Animal Paradise Hospital — Attraction in Cliffside Park

My previous vet, which was a cat dedicated practice, had closed down. Our first visit to Animal Paradise was Sunday morning of Memorial Day Weekend for an urgent situation with our 14 1/2 yr old Birman Seal Point Cat, Camee😻 I called Sat when I realized she wasn’t eating or drinking and had no energy. It was the first available appt and I was relieved to get that!!! During the night, Camee got much worse, it felt like she was about to walk the Rainbow Bridge by daylight. Clean, pleasant smelling, bright waiting area that has 2 (?)Brazilian Macaws living in a huge cage. Coffee, tea and water available but no time for that as they took us right away. The tech took us into a room that had a flat screen showing serene scenes and playing serene music. Feliway is plugged into the outlet and the exam table is padded not metal👍🏻 She asked about Camee, took her her vitals, history and pertinent info from us; Dr Hellwarth joined us and thoroughly examined Camee. Camee was taken away for complete bloodwork and 2 Xrays; they attempted to obtain urine but her bladder was empty (no charge for attempt!) Not a long wait for results. We were expecting to be given not good news but we still went into a state of shock when Dr Hellwarth very calmly and gently told us that Camee has an abdominal tumor of unknown origin and that her bloodwork indicated her kidneys are not functioning well. She was forthright about the outcome of surgery not having a positive outcome for her. We opted to give her the Convenia injection in case there was an infection associated with the tumor. We were told that her lifespan could be several weeks Or much longer; depending on how well she eats and drinks or if the Convenia has a positive effect. We were given the room to take as much time as we needed to collect ourselves, we never felt rushed at all. The charges were super reasonable @ $425 Overall we were fine with the visit. After researching kidney disease and the treatment options available, we would have liked to have been provided with more info on what we could consider for Camee. Maybe some handouts to take home? They don’t make a 2-3 day follow up “just wanted to hear how Camee is doing” phone call☹️ Most practices don’t but it means a lot if you do😊 Monday 8/19/19, I called to speak with Dr Hellwarth about the options we wanted to try with Camee, missed her return call, set up an appt.Wednesday’s appt with her that was very informative, reassuring and filled in the few empty spaces we had lingering from our first visit👍🏻 She reviewed the X-rays with us; she and Nicolette instructed as they gave the sq fluids to Camee and her 1rst pain injection. Lots of exchanging of info took place. Dr Hellwarth is very very soft, gentle, calm in her approach. She listens patiently to what you are saying; open dialog is important to me, so she makes us feel comfortable. Nicolette is very professional; she’s great at multi-tasking and it appeared on Wednesday that she was keeping the hospital running like a super well oiled machine😊 We were given sq fluid set-up and meds for Camee, her visit was quite lengthy and again, more than reasonable in price @

Let me start off by saying i have no clue how this place has a 4.5 rating. They must pay a lot of people to leave 5 star reviews & fake comments.

Some things they are horrible at and one of those things is communication . I have a diabetic dog. There have been times where I will need to drop him off all day and when I go to pick him up I’m expecting to hear from the vet. Instead a few times they had an assistant work there and when I asked how his blood results were the assistant literally looked me in my eyes and said “i don’t know how to read these results the vet is going to call you tomorrow”(what’s sad is i’ve seen the reports so many times for my dog that i have learned how to read it by now but a professional vet assistant can’t) so when I asked him if he can send the report to my email (which they normally do even tho i have to constantly email them and call them to send it over.) The other assistant was a little snappy and said “like he said the vet will call you tomorrow” and guess what? the vet never called. I had to reach back out the next day in which I was told the vet was not in on fridays but would be in on Saturday. I asked to have him call me but I never got one back. Mind you I have given this place at least 20k+ over two dogs in the span of 10 years. I am by no means saying it is the vets fault. I don’t know if the message gets lost with the assistant. Who knows but The least you can do is transfer the message over to the vet so I can get word back on my dog.

Other times I had my other dog with an ingrown nail the vet will give him a check up look at his paws etc. and that same day i will later on find an ingrown nail.. I mean how does that get missed when at a check up?

When I eventually switched over vets , my new vet couldn’t believe the lack of blood work and results they were missing in regard to my diabetic dog. He was there very often. Now i’m sure whoever is in charge of this page will write underneath my comment and maybe even claim some of this is false or take no accountability for the lack of communication etc.

I’m not here to go back and forth. I would not take the take of out my saturday to write a review like this for no reason. I’m just leaving this review incase someone is considering using a a new vet for the first time. If you love your pet like I do I would strongly considering looking elsewhere. There are so many vets out there. Take your time and do your research and really do your due dillegence before leaving your pets in animal paradise hands.

I can go on and on here about my my displeasure with Animal Paradise Hospital.

They even contacted cheery cancelled my dogs diabetic insulin since we switched over vets. Which is fine. He will have his insulin with our new vet. But once again…. Lack of communication which is something they always do and me like a fool ignored all the signs for years because it was down the block from my house.. One of the biggest regrets i will always have..

once again I strongly recommend you using a different vet/ animal...

In short: Friendly staff, reasonable prices (but charge card fees), but very disorganized and I believe this could lead to harm to a pet.

In long: I took my cat here because of eye issues. The staff - doctors, vet techs, and front desk - was all very polite and helpful. Wasn't too much of a wait for any of the three times I've been there.

They are very open about cost estimates. However, they only accept cash or card. No checks. They apply a 3.5% card fee. My first visit was $600. My second was $2800. Adding another 3.5% to that is ridiculous! They can't reasonably expect that people are carrying that much cash. My third bill was $25 and some change. I paid $26 cash. Guess who didn't have change to give me... Ridiculous.

They also are disorganized. They gave me a cost estimate for my cat's surgery. When I looked at it more thoroughly at home, I realized they wrote the wrong surgery. When I asked the front desk, they couldn't explain it to me. It turns out the doctor told them to put in a different surgery for the cost estimate since it was similar price, but no one bothered to make note of it in the notes. I asked what the new cost was, and I was told a number nearly half the price. But that didn't make sense, since the doctor told me the price should be about the same about the "false" surgery. When I went to pay, she goes "oops I read it wrong. You actually owe $1300 more." In the end, I paid $100 more than the original cost estimate (plus 3.5% card fee). But the relief at being told it was going to be half cost, then turning out to pay more sucked.

Before I scheduled my cat's surgery, I got a text confirming her appointment. What appointment, I ask, since I hadn't scheduled her yet. Turns out they mixed up pets/owners and put my cat in for an appointment I hadn't requested for an issue she didn't have.

Brought my cat here for all the good reviews, and at the end of the day, the doctor did a good job on the surgery and the cat's doing great, but I think I will take her somewhere else for...