Specialized Veterinary Services

I’ve always had great experiences with Specialized Veterinary Services. I first visited with them when my regular vet found that my Newfoundland puppy had a heart murmur. They are upfront and honest about the costs of all visits and procedures, and everyone is extremely friendly and knowledgable. Dr Scruggs (the cardiologist) explained everything in terms that made complete sense to me and there were no surprises on the bill after the visit. On my next visit, my experience was just as great as the first. No surprise or hidden charges, everyone friendly and helpful. Dr Scruggs again explained what was found on my dogs follow up cardioechogram and thoroughly explained all the options available.
I could not be happier with the service and care we have received from Dr Scruggs and everyone at SVS.

I took my 12 year old cocker spaniel to them. She was lethargic with very bad diarrhea. The past year she’s been going downhill. I’ve taken her to my vet over and over and over and they kept putting her on one medication and then another and then saying, «we’ll try this and then we’ll do this and see how it goes» and nothing worked. She ended up not being able to walk and had white gums. They immediately rushed her back and started X-​rays and blood work. The doctor came in and talked to us about many different Financial options we could do. After a while the vet came back and told us she had liver cancer, breast cancer, and a rare blood disease that would cause her to need continual blood transfusions. She explained that the diagnosis wasn’t good and there wasn’t a lot that could be done but if we wanted to, she completely understood if we wanted to get a second opinion. Since she was so old and I knew she had been suffering for about a year with this we decided to euthanize her and release her from her suffering. This is when I saw what a wonderful place this was. I’ve had this little dogs since she was 9 weeks old and since I’m unable to have children she was not only my dog but also my daughter. As my mother and I sat on the floor with her sobbing the doctor got down on the floor and cried along with us and held us. This meant so much to me, as you rarely see this kind of bedside manner from a doctor. After she was gone she released her bowels all over the place. The staff was so friendly and so kind. They cleaned me up and told me not to worry about anything else and they would take care of everything. I highly recommend this place. They seem extremely caring and loving towards animals.

My husband and I took our 6 year old cat Flupi to SVS when she was in dire straights — multi system organ failure — unknown etiology. Yes, tremendously expensive. But Dr. Messinger was absolutely amazing. She is so talented and saved our cat’s life when others told us to take her home to die. All of the staff were great. I do understand the other’s review that money is definitely something regularly discussed and there is definitely a culture that they are taught. But they deal with life and death situations with animals all day long and they do have to get paid for what they do. It was almost as expensive as a human hospital. However, what they did for our cat was highly specialized and they brought her back from the dead. We found out what was wrong with her and now have her on a régime to keep her going hopefully for many years to come.

This animal er has all the bells and whistles. My first contact with them saved my puppies life. He had eaten sand & sea shells & had a bowel obstruction. They quoted $ 6000US for the surgery, when I blurted out I only had $ 3000US in savings they immediately accepted that & did the surgery, which saved his life no kidding.
The second time I went there about a year later it was for the same thing except this time my dog ate out of the trash & ate cheese cloth & other items. I took him to this same place, because he was in obvious trouble… it was a real disappointment. All the staff was different & they straight up told me unless I could come up with the money that they wouldn’t help my dog and then offered me the phone number of our local animal shelter to ‘surrender him so they could humanly euthanize him’. Thats a direct word for word quote. Repeated over & over. They would not negotiate at all. I finally pursuaded a friend to lend me most of the money but I was about 400 short… they would not accept that.
For the entire time I was there the only thing said to me regularly & repeated often other than surgery was I could ‘surrender’…‘to be humanly euthanized. Also it was a long time before I was ‘allowed’ to see the xrays for which I spent $ 416US. I saw the obstruction. It was in the stomach.
With a heavy heart I took my dog friend home, planning to see our regular vet the next morning. After arriving home my dog got really sick to his stomach and vomited one piece of cheese along with some other items. Alls well that ended well.
I will NEVER go to this place again as what they really are about is the money. Everyone was politically correct, & saccarin sweet. The whole staff seems to be trained in customer management.
Ultimately I learned that truly they said they cared but they didnt act like it. How can you tell the owner of a 16 month Golden Retriever that you’ll make a referral for euthanasia due to lack of funds. The only thing they did for me was to fill out an application for credit, which came back rejected. As a result of my second experience I am very, sad to say, distrustful of these people and will not be rushing to them in an emergency. The only reason I want to+ them was because this is where my regular vet advises for after hours emergency care. I have already shared my experience with my dogs regular vet now im sharing it with Unilocal.I do hope that this was an isolated incident. But I realize that it isn’t as while I was waiting, there were a number of disgruntled people who were also quite vocal about their situations. All in all the facility seems clean at least what the clients see. Strangely enough they won’t let you in the area where they keep the dogs while waiting for treatment… So sad to say I’ve lost confidence in this company, completely. I’m not happy about reporting this at all. But it is the truth & I would like to save others the grief I went through. By the way, later I learned that they could have induced vomiting, which as I mentioned before my dog did on his own after I brought him home, much to my relief, and his no doubt. These people didnt even call to see how he was. That is a big clue as to the level of compassion or actually lack there of. So so sorry this is the case, all true.

Dr. Messinger was such a positive ray of sunshine which is very much needed when your 2 year old dog has cancer. We were visiting from NC and just needed a chemo treatment but she was very thorough and welcoming.