Central Veterinary Associates

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. THIS PRACTICE SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN. This practice as a whole is completely negligent and does not care about the health of your pet. My 3 year old dog passed away after going into septic shock after a surgery here. There were multiple instances where I called to check in with the vet to make sure he was okay and they never returned calls or thought he needed more care. When going to a second vet, they didnt even have to run test to know he was in septic shock. 2 weeks after he past, they had the nerve to send me an email to join a dog owner group and continued to deflect and make excuses for their actions. I am happy to provide the full story with call logs, recordings, details, and much more if the practice manager (Mary Smith), owner (“Dr”.Vine) or anybody else at this clinic reply to this message denying these facts.

Avoid this place unless you have an emergency!!!! They are a terrible and expensive option for “regular” vet services. Worst vet experience I’ve ever had. I was in town visiting family for a few weeks so came here instead of my local vet when my dog had an eye infection and other various ailments. She wasn’t eating or walking and I had a bad feeling about her health and wanted to get to the bottom of it. After the shortest “exam” of all time (didn’t even involve looking at her eyes, ears, paws, etc…), the doctor left. I asked for a quote on a teeth cleaning. It was 30% higher than our wonderful vet's office in Manhattan. I would have thought it would be significantly cheaper in the suburbs where overhead is lower (not to mention the office in Manhattan is much newer/nicer and better staffed). After a 3 minute “exam” and the quote for teeth, they led to me checkout where I had to remind them that we hadn’t resolved her eye issue. The vet suggested redoing an eye test my dog just had done 3 weeks ago (which he knew) and for which my dog is already being treated instead of prescribing the antibiotic I knew she needed. I begged for the antibiotic which they then sold to me. I paid $500 for this appointment. I am filled with regret for not doing more research or just going to the city to see our usual vet. Avoid this place unless you have an emergency!!!! They are a terrible and expensive option for “regular” vet services.

If I can give this place 0 stars I would. This so called 'Veterinary' is incompetent. I bought my dog in for an emergency visit around 2pm because he was struggling to breath. When I walked into the office, immediately the receptionist gave me an attitude, and said there we no appointments available, to throw my dog in for an emergency visit. We were able to see a VS Katherine Diller, who told us that giving him a shot of Adequan will help his airway, and he will get medications to go home. Around 10:30pm, I noticed that once again my dog was struggling to breathe despite the medications, so I decided to rush him to what is advertised as a 24 HOURS, 7 DAYS A WEEK EMERGENCY ROOM. When I arrived, my dog was almost limp - and I preceded to bang on the door for help - HOWEVER, NO ONE ANSWERED. Luckily enough there were police officers across the street who noticed we needed help and came to help by trying to get the attention of staff, WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE BASED ON THEIR ADVERTISEMENT. Unfortunately, my dog became unresponsive, and the police officers had to begin CPR on the grass outside of the facility. Needless to say, it is unfortunate that my dog was unable to get a pulse back and be here with us today. After calling the vet the following day, they informed us that they are no longer a 24 hour facility even after telling them that the discharge paperwork stated in two spots that they were in fact a 24 hour facility. Needless to say, this facility should no longer be able to care for animals and need to take accountability for their false advertisement.

This place is terrible. I spent over $5k because they misdiagnosed my pet and made me think he was dying. They flat out refused to take any responsibility. Avoid this place. Their vets don’t know what they’re doing. I came in last December after my dog had a prolonged seizing episode that lasted at least five minutes. His whole body was freaking out and I took him here because I needed an emergency vet. First thing they tell me is that he has a murmur and that seizures look like syncope and that they needed him overnight to test his heart. They tell me that if he has heart problems and that’s what is causing the syncope, it could be fatal. Next morning I pick him up, they tell me they’ve caught him in the early stages of heart disease and that he’ll need pimobendan, a heart medication, for the rest of his life. I wanted to but it on chewy where I could get a discount for subscribing but they said my dog’s heart couldn’t afford to wait the few days for shipping and needed to start the medication right away. Fast forward a few months later when I bring him in for a follow up to see how his heart is doing. We come in on a Wednesday because they tell me that’s when their cardiologist is in. So this vet sees my dog, a vet I suspect that never looked at his original imaging. This vet says my dog’s heart is doing amazing and looks great. That vet’s conclusion is that the pimobendan is rescuing my dog’s heart. They say I have nothing to worry about for now. A few weeks later my dog has another episode lasting at least five minutes. I ask them what the hell? I thought he was doing great. They advise me to go to a specialized cardiologist place with more advanced equipment so my dog’s lungs can be looked at. I say what about seizures? Syncope is supposed to last seconds, not minutes. These episodes are definitely lasting minutes. They repeat that my dog definitely has a heart problem and that checking his lungs to see if his heart problems caused him undetected lung problems is the route I should take. I go to Blue Pearl (great cardiologist, Dr. Wiley is great) and find out that my dog never had a heart problem in the first place. He didn’t have a murmur either. My dog’s heart is doing great. He’s 6 so it’s not as fresh as puppy’s heart but heart problems isn’t something my dog has. The vet at CVA who said he was doing great at the follow up was looking at the same heart the first vet at CVA looked at. ALSO, the second vet wasn’t even a cardiologist even though CVA told me the reason my dog should come in on a Wednesday was to see the cardiologist. Fast forward to now - my dog did have seizures, NOT syncope. They can be a side effect of some flea medications. We use bravecto. My current vet advised us to take my dog off bravecto to rule that out. We use a flea collar now and my dog hasn’t had a single seizure since. It’s fair that syncope and seizures can look similar and that mistake I could understand a vet making based on a pet owner’s description. I can even understand an inexperienced emergency vet jumping to conclusions about heart problems. But if syncope lasts over five minutes, you should be looking at a dead pet. That should’ve been a giveaway that we were talking about seizures. It should’ve also been a giveaway to the second vet at CVA during the follow-up, that my dog’s heart was doing “amazing.” It was doing amazing. It was the same heart from two months before. It’s also well known (or should be) among vets that medications like bravecto, simparica, etc. can cause seizures in some dogs. They really bungled diagnosing my dog. Don’t go here and let them bungle diagnosing yours.

The doctor was super friendly they took their time to explain everything to me about what was Goin on with my dog the only thing thats wrong is that they are alittle bit pricey