This place is amazing. From the front desk to the staff to the doctors. They really seemed like they cared a lot about my concerns with miss Barbie, they where friendly, kind, and knowledgeable about her issue. The place it top quality service. The atmosphere was relaxing and the place was clean. I appreciate yall getting us in on such short notice to check her out.
Overall, for me I probably wouldn’t seek care here unless I didn’t have a choice. I'm willing to drive for specialist vet care and I would be willing to drive hours to avoid ISU. Unfortunately, with these specialty centers you don’t always have another option. Our experiences here have been a mixed bag. We are several hours from ISU, but I’ve interacted with them 3 times now - all after being referred for serious medical situations with my dog that were scary and potentially life-threatening. I would strongly recommend ISU invest in communication training with all their staff, because that is their biggest weakness and the main reason I don’t like them/have had mixed experiences with them. Reading other reviews, I don't think I'm alone in this, communication and staff insensitivity are frequently commented on, and I think this is a primary issue at ISU. This is reflected in their rather low Google rating of 3.5 stars, which comes mostly from people either having good 5 star or terrible 1 star experiences with them. This is lower rating with many more 1 star reviewsthan many other comparable veterinary centers. Despite customer feedback that consistently points to similar issues, ISU has not fixed it. Here’s a summary of my thoughts on ISU: -Some of the receptionist staff is OK, but some have made rude, unnecessary, sometimes insensitive comments to me that feel like they come out of the blue, taking you off guard, and derail what was otherwise a fine, calm, and reasonable conversation. For those staff, I did try once to say to a receptionist staff “hey, that wasn’t needed” and they become combative/even ruder. This made any further professional/productive interaction impossible. When you are already at baseline stressed about a life-threatening medical situation with your dog, driving several hours to get them care, and then you have to deal with that - It’s awful and feels really uncomfortable. ISU needs to fix this, it shouldn't happen. We go to plenty of places that have better receptionist staff with better communication/customer service training. It is completely unnecessary to ever have to deal with this as a customer. -The vets seem skilled, but from who we’ve worked with are consistently poor communicators to patients in all same way. They seem overly concerned about liability and saying “anything wrong” in conversations, so they provide you only vague/evasive information that is hard to understand and interpret risk levels from. Generally, it only elevates anxiety and fear levels, and makes decision-making on potentially life-threatening care plans feel overwhelming and very difficult. If you say to them "I need clearer communication" they will say they can't do better and sometimes will imply you are unreasonable for wanting it. This is not true, you absolutely can get better. I had so much problem with ISU vet communication and not getting the information I needed, despite asking many questions, that I chose not to have my dog not get his surgery there. Instead I took my dog up to University of Minnesota - and had a totally different experience. The Minnesota vets communicated clearly with me and made me feel confident, like my dog would be cared for in every way possible, and put me at ease instead of making me feel overwhelmed like the ISU vets. I would go back to University of Minnesota in a heartbeat, while I would avoid ISU. Good communication and knowing how to communicate with pet owners who are in scary health situations with their dogs makes a world of difference in the care experience, but unfortunately the ISU vets don’t consistently have this skill. -I think their prices are reasonable and competitive with other places. They aren’t cheap, but for the specialty services you get there - they aren’t cheap anywhere. I’ve always paid out of pocket, so I’ve never dealt with them in a “can’t pay” situation. -They do have good facilities with everything that is needed to provide high quality vet care, if you ignore the pervasive communication issues.
We unfortunately needed to use their oncology services for our Golden Doodle Yadi. After 18 weeks of therapy and a couple of hiccups along the way, Yadi graduated from chemotherapy today and has been in full remission for some time now. The staff know me by name when I walk in, take exceptional care in listening and being helpful. Everyone we came in contact with was helpful and knowledgeable to deal with. We were presented many options of care in how to proceed and received multiple updates on treatment days. We are now down to monthly visits to make sure he continues to do well. We couldn’t be any happier with the outcome given the circumstances!
Our puppy was adopted by us & we found out she had multiple heart conditions. We were told that due to her age at the time, ISU was the only place that could take her in for additional testing, we paid over $600 for these test/the visit. It had to be done & we didn't have much choice in the matter. Now, our dog has a skin issue & its insane how the only place that can handle it, is ISU. I called for a quote & am just amazed at how high their initial exam alone is. $168 just to be seen. The problem with ISU although their care was great, they DO NOT take payment plans. They expect you to be able to pay $600+ out of pocket each visit. We were recommended to come back to checkup on her heart, but we can't pay that again. In her case, her condition won't change until it does too late & can't be treated. But now we would have to pay another giant out of pocket bill to be seen for her skin? We looked into insurance at the time of her heart, but of course cardiology is not one of the areas being covered. ISU makes us feel helpless. Either pay a giant sum of money & go into debt for it or let our pet suffer because they unwilling to work with us. Oh and the lady said to me on the phone that they don't refer. Thats just wrong.
We brought our bulldog Ruby to ISU for emergency stomach surgery. They found the problem, took care of it and cared for her for three days. With twice daily updates and the best care we’ve ever experienced, I highly recommend these guys to anybody who has an emergency situation with their pet. We drove from Omaha to get her there, knowing we would get the best care possible. Five STARS all the way!!
We went there a few months ago with our dog. I didn’t have any else to go because this is the only place that had ER open on Sunday. But the experience is quite horrible. I brought my dog in because he was having diarrhea and had been throwing up. They took my dog away and said they were going to do X-ray and blood test which will take 30 mins. We wait in the room for 2 whole hours before someone eventually showed up to tell us they took a little bit extra time. That’s totally unacceptable, someone should’ve informed us after the initial 30 mins. Imagine our feelings during that 2 hours. We thought our dog is dying or something for them to take that long. And the conclusion they got was either “neurological disease in the leg” or “Pneumonia” which is pretty absurd since our dog was just vomiting and having diarrhea. We brought our dog to our normal vet a few days later. Our vet laughed out for the absurdity of the diagnosis and said it’s just upset stomach. Oh, not to mention they charged us almost 1000 dollars. One thing that is worth the 3 stars is how patient the vet was after we left. We called them a bunch of times after midnight to confirm our dog is not behaving abnormally with his breathing. Someone needs to manage this place better. You cannot keep it like this just because you are the only vet at a certain time. Every single one of our friend we went there because they had to complained about it so much.
See if you can seek a second opinion if you think something is not right! While I am so appreciative of the amount of care my dog received, I almost lost her due to an inaccurate diagnosis. The only thing that saved my dog from euthanasia was a faulty fire alarm that we had to leave the building for until the authorities could respond. I was told my dog had GDV bloat and after quoting me 7k+, told me the only other option for her was euthanasia since I could not afford surgery plus fees One fee is bringing in their operations team because this was all at 2am. We spent time with her until the fire alarm went off. While I was outside with her, the vet noticed her active and playful behavior and told me she wished to scan her once again 'just to be sure'. Turns out, my dog did not have GDV and was okay to go home. She did offer surgery for my dog just to make sure that nothing like this happened again but it was still something I could not afford due to all the extra fees. Like I said, I am thankful that the vet on duty noticed this and wanted to double-check. I will say they handled this professionally, quickly, and with the best intention. She even called first thing the following morning to check in on my dog and advised me on my next steps which I followed immediately. My dog received care and surgery for an affordable price range at our local vet and is currently home recovering well. The ladies at reception were very sweet and kind to us and made checking in and out easy. They also got me my medical records asap when our local vet asked for them. The entire experience was upsetting for us since we were so close to losing my dog over a misstep in her diagnosis. I recommend approaching with care and caution but I appreciate those who tried to make our entire night easy.
I was sent to this clinic for my cat with advanced lymphoma. They put in an e-tube and he bled out in 4 days. I told them he had a slow hemorrhage but no one believed me.They had the gall to tell me he needed a blood transfusion for 4000$. I took him home and let him die in my arms . Dr. Perez was the worst. She smiled while giving me the costs of euthanasia which she said would be cheaper because" He already had an IV in". She did this in the main lobby with all the waiting clients. All they want is money. I complained to my regular vet and she agreed. 8000$ later and much wiser..
Can't recommend this place enough to any pet owners needing high quality assistance with genuine and caring staff. We had our cat here for a week and the staff were knowledgeable, had excellent communication, and gave us realistic expectations throughout. All you want when your pet is needing treatment is a staff who you can trust and knows they actually care vs wanting your money. The staff here were open with the updated bill and even were flexible on the costs. Thank you to the front desk, the doctors, and shoutout to Corey and Else who grew attached to our cat Simba! We can't thank you enough for all your help and support and we look forward to continuing to help us in the future.
I used to think the ISU Small Animal Hospital was expensive, even back when there was a 10% ISU student discount, but my viewpoint has completely changed ever since moving away from Iowa. My dog's heart murmur has gotten progressively worse with age, and getting a cardiology workup would have been 3 times more expensive in NYC compared to ISU. Thank goodness I have a record established for my dog from back when I was in Iowa and was able to schedule a consult relatively easily. I finally understand why this place deserves a 5-star rating. Comparing this place to a normal vet clinic is like comparing a small rural clinic to a level-1 trauma center in human hospital terms. The availability of specialty/sub-specialty services is unmatched, and the expertise from the attending veterinarians is something that you simply cannot get from anywhere else.
