Vet you love, Berkeley (or close by) - newly adopted cat + kitten
Hi, we’ve just adopted a young mother cat and her kitten, and are looking for a great vet we can trust who is hopefully near us, in Berkeley. Caring, thorough, careful, communicative - all the great qualities! Years ago when we had cats we went to Codornices, but we’ve now seen some less than stellar reviews. Do you go to Codornices and love them? Or, do you have another vet and clinic you highly recommend? Thanks so much
Feb 10, 2022
Parent Replies
During COVID we started going to El Cerrito Veterinary Care with our dogs, and we recommend them.
We originally started going to them because our vet costs were getting so high at Berkeley Dog and Cat, and we can get the same care at El Cerrito Veterinary Care for less.
But we will continue going with both of our dogs because we get excellent service there. They can often see us within a day or two if an issue comes up - and they’ve always been on time. They’ve been allowing people to come inside with their pets for all but the very worst months of the pandemic. We get long appointments with the vets and have plenty of time to ask questions. This has allowed us to choose less aggressive (and less costly) treatment because we have time to really review the risks and benefits. At our previous vet we were presented options (some very expensive), but without time to discuss it was hard to decide what was the best course of action.
We live in Berkeley and find that it’s faster to get there than Berkeley Dog and Cat. We have taken the bus (72), biked (on the Greenway), and driven there and all are easy. They don’t have parking, but it’s very easy to park on San Pablo there - much easier than parking in Berkeley.
We have had a wonderful experience with Dr. Gurley at Codornices. We switched there after a really bad experience with Dr. Kriensky at ECVC. We really liked Dr. Buttar but the episode with Dr. Kriensky was traumatizing for us and our pet. We also felt ECVC had become really pushy with sales and marketing.
I am partial to the Cheshire Cat clinic. They are located on Broadway next to PetVet. If you google "Cheshire Cat Clinic" in Oakland you will find all of their information. I have been taking my cats there for years and love it.
We go to Dr Mattu at University Vet on University. I can’t recommend any of the other vets there except Dr Sozanski. University vet is a tad pricey but we would follow Dr Mattu anywhere. He founded the practice many years ago and has years of experience. We’ve been sending our pets to him for 15+ years. He is gentle and very matter of fact. He saved two of our dogs lives by diagnosing the problem quickly and correctly so we could get immediate intervention and treatment.
Love love Campus Vet Clinic on MLK. They've always been so good with our cat, and we had to do some major oral surgery when we first adopted her. Also, it's super easy to order and refill pet prescriptions with them!
Kensington Vet at Colusa circle- they are a small, independent vet hospital and the doctors are fantastic.