The Animal Hospital on the Golden Strip — Local services in Williamsport

Cross posted: We adopted a rescue that was FIV+. We knew going into the adoption process that we were going to be frequent visitors of whatever vet we chose to take our cat to. The Animal Hospital on the Golden Strip came highly recommended by the Lycoming SPCA. We were not disappointed, at first. The staff is always so friendly and helpful and treated our Snokey like he was part of the family. Everyone loved to see him when we came in and all knew us and him by name. The doctors were always very helpful and explained things to us in detail when we asked. About a month ago, Snokey was having a decrease in appetite and has had hair loss and skin irritation issues consistently due to his FIV. We took him in and had blood work done and it was recommended by one of the female doctors that if the problem persists, we should seek xrays to see how he was doing internally. We brought him back for a follow up visit after little to no change and he saw Dr. Saunders. Dr. Saunders was very cold and did nothing to further diagnose the cause of his change in health. He reviewed the blood work results from the previous week and gave Snokey an appetite enhancer and suggested that we "make him as comfortable as possible". Needless to say, I was not happy with the lack of care and attention he exhibited. We talked about it and decided that in the future we would just request one of the female doctors that was always so kind and helpful and thorough. On Monday 2/25/19 we took Snokey in because of his declining health and persistent liquid stools over the course of 5 days. He saw one of the female doctors again who was, as always, incredibly helpful and thorough. She did blood work and xrays and gave him an antibiotic and anti diarrheal, metronidazole. After his first dose, he began showing signs of neurotoxicity. Disorientation, lethargy, loss of balance, weakness and fatigue, inability to hold his head up or stand or walk. He was showing signs of being hungry but was unable to stand long enough to eat or drink. We called and were directed to stop the medicine immediately and bring him back in for evaluation. On Wednesday, we brought him in for his appointment and he saw Dr. Saunders. Dr. Saunders reviewed his xrays from Monday and did no other testing to figure out what was happening or what we could do to reverse the obvious reaction to the medication. He gave him yet another appetite enhancer and sent him home but not before leaving my already distressed girlfriend with the sentiment that she should "start thinking about making a decision for what's best for the cat". I wasn't there for this visit or I would have expressed my displeasure then and there. This morning, Thursday 2/28/2019, after a very long and restless night of rapidly declining physical state, Snokey's organs completely gave out and he passed away. Snokey was an otherwise pretty healthy cat that was being closely monitored by us for his FIV condition. I am certain that if it were not for Dr. Sander's apathy and failure to properly examine and diagnose his symptoms thoroughly, Snokey would still be with us. I understand that it is very easy to blame anyone when a loss is this fresh but I can't help but feel that Dr. Saunders simply couldn't be bothered to do any testing or proper diagnosis and was of the mindset that a cat with a pre existing condition was already given a death sentence and he perpetually just prescribed Snokey appetite enhancers and sent him home without ever administering a single test or monitoring his state of health. I can't possibly say enough positive things about the rest of the staff at The Animal Hospital on the Golden Strip but as long as Dr. Saunders is there, I will never step foot in that building again. You go to a medical professional, either for yourself or your pet, trusting that they will do whatever necessary with the health of their patient in mind and I simply cannot say that about...

I have been a passionately loyal client of the A Hosp for 20 years. I told everyone to go there for all of their grooming and vet needs. Told them it was the best place and even worth driving out of your way to get to. I even worked there for 7 years and loved my job, the other employees, and the level of care that I was able to see daily as someone behind the scenes.

Under the new managenent, this place has unfortunately suffered greatly. The reception staff is unprofessional, uncaring, and can barely be bothered to perform their jobs. And that's just the start of the problems. After a terrible experience about a year ago, where my elderly dog who had been a lifelong client was ill and needed care, and we were flat out denied an appointment three times, we decided to take our pets elsewhere. Last night, our new puppy was unfortunately injured. We took her to the Emergency clinic for the night and she was transferred to the A Hosp this morning. The experience today has been a nightmare, with complete lies from the staff, and total inaction on their part to make the nec plans to find her a vet capable of performing the surgery she needs. Apparently, now that Dr Winton has retired, they do not have a vet on staff capable in the type of surgery she needs. So tonight, she will again be transferred, not because of any action from the A Hosp, but because we took matters into our own hands, to another vet where she will now have to wait over the weekend before she can have her surgery.

You may be still able to find competent routine care and grooming, if you can manage to actually schedule an appointment, but the new staff has proven twice over to us that they do not care about the animals brought to them. No thanks, we won't be back.

EDITED TO ADD: We did recieve a very concerned phone call from one of the Doctors on staff after someone apparently read this review. She expressed regret for our experience and concern for our puppys welfare. Ive bumped up my rating, but am still honestlyskeptical after the lack of care...

I was in on Tueday with my dog Charlie, he was in for his annual checkup. He saw Dr. Pifer, I have never met her before. I have taken Charlie there along with my other animals for a very very long time and always have been happy. However with this visit I was not happy at all. Dr. Pifer was very nice, however she did NOT even really examine my dog at all. She did not touch him anywhere other than where his lump was on him back thigh, she looked at only his one front tooth, never opened his mouth all the way to look inside at all, she did not feel around to check all his lymph nodes or feel his abdomen, she did not ever take his temperature, and when asked if she did she said "no, I did not check his temperature because he does not seem like there is anything wrong with him so I do not check that because I know dogs dont like it" Overall I do not feel like any real exam was done on my dog, yet i was still charged $99 I also do not feel confident whatsoever that her opinion of his lump aspiration of only being "fats and oils" So I will be taking him elsewhere for a second opinion. she was a nice person I will say that, however , I just felt that you should be aware, I do not know if this is how she normally does exams for other peoples pets but I would hate to see an animal suffer because the proper examination was not done. It may be simple steps howver they can be critical if something is missed that could have been noticed had the exam been done. I am VERYdisatisfied with this visit. I hope this gets addressed in the near future for the safety of other pets because I will not be...