Northtown Animal Hospital — Local services in Town of Amherst

I've given this practice its fare share of chances but I'm done with them once and for all. I've been going there off and on since before they moved into the new building.

I'm sure the people giving this practice good reviews have never actually taken a sick animal here.

They failed miserably at treating my diabetic cat, who has since passed away at 6 years of age. I did end up taking him to another vet but it was too late at that point.

I brought an Iguana there that was suffering from metabolic bone disease and was told to feed him dog food, which fixed the MBD but caused kidney failure. This was confirmed by necropsy performed at RARE.

Most recently I needed a referral to take my dog to Veterinary Dermatology Services of WNY. I brought him in twice for his skin issues and he was put on antibiotics, steroids and an antibacterial shampoo both times, totaling over $700.00. Both times his skin issues came right back as soon as the meds ran out. They refuse to write a referral unless I bring him back in so I can pay them more money for them to tell me something we both already know. I had him in there for his skin less than 6 months ago.

This practice is more of a cash grab business based on treating symptoms rather than causes to ensure repeat business. Dr. Schaedler actually told me on my second visit for my dog's skin, "This is the fun part, the trial and error". Really!? Who is having fun? Certainly not my dog, my family, or my wallet. Dr. Schaedler, you are the only one having fun.

I'll take my pets and money to Brighton Eggert, Seneca Animal Hospital, or the emergency vet before I ever consider...

We brought our 2 dogs and cats here for years, we stopped in September 2014 and it was a wise decision.

Our one dog had chronic ear infections resulting in an ear flap surgery Dr. Shaedler told us would be a permanent fix for an hematoma on her ear. 6 months later it returned and she backtracked quickly from it being a "permanent fix" to it being something she's just never seen happen before and offered no apology for misleading us. We chalked it up to an expensive misunderstanding but then there was another incident where she had us bring our dog in a ultrasound requiring sedation for a lump on the dog's side. The morning of the procedure I saw Dr. Shaedler make a funny face while doing an exam where the bump was but she said it was nothing to worry about -- nothing indeed. It turned out that the bump had disappeared and rather than tell us that, she let us do the ultrasound and spend hundreds of dollars only to tell us after the ultrasound that the bump had resolved and "better safe than sorry." We weren't thrilled with that.

But the thing that stopped us from ever going there again? Our other dog became very sick one day. We were really concerned and called to get him in and told them that we thought something was very wrong -- and they said they couldn't get him in. We took him to another vet and never looked back. The dog was very sick, he ended up dying suddenly the next day despite the treatment but to know that our vet, after years of going there and thousands of dollars spent, couldn't see our dog when we needed him to be seen was the last straw.

Don't bring...

I recently adopted a dog from Buffalo Cares and went to this vet following a recommendation. This place seemed great at first as their staff was friendly and informative however I quickly found that their main goal was to squeeze as much money out of customers as possible. I adopted my dog in July and went to them within a week for my annual vet appointment. At this appointment they told me that his rabies vaccine was up in October and that I should wait until October to receive this vaccine. I followed the recommendation believing that in October would be a quick visit with a $20 payment for the vaccine.

Turns out the vaccine must be accompanied by another annual vet visit, as I later found out was required, making my quick $20 vaccine turn into a long $75 vaccine. When asked why they didn't just do it at my last annual visit (less than 3 months ago) the person at the desk told me they did not know and they would contact me in the future. I am not cheap and I care about my pet's health however I do not like to throw money in the garbage.

This place does a good job and trying to guilt you into spending money on unnecessary things. Their primary motive is not your pet's health but their bottom line. I will be finding another vet as I do not want to have to deal with this...