Veterinary Medical Center of Long Island

Reviews

• LF

  Loren Finkelstein

  Nov 15, 2025
  1.0
  Brought my 13 y/o cat in for lethargy, not eating. Quoted me upwards $17,000 for 3-4 days of hospitalization with no guarantee of recovery. Agree to keep him there for the day to watch for improvement ($2700 estimate with built in $600 in ESTIMATED services.) As the day progressed he grew worse and I humanely put my cat to sleep. 2 days later I'm billed an extra $271. I asked billing to kindly waive the fee and was DENIED. Mind you, some creditors look at this amount as nominal and will write it off. Considering the astronomical bill for 1/2 days worth of care just to have to put my cat to sleep, and the pain of losing your family member you'd think VMCLI would considerately waive the fee. This place is a money making machine. Even American Express would excuse the small debt owed. Shame on you VMCLI. Never using them again or recommending to anyone. If I could leave NO STARS I would.
• SG

  Santiago Gelvez

  Nov 7, 2025
  5.0
  I cannot recommend VMCLI enough, especially Dr. Jacqueline Carver and the entire surgical team. My 13.5-year-old dog, Tango, needed a very complex, high-risk parathyroid surgery, and we were incredibly nervous. The work they did was amazing. Dr. Carver was fantastic from the very first consultation, patiently explaining everything and giving us confidence. What truly set them apart was the constant communication. Just as they promised, Dr. Carver called me personally right after the surgery. And during the days Tango was hospitalized in the ICU, her team called me twice a day, every day, with detailed updates on his progress, including his exact calcium levels. This transparency and constant flow of information made such a stressful situation so much more manageable. Every single person we interacted with, from the front desk to the technicians, was professional and compassionate. Thanks to their incredible work, Tango is home and recovering beautifully. I 100% recommend them!
• AB

  Allie B.

  Oct 29, 2025
  3.0
  If I was just reviewing the vets and the vet techs themselves, I'd easily give five stars, but the management and administration drop the average down given their billing practices, lack of transparency, and inability to follow-up on concerns. My warning to anyone who needs to have their pet stay for multiple days and put a deposit down is to consistently ask how much they've spent, otherwise you may end up owing way more than you expect. In August, my dog Callie needed to have an emergency cholecystectomy. By the end, I ended up with a bill of over $29k because of the lack of communication and a confusing double-estimate that was never properly explained to me despite my asking about it. Since I was more eloquent in an email I sent to them after I took Callie home, I am just going to paste what I originally wrote (warning: somewhat lengthy): -- I want to emphasize greatly that none of my issues are at all aimed at the vets or the vet techs; they did an amazing job with Callie and I appreciate them saving her life and caring for her. Money-related matters are not their responsibility, and I have only praise and deep appreciation for everything they did. However, I am unperturbed with how little communication I had about the cost of everything, to the point where having to pay another approximately 9 thousand dollars before being able to take Callie home came as a complete and overwhelming shock to me. While I understand I was given estimates, the two estimates needing to be combined is unconventional in terms of how estimates typically work. Therefore, in my head, the ‘high-end’ of the estimate was around $21,000 rather than around $29,000. I know I explained this in a previous email, but to re-emphasize: when I was given the second estimate, I asked about the deposit for the first one and whether this was a separate thing entirely. I was just told that they would ‘use what was put down if necessary,’ which to me implies that it would be an extra fund to dip into if we went over the low-end of the second deposit of $16 thousand. Things were never fully explained to me nor was I given a straight answer, and I was not in a great place of mind since I was being told in the same sentence that my dog’s gallbladder was on the verge of rupturing and if I did not give permission and consent to the procedure she basically would die. (The main reason I am in a clearer headspace now to discuss all this is because she has been recovering well at home and so I am no longer thinking that she is going to suddenly pass or anything like that.) The double-estimate thing I probably would have been okay with if someone at some point sat down with me to discuss the money in less urgent terms. I was at the hospital every day visiting Callie and at no point did anyone think to speak with me about how much I had put down and when I was about to go over that. I don’t know if that is standard practice or if it is because I gave a false impression of having a lot of money since I put down two deposits totaling a little more than $20 thousand, but it would have been extremely useful for me to know exactly when I was over that $20 thousand and when I would need to owe more. (I had a contracted job as a lecturer but it was not renewed due to cutbacks, so I have since been forced to move back in with my parents for the time being.) Because of the urgency of everything, I was not in any position to sit down and calculate on my own how much each subsequent day at the hospital would cost me, and I was/am not even sure when exactly my deposit ran out. Because it was so much money already, just knowing when that deposit ran out would have changed some of my decisions. Especially since there was very little change in Callie’s condition during her last days at the hospital, I would have opted to discharge her probably two days earlier than I did, simply out of financial necessity. -- Despite saying that upper management wanted to discuss things with me further in a reply email, I never received a call back, which was disappointing.
• JG

  Jason Gagnon

  Oct 26, 2025
  5.0
  I never thought I’d be writing a review about an animal hospital at 3 AM, but here I am, and I need everyone to know about the angels working at VMCLI. Two nights ago, our world stopped. Marco, our beloved dog, had a seizure in the middle of the night. If you’ve never witnessed your pet seizing, I can’t fully describe the terror, the helplessness, watching this member of your family convulsing and not knowing if he’ll make it. My kids were crying, I was shaking, and my lady and I just looked at each other with that horrible question: “Is he going to die?” I threw on whatever clothes we could find and raced to VMCLI, holding Marco and praying the entire way. The moment I burst through those doors, I was met with calm, compassionate faces. Not judgment. Not annoyance at the late hour. Just kindness. Dr. Wilson sat down and explained everything. What seizures are. What could be causing them. What our options looked like. She spoke to me like family, not just another appointment. Then, and this is what really got m, she recommended AGAINST admitting Marco overnight. She could have easily charged me $2,500, and in my panicked state, I would have paid anything. But she told me it wasn’t necessary, putting Marco’s actual needs above profit. I didn’t know vets still did that. We went home exhausted but hopeful. Then, fourteen hours after normal blood work, it happened again. Another seizure. All that hope just… shattered. We were back in the car, racing to VMCLI again. This time we saw Dr. Handready. When you’re in crisis mode, barely slept, watching your pet suffer and your kids scared, the demeanor of the person treating you matters SO much. Dr. Handready was a lighthouse in our storm. Calm. Knowledgeable. But most importantly, she SAW us. She saw our fear and met it with empathy, not clinical detachment. All the nurses, Jackie, Christine, and everyone at the front desk treated us like we mattered. Like Marco mattered. Like our fear and grief were valid and important. Then Dr. Hutt came over as I waited in the lobby. She sat with me, actually SAT with me and explained Marco’s idiopathic epilepsy and how he’d likely need medication for life. Instead of just handing me a prescription, she listened to my story about my children’s fear and did something extraordinary. She brought me two stethoscopes for my kids. She gave my children their own stethoscopes so they could be PART of Marco’s care, so they could feel like they were helping. At home my kids get to listen to Marco’s heartbeat, feel like little doctors helping their best friend. What could have been trauma became empowerment. And for me? Dr. Hutt let me fall apart. I vented. I cried. She even got teary eyed as I asked the same questions five different ways because my brain was fried. She never once made me feel rushed or stupid. She was a veterinarian, yes, but also a therapist, a counselor, a fellow human being who understood that losing a pet, or facing the possibility, is real grief. I watched the other doctors interact with families in the waiting room. Every single one greeted people with warmth. I saw tissues offered, hands on shoulders. A staff that understands they’re treating families in crisis. VMCLI is where we’ll go, always. Because medicine is important, yes, but compassion? Empathy? Treating people like human beings when they’re at their most vulnerable? That’s everything. To Dr. Wilson, Dr. Handready, Dr. Hutt, Jackie, Christine, and every single person at VMCLI: Thank you for saving our boy. Thank you for saving us a little bit too. Thank you for those stethoscopes that now sit on my kids’ nightstand like treasures. Marco is resting beside me as I write this, and I’m crying again, but this time, it’s tears of gratitude. Thank you, VMCLI. You’ll always have our trust and our business. Love, The Gagnon’s
• LS

  Liz Simmons

  Oct 26, 2025
  1.0
  If I could give this ER vet 0☆, I would. I brought my 9-year-old cat in for lethargy and lack of appetite after he became jaundiced. They initially treated for IMHA with a blood transfusion and fluids. He seemed to improve temporarily, but an utrasound showed a mass in his common bile duct and they said he would need surgery to have it removed. We scheduled the surgery for the next day, but they decided not to move forward with the surgery when he showed further improvements. They sent our cat home with antibiotics and painkillers for one week. Our cat still was lethargic and his appetite had not fully returned, but the doctors at VMCLI still continued to treat his symptoms, rather than the cause. After the antibiotics ran out, he stopped eating again and the jaundice returned several days later. They said he needed another hospitalization and surgery. Surgery showed there was never a mass and claimed the blockage was likely "sludge" rather than a mass or gall stone, as they had believed. Since there was nothing to remove, they rerouted his bile flow instead. After surgery, the doctors would call every day saying our cat would need another day or so there for recovery before coming home. They kept giving us hope, then pulling it away. 5 days after surgery, the doctors said our cat spiked a fever, was septic and would need a second surgery, but would have to act quickly. It was at this point that we decided to have our cat put down with humane euthanasia. I had to wait nearly an hour when i arrived to pick him up to bring him elsewhere so I could hold and comfort him before euthanizing. Nothing about how VMCLI acted was humane and they should be shut down. This was a horrific blow after being told so many times, by so many doctors, that he would be coming home. We had a necropsy (autopsy) done to reveal what caused our cats illness since VMCLI never gave us a diagnosis, only guesses, or "we don't know". The necropsy showed he had a bacterial infection, so surgery was never needed and worsened his infection so that his body couldn't fight it any longer. Instead of surgery, he just needed a different antibiotic, but all VMCLI cared about was billing is as much as possible for as long as they could. They didn't care about our cat's suffering, or our distress. The bills came out to $40,000+ after the 2 hospitalizations, unnecessary surgery, and many "miscellaneous" services on the bills. DO NOT BRING YOUR PET HERE. Spread the word. If they don't get patients, they'll have to shut down.

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