Associated Veterinary Specialists

Received horrible service, and witness an employee smoking while working with pets. Very terrible customer service and very unknowledgable

I have used AVS for my cat to treat kitty crohn's in 2011 (age 11) and more recently to treat hyperthyroidism (age 16). The staff is amazing! I have no doubt they saved his life with the crohn's - he had to have a feeding tube and go on steroids. They really loved on him when he was there. I love my vet (dr Jack Phillips) but sometimes a specialist is needed. I wouldn't go anyplace else

Let me start by saying I had the misfortune of having to bring two of my cats to AVS. One for diagnosis of intestinal lymphoma (back in 2008) another for radioactive iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism (Dec 2015).



My first experience was with Dr. Wayne Hause. My cat was puking and loosing weight and my regular vet was suspecting IBD or intestine lymphoma. We basically just needed a confirmation. AVS did a whole battery of labs, EKG (since my cat had a murmur), and abd ultrasound, upper endoscopy with biopsy. Basically stick me with over $3000 dollars vet bill. I'm an cardiac ICU nurse, so did my cat need an EKG? No. He is NOT having heart problems. He is having GI problems. (some can argue that if the heart failure is bad enough you can have GI problems... But come on, there would be other symptoms). Does my cat need the endoscopy or biopsy just to differentiate intestine lymphoma? No. The end result and treatment is basically the same. Steroids. Basically they talked me into doing unnecessary tests and procedures on my poor kitty just to make money and to be "thorough".



For my second cat, me was also puking and loosing weight. Turns out he had some sort of GI bug as his became hypertyroid was getting worse (funny thing was, my regular vet had checked thyroid levels less than a year ago). This time we saw Dr. Christine Cocayne. Granted, we had brought my cat to AVS after hours as he was getting dehydrated (yes, I was tempted to fluid resuscitate him myself at home) and I had to work early next morning. The oncall vet that was there basically didn't do much other than give my cat an IV and some fluids and waited until Dr. Cocayne got there in the morning. While she was professional and we had a couple conversation over the phone regarding diagnostics and treatment, she was appearently too busy to bother spending more than a few minutes talking to me when I picked up my cat. There was no followup what so ever. In fact, when my cat had recovered from his GI bug and I called back to schedule his radioactive iodine treatment, Dr. Cocayne did not even bother explaining anything to me. They repeatedly told me over the phone and when I drop him off about the cost for the treatment, making sure I knew how much it cost. During the 2 days my cat was there, I spoke to the nurse. When I pick up my cat, the receptionist basically asked for payment before I even got to see my cat. After she collected $1400 from me without giving me an itemized breakdown of my bill, she went over the discharge instruction with me, but don't ask her any specific questions that's not printed on the paper... Cause she doesn't know the answer. The nurse just brought my cat out in his carrier. I tried to ask her specific questions (what to do about the dirty liter, exactly how radioactive is the waste, how radioactive is my cat, etc.) I basically got a lot of dodging. They don't Geiger the cat waste... They are only required by law to do this and that... When I asked if they had a vet or manager I can talk to, she told me there wasn't anyone. Granted, it is Christmas eve, but if one of my patient's family ask for my manager, I contact my manager and ask them to contact the family, Christmas eve or not.



Bottom line, they don't care about you or your pet. They just care about the money. Are they able to provide good medical care? Yes. But they have zero bedside manners.



So why do I bring my pets there? Because there are no other veterinary specialists, unless I want to drive hours to another facility in Columbia or Kansas City. They know they have the monopoly.