Reviews & Ratings for South Lamar Animal Hospital

12/30/11

AVOID!

by muckdawg11 at Citysearch

I went to this vet because my puppy had worms in her stool and our normal vet was closed for the day...mistake! After explaining to them that I wanted something to treat the worms and to keep it as cheap as possible, they explained to me that I could get some package deal that included everything for a puppy or some nonsense. I was foolish enough to ok this proposal and ended up paying $86 dollars for shots that my puppy did not need...the gave her a kennel cough shot...WTF! I just wanted something for tapeworms!! Basically I went, paid, and got absolutely nothing that I wanted and left confused and broke!

That's not the worst part: Dr. VanTrease is a friggin nutcase!!! I swear the first thing I said to my wife after bringing the dog home was...wow, that guy is weird! I was even commenting playfully to my puppy on the way home how strange "Buck" VanTrease is. I feel almost bad saying this but it is honestly like he had a child's mind. He would start sentences without finishing them, talk about the most random stuff, explain things over and over, mumble nonsense, say half of one word and half of another, I just cannot explain to y'all how weird this man is: by the end of the visit he was trying to explain my dogs personality to me: "you see, she's a little shy but maybe also a little dominant..." etc. no joke.

"Uh, um, you, got, we're gonna, you see, um,if she, I'll, how'd you name her?" - Dr. Buck VanTrease (average sentence)

He just jacked her full of a couple of shots and then talked to the stars for about 15 mins. He made the tech go get something that he seemed pissed she did not have in the room just to show me an advertisement for some medication with pictures of worms like I was a child or something. Just read the other reviews!! This guy is crazy! It only takes about 2 sentences to come out of this guys mouth before any sane person can see that he is mental.

I also thoroughly made it clear that the only reason I was there was that my normal vet was closed and I just wanted to treat the worms..."Dr" VanTrease got out a pad and paper and started outlining a plan for my puppies future visits as though he had no idea what I had just said. I just ended up smiling and nodding to him by the end of the visit half out of confusion and half out of desire to just get out of there!!

Wow, I could go on and on but I am tiring of even thinking about that man and his clinic. DO NOT GO THERE UNLESS YOU WANT TO TRUST YOUR FAMILY MEMBER TO THE HANDS OF A MADMAN who will not listen and not make sense.

12/02/11

Terrible Vet

by 5hopahol1c at Citysearch

I used to take my dog to this vet back when the older gentleman ran the place--He was totally awesome and always had reasonable prices. A new vet seems to be in control, and frankly, she's in it for the money.

I took my cat in there with a minor stomach ache because my other vet (Dr. Rogers) was out for the day. The current vet was like a salesperson and wanted to make me pay up to $700 in ridiculous fees for excessive treatments. What a freaking joke! She wouldn't even give me stomach medicine until I agreed to pay for X-rays, blood work, etc... Basically, she said unless you can pay me copious amounts of money, she cannot do any stomach treatment on my pet. Last time I checked, when I goto the doctor with a stomach ache, the doc doesn't make me get X-rays, bloodwork, etc... The doc simply gives me some medicine and if it works, I am done. If not, I go back and then the more costly treatments can begin.

I highly recommend going to Dr. Rogers on Burleson. I typically never pay over $65 and that includes medicine, office visit, and shots. He is honest and will give your pet the utmost treatment for a practical price. SOUTH LAMAR ANIMAL HOSPITAL WILL ROB YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

12/08/10

Loving compassionate care for your pets

by Merital at Citysearch

I've been taking my pets to So Lamar Animal Hospital for over 5 years now and have always happy with the care given to my cats. One of my cats recently suffered a severe wound requiring surgery which is what has prompted me to write this review.

First, they have excellent hours. When I discovered my cats wound after 5:00 on Friday evening, I thought I would have to use an emergency hospital (and the higher fees). But, South Lamar was open. They are also open on Saturdays and early mornings.

Second, all of the staff and Doctors are wonderful with every animal that comes in there. It's just amazing to watch how they treat each pet as if it is their own, with the same loving and care.

Two notable employees deserve special mention.

Ryan, one of the Techs, is amazing. He took care of my severely wounded cat on that Friday night. One example of his compassionate care was that he called me that Friday evening after surgery (rather than waiting until Saturday morning) to reassure me that the surgery was successful and that my cat was resting comfortably. You just know that he sincerely cares about the animals in his care, as well for their human companions.

Holly also deserves special mention as she is that "face" we all first see upon our arrival and the one who schedules the appointments. Such a happy, friendly person who is a joy to work with. She makes getting a convenient appointment a pleasure, and really works to accommodate a difficult schedule.

If one is in need of vet services, I whole heartedly recommend South Lamar Animal Hospital!

11/11/10

Genuine, caring, and extremely competent practice

by spanky78704 at Citysearch

We've taken our pets to South Lamar Animal Hospital for over 15 years. We were sad when Dr. Taylor retired - he helped us take care of a cat with FIV that lived to be 10 years old. We've had nothing by but excellent treatment of our 4 cats and dog by the vets who have followed. Recently our dog was hit by a car and sustained serious injuries. Dr. Van Trease and his staff stayed late into the night performing surgery and making sure he would be fine. The office staff is helpful and welcoming, and we've always received timely reminders for all of our pets for their checkups, vaccinations, and medications. Their prices on anti-flea meds are competitive with the mail order places, too.

I've heard several people say the place isn't the same as when Dr. Taylor was there and I'll be the first to admit we were wary of new faces, but we're very pleased and grateful that we have South Lamar Animal Hospital close by to provide such great care for our furry family members.

11/02/10

Incompetent Care

by myhsu at Citysearch

The office did not keep track of my dog's rabies vaccination. Less than a month after I took him in for a check up, and was given the all-clear, I found out his vaccination had expired and he now has to be quarantined for 10 days to the tune of over $300.

10/15/10

Worst place to take your animal!!!

by artistpolly at Citysearch

They couldn't diagnose (even with x-rays) a burst spleen! They charged me $85 for antibiotics for a burst spleen! Then they wouldn't refund it when I DID find out (from another vet) what the diagnosis was! All they were interested in was money! They essentially killed my dog! I reported them to the state vet agency who said they couldn't do anything about it. I flipped them off every time I drove by.

They are idiots!

04/15/10

Always Had A Good Experience

by weakandidletheme at Citysearch

I just searched for South Lamar to get the phone number and felt compelled to write a review because the last one written was so negative. We have been taking our animals to South Lamar for a year now and have no complaints. The staff has always been very friendly and the service has always been great. We never have to wait long for the vet, a plus since our dogs can be a little difficult to handle. They have never pushed unnecessary services on us and as we have four animals there have been plenty of opportunities. We found South Lamar by reading reviews and have been pleased so far.

• Pros: Friendly staff
• Cons: Nothing yet

01/13/10

Bad experience or standard practice

by Fluftastic at Citysearch

Be very careful with these people. We went there because they were convenient. The vet and tech seemed focused on selling us drugs and services for our cat - who was just coming in for a check-up as we are new in town. They spent very little time with the animal and most of our time was about what services we would buy and writing up invoices. After negotiating down with them to just one drug - we escaped. The prescription they directed us to give our cat (oral metacam) turns out to be not recommended for cats. (Yes, there are overblow scare stories on line, but the vet did not mention any counterindications and we were trying to get him discuss the various drugs he recommended.) I'm glad we didn't listen to them. We'll be finding another vet.

• Pros: Parking?
• Cons: Poor vet care

09/02/09

Great Staff Surprisingly

by happy racoon at Citysearch

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 at Citysearch

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.