Shawn Curtis

Review of Austin Vet Care at Central Par...

TL;DR: I had to take my poodle in for emergency su...

TL;DR: I had to take my poodle in for emergency surgery and I had a wonderful experience. Absolutely nothing to complain about in the slightest. 10/10, would have a panic attack there again, highly recommend. If you're wondering whether or not to go here, it's worth clicking to read the longer version.

Longer version where I lay out every way that they were awesome every step of the way: My standard poodle developed a GDV (aka his stomach flipped, aka bloat) somewhere around 11PM last Sunday and they were the first emergency vet that popped up when I hit google.

I took him in, they took him back immediately for xrays and got me into a room once I checked in. I barely even had time to sit down in the waiting room. The vet came in almost immediately with the diagnosis, and was very gentle, but straightforward, in telling me that it could be fatal. She then sat with me for a second while I processed that information (read: burst into tears) and she even ran to get me a paper bag when I started hyperventilating (yes, that really does work).

When I had calmed down, she told me up front about the risks of the necessary emergency surgery, repeated things that I needed repeated, explained things that I needed explained. She gave me an estimate and told me upfront that she was not a board certified surgeon, she had only done three of these surgeries, and that I could have him stabilized enough to transfer to a different surgeon or, obviously, that euthanasia was a possibility.

She let me go into the back to be with him and pet him and comfort him (read: let him comfort me) while I got my thoughts in order.

When I decided that it would be riskier to leave his insides all twisted up while getting transferred somewhere else and was ready to sign off on the surgery, they pulled up the cost on a tablet and went down the list of things involved one by one, explaining the surgery step by step, all while hanging out in the back with my dog. This is the anesthesia and this is the cost, this is an antacid and this is the cost, this is the painkiller and this is the cost, we might have to do a splenectomy and this is the cost.

It went perfectly, no complications at all, and they called me (at about 4AM) when it was done. They held onto him for two more nights, and when I went to pick up my car the day after the surgery, they let me go back in and visit him. The kennel that they had him in was huge - he had plenty of room and comfy blankets etc. The back room as a whole looked very clean and very organized.

They took the whole possible cost up front, and when I went to pick him up, I got a refund for over $2K for the things that they didn't end up having to do. I just got back from having his sutures removed, and everything looked perfect.

Everyone was so kind and attentive the whole way through. I think I interacted with like 75% of their entire staff over this whole event lmao and no one was rude, no one rushed me even once. I only wish I could remember names worth a damn so that I could give personal shoutouts. But for anyone there who reads this - if you took care of Twain in any capacity, I absolutely love you.