Amici Pet Hospital of Little Italy — Local services in San Diego

Here's the thing- I would love to give Dr. Fritz a good rating. She was always great to deal with. But the problem is that in order to see her, you have to deal with the absolutely TOXIC reception staff. It may not be all at the front desk staff, but I have consistently encountered issues. First off, they will put you on hold for upwards of 15 min every time you call. I understand urgent things can come up but not every single time! And when you are in the waiting room, it becomes clear that they are happy to put you on hold and then just lazily proceed with their day, sometimes even loving on THEIR pets that they bring to work with them and have behind the desk. I had an instance when I called and specifically listed off the things I needed to achieve during an appointment I was trying to make. We were moving and needed to address a few annual things before heading out of state. I was told that the doctor did not have any openings but they could get us in for a tech visit. I reiterated my objectives for the appointment to confirm they would be achieved and even said maybe this isn't the right fit to which the receptionist said she would schedule the tech appointment. Upon checking out of the tech visit, I find out that we did one of the four things I had requested during my booking and my total was still $300. When I asked why the other things were not done, the receptionist stared at me blankly, and rudely stated that it was only a tech visit. I am relatively certain she was the one I spoke to at booking and didn't care to accept responsibility for her mistake. I asked for my pet's records to be emailed, they never were. I called twice waiting on the phone for a total of 30 min to have them send an email that had previously been requested. They also refuse to send prescriptions to other vendors, forcing you to either stop at the office or go through their pharmacy (which I am sure they make money from). With such poor customer service, it always blows my mind when they say they are booked out months in advance for basic annual exams. If you do choose to go here, know they are the type of place that is going to advise you run every possible test even if it's not a logical approach. I brought my pet with an upset stomach and our bill came up to over $1K only to find out she had a stomach bug that resolved the next day. And that's after I questioned some of the suggested testing that would have resulted in the exact same treatment and putting a pause on some of the more aggressive treatment they had suggested; we went with hydration and an anti-nausea med and she was back to new. Dr. Lafey is fine, if not a bit...

My anxiety has been out the roof this week.

My dog, Angel, has chronic bronchitis and recently diagnosed with a lung infection. Dr Haze was very accommodating and informative and even called back to check in on Angel after a few days.

Unfortunately, I missed her call because I was at work but was able to call back within the hour and provided updates on Angel to the receptionist. Dr Haze called back, but again, I was at work so I was unable to answer. She left a voicemail saying Angel may need to start using a bronchodilator. The antibiotics and hydrocodone prescribed to her were not very effective so anything new was relieving to me.

The next week I called back Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday- no response back from Dr. Haze. Each day I was told they’d put a RED POST-IT note as if it were an urgent message. On Friday I found out they actually have an URGENT box for immediate responses and none of my messages appeared to be urgent to these receptionist although my dog has trouble BREATHING. So I was either ignored or my dogs trouble breathing wasn’t important enough to Dr. Haze for a 5 minute phone call. Monday- Thursday I made sure to call with a very polite tone because I know working with angry customers just make things awkward. But By Friday, a whole week later, I had enough. I demanded I speak to Dr Haze but she had the day off. They somehow gave me a written prescriptions for me to pick up a bronchodilator at a pharmacy but I called 5 pharmacies and even checked chewy.com and that dosage was no where to be found.

Turns out they had to recalculate the dosage because the one they originally gave me was wrong. The receptionist offered to call pharmacies for me and almost gave up until I asked her to just call Costco for me. Luckily Costco had it.

I asked for Angels records so I can take Her elsewhere... didn’t receive it via email yet. I asked again. Still no email of her records. Sounds to me they either want to keep me at Amici (yet ignore my calls) or just let Angel suffer with coughs and breathing issues.

It’s been a week and a half since Dr. Haze’s voicemail and I STILL haven’t heard back from her to check in on Angel. And two whole weeks since I actually spoke to Dr. Haze. I am disappointed in this Pet Hospital as I chose this place for their great reviews and I’ve also never had to encounter communication issues with this Hospital before. A few questions I ask this Hospital- why is my senior dog being neglected? How effective is the communication from receptionist to doctor? Why won’t you release my dogs records to me?...

This clinic has gone down hill. They nickel and dime you for every single thing. Twice now they've sent our dog home with stitches and she's pulled them out or scratched them out. The first time they provided an e-collar that was too small. The second time they sent us home and on the instructions said to monitor the incision site twice daily. Our dog scratched the sutures out at night and then when I called the next morning their staff put me on the phone with a technician who tried to tell me that on the instructions it says to monitor her for 24 hours. She then proceeded to hang up on me because I asked to speak to the owner Dr. Saltzman. I called back and they transferred me to the only vet on staff who told me he didn't have time to speak with me and said that we'd have to pay a $49 fee to bring our dog in to examine her wound site to determine what to do. I asked how stitching her back up would do any good given that she'll be able to scratch the stitches out again to which he replied that we'll have to make her wear a t-shirt. I asked how a t-shirt would prevent her from scratching the stitches out again and he said he didn't know. I proceeded to ask Dr. Lacey to speak with Dr. Saltzman and he said "yeah that likely won't happen until the end of the day" and then he hung up on me.

We spent over $2,000 yesterday and now they want us to pay another $49 just to examine her to determine whether she'll need more stitches, which she'll likely be able to scratch out again.

I understand that this is the nature of having a dog, but the way the staff treated me today was terrible and they're not even willing to examine her for free to determine next steps. Amici has terrible customer service. I would highly recommend going somewhere else if you're already a patient here or if you're...