VCA Animal Hospitals

This is my second visit to the VCA Animal Hospital in Westbury. It was recommended to me by a neighbor who said that Dr. Michael Linderman was terrific and helped save her dog who was diagnosed with lymphoma. My dog was recently diagnosed with the same thing and I took the dog to another hospital first who told me to treat the dog with a very morbid surgery, and I found out later on that it would have never helped him. When I came for a second opinion to the VCA, Samantha greeted me and took me into the exam room, she was warm and welcoming, and so lovely, and tried to explain everything to me, I was very surprised to see such a well organized, clean facility and such a loving, caring person. Dr. Linderman came in shortly afterwards after examining my dog and evaluating his records and told me that the surgery that was recommended at the other hospital would be completely inappropriate and suggested chemotherapy. I am here today for the first treatment and again was welcomed and a wonderful fashion and have complete confidence that they will help my dog as much as they can. I would recommend this hospital to anybody Who needs medical attention for their pet.

The team at VCA Animal Hospital in Westbury is truly exceptional. Dr. Linderman provided remarkable care for our dog, Hannah, extending her time with us from what was expected to be just a few weeks to 10 months. We cherished every extra moment we had together, and we are deeply grateful for the support from everyone at VCA. Despite Hannah's aversion to vet visits, she always trotted in without issue, thanks to the welcoming atmosphere at the hospital. From the moment we walked in, we were greeted warmly, with our pet’s name displayed on a fun name tag. The check-in process was quick, and appointments were always on schedule. Dr. Linderman was transparent and honest about Hannah’s prognosis, offering hope when possible and candid updates when necessary. He was patient, kind, and never rushed, always taking the time to answer our questions thoroughly. When the time came to make the difficult decision, the team provided compassionate guidance and support throughout the process. Though we hope our other pets will never need an oncologist, we will genuinely miss seeing them each week. We will always be thankful to Dr. Linderman and the staff at VCA Animal Hospital for their incredible care and support.

The staff was friendly. There's a restroom which is nice. there's also free snacks and a water dispenser like the ones in the airport just in case you have your own bottle.

It's never a good thing when you need to take your fur baby to see a specialist, but the doctors and staff at VCA do everything in their power to provide high quality care with kindness and sensitivity. I hope that you will never need their services, but if you do you can rely on the knowledge that they will provide great care... The photo is of my girl resting comfortably at home, 15 hours after her liver biopsy...

I would like to start by acknowledging the professionalism and loving care provided by Dr Linderman . Daisy was diagnosed 3/24 with carcinoma. Daisy went into remission for 9 months. Sadly, the cancer came back this April. Dr Linderman gave us our options and together we decided to go forth with treatment. 14 days after her second chemo treatment. She spiked a fever on May 2nd, and we rushed her to the VCA hospital. She was admitted immediately, and we were told that she would need 24 -48 hours of IV antibiotics. When we left Daisy at the hospital on Thursday night, we felt a sense of quiet confidence. I need to relate at this point that our children were both away at college and we expressed to the staff at the VCA Hospital the importance of keeping us abreast of Daisy's progress because if the situation took a turn, it was important to us that our entire family was here to say goodbye. While we had hoped for a miracle , we understood that Daisy might not make it and we needed to be prepared. I am writing this review for one reason, I need to share with anyone who sees this review the lack of empathy and the poor communication that we experienced from 3 other Veterinarians that had a hand in Daisy's care. We were told on Friday, May 3rd, which was Daisy’s second day at the facility, that she still had a high fever, but they were extremely hopeful that the IV antibiotics would start to work to bring the fever down. When I asked them if I should get my children home to say goodbye to Daisy. I was told that it wasn't necessary, and they were expecting Daisy to recover. At 10 PM Friday evening I called the hospital to check on Daisy. I was told that she was stable and I was assured that I would be contacted immediately if there were any changes. I called the VCA hospital at 8 AM at which time I was told that no one could speak to me because the doctors were in the middle of their rounds and that a doctor would call me between 10 and 11 AM. At 11 AM I received a call from a doctor that I had never met, Dr. Brittany Sylvane. I am still haunted by the tone of this call. Dr Sylvane greeted me with a cheerful and upbeat happy voice “GOOD MORNING!” as if she was about to tell me that Daisy had made a turn for the best. In that split second, this doctor then said to me "I have very bad news Daisy took a turn for the worse in the middle of the night and you need to start gathering your family." I was devastated, shocked, angry, confused, and so extremely sad we were going to lose Daisy and my children were not going to be there to be able to say goodbye. We got to the hospital within 30 minutes, at which time another doctor that we had never met, Dr. Einav Elitsur,  told us that Daisy suffered a collapsed lung at 1:10 AM and a different Dr., Dr. Hannah Stelmach had made the decision to heavily sedate Daisy. They also needed to put an oxygen tube to help her breathe. To be perfectly clear, I am not in any way questioning the medical reasoning behind Daisy's care. What I am so deeply hurt by is the lack of communication and the insensitivity that I experienced at the hands of Dr. Sylvane and Dr. Elitsur, and Dr. Stelmach. When I walked in to see Daisy on Saturday morning, no one prepared me that she had been intubated, and she was so close to death. I was devastated, and we are haunted by the image of Daisy in that crate struggling to survive. At this point we learned that a traveling Veterinarian named Dr Hannah Stelmach, had treated Daisy at 1:10 AM while there was apparent “chaos” in the emergency center. I feel that this is the point that we should have been immediately notified as this is a 24-hour emergency facility. In fact, we were not notified for 10 hours, which would have allowed us to gather our family together. This is appalling, insensitive, and unacceptable behavior demonstrated by those trusted with the care of our pets, and we want the world to know of the lack of professionalism, care, concern and communication provide by Drs Sylvane, Eltsur and Stelmach. The Griffin Family