Woodminster Veterinary Hospital

I used to excitedly recommend this vet to everyone in the neighborhood as they moved in. My dog would always receive good care here at a fair price. I would always be shocked at what people would write here on Unilocal about the poor experiences.
I can no longer recommend this vet. Our most recent visit was just too much of a negative experience.
We took our dog into Woodminster for a bad bout of vomiting and diarrhea. They were very quick to immediately charge us over $ 700 for services before taking her back for tests. They kept our dog in the back room for most of the afternoon for these tests, telling us she was doing great and taking fluids in the back room.
When we arrived to get her, we did not get to meet our normal vet (Dr. Adar). Instead we received a consultation from the crazy Indian lady mentioned in other reviews. We were immediately disappointed. Her professional opinion was «I don’t know what is wrong with her, you tell me», that we received after 20 painful minutes of her speaking for 30 seconds and then fluttering somewhere else in the office for two minutes without even telling us to wait a second.
Wait — we paid $ 700+ and didn’t even get a recommendation on how to care for her after we left? Yup. The special flower of a doctor had fluttered off somewhere in the office at this point like it was a hidden camera joke of a TV show. I learned more about my dog’s condition through the internet and interpreting the results of her lab results than her professional advise of «you tell me what’s wrong with her».
I am not expecting miracles — just more professional direction, and understanding that we just paid your office a significant amount of money.
This got worse when we got our sick one in the car. She had three more bouts of diarrhea before we had made it the four miles home. So — when we called to ask how she was doing, «Fine» was clearly a mixup for «she’s in the back soiling herself as we speak». When we got her home, the amount of poop in her fur made it clear that she had a miserable afternoon doing just that. They had medicine, our permission to get her feeling better, but did not treat her or get her comfortable.
She was asked to come back for a follow up appointment, which they had the audacity to charge us for. This was the first real vet experience we had received this incident with our normal vet, but it should have been at no cost — as all of our follow up visits have been at no cost. We complained about the poor experience the day before but we still had to shell out more $$.
In summary — this is a value vet. You won’t get overcharged for service, but you may not get the service you want. I am only rating this two stars because of Dr. Adar, but you’d better go to another establishment if you don’t get her.
We’re transferring our records to a facility where we can get consistent care for our dog, and professional medical advice. We are disappointed as we had such hope for this place, and decent/​fair experiences up until now.

This is a great value vet and they are open 7 days a week! Thank you especially to the vet techs Alyson and Ada for loving on our Luna!

Idk what to say, some reason I like this place… I drive from San Pablo to take my dog here. … Rates are pretty, great hours 7 days a week, easy to get appointments.

Ear Cropping: Took my Pitbull in for ear cropping he was 5 months old. The tips came out perfect and the ears look so cool! Looks like they had some trouble cutting near the cartilage in the back of the ears, but I heard this is normal when the dogs get too old, better to do them early. So the back of one of the ears is less perfect than the other one, looks like a chunk missing about the size of a macaroni noodle from the edge and the other ear has a little extra bump the size of a bb on the edge, no big deal. However 2 weeks have just passed and the ears are almost fully healed and i am very happy with the final outcome. The missing chunk just ads some character in my opinion. Looks like he was in a fight. But who knows as things heal the ears keep looking better and better. At first sight they looked totally un even, but as time passed they got more even and more even. They might just need more time to heal and work themselves out. The girl that works the front desk is really cute.

I got my dogs ear clipped here and they did not do a good job. The ears do not stand like they should and is nothing compared to the picture they showed me with options. I have a mastiff/​bully with crooked ears that don’t stand. Now I would have to pay another $ 500 plus to have them redone and go through the entire process again. DO NOT GO TO THIS DR FOR EAR CROPPING!!!

My 6 year old pom-​chi has been going there for about 7 months now. The entire staff is welcoming, well informed and I have every confidence in the medical care she is getting there. I had to bring her in for an emergency visit recently and was able to get in that same day with a procedure conducted the following day. Further, when she had an allergic reaction to her rabies shot at 6:00 p.m. one evening, I was able to take her right in for treatment. My old vet clinic would have sent me to the animal emergency hospital at that time of day, which would have cost a fortune. The care here is wonderful and the prices are quite reasonable. As mentioned above, you can’t beat their hours either.

I would recommend Dr. Gadde and his staff without hesitation. My 3 golden received a thorough teeth cleaning and one was spayed. One of the girls was at a bit higher risk than the others but I was provided with valuable information and alternatives. Everything went super and tails were wagging at pick up. The front office staff is so friendly and attentive. Over all great.

This review is an update to my last update of 1÷10÷15. We rec’d a msg thru Unilocal,that customer service wanted to get in touch with us concerning what went wrong with our one and only visit. We did reply that we would be glad to discuss the issues with them and give them more feedback. Within a day the Dr that was on duty the day we had our visit called us and so did the customer service Dept. everyone we spoke to seemed very sincere about trying to improve customer service and also learn from the mistakes that were made. They insisted on giving us a complete refund on all the misc charges, which we definitely appreciated. We got the check in one day’s time, and if the occasion arises again, we will certainly give them another chance and recommend them to others as well.
Cheryl & Mark Williams

Up until January 15^th, this place would have rated 5 stars from me. In the past, they have taken great care of my cats, and were sympathetic and helpful when I had to bring in my cat Whiskers for cremation, after a horrible illness. (They were able to get him over two months of a happy healthy life again, before his rapid decline)…
Anyway, after the fiasco with my cat Crunch this month, I don’t think I’ll be stepping foot inside of Woodminster ever again.
Crunch was an old (four months shy of his 16^th birthday), healthy cat. He lost some weight over the years, but had no need for medications, other than his annual shots and a vitamin b-​12 shot. Up until two days before he died, he was still eating, playing, and performing his ‘dog tricks’. When he didn’t eat one day, I took him to the vet the next day.
Woodminster is expensive, but that is not my complaint; the fact that I spent $ 175.00 for a series of injections — without being told that those injections would only last for 24 hours — were a complete waste. If the injections had been explained to me in a thorough manner, I would have opted to have my buddy euthanized, holding him in my arms — instead of him dying an agonizing death the next evening (not to mention the trauma placed on my remaining three cats).
As upset as I was, I knew that I had to wait a few days before calling them, so I wouldn’t completely fall apart and go ape shit on them. The woman I spoke to was very sympathetic, but no offer of a refund, partial refund, a free service, etc was mentioned — not that I wanted or asked for one. I thought that I’d get a call back at least, from someone higher up the food chain… nothing.
Hey — they got my money, so they must figure that there wasn’t any need to say or do anything else.
I plan on taking my buddy Crunch to the East Bay SPCA for cremation, instead of going to Woodminster. Hell — their price jumped from around $ 250 to $ 400 for cremation anyway.
Addendum 2÷19÷16:
I rec’d a surprise call over a week ago, from the owner with an apology of what happened. I told her more or less what I wrote in this review. She stated that they would be refunding the money I spent on Crunch, and I did in fact receive the check in yesterday’s mail.
Even though $ 175 won’t take away the painful way in which Crunch died, Woodminster at least got some appreciation from me with the call, and one star back to my rate here on Unilocal.I’m ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ as to whether I’ll be going back though.

The staff here is incredibly friendly and they are not over priced. Me and my husband rescued our cat oso when he was just a kitten off street. Woodminster has been his vet provider since. They have neutered him and gave him shots. I like that its easy to get a appointment. The vet techs are great especially janelle or janine i cant remember her name anywho there sweet and my cat loves them which is a plus cuz he can sometimes be an ass towards other people my mom just recently got a kitten and im sending her to woodminster i moved to fremont but will gladly make the drive to oakland for when oso needs his yearly shots and checkup!

Heres is a letter I sent to the management and their reply:
On my last visit Roma’s apt was at 9am After waiting 15 minutes, I was told the Dr was running late and would be there soon. At 9:40 I told the receptionist to reschedule because I was tired of waiting. She sad the Dr had just arrived. I still waited another 10 minutes. The dr spent maybe 5 minutes for the apt and recommended some additional medications for Roma. I also asked if Tigers records could be emailed to the new insurance policy I had signed up for
When I checked out I gave the receptionist the email address to send Tiger’s records to. After I checked out, and paid for the appointment and medications, your receptionist began counting the pills and cutting them. Every time time the phone rang she stopped to take care of what ever the person calling needed first. She also stopped counting the pills for Roma when someone was there to drop of their dog, and assisted 2 others. It seams that everything and anything takes priority over something that has been sitting and waiting for over an hour. After waiting 50 minutes to see the Dr and another 25 minutes after for the receptionist to count some pills I had enough and told her I will just pick them up later and left.
I called later on that day to complain and was told you would refund the office visit charge and send Roma’s Pills. Of course I never received Roma’s medication, and there has never been a credit for the office visit to my credit card. Tigers records were never sent to Figo Pet Insurance either
I would like to request a refund for those two medications I never received for Roma, along with the refund for the office visit as promised.
I would also like to to refund the $ 199 that I had paid in advance for Tiger shots and whatever else that included.
Here their response:
I apologize for your long wait time during your last visit with us. We have spoken to the reception staff about client wait time and the importance of prioritizing certain cases. We will definitely talk to the manager about your concerns and your requested refunds.
In regards to Roma’s medications: Her medications were mailed to the address in the file. The package was later returned back to us with an ‘incomplete address’ mark on the envelope. We left a few messages between 9÷10−9÷14 to inform you that her medications were returned and would like to double check that the address in your file is the correct one before we mail it out again. I noticed in this email you have an apartment number in the address, but it wasn’t listed in your file. If you would like, we can still mail Roma’s medications to the address in this email or we can refund you with a check, whatever is most convenient for you.
I apologize again for the inconveniences. Please feel free to call us if you have any additional concerns.
I sent them 2 more emails still requesting the refund and they have not responded
What bothers me the most is after asking for a refund for the medications from 2 months ago that were never delivered– they offer to offer to send them again with out knowing anything about Roma’s current condition. They did not ask one question at all about Roma. It seams to me this vet is more interested in not giving me a refund for the medicaions my dog must have not needed to begin with, They care more getting as much money they can from pet owners than providing good care for the family pet. What kind of vet would want to send medications with out asking any questions about a dog they have not seen in two months for
Looks like i am going to have to file a complaint with the California Veterinary Medical board and file a small claims lawsuit to get the $$ back for services they admit were not provided

I would not recommend! The manage was going to send me the call log ! Never revived.

I love everything about this vet. Everyone is so nice and they all genuinely care about animals. Check-​in and check-​out is SUPER easy and you get an estimate BEFORE procedures are done. They are professional and treat my pets with love and respect. They also have two free parking spaces which is super helpful. Highly recommend!

I had a terrible experience at Woodminster when I went there for my dog’s slight limp. Dr. Shanima never took even a minute to meet my dog or even watch him walk before she took hold of him and manipulated his leg. She made no effort to talk to him or pet him at all and he was obviously nervous. She then convinced me that my dog needed blood work, to be done in the back area where I was not allowed. When they brought him back to me they told me that they’d had to sedate him, he had soiled himself and was shaking like a leaf. He’s never been the same since. When he goes to any vet he’s so terrified, it’s as if he’s about to be murdered. I’ll never go back there.

Vets seem to be very caring, got a call to check up on my dog on how he was doing after taking him in because he wasn’t feeling so well.

We took our newest family member (a chihuahua rescue) here today for his first check-​up and shots, and to make an appointment to get him fixed.
We could not possibly have been more impressed with the people here…
From Janice at the front desk, to vet tech Sharifa, to the wonderful Dr. Shanima, everyone was so very kind, helpful and knowledgeable!
They explained everything in great detail, had patience for questions, understood when we were overprotective, and went above and beyond to take good care of us.
We are grateful to have found this amazing office, and our new veterinary home :-)

Love these guys! Reasonably priced. I was friendly. And they always called to check and see how my puppies are doing after we have had service with them! Thanks so much all!!!

We took our cat for a check up and there was this Indian lady doctor she look like she hates animals, she look at my cat with a face of disgustingness she had a bad actitude, I don’t think that’s professional because someone that loves animals don’t have to act that way!

Our dog Bebe goes there for her checkups and shots as it is very convenient for us to take her there

I’ve been taking my five cats to Woodminster Veterinary Hospital since 2011, and have been very happy with the care they have received.
I have generally been seen by Dr. Shanima Salwan. She examines the animal and provides a differential diagnosis, and offers several options for courses of treatment. She takes time to answer questions. The costs are always itemized in advance, and treatment always comes in at or below the estimate. Several of my cats have had dental surgery at Woodminster, and all have done very well.
One of my cats tore his ear (although he is an indoor animal) and Dr. Salwan ‘sewed it up’ neatly: within a month, there was not even a scar.
I particularly appreciate the care taken when blood draws were necessary. None of the animals showed signs of stress afterward.
The vet techs are very personable, and seem to enjoy the animals. All of the owners I’ve spoken with in the lobby seem confident that their pets are receiving excellent care.
The facility is neat, clean, well-​lit and cheerful.
I have been a pet owner for thirty years and have seen my share of veterinarians (US and abroad): in my experience, Woodminster is among the very best for consistently good care.