Capital Veterinary Referral & Emergency Center

Note: Capital Veterinary recently merged with Med vet. Still same great care, just a new name. :-)

My daughter’s pet rat suddenly developed very labored breathing and heavy bleeding from his nose on New Year’s day and she immediately called her vet and was directed here. Capital Vet was very kind to her and immediately put the rat in an oxygen chamber and kept her updated on how he was doing. Unfortunately the prognosis was not good, based on his age, symptoms and history, and she chose to have him put to sleep. They let her have as much time as she needed to make her decision and to say goodbye to him. I have nothing but praise for the doctor and vet tech who were kind and spoke to her from their own experience with these pets.

I found the staff to be kind (minus a 3^rd shift gal at front desk, who came off as automated in her responses with me, as well as slightly condescending), and the main veterinarian who checked out my rabbits, Barbara, seemed compassionate and knowledgeable.
My only issue is with the pricing. I had two rescue rabbits who needed fixed, and it came to over $ 800. I’ve never heard of such a high fee for neutering; I’ve paid less than half that for past rabbits. I even joked with front desk, asking, «Do I get a free TV with this?» (I could see if this was an emergency-​based visit, but it was a standard visit, and a basic routine procedure.)
My husband thought we were getting charged $ 400 for both rabbits, so this is what threw us off. Regardless, they needed it done, the rabbits were already there, waiting and scared, so we went ahead with it. (Finding solid rabbit care is hard to come by, and the veterinarian seemed cool, so I didn’t want to waste more time endlessly searching for a regular place for my rabbits.)
Most recently, my rabbit – who has cancer – needed his medication refilled. The initial bottle was the proper size for the syringe to draw the proper amount of medication, and I could reach the medication when it became low (I could just tilt the bottle). The refill, however, was put in too large of a bottle for some reason, so the syringe could not reach the medication once it was half-​empty, no matter how much I tilted it. I had to wash out an old prescription bottle to pour it in, so as to use the medicine. That said, I asked them to use the smaller bottle initially provided, for the next refill.
Upon receiving my new bag of medication, I noticed I was given around 5 – 6 mini bottles with squirt tops, and charged a $ 10 medication preparation fee, which I’ve never had before. Upon my initial use of the medication tonight, I realized that what they had given me, the mouth of the mini bottle was too small for the syringe to even access. I had to resort to my «ol’ reliable empty pill bottle» I washed out for the last «too large refill bottle of medication.»
I see that it was unnecessarily complicated by them, and I was charged extra for it, to boot. The consistency is a little sloppy there, and for what they charge, I find that a little disappointing. So, this is my only beef with the place: the over-​pricing, and for some things that seem unnecessary to me. Otherwise, I do like the place, thus far. I would just suggest to others to grab hold of the knowledge of what you’re going to get charged first, and exactly what it is for, as the pricing is quite inflated.

In my personal opinion – I had a terrible experience here. my pet died a horrible death that I feel could have been avoided – or at the very least eased, had the vet done prompt treatment.
This was my first time at CVREC. My pet was seen immediatly for accute intestinal blockage. The vet said she needed injectibles asap as the first course of treatment — both a pain injection and a mobility drug to try to help her ‘go’. the vet said her condition was life threatening. the vet then wasted another 7 minutes talking about ‘elective’ treaments – things i may want to do — such as a scope and explaining in detail what it was. it took a few minutes to realize i was in the middle of a sales pitch to tack on additional services to the original assessment to get my pet injectables right away. i redirected the vet to please start the injectibles, my pet was in pain and needing this treatment FIRST. She was at risk of her intestines exploding if she didnt get treatment. The vet said she would write this up and get it started. She sent in the ‘closer’ a tech named Alex who then gave me a bells and whistles treatment plan that ran over 1000 dollars. The tech again tried to get me to sign off on the scope procedure [very $$] Buried in this list of elective procedures were the cost of the injectibles – less than 100.00. I said «The vet said she needs injectibles now, she is in pain. she can’t move, cant open her eyes, get the injectibles, please help her!!» The vet tech left with my signed approval to get things going. This was 930/9:50 pm. The vet who saw us by now was in the next room over. The client was an older guy who had brought his dog in and had left the exam room door open. The dog was just in for the owners concern – not an accute situation. I could hear the vet, saying the same thing she just said to me; «I feel some bloat in the stomach and we may need to do a scope procedure.’. I mean it was Verbatim! She listed numerous elective options, then stood by while he called his wife and prompted him what to say to the misses to have her sign on board! i felt like I was in a sales call center.
The vet tech brought my pet back into the room – and i assumed that the pain injection and the mobility injections had been given. We were now just waiting for the vet to explain an xray. At that point I was on the floor with my pet, crying my eyes out. She was in tremendous pain, could not move, was panting in distress.
The vet tech left and I waited a long time with my pet, suffering.
The tech moved us to another room. the vet comes in. My pet is up on her toenails, straining, in tremendous pain with intestinal distress. The vet says «As you can see we have no bloat.» [I’m thinking, wait, you just told me you felt alot of bloat and she needed this scope procedure.] The vet continued that since she had no bloat, she now wanted to do a liver test. I said no. My pet was going downhill fast. She could hardly breathe, she was making sounds like I had never heard before. Then the vet floored me – she said, well, I’ll go ahead and send in the tech to get your approval on the injectibles. MY PET HAD BEEN THERE OVER AN HOUR AND HAD NEVER BEEN GIVEN THE PAIN OR INJECTIBLE THAT THE VET SAID SHE NEEDED ASAP! I had signed off on the treatment plan around 9:30/10. It was now 11 pm and they still had not given my pet the simple injectibles she needed but tried to sell me elective procedures. I was begging them, begging them to help her. The closer Alex came in and said she would need to collect 24 hours of projected vet care — over 600 dollars from me BEFORE they would give my pet the injectibles – even though i had signed the contract to have this treatment hours earlier. I was in emotional distress/​anxiety. In the two hours i was there with my pet, there were only two other clients, both dogs who were standing, not in accute stress. Both clients walked their pets in or out. My pet could have been started on the injectibles and given the pain medication by any of the vet techs. They collected my money for pre paid over night treatments. I left the clinic around 1115. MY PET DIED before i even got home. They did not even call me. I had to call them to check on my pet. That is when the vet told me my pet died as she was being given the pain injection. My pet suffered horribly, I suffered horribly. I cannot even begin to tell you how stressful this was. Not only that, the director of the clinic would not call me. No one from higher management would speak to me. They refunded Zero of the 24 hour pre-​payment they collected – even though two staff members said they would. And when I wrote an online review, they sent a lawyer after me. I lost my beloved pet, watched her suffer needlesslly, paid 24 hours of care when she died minutes after my leaving the clinic, was told I would get my money back, was denied any money back AND have had to defend myslef legally againt telling the truth of my personal experience here.

My vet couldn’t take care of my favorite furry friend overnight, so I was sent here. The doctor I saw was great about listening to my overly long explanation of my cats daily life, and took his time explaining to me what was going on and what they could do. Obviously it wasn’t a cheap visit, but he is one healthy kitty now!