Local Vet

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

Hi Everybody,
Search function wouldn't work right so this may have been answered previously here:
Recommendation for a good vet in the area? Something's not quite right with my cat and I'm slightly concerned.
Thanks!

Comments

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

I go to Porter Square Vet on Summer Street (near the Rosebud Diner and the VFW Hall). They are awesome - my Siamese have been going there for 4 years.

One thing is, they don't have seperate waiting rooms for dogs and cats...

Ditto

[entrochan.livejournal.com]

I use the same one, and have also been quite pleased.

[fredbarney.livejournal.com]

We take our cats to the Porter Square Vet also. They have been fantastic!

[forgotten-aria.livejournal.com]

I also go to the porter square vet. I had some problems with Dr. Cohen, both in his bedside manor and in his treatment of my cat, but I know some people love him. I usually use Dr. Leavy. What I'm saying is don't let one of their vets dissuade you from trying another of the vets. The nice thing about them having more than one vet is you can try more than one vet.

[jadelennox]

Dr. Leavy is *brilliant*. Some of the others I have issues with. Ask for Dr. Leavy.

[artemii.livejournal.com]

i also go to porter sq vet, and i second the double issues with dr. cohen. both i and my cat who's seen him disliked him immensely. my cats' favorite was dr. rau, who's unfortunately recently left the practice. many people here have recommended dr. leavy in past posts, but she is so popular she might be hard to get in to see. we're currently seeing dr. stewart, their most recent addition, and she's a bit brisk with humans but so far has been knowledgeable and patient with the cats.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

porter sq vet is great for anything routine or non-life-threatening.

on the scary side, they misdiagnosed a swallowed-foreign-object as an "infection", and one of my cats got sicker and sicker for two months under their care. seven thousand dollars at angell memorial hospital later, he got better, but no thanks to porter sq vet.

i still use porter for regular care, but if it gets past their skill level, i recommend angell.

[forgotten-aria.livejournal.com]

which of the doctors did you see?

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

three different ones over the course of his illness.

[freyja.livejournal.com]

as a note from the inside, that kind of thing can and does happen at angell too. :/

no matter where you go you're going to occasionally get a misdiagnosis. i'm glad you're still sticking by porter for regular care at least; we've seen a lot of clients get totally pissed off at their rdvms when our opinions differ and they won't go back because of a mistake that could really happen anywhere, at any time, depending on a number of factors.

that said, angell can be quite excellent :)

(also, from what i've heard around here, swallowed foreign objects can be difficult to diagnose without hitting the animal hard with all sorts of random tests from the get-go-- still, an infection? that's weird, unless the object caused some sort of weird inflammation or something was found in the blood cultures. i guess i'd need to hear more of the story!)

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

sure -- the issue isn't misdiagnosis per se; that happens everywhere (i work at mgh myself :) but angell had imaging equipment that porter sq didn't, and i think that made the difference.

my very large, skinny-at-15# cat was down to 7.5# and in "fair" condition when i took him to angell, and was unable to even keep down water. porter sq had prescribed almost exclusively antibiotics. *shrug*

[freyja.livejournal.com]

huh. you'd think they'd at least mention imaging or obstructions! or even an abscess in the throat...

even with our incredibly ridiculous amount of access to imaging and such i can assure you that animals don't always get imaged when they "should" :P did they do x-rays at all at porter, and it just didn't show up?

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure if they did x-rays at porter -- i tend to think not, as the object was part metal and part plastic, and should have shown up if they did. but i don't have the complete records, so i hesitate to say for sure.

[semiradgyrl.livejournal.com]

the arlington vet clinic, is great... i reccomend jennifer wolcott shickler.. several people i know have nothing but good things to say about her and the care that clinic provides.

[hvanaels.livejournal.com]

So far I've had good luck with City Cats (http://city-cats.com) in Arlington Center, though I've been fortunate enough to only need to go there for pretty routine visits. Cats only, which can be nice. I took my first cat to Angell for her first few checkups, but I didn't like seeing a different vet every time I was in there. (I worked in a two vet practice during high school and tend to prefer smaller places where the vet has more of a chance to get to know you and your pet(s).)

[ert.livejournal.com]

I didn't hate them, but I wasn't too happy with the Arlington City Cats. Dr. Bradley didn't remember me or my cat as well as I would like and they seemed a little eager to prescribe expensive investigations. Misdiagnosed cancer resulted in a lot of stress and a lot of money and time spent on Tufts Veterinary Hospita (http://www.tufts.edu/vet/sah/)l in Grafton. (If you've got a serious situation, time to drive 45-60 minutes out of the city, and money to spend on tests, I highly recommend Tufts, though. They were great.)

I'll admit that I had the most spectacular vet in the world a few years ago and hold them all to a rather high standard now.

On the topic of Davis Square cats, I also recommend Animal Spirit (http://www.animal-spirit.com/) on Mass Ave for supplies. Their open hours are somewhat tight, but it's a small independent pet store close to Davis that sells organic and "real" foods, and World's Best Cat Litter (http://www.worldsbestcatlitter.com/), and Melissa will talk to you about all the research she does on different food brands.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

i've been going to city cats since it was called the cat doctor - about 10+ years now. i liked the first vet i had there but she moved on (maybe to the city cats other location?) and have been satisfied w/dr. bradley. he does like to push the dental services a lot, and i think they're expensive, but overall i've been content w/their work.

he has remembered my cat (see photo) but i think that's only because my cat has had the worst case of kitty dandruff EVER! (and he's black, so it's quite noticeable - my cat has been that way since birth!) plus the cat is a bit of a fatty. anyway, he's done well with helping me when my cat has decided it's necessary to feast on curling ribbon. (eats it like spaghetti).

the staff is really nice, too. at the least, i love going to a vet that specializes in cats.

Thanks everyone!

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

I will check out Porter Square Vet; can't possibly turn it down after all the positive feedback. And the perk: it's a really short walk from my place so I wouldn't have to put my cat in a car, which he dislikes.
Thank you everybody!

(since you are all cat lovers, you may be interested in this site: www.infinitecat.com)