Central Texas Veterinary Speciality and Emergency Hospital

Our 14 year old dog Yoda was brought to the ER by our Rover pet sitter after he suffered multiple seizures, and unfortunately had to be euthanized while we were over 1000 miles away. I have never met a medical professional in my life who has treated us as incredibly cold, callous, judgmental, and with zero compassion as Dr. Elizabeth A Tawny has. While I don’t doubt her and the staff’s medical capabilities are top notch, she has singlehandedly made this experience much more traumatic than it needed to be. Upon first contact with Dr. Tawny, she seemed to have made it her mission to judge us on how we have been medically treating our dog’s diabetes, and chastised us for not properly monitoring his blood sugar, stating that this is the reason why he ended up here. When my wife asked for clarification on his condition (as we were out of state when this happened), she coldly and bluntly stated he came in “seizing and foaming at the mouth”. When my wife tried to ask her further questions, bawling her eyes out, she heavily sighed, and said in a stern voice, “I CAN’T understand a word she’s saying, can I PLEASE speak to someone else?”. We have spent close to $10k on Yoda in veterinarian bills over his lifetime, which includes regular checkups / visits to our local vet, blood glucose monitoring and diabetes checkups with a Freestyle Libre, and visits to a pet specialist oncologist and internist. Dr. Tawny spoke to us as if we were irresponsible pet parents when she knows nothing of Yoda’s history and our ability to care for him. On our second contact with Dr. Tawny, she coldly summarized that the treatments weren’t working, and that his brain had “melted” due to his diabetic seizures. Her tone instantly changed, and she said in a sarcastic, high-spirited manner, “so, are you guys ready to euthanize?” In my opinion, the number one requirement of someone in a position that deals with difficult end of life decisions and loss is compassion and empathy, and we received neither from Dr. Tawny. When the decision had to be made to euthanize, we had to provide verbal confirmation to the second veterinarian present, Dr. Roxanna Khorzad. Dr. Khorzad was extremely compassionate and empathetic in the short (roughly 20 seconds) we spoke with her, sincerely apologizing for our loss. When the phone was handed back to Dr. Tawny, we got a short, insincere “sorry”, and asked us to call our pet sitter if we wanted to facetime her during the euthanasia. The difference in attitude between Dr. Tawny and Dr. Khorzad was night and day. Dr. Tawny seems to be in the wrong profession, as she appeared to be incapable of showing any compassion or empathy during an extremely difficult situation. The loss of Yoda has left a huge hole our hearts and in the hearts of our family, and we have been robbed of any ounce of peace and comfort in his passing. Instead, we are left only to replay the traumatic imagery placed in our heads by Dr. Tawny. Her judgment and callous demeanor over the phone was unnecessary, unprofessional, and unwarranted in any situation.

It's no fun to go to the emergency vet (or pay for an emergency vet visit...) but I want to say a huge thank you to the team at CTVSH South - I had to bring my kitten in on Sunday and he was diagnosed with FIP. It was a really shocking diagnosis and I was really emotional about it and what to do next. Each staff member made me feel listened to and cared about, and helped provide information to make my decisions. They spent a ton of time with me and never rushed me, despite the many questions I had. I wanted to say a special shout out to the doctors I worked with - Dr Gates and Dr O'Garro-Wilkins, as well as the vet tech Kate. Thank you for taking such good care of Chip and for helping me through this tough diagnosis.

Thank you 🙏 to everyone at Central Texas Vet for saving our 2 sweet pups that got bit by a copperhead on Saturday morning. They’re doing great & healing quickly. We were SO blessed to have a veterinarian with so much snake bite experience Thank You!! Everyone was wonderful & caring; We appreciate you all so much!

This is our second time. JASON our Rottweiler in October, and Booky our great Pyrenees last night, due to age , late at night not feeling well, being available 24 hrs is so amazing for pet owners, staff being compassionate, cost so reasonable, Thank you so much from Sepeda Family ❤️

I cannot say enough good things about Dr. Gates and her team. We arrived to Central Texas Veterinary Services with a very sick kitty on Friday July 19th, after being basically laughed out of another emergency vet for not having enough money. When we let Dr. Gates know about our budget, she was kind, helpful and made a treatment plan for our Mr. Darcy that focused on making him feel better while also honoring what we could pay. Not only were they respectful and kind through this entire interaction (it's so embarrassing to break down in tears and tell someone you can only spend $3000, especially after another vet told you there was nothing they could do for less than $6000), she was also the most thorough, patient and competent vet we've ever met. She explained the treatment plan in detail, described exactly what our baby was going through and how she was going to work to solve it and made sure any questions we had were answered. Throughout Mr. Darcy's 50 hr hospital stay, Dr. Gates and Dr. Ray called us with updates about his progress, made sure we were informed about how he was doing, told us anecdotes about his behavior and let us know when it was safe to come visit him (they let him be off fluids for 30 minutes so we could get in a good cuddle!). I have never met a more compassionate team. Every time we called to check in the vet techs (whose names I can't remember, but should have because they were all delightful) were so kind, and the front desk staff was nothing short of lovely. There is nothing quite as scary as a crisis with your pet, but I know Mr. Darcy is sitting here in my lap giving forehead boops SOLELY because of the care he received at Central Texas Veterinary. If you are in need of emergency vet care, please let them take care of your baby too, you won't regret it. Thank you again to Dr. Gates and Dr. Ray. We owe you the world!