Corey Soos

Review of Garden State Veterinary Specia...

I never leave reviews for anything but I don t wan...

I never leave reviews for anything but I don t want anyone else to have to experience what I experienced yesterday. I m honestly so upset about how I was treated when coming to pick up my dog from his surgery to remove a mast cell tumor. I witnessed a huge discrepancy in the level respect shown towards others and myself, which I can t wrap my head around because I ve always made a point to be respectful to people I encounter, especially people working through a pandemic, and especially people who I was trusting with the care of my dog. I dropped my dog off for surgery at 9am and was told I d get a call when he was waking up. I received a call around 3pm and the surgeon said he d be ready by 4, but rushed me off the phone leaving me no time to ask questions about how his surgery went. I arrived a little after 4pm and checked in, there were a few people ahead of me but I was told my dog was ready to go he just needed to have his catheter removed. For the next 3 hours I watched the staff be friendly and helpful towards multiple people who were either there before me or had arrived after. They seemed interested in their pets, engaged with them and updated them on the status of their visit, communicated with them about their issues and how to administer care at home. Around 7pm (I m now the only person left waiting) I ask if they had forgotten about me. They said no and gave me no further information, seemed annoyed that I had even asked. About 15 minutes after that I was called to the desk to receive his discharge paperwork and had to remind the receptionist myself that I had already paid the full $2200 which was the high estimate for his surgery which is already about a thousand dollars more than the price I expected from reading about his procedure online, but I was desperate for my dog to be treated quickly and I wrongfully judged this place to actually care based on how they were to me on the phone the day before during his consultation and other reviews I read on here and only after I reminded them did they tell me that it was actually $52 less than what I had paid and asked if I had my card to be refunded the balance. After that I was told my dog would be out in about 5 minutes. 45 minutes later he finally comes out and they just hand me a leash (had to remind them to go back and give me his leash and collar because when he was taken in someone just grabbed him from me and walked away) without any further instruction, no information about why it took so long or how the surgery went, no instructions for further care (one of the techs said well just read the paper ...OK I read the paper already and I still have questions..) This was pretty infuriating to me. I watched other people stand around for 20 minutes talking with the vet and staff about how their visit went and what to do at home so why was I not allowed that same decency? The staff member who brought him out went back and asked a vet (not the same one who did his surgery apparently) part of my question and she wrote down the times I should give him his pills on his discharge papers. He told me if I had more questions I could call back tomorrow. All in all I m just happy that my dog is in good spirits and seemingly not in much pain but I m just HOPING they weren t as negligent to him during surgery as they were to me during this already distressful situation. I m honestly somewhat shocked by this neglectfulness, and what s worse is that I know that they were fully willing and capable to give proper care just not to me. They said I should be getting his biopsy results in 3-5 days.. let s see if that actually happens or if I have to pry that out of them too.. If he needs further care I will obviously be taking him somewhere else. Now I understand why the reviews for this place are either super positive or super negative. So unless you want to take that chance, DO NOT BRING YOUR PET HERE.