09/02/09

Great Staff Surprisingly

by happy racoon

Overall I have always had very positive experiences at South Lamar Animal Hospital. The Vets I have seen have been knowledgeable and understanding and the front desk staff is always friendly and engaging. That said, after what I witnessed today, I am not at all surprised that I see new faces working there every time I come in. We seemed to have walked into a war today, there was a woman yelling and swearing at one of the front desk girls and then she threw a handful of papers at her . It was as if we weren't even there. The girl who was helping us was noticeably shaken up (understandably so) and needed a minute to compose herself after the assault. After reading some of the other reviews on this site I would assume that this woman was the office manager. I am giving the hospital as a whole a good review because this is the only bad experience I have had, but I must say I am thinking twice about the care my pets may be receiving if someone this unprofessional is running the hospital.

• Pros: Great Vets, Great Front Desk Staff, Reasonable Prices
• Cons: High Turnover, One Extremely Unprofessional Employee

10/21/08

Rare qualities in Austin vets: competent and not greedy.

by goggles78702

We came to use SLAH after having just obscenely bad luck with vets all over Austin, as the proud guardians of four dogs. Our gripes went from the trivial--one called our female dog "him" on a consistent basis--to the irritating--another was too afraid of our dog to look in his ears. There were worse problems. One vet refused to do anything about a fast-growing 6" long wart on our young dog's face but didn't refuse to perform a $800 emergency operation when puppy scratched it, and it became infected, and, we were then told, it might be cancer. We got used to being treated with indifference, even negligence, and feeling railroaded into expensive procedures with fear. Things came to a head when our aging terrier went into ketoacidosis (a consequence of extreme diabetes). Our vet did a bunch of tests which obviously showed problems all over the place -- liver dysfunction, ketones in the urine, glucose about as high as a dog has ever survived--basically a dying dog. The message we got was that we needed to approve about $2500 in advance or they would recommend euthanasia.

Dr. Van Trease agreed over the phone to give a second opinion. We had called all over town. We brought her in. I was prepared for the worst. On examination of the labs he correctly hypothesized that the various systemic problems all were most likely products of the ketosis and offered to treat the acute condition and get her started on insulin. In the end the hospitalization and follow-up visits amounted to maybe $500 (plus the insulin itself, which is relatively cheap). It's been almost a year and she's fine. In this case, since we don't have a lot of extra money, this is a year of her precious life that the other vet would have taken from her just to have a chance of milking us for a little $$. Thank you, Buck.

At the end of the day, he's got excellent clinical insights and plays fair. Here in Austin, those qualities are like gold.

10/19/08

Vet Hero

by ReinaBee

DDr. Van Trease has been treating my cats for 12 years. He has been unfailingly committed, thorough, honest, skillful, knowledgeable, reliable, and far beyond competent.

After my cat Pia spent a whole night in an emergency hospital without a diagnosis, it took Dr. Van Trease 20 seconds to notice Pia's broken and bloody claws, probably caused by her digging her nails in and trying to hold on during the impact of a car, and that her other symptoms were probably due to swelling of the brain and liver (which they were). Dr. Van Trease showed me and my step daughter how to read a normal MRI, and how to read Pia's.

Dr. Van Trease's office closes at 6 pm. Two nights in a row, he stayed after hours with me till almost 7 pm, so I could keep Pia comfortable until the emergency night hospital opened.

Once, I was an hour late, and Dr. Van Trease had waited an hour after closing time just to keep our appointment?even though I was the one who was late.

He ordered medication from Arizona because it would be less expensive. He occasionally does things for free, like giving a pain medication for a cat staying overnight.

He always answers all my questions, no matter how long it takes, and he's great about returning calls. He is driven to keep learning, updating technologies, knowledge, and practices.

He approaches each challenging case like a devoted detective would, carrying it with, trying to fit the pieces together.

Dr. Van Trease is a vet hero.

• Pros: Amazingly competent, trustworthy, intelligent care by Dr. Van Trease.
• Cons: None.