The people there are nice. The office is nice. How...

The people there are nice. The office is nice. However they seemed more interested in milking you for your money than actually doing the right thing by your pet. (It's gonna be a long one. You can skip to the last paragraph if you want to get to the meat of it.)

I have a 3 year old Neapolitan Mastiff that I took in about 8 months ago. He needed entropion surgery on both eyes, because his eyelids were turning inward and scratching his cornea. There was already some visible damage when I got him. I found a reasonably priced vet in Jersey to do that surgery. After that surgery my dogs left eye seemed to be getting worse. So I decided to look for a specialist. There aren't too many of them, that I could find. Especially not with an immediate opening. In comes VERG.

I make the appointment. I was late. The wait wasn't long. Staff is friendly and courteous. I go in for the exam. While waiting in the exam room, I express concern that an ear infection I'd been treating him for wasn't getting better. I ask if they can look at it. I'm told that if I wanted to look at that as well, I'd have to sign in for an emergency visit and pay for a 2nd visit, if I wanted them to look at it. That's pretty disgusting to me, being that I'm already being charged over $200 for this visit. I dont feel it was much to ask.

The opthalmologist checks my dog thoroughly. Stops short of one last test, because Crum got antsy. He then insists that the entropion was not resolved properly and that's what was causing the problem with his left eye to get worse. My dog also has slight cherry eye. They suggested we handle the entropion, as well as they cherry eye, and that they would also be able to undo the overcorrection that resulted from the first surgery. The cost of the procedure would be $4000. I agonized over this decision. I mean.....4k is a lot of money. I opted to get another opinion to aid in the decision. I went to the Long Island Veterinary Specialists in Plainview, Long Island. Their initial visit was more expensive @ $300, plus medication, which came out to about $475. However, after a thorough examination, which was more in depth than what had been done at VERG, Dr Kim diagnosed my dog w Keratitis. He DID NOT need entropion surgery again. And she was not pushing for the cherry eye surgery, because she didn't feel it was obstructing his vision. She also stated that while the original vet did overcorrect, there was tissue removed that couldn't be put back, so to fix that isn't really viable. She prescribed a regimen of 3 different medications for my dogs eyes. After literally 4 days, his eye was already visibly better. I'm so happy with my decision to get another opinion.

Very unlikely I would go to VERG again.