Garden State Veterinary Services Woodbridge

The staff was so kind and compassionate when we brought our cat Xena in for an emergency. We had to bring her subsequent times as she was very sick with cancer. We met 3 different ER doctors, a surgeon and the oncology vet, along with many vet techs and receptionists. Every single staff member treated us with respect and caring. The doctors explained everything to us clearly and took the time to listen to us and answer our many questions. We never felt rushed. When we discussed blood work and running tests, nothing was done without our approval first and we were always given a low to high estimate of costs … again doing nothing until we agreed to it. No hidden costs or surprise fees, which I heard other emergency animal hospitals have done. Bottom line, I can’t recommend GSVS enough and I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

posted: 07/23/2024

This place is a joke! Nobody cares! Starts off with ALL of the receptionists, they are condescending and come off very rude. They do not inform customers of wait time, expected time for animal to go to the back etc but sit there gossiping with each other. Why do they have 8 cameras in front when they cannot even manage their own employees. As for the doctors and care, I’m currently waiting 3 hours in the waiting room with one other person and no one took my cat in yet. Save your pet and go to a regular vet. Plain and simple they suck and don’t care! Plus now I’m editing my review bc when after waiting 2 1/2 hours I ask the receptionist and she said well she is stable and I’m like then why am I at an emergency vet at 2am in the morning? She tell goes on to tell me that she is not critical and that it’ll be maybe a couple more hours. I’m leaving! This place is the worst! Please listen to all the reviews and drive somewhere else to be seen! This place needs to get shut down immediately. I will be following up with the humane society on this issue for myself and for everyone on here who had endured such a horrible vet office or shall I say emergency when they deem it!

posted: 07/20/2024

I was hesitant on writing this review because my entire experience was not bad at this hospital. Be advised I am not writing this to bash the entire hospital, only one tech. My night started when my GSD, Berlin got into my bathroom trash and ate tampons. This was between 8-9pm we got to the vet around 10:30pm. We arrived I got Berlin checked in at the front desk. I was told to wait in the waiting area for someone to come out and speak with us. I don’t recall the exact amount of time we waited but enough for me to question how busy they are and the level of focus/care that would be given to my dog to one of the receptionists. (I questioned this because they had called for someone to come speak with us twice and no one had showed) The receptionist informed me they were a bit busy but my dog would be getting the correct amount of care she needed. Then proceeded to tell me to scan a QR code to get paperwork started. (After I already had been waiting for an extent amount of time) two minutes into me filling out paper work a tech comes out and says something along the lines of “who was first, which one is Berlin(there was another dog waiting) I thought someone came for Berlin already” The tech then comes over to me and speaks with me. She asks me about the paper work and if it was filled out, she tells me “she can’t even be taken into the back until that paper work is complete.” She then tells me she has to check her gums. Without greeting my dog, this woman proceeded to try to open my dogs mouth to check her gums. My dog will bite and is very nervous at the vet. I tried to inform her while she’s fighting with my dog to get her mouth open that my dog does not like new people and she is very nervous. She tells me “well this is what’s going to happen in the back so she’s going to have to be ok with this.” After this interaction I was hesitant on staying at this hospital and was telling my boyfriend “we are about to leave I don’t like this, along with other comments about this tech” she was not a pleasant person and should not be attending to pets/humans with the attitude she carried. You can’t tell a dog they have to be ok with something when they are clearly not. I then was called to wait in a separate room and another young tech had come in and said she had overheard the entire interaction the other tech had with Berlin, she apologized and explained this is not the way we do things and she has already brought it up to the main doctor. I was very appreciative of that gesture and that fact she gave us a quiet room to relax. A little later the rude tech comes in and then tells me if we induce vomiting there is a chance we won’t find anything incase it has already moved past her stomach. She says if she was seen an hour earlier there would have been a higher chance of her throwing up the tampons. If she needed to be seen an hour earlier why was I waiting on being seen for around 45 minutes (educated guess on time). We decided to go through with making Berlin throw up to see if the tampons were still in her stomach. Another nice tech comes in to take Berlin. I put a muzzle on Berlin, the tech tried to take Berlin and she starts freaking out. This amazing tech let me walk Berlin to the back get her weight and ease her anxiety. Berlin threw up some tampons and food. Berlin was brought back to me by the same nice girl and she explained to me Berlin calmed down and she expressed that she will always work around her patients and not make the dogs work around her. I spoke with the main doctor at the end of the night About the rude tech, she explained to me that was unacceptable it’s being handled and she’s very sorry I was put in that situation. Everyone besides the one tech with black and yellow hair was amazing. To the rude tech, please allow owners to advocate for there animals, be patient, work on professionalism, assess animals behavior before approaching, if these basic traits can’t be met I would advise finding another profession. I will never allow someone with your behavior to care for my animal, and I hope no one else does.

posted: 07/21/2024

I brought my cat Angel last night and every single staff member was so attentive. The hospital is immaculate with plenty of staff ready to help care for your fur babies and give them the utmost love and comfort during not so fortunate times. They treated us wonderfully. Dr. Ritter-Shapero was very knowledgeable and took such great care of my girl, as well as her nurses. Dr has such a friendly demeanor. She treated symptomatically and so far, so good! After her care, she was a different cat. Almost immediate relief and able to sleep comfortably. I would recommend this place in a heart beat! Thank you to the amazing staff for making us feel so comfortable and welcomed! Your love for animals and being their advocates should never go unnoticed. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

posted: 04/25/2024

Nope. I walked in with my cat to get a wound looked at around 8pm. Shortly after, I was put into room 8 and told it would be a little bit because they had a critical patient( I believe the patient didn’t make it based on the pet mom crying loudly, so much love to her). By 10:15p, I was getting tired and my cat had not been seen. I opened the door around 10:30p and looked toward the desk area. I stayed in the doorway till 10:45p, then I asked a tech that was in the hallway when would the vet come to see us. She said she would check but didn’t come back. I waited until 10:59p, then I went up to the desk to see what was taking so long and if we’re not seen in 5 min, we’re leaving (I was so tired). The tech went to the back to find out from the vet what was going on. After almost 5 minutes, the tech comes out and tells me that they were calling me (on my phone I’m assuming) and screaming my name in the front, all the while I was already in a room with the door closed. I don’t know about you but I do not pick up unknown phone calls, especially if I am ALREADY IN A ROOM TO BE SEEN. The first tech put me in a room, put the indicator that someone was in the room, the vet and vet techs passed the room several times because the pet mom with the critical pet was across from me and no one thought to check on any of the rooms with the same indicator?! Mind you, there were at least three rooms with the same indicator. Today was a major fail for this pet hospital, it was a complete waste of time and my poor kitty has to deal with the wound till I find the right place that is able to help her.

posted: 07/19/2024