Bethel Veterinary Hospital

First of all the other reviews of this vet and the prices are completely True. the prices are ridiculous, and Dr. McNamara is Test happy, and the tests are always 150 to over 200 dollars easy. what a joke. i had a very expensive test done on my dog 3 years ago as a precaution, and what they failed to tell me was that i should have checked this issue yearly, but they were too concerned with sending out emails and cards to get me back there for all other little money making checks that were not nearly as important. if they had followed up with that one big test, or even told me to consider having it monitored yearly. i am sure my sweet dog would still be here… i blame myself and Bethel Veterinary Hospital for this .
The last time i had my dog there for a very expensive test i was there at 830 am, and they kept my dog till after 2pm. i went there at noon tired of waiting for them to call me and when i got there they acted very strange, asking if i was called or not. there were 3 staff members there just doing nothing but talking and it took them 20 minutes to tell me my dog wasn’t ready to leave yet, when i did finally get him home the poor thing was exhausted and worse than the day before. after 1000.00 dollars i ended up losing him. and was left with pain and heartbreak and Bethel Vetrinary Hospital was A Thousand Dollars richer!
They also have way too much staff and they do not always communicate with each other like they should, there are only two girls at the desk that are always good and know what they are doing. i will NEVER go back there!

We are new to Connecticut and we’re Disappointed about this place! Not recommended! We boarded our dog here twice, the first time when we went to pick the dog up, the bill was more then twice as much. I questioned the manager and she said the dog needed to be treated so they had to treat him (charges were never approved by me or my wife). The second time was The same thing, they tried to charge me more and more and I refused to pay the charges this time because I never authorized it. We boarded our dog in places in NJ and PA when we live there without any problems. I asked to see where they keep the dogs and they refused. At this point there is no way I would bring my dog back there.
Robert Rotondaro
Brookfield, ct

I unfortunately have to agree with the other reviewers here. I am not a big Unilocal contributor, but feel strongly enough about this that I want to warn off other pet owners.
Luckily, we have never had any issues with the health of our pets at BVH and we have been using them for a while. However, we have had repeated problems with high fees, upcharging and overcharging for pet care, as have the other reviewers. They are clearly making an effort to squeeze as much profit as possible out of their few remaining loyal customers. Well, guess what, they finally went too far with us, when a very brief boarding for 2 pets was upcharged to a $ 700 fee. Oh, and then they called afterwards to let us know there would be an additional fee.
We try to use a pet sitter whenever possible, and the state of our pets when we picked them up from boarding was not good: skittish and totally freaked out. And I will echo what has been said about the facility: it’s pretty dumpy. So while I can’t speak to what type of care the pets got (I’m sure it was adequate), it was certainly not a $ 700 deluxe pet nirvana.
Enjoy the extra $$ guys. This sucker will be signing on some backup pet sitters for the future and finding another vet.

I have to say reading these other reviews I felt compelled to write in a note just to say that not all experiences with this vet are bad. I love Bethel Vet Hospital. They have been nothing but compassionate and caring with my two dogs. I think Dr. McNamara and the vet tech both cried right along with us when we had to put our older dog with cancer gently to sleep this past spring. The office staff are wonderful and accommodating and the kennel folks are great too. And I’ve never had any issues with billing. The only reason I am giving 5 stars instead of 4 is because I do feel it is a bit expensive, but honestly I think that’s just the going rate in this area. No one gets into the Vet business to make money. If you want to do that, you go into some other field of medicine (or maybe professional sports :)).
Anyway, I think these folks do consistently great work and I have been a customer for over 10 years.

We just moved to this area. Finding a decent Vet seems to be the only difficult process invloved in this major transition.
I want to preface this review with a comment about most people and their animal kids… aka «pets». Most people consider their pets family members, animal children. It’s the people working in the medical service industry for animals and humans a like who need sensitivity training. it’s a given that pet parents often come to the table in emotional distress. Worrying about their pet’s illness, how it will effect their pet’s life and longevity, the treatment process and of course the cost of treatment is a huge factor for administration to always remember. Unfortunately, sometimes, the people working in a Vet’s office think it’s all about them and really don’t care what the pet’s needs are which are always based their owners think, feel & ask.
Among the ridiculousness of the management of this office, Terry the office manager told me the receptionist was crying based on a frustrating conversation about billing we had. That alone is either an exaggeration or baffling. If anyone should have been crying it should have been me since the receptionist repeatedly told me the procedure was billed as a package and could not be itemized or performed in the manner that served me. So, clearly the office manager created packages that are not flexible and serve to make Bethel money and not help the animals in the best way possible.
The Office manager also told me that Dr Fitch Complained about me. I have NO idea why Dr Fitch would complain about «me», i met her once, I was extremely polite, pleasant and did nothing short of tell her I liked her and was looking forward to her being our new Vet. Either Terry the office manager is lying that Dr Fitch complained about me, or Dr. Fitch is a grin f*@ker.
As for Terry, the office manager… when one person is more emotional than the other, but the «other» tells that person she doesn’t want to work with them to help them bill in a manner that will best serve to treat the beloved pet, you know that office is only doing this for the business, not the well being of the animal.
having read the reviews of this Vet’s office and seeing they killed more than one beloved pet, I still decided to try them out which is MY bad and I will indeed take heed of reviews from now on.
Also, FYI, Bethel Vet Hospital is a bit smelly and dumpy, especially for the prices they’re asking. I already had a quote from another Vet from NYC and it was almost half the price for the quote Bethel gave and immediately following that unpleasant interaction with Terry at Bethel Vet Hosp I called another Vet for the same quote and their is also HALF the price Bethel Quoted me, so… you do the math for yourself and your animal children.
Finally, I called another Vet’s office and they were empathetic, understanding of my dedication to my dogs and the Vet has a fantastic reputation. Also, they had NO problem billing me in a way that works best for us.

If you want a vet that can take your pet from healthy to dead in 24 hours, this is the place to go.
We took our perfectly healthy 4 year old dog in for routine shots and a check up, admittedly we arrived 5 minutes late, but the vet was «too busy» so he just got his shots and was sent on his way. Within ours he was in respiratory distress, then he quickly lost the use of his back legs. Off to the after hours emergency vet were he continued to deteriorate rapidly.
Less than 24 hours after his visit to Bethel Veterinary Hospital we had to have him euthanized. We called this «vet» to let them know what happened and they responded with «OK, Thanks for letting us know». That was the depth of their concern.
If you value your pet, take them somewhere more compassionate and competent.