Appointments and Contacting CityPets
Your call to CityPets at 212 581 PETS (212 581-7387) will be answered during the day by one of our CityPets employees. They can answer your questions, provide you with information about your pet's condition or schedule an appointment. If your call requires a doctor's attention, but it is not of an urgent nature, one of the veterinarians will call you back later on the same day. If you have special contact needs, such as timing about where you might be contacted, please tell us and we will try to accommodate you. If you have an emergency, please make that clear and the office will contact one of the veterinarians immediately while they are on the road doing house calls.
Calls after hours are taken by the CityPets answering service. A doctor will be paged for an emergency involving one of our patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
After Hours Emergencies
When you call us after hours, you will hear a voice mail message that explains what to do.
If your pet is sick, or you believe that you have a medical emergency, press '0' and an operator will come on the line. Give your name, telephone number and a brief description of the medical problem to the operator and the service will promptly page the on call doctor. We ask you to disable a call blocker or screening service by dialing *87 at this time.
If you have not heard back from us in reasonable amount of time, please call the service back again and tell the operator that this is your second call. Our system requires radio transmission of the signal to a pager and on rare occasions a message is lost. Once the operator knows that this is a second call, they will utilize alternative ways to reach the doctor on call. We return every emergency page or call and do so as promptly as we possibly can.
Non-Client After Hours Emergency Calls
We regret that emergency calls after hours are taken only from existing clients; non-clients should place after-hours emergency calls to their regular veterinarians or take your pet to the Animal Medial Center (AMC) Emergency Room./ The address of the AMC is 510 East 62nd Street, between York Avenue and the East River. Their telephone number is 212 838-8100. The AMC is open with veterinarians on duty 24 hours a day.
After Hours General Calls
If your after hours call is not about a sick pet or you do not need an immediate response, you may leave us a message in voice mail which we will return promptly the next business day. To leave a non urgent message, after the outgoing message, press 1 and speak immediately. It is not necessary to wait for a beep tone. Please speak slowly and clearly, state your full name and the nature of the call Please remember to state your phone number very clearly, even repeating it twice.
Cell phone return Calls
As a note, if you do receive a return call from one of the doctors after hours, please do not use Caller ID to obtain the phone number and call that number in the future. Doing so could mean that emergency calls might not get through. While on the road, or after hours, the doctors may not have their cell phones on but they always have their beepers. The only way to get a call back immediately if you have a sick pet is to call the office at 212 581 PETS.
Fees
Veterinary house calls are more expensive than taking your pet to the veterinarian's office. Your invoice is itemized explaining each of the charges so you understand and are aware of everything. All fees are payable at the time services are rendered. The fee for each call is broken down into both a house call charge and a transportation charge. The transportation charge varies depending on where you live in Manhattan. The transportation fee will be quoted to you when you call the office and give our technicians your address so that you may be fully informed before you schedule the visit.
Multiple pets
There is a separate charge for the examination of each pet. The house call charge does include the examination of one pet. If we examine additional pets while at your home there is an added charge for each one. This is at a slightly lower rate than the house call charge. For clients with multiple pets, therefore, the best value is to have them all examined at the same time, as the additional pet fee is less than the house call fee and there is only one transportation charge to your home.
Medicine and Laboratory Work
Just as in the veterinarian's office, fees for medicine, vaccinations and laboratory or other diagnostic testing are additional to the exam fee. Those charges are standard and in line with those of a Manhattan animal hospital. All fees will be itemized on your invoice.
Payment
Fees are expected to be paid at the time that the bill is received. CityPets accepts cash and personal checks We do not accept credit cards. Bills which are not paid by the end of the month in which services are rendered are subject to billing and finance charges. To avoid these, please be certain that your payment is made in a timely manner.
Hours and Appointments
CityPets sees patients during normal business hours, Monday through Friday. We do not have appointments on holidays, night and weekends. We do answer the phone 24 hours a day including holidays and weekends if you believe that you have an emergency. If you do have an emergency, we will help with your pet's visit to the emergency room at the AMC.
Because of the unique nature of our house call practice and the quality of Manhattan traffic (which is often dependant on such uncontrollable elements as weather or special events), we will give you an anticipated 2 hour window of time in which we expect to arrive at your home. Our time slots are:
- 9:00-11:00am
- 11:00 am to 1:00pm
- 1:00-3:00pm
- 3:00-5:00pm
While we make every attempt to arrive during that window, occasionally we are unable to do so. If emergencies or traffic delay us so that we will be later than expected you will be informed so that you may plan your time accordingly.
You may contact the office on the day of your appointment and the CityPets staff will call the CityPetsMobile to ascertain a more specific estimate of our arrival time to you.
If the two hour window of time is a problem for you, we are happy to give you a call one half hour before our anticipated arrival at your home. We can call your office, or cell phone with this information giving you enough time to get home and meet us there for the visit.
Our regular clients know that we are pleased to see our patients, your pets in your home, even if you are not there. In these cases, please do make arrangements for your doorman or superintendent to give us access to your apartment. When we see your pets without you, we will notify you with our findings by phone or leave you a note as to what occurred during our visit. Of course, we are always available for follow-up discussions.
—Dr. Amy Attas and the staff of City Pets