VCA Central Park Animal Hospital

Long time client of this VCA for my dogs and cats, never really made time to write a review. I recently had to say goodbye to my dog and am so appreciative of the care, empathy, and patience as I said my final goodbyes. They do a fantastic job and I’ll continue to use them for my other pets and future ones.

This Vca is amazing! I had a good feeling when I saw online that they had a cat waiting area but nothing could prepare me from how wonderful everyone is! My cat loves it here and feels so comfortable coming! Which says a lot because he is a diabetic and has to get a lot done. But he still purrs and greats everyone here! Special shoutout to Dr. Eury Rice and the veterinarian technician, Zelle - thank you so much for being incredible and kind! We appreciate you all! ❤️

VCA Central Park used to be pretty good, but now it's just a corporate shell of its former self, existing solely to extract money from pet owners' pockets, with extremely expensive care and very little consistency. We've since moved and found a new vet, an not only are they vastly better, but they are far, far less expensive. If you can help it, find an independent vet that will put your pets' health first. VCA only cares about what you can do for their bottom line. We went to VCA Central Park for 7 years with 4 different dogs. At the beginning, they were good, the vets were consistent, and our main complaint was that it was difficult to get appointments. Over the years, it seemed to be getting more expensive, but we love our dogs, and we figured it was an investment in their health. Then we noticed that the vets started to leave. Then the ones that replaced them left. It felt like a revolving door, meaning there was no consistency of care, the vets didn't know us or our dogs. Because of this, they would change treatment plans we'd agreed to with other vets for no apparent reason. The final straw was when we took one of our dogs in for a dental cleaning. She's 8 lbs, so anesthesia can be risky. We didn't feed her after 6pm the night before, as instructed, and brought her in at 7am the next morning. We were told she would go in soon and we would get text updates. We received no updates. Finally, at 1pm, I called, only to learn that she had not gone in for the procedure yet, she was there for 6 hours, hungry, with zero communication from the staff. I was told she would go in soon. Another half hour with no communication. I called back and told them I would be picking her up. When we started the process of changing vets, VCA made it extremely difficult to get their existing prescriptions. They've changed their policy so now you have to go through their pharmacy, which is typically more expensive. They refused to email the prescriptions, saying that they needed the vet's signature. So I made the hour long trek to go pick up the paper prescriptions. Twice, because the first time they were closed despite it being during their advertised business hours. When I got there, they didn't have the paper prescriptions in their files, so the vet tech printed them out and then stamped the vet's signature on them with a rubber stamp. Complete waste of my time. Now that we've moved, we have a new vet who is much more responsive, gets things done in a timely manner with excellent communication, and costs a small fraction of the price.

I visited yesterday for recurrent ear infections in my dog. Multiple visits over the past 6 months, with no interventions having a lasting impact. New vet Dr. Eury Rice and assistant Ally were professional, thoughtful and kind. Dr Rice listened and came up with a considered plan to address the issues. Ally was gentle with my dog, and me. I greatly appreciated the care. In the past, my experiences at this practice have not been great. If this has happened to you too, I suggest you give them another chance because this consultation was stellar! Thanks to Ally for being a great part of the team.

Update on this post: We had a productive conversation with VCA's management yesterday. We thank them for following through with our concerns. I typically wouldn’t post a complaint online about a business, but I have no option since VCA’s management will not respond to either of my letters to them. I’m hoping this post will help to generate a response. Our dogs have gone to VCA for 7 years; we were always happy with the services and employees. Two months ago, we requested a service that VCA said they could provide (without providing all the details, it has to do with our diabetic dog and his insulin prescription). After the appointment, the clinic then stated they couldn’t provide the request for our dog, which meant, after spending time and money, we had to go elsewhere for this service that has been routine for my diabetic dog for four years. I dropped off a letter to them on December 20, and sent a follow-up email to the manager on December 30 asking to discuss the matter. It has now been 22 days with no response to my concerns, therefore we are posting this online hoping to get a response. Needless to say, we found a new vet and no longer recommend VCA Central Park for any pets needing services beyond basic checkups.