I am very happy for you and your fur babies that you found this warm and caring doctor again!
ReplyDeleteWarm Hugs, Kim~~~
It is truly heinous that some vets take advantage of the love people have for their furred besties as a reason to rip them off :( Lucky you have found your 'true' vet a professional that loves his job & the creatures he cares for. x
ReplyDeleteHello, so i am so glad that you found your vet! i know just how important that is!! I just wanted to say that i have been a volunteer at a VCA Animal hospital for two years, and while i only take care of the animals, (play with them, take them out to pee, etc.) so i can't vouch for a service other than that, i know that not all VCA's are horrible. The people at my VCA all care deeply for the animals, and i know they wouldn't want to be judge by the actions of the other VCA's. I am sure they would all agree that they do have a bad rep for being expensive, but the workers can't really do anything about that. At least for me, i treat every animal how i would like mine to be treated. I love them all so much, and give them the best care i can. I Just wanted to say this so we don't all get generalized. They are some good people working in there. And i am deeply happy you found a vet that suited you better. I definitely struggled to find a good one and now that i have i would not take my baby anywhere else! People in the southern california, Dr. Galea, from Sepulveda Animal Hospital is amazing! If you can you should give them a try he definitely saved my baby's life, and i owe him everything!
ReplyDeletelilyxgrey, thank you so much for your comment. I think that it is wonderful that you have been a volunteer for such a worthy cause! Please know that I do not take issue with the staff and/or volunteers who work for the VCA Hospitals, but I do however have a real problem with the integrity of their veterinarians themselves! I have been to more than on VCA over the years and have had nothing but bad experiences with them! I know of at least one other vet other than Dr. Ostrich who joined with them and ended up leaving because they "did not like what was going on" there. The real shame of it to me is that some of these vets who are so obviously in it for the money otherwise they would go out one their own, were actually pretty good vets as far as knowing what they were doing. In fact, the only reason I ended up staying at my last VCA vet as long as I had was because of Dr. Veltri, who was the only other vet I trusted with my cats. But, again, his greed simply turned me off greatly.
DeleteSo happy you also have a vet you can put your trust in, That is so very important indeed!
Yeah agreed, In my quest to find the perfect vet, i too encountered many vets who were also only interested in the money. It's really sad to see what money can do. It's one of the reasons i like to volunteer and not work! I am sorry about your bad experiences with the VCA! Hopefully they start cleaning up their act so they don't give everybody in them a bad rep! But Your pet is now safe and that is all that matters! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Lilly, I couldn't agree more with everything you have said. :)
DeleteBrightest Blessings to you ~
Kim