VCA Five Points Animal Hospital

Glad Aliquippa vet closed, that vet was a NUT job\r more

I recently took my dog Baxter to 5 Points Veterinary Clinic. He is a very timid dog and can be a bit of a handful with strangers. The vet tech, Amanda, was wonderful with him. She came into the exam room and talked to him and me and kept him calm. In the past, he has had to be musseled to exam him and this time it was not necessary. Thank you for a job well done. more

I had a HORRIBLE experience during my 6:30 appointment last night, in particular the behavior of Dr. Jennifer Kotouch and her assistant. Although I forget the name of the assistant, I am capable of recognizing her instantly. \r I brought my cat Pixie in for a check-up as well as to treat a possible infection located on her rear. Although the initial few minutes of the appointment went perfectly fine, the moment where the assistant came in to help hold my cat is where I am extremely disappointed and affronted.\r Dr. Kotouch and the female assistant spoke the entire time in a high-pitched, childish tone and used infantile words such as “baby waby,” “tum tum,” “sweetums,” “rollie pollie,” and “baby.” Although I understand speaking in a crooning, soothing voice to calm an animal, the childish names and banter used in the tone of both of the staff was demeaning. It made me feel disrespected as a customer, and the vocal inflection and gestures utilized in the diagnosis insinuated that the vet thought of me as a stupid child who can be talked down to. I felt as if she was scolding me.\r Furthermore, when Dr. Kotouch came in and gave me follow-up information, she ended by winking at me followed by another wink as she went into the back. I find the action and the manner in which it was done bizarre and insolent, and quite frankly, utterly insulting. Maybe it was my Letterman jacket, or the fact that I look much younger than my 21 years that caused such behavior, but that is inexcusable. I pay Five Points Vet out of my own pocket, and, even in the event that I show up in a clown suit, I expect to be treated with full respect and professionalism. Five Points' staff did not demonstrate this professionalism in ANY way, and I did not once mistreat them. I was angry at the unnecessary, childish voices they used, but I held my tongue and listened patiently until it was time to pay so that my cat could at the very least get some help. Mind, this was all after several unnecessary treatments resulting in $200 more were also prescribed, to which I blatantly said ""no."" This makes the business seem as though it cares more about money than the treatment of the pets and owners.\r Due to this incredibly insulting conduct demonstrated by the staff, I will be taking my money to Aliquippa Animal Hospital, where it is my understanding that the vet is PROFESSIONAL and RESPECTFUL of all customers, no matter what their age. As a resident of the area for 15 years and a person who values customer service and basic respect, I will also be advising everyone I know to steer clear of this business.\r more

This place now has fallen into the despicable practice of pressuring animal owners into purchasing unnecessary vaccinations, which is unhealthy and bad for your animal. Five Pints Vet Clinic does not follow modern healthy practices and procedures. Go elsewhere. more

Five Points Veterinary Clinic used to be good, but is now terrible. Will never go there again. more

As many have said they are expensive, which I knew. With that I would expect them to be good at what they do. One time my aunt's cat had a strange rash, and they could not identify what it was. This was not a huge deal, and eventually it had went away on it's own.\r \r The thing that enrages me is when it came to my nine year old cat. He had something very strange occur. One of his eyes was fixed in a dilated state, and the other one was normal. I took him here to figure out what this was. They asked me if anything was abnormal. Once they said that I realized that over the past few months he had always been acting starving. Even at times when he didn't eat all of his food. The reason we did not do anything sooner was because my parents said we could not afford to, it was probably nothing. He had always been skinny. The vets seemed to think nothing of this. I also told him that in the past few days he had thrown up. This also seemed to be dismiss. We left the vets that day with no answers and a $300 bill of tests. They seemed clueless.\r \r He got worse within the next two weeks. He barely ate, threw up about every other day. Slept alone and on floors instead of right next to one of us like he normally did. His eye seemed to look worse. He also acted weak and lethargic. We took him back and after another $300 in tests, a full body x-ray and more, still did not get answers. Finally a few days later he suggested maybe a thyroid test. After hearing this, I immediately googled hyperthyroidism. Every single one of his symptoms matched up with this. To a tee. Even worse, It says it says that it is extremely common in cats, especially after the age of eight. \r \r It makes me very mad that a vet that should have a degree and know a lot about cats could be so clueless on the subject. After the test, he came back with high degrees of hyperthyroidism. It bothers me that it took so long and so much money in unnecessary tests and could be figured out with a simple google search. We gave them $600+ dollars in which the necessary test cost around $80. I can see maybe testing a few of the others, but five points clearly wanted to milk this for all they could. Now he is blind in one eye, and I just pray that he is not to far gone at this point because under normal circumstances, hyperthyroidism is extremely treatable. more

We had been using this vet for years and pretty much noted that we consistently ended up leaving there with significantly large bills for what were simple problems. We brought our 18 year old Golden to them for an end of life solution after she had watermelon discharge from rectum. We suspected she had a perforated colon. We even brought a sample of the discharge. The vet Dr Lewis Faulkner looked at her and after blood tests proclaimed that she had hepatitis because of high liver enzymes and said that they could help her. At that point most pet lovers would look for any reason to keep there pet alive. You have to understand that she could not walk. We had to carry her in to the office. The vet prescribed a complete profile work up and gave us 10 different med to give her from Prednisone to Vitamin B12. She could hardly hold her head up and they wanted us to force feed the meds. The bill was over $600. Well to make a long story short. She died a horrible death in our arms shortly after we got home. We now have hundreds of dollars of meds that of course they will not take back. But that is not the point. The hard decisions to put a creature down is part of what a vet has to do. A truly compassionate Dr. would have given us the bad news. Instead, it was a business decision to give us false hope by attempting to prolong her life. The facts speak for them selves. Five Points are strictly a mercenary organization bent on extracting as much profit as possible. A better alternative would be: Aliquippa Animal Hospital 2672 Brodhead Rd, Aliquippa, PA 15001 more

My regular vet referred me to Dr Boswell at Five points for my Jack Russell who had developed a mast cell tumor. She told me though she could do the surgery herself, Dr Boswell had far more expertise with this kind of tumor and my dog's chances were best having Dr Boswell do the surgery. The staff was very kind and supportive. We were seen in a timely manner and the Dr explained what he had to do in layman's terms so I fully understood what was involved. We were given a written estimate lowest cost to a possible high. The surgery was scheduled within a few days and my dog was taken in as appointed. The surgery was done an we were called to give a status report and a pick up time was given. We arrived on time, picked up our dog,who looked remarkably well considering to seriousness of the surgery. We were given clear instructions on how to care for our dog and the charges were within the estimate...the low end. I have dealt with an other veterinary hospital in the past, a good one albeit, but Five Points was the better experience. Thank you to Dr Jane Keenan, my wonderful vet. You have never given me wrong advice. And a big thank you to Five points! Frodo is doing very well. Pros: null Cons: null more

My name is Kristen and I am the practice manager at Five Points Veterinary Clinic. I will never speak specifically about a client or pet that has been to our practice, so I can only respond to a few points in this review. Pros: null Cons: null more

My first experience 2 years ago with this vet was that I waited an hour to see the vet, while they took at least 3 appointments scheduled after us, before taking us and when we said something we got attitutide and a "whoops". more

What a terrific clinic! Friendly staff, great doctors. When we had to put our cat down they could not have been kinder or more compassionate. I recommend them to anyone looking for veterinary service. They're open seven days a week and will do their best to accommodate your schedule. Wonderful people. Pros: Great doctors and staff Cons: None more

Took my 3 year old cat in perfect health confirmed by an examination from this vet on 7/15/2009 to be declawed at 8:00 am on 7/24/2009 and was informed that it died on the operating table at 11:45pm during this routine procedure. We lost a loved family pet which brought extreme pain and sorrow to my family. TAKE CAUTION Pros: none Cons: everything more

We have tried to work with this clinic but for the most part they seem to care about the dollar more than the animal. We are not new to animal care (we care for more that 12 animal friends) and after now using this clinic for several occurrences find them to be below average in what we feel veterinary care and service should be. The vets can be personable but that is about the extent of it. more