Orchard Park Veterinary Medical Center

Overall giving five stars because they took care of our dog who we were worried we may have to put down. There were a few small hiccups in communication due to staffing and being so busy with emergencies, but that’s to be expected. We brought our dog in at midnight on a Sunday morning because he was unable to walk due to a slipped disc. His normal vet was taking a conservative approach, but warned us that if he became unable to walk we needed to get him to an ER immediately. We tried calling for about an hour but they were busy and we didn’t get a response. (Understandable, it is an ER after all. I only mention because we were hesitant to drive the two hours there if no one could see him.) I chatted with a vet tech friend who said to take him in asap. We got there at midnight and he was taken in about half an hour later. We were greeted about 15 minutes later by a vet and told neuro wasn’t there that day, but would be on call tomorrow. The person we spoke with (I cannot recall the name) was very friendly, empathetic, and prepared with all the questions we’d have, as well as estimates for everything. We were then able to see him before we left to stay at a hotel. The neuro consult did show surgery was needed, and Dr. Herberger did an awesome job. He’s making amazing progress and when we went to visit him/pick him up/for his follow up everyone was friendly, attentive, and patient with questions. There were a few times we were told one thing from a tech and something else from a front end person (not sure the officials titles, I apologize), but overall they were just little things that were easily corrected and didn’t compromise his care. Most likely also caused by triaging other patients, etc. (Such as, when we couple visit after surgery, and when we’d expect an update. Overall we were told no news is good news, and that did prove to be correct.) So thankful for the entire staff that they got our boy up and running! Yes, they do require payment upfront and it isn’t cheap, but that’s an ER. I actually appreciated having all numbers sorted out so we could make a level headed decision for him. When we picked him up he was already showing such improvement, we couldn’t be happier.

I can’t say enough thank you’s’ to every staff I encountered during my dogs emergency visit. Every one of them from finance to reception to tech to surgeon talked to me with compassion, professionalism and matter of fact. They helped save my dogs life. I will forever be grateful to them.

Called for an appointment with a sick cat. They said 7:45pm, and that I may “have to wait a little while for a room to open up”. Got there on time, called to check in and they didn’t call us in until 30 minutes later and when we got in, the staff still had no idea that we were asked to check in, nor had any clue of our previous conversations or anything about why we were there. After getting in the room, a tech came in and took vitals. She was super friendly. She had told us there’s “2 doctors, and only 4 patients in front of you”. We waited patiently for an hour before I had asked the receptionist how much longer we’d have to wait, since we had been there now for over two hours. She checked with the vet and she told us we were the next patient. A whole hour later, now 10:45pm, I had asked again how long it would be, the receptionist said that she doesn’t know, can’t control the time and that there “wasn’t anything she could do”. I told her I wasn’t upset, and that I understand, but we barely have any energy to stay awake at this point and we still have a 1.5 hour car ride home, so if it’s going to be much longer we gotta go home and to please just tell us what’s going on. Keep in mind the parking lot was literally empty. The vet came in right after, told us what was going on with the baby and prescribed some medication. She told us to hang tight because the medication might take a minute to put together. Waited patiently again, and another hour later, we were still waiting. When we asked the staff how long it would be, they said “Oh, I didn’t know you guys were still here.” When asked about the meds they said, “Oh, she didn’t tell you? You have to pick up the medicine at the counter for check out.” When we went to pay, the lady had no idea what was going on. By now, it was 12:20am, we were exhausted and had to get up in four hours for work. We were desperate just to get out of there. She finally told us what the bill was, $280. $280 for not even 20 minutes of work, while making us wait almost 5 hours. Don’t tell your patients to arrive at a certain time if your just going to make them wait 3 hours to be seen!! They were aware that our other kitten had just passed away from a similar infection and we went to cremate him right before this appointment. They must have really enjoyed taking advantage of us after “providing” way less than the bare minimum of work, being straight up unprofessional, and having no communication whatsoever. Thanks for forgetting we were even there and making it blatantly obvious that you guys didn’t care. :)

The staff at this facility are not professional and the customer service is horrendous! My son is at college in Buffalo and has two pet rats at college. The rats were ill when I dropped him off at school so we called this medical center on Saturday, 8/26/23, to schedule an appointment for Sunday, 8/27/23. The rep that answered the phone said they did have an exotic vet who was scheduled on Sunday from 12 noon. She said she needed to check with him to see if he "had his tools" with him. I'm assuming if you do this work for a living "your tools" should be either at home or at the medical center. She said she would call us back that Saturday and of course there was no call back. I called Sunday morning at 10:15 AM and once again, a rep said she would call back after she spoke with the vet and of course no one did. I picked up my son at college with both of his rats and drove to the medical center. We got their at 11:50 AM, checked in, paid the $190.00 per rat fee, and we were told it might take 2-3 hours. We were fine because we understood it was an emergency clinic. I needed to head back to Pennsylvania for work on Monday. My son waited in the office until 6:15 PM (6+ hours at the medical center), spoke with the front desk and they said they have other emergencies to deal with so my son said “How do you know I do not have any emergency?" and she shrugged. Unfortunately, one of the rats passed that evening so I'm guessing we really did have an emergency that was not treated by this caring group of individuals. I get it...they were $15 rats but they were still my son's pets and we paid $190.00 per rat for an emergency visit. In all fairness, they did refund my credit card the $380.00 fee. If I ran my business in this manner, I would be bankrupt. To the staff at the medical center, please do not reply to my comments with your lame responses. I have no interest in excuses for your lack of care.

The doctor and staff that took care of our dog, Lily, who is 15 years old, are absolute angels. ❤️ They had to put her under to draw blood and run tests. They went above and beyond and clipped her nails, cleaned her face, etc. Each person I dealt with was so kind and professional. Wonderful people doing God’s work.