South Bay Animal Hospital & Emergency - San Jose, California

Linda J

I came here on July 6 for a first time visit to get paperwork signed for my apartment with my service animal.

It was a last minute booking and they told me to arrive within 15 minutes and I arrived on time. I arrived with my 8 year old and my dog.

The vet kept us waiting for an hour and a half
Which should have been my first RED FLAG

But I waited anyway

When the tech entered the room my dog was calm though she was a bit skittish since she just recently got her shots updates

But when the vet entered the room, for some reason my dog wouldn’t stop barking
She must have sensed his energy , I’m not sure ..
He immediately told us that he wouldn’t sign our paperwork because she was barking at him .
Which is fine , I understand he didn’t feel comfortable doing so
But doing that after keeping us waiting for nearly 2 HOURS is ridiculous to me and super inconsiderate and unprofessional.

I went to a different location to see a vet right after and he was so AMAZING!
Even though my dog was still skittish , the vet was helpful, patient, kind , gave me tips to improve her behavior and came in 10 mins after I signed my paperwork.

If you give your business to anyone - don’t let it be this place
They will steal your precious time and you may not leave a happy customer.

Jessika Maldonado

Its taken me almost 4 months to write this review and I should have done it sooner. I called in late one evening because our senior dog had a sudden seizure, causing her to become disoriented and blind.. my husband and I brought her in, knowing that we would not be bringing her home. The DR. onsite walked us through our options and ultimately we knew we had to let her go. Everyone from the receptionist to the nurses we sensitive to the situation. They set us up in a private room to be with our girl in her final moments - to make her as comfortable as possible. I will never forget the kindness we were shown during such a traumatic time. The staff helped us arrange to have her cremated. Her ashes are home with us.. we miss her so much.. but we are forever grateful to South Bay Animal Hospital for helping us along the way. Thank you - The Harvilles

Pam Kulesa

Dr Atwal is an excellent vet but it all ends there. I saw him many times in his former location. The office people here at new place are money ghouls and also my cat went in easy to take to the vet and came out totally changed. I complained and wanted to know what happened! They told me I could never come back. The money scamming must be the new way some corporate style vets grift their money. They would do better if they were like The doctor’s previous practice. There are still good vets out there!

Amber Gillespie

It's been 3 years and I still will never forgive myself nor this clinic. My DIABETIC cat was admitted here for not eating and being lethargic. I was told that I would get a call in a few hours after the doctor would see him and give me an update. 6 hours go back and I call them and the receptionist has said he hasnt been seen yet and she will call back later. Its like 10 pm at this point. I call in a few hours and same thing. Next day rolls around and I call back and they say that they cant get him to eat and I ask if I can bring his canned cat food and they said yes and if I could get him to eat, I can take him home. I rush there with his food, they allow me to feed him. I havent seen the vet. Im about ready to put him in his carrier to take him home when the tech said hes staying another night. I argued that that wasnt the deal and that I wanted to talk to the vet. She said hes busy and I demanded to see him and she was firm that my cat had to stay and I couldnt talk to the vet. I should have called the cops at this point. Im pissed I didnt. So again, I dont hear anything til the next day. Cant even remember what they did but they didnt do much at all. I picked him up, paid for his visit, and they said they would email me his after care paperwork. What? Why wouldnt it be ready? That day I had a check up with his normal vet( they were closed on the day I took him to the emergency vet) and they found bloody polyps in his gums, his blood sugar was so messed up, he was so weak, and they found he was developing pancreatitis. I cried so hard, I failed my senior boy Titus. Like how does a vet office ignore a sick cat and just reap in the money He didnt get bloodwork done, didnt get IV fluids, didnt get fed. Wtf. I swear if I had money Id sue this place til its no longer in service and all the vets have their licenses terminated. I had to put him down that day. He deserved so much better. I hate you all til this day.

hema nadkarni

Please do not take your pet here. My beautiful 7 month old puppy died in their care. The first day we took her there because she was throwing up, they told us that they did not find any obstruction in her x-rays and that she is ok. We took her back to the vet the next day because her symptoms did not improve, and that’s when they finally realized that there must be an obstruction in her stomach. During this second visit, they performed a laparoscopic surgery to remove the obstruction, but she died because they gave her the wrong amount of anesthesia during the surgery. This was supposed to be a safe surgery, but due to their incompetence our puppy died. They deserve a rating of 0. Please do not take your dog to this place.

andrew hsu

I want to give this place five stars because I hate to be the person the complains about price. That being my only issue, this place was the only place open on new years eve 12.31.21 that had any availability to see my cat.

Cat injured his leg and it was getting worse to a point where he couldn't even rest and was acting scary. Wouldn't put any weight on it at all and I thought it was broken. I called all the sage hospitals from the peninsula to San Jose, all the medvets, archvet, any animal hospital I could find on Yelp or Google maps while my cat was crying for hours. Every place said they just couldn't take him, or had a 4-5 hour wait (And when I called back, they said the updated status with no more availability)

South Bay animal hospital right away said they could see my cat if I brought him. I brought my cat over right away and explained to them a bit of his symptoms. I ended up sitting in the car for over an hour trying to get approval for a loan because the diagnosis for his leg injury was over $3,000, And I don't think he would be seen without upfront payment.

Thank God it turned out not to be a broken leg or worse. My cat had gotten attacked and his leg was getting infected so they drained and cleaned the wound.

Overall, so grateful that this place was the only one that could see my cat, but I'm wondering if it's because of their prices. Not sure if that is normal, but if it is I probably will try to call all the other vets before I come back here. Reliable but expensive.

Deanna Rosa

When our three pound chihuahua mix became very ill one night after hours we called Sage and they told us that they could not see her for hours, but we could come sit in the parking lot and wait. We called South Bay Animal Hospital and they could take her right away. They did just that, and diagnosed her with a blockage. They definitely saved her life. They sent pictures and videos over night… and were so nice!! We are grateful.

Shizue Tomlinson

We met Dr. Atwal when we brought our first dog to his clinic in 1997.  He helped our second dog's knee problems so well by monitoring his condition and advising us on what to do at every step. Our third dog came down with multiple myeloma and her left eye's tear duct got clogged with calcium. It caused glaucoma, and Dr had to remove her left eye. However, she lived another 4 years and 7 months happily thanks to the chemotherapy Dr. Atwal administered.

Our fourth and fifth dogs are now 10 years old and 10 years 10 months old, and they are very healthy.  We learned so much valuable information from him and his team, and we stuck to all the regimens we established.  I also would like to mention how well the whole SBAH team works together; they treat our dogs with love every time they go in, and they follow up with us after their visits.