Midtown Veterinary Hospital

Midtown Veterinary Hospital
Midtown Veterinary Hospital (585) 210-9922 85 University Avenue Rochester, NY 14605
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Consumer Feedback

(13 Reviews)
Service
5 star average for Service
Expertise
5 star average for Expertise
Recommended
5 star average for Recommended
Value
4 star average for Value
Environment
4.5 star average for Environment
Staff
5 star average for Staff
Do NOT go to this veterinary practice if you want your pets to be treated well!! Dr. Ami Maloco is an awful abusive veterinarian, to pets and and their owners alike!!! And her husband is equally rude, abusive and coercive – they are both VERY rude, unprofessional, outright mean people – who don’t even deserve the word professional, after their names! They are supposed to be caring professionals that you entrust your animals and are anything but that! They are money hungry and are ONLY in it for the money and it shows. Compassion, professionalism, ethics and treating people and pets the right way is not in their language at all! The worst thing Dr. Zimber - who is AMAZING, could have done was to sell his beautiful wonderful, caring compassionate clinic (a clinic that he started and, up until 3 years ago was under HIS ownership) to this absolute monster that is “Dr.” Ami Maloco and her just as monstrous husband Raul!! My cat and I are both STILL traumatized and shaking after a HORRIFIC experience a few days ago at the hands and abuse and total harassment in many forms by Dr. Ami Maloco - she doesn’t even deserve the Dr. before her name! DO NOT TAKE YOUR PETS HERE!!! She has NO INTEREST In helping your pets - she ONLY cares about the money and how high she can get your bill! Instead of taking care if your pet, she will manhandle them & be VERY clear that your pets & you are an annoyance and Inconvenience to her! She & her husband are ONLY concerned about money - not you, or your pet!!

I was charged $75 - over the phone - JUST to secure the appointment - HOURS before I even walked in the door!! Yet I still only asked for the bare minimum for my sick cat to be seen and treated (for both of us to be seen as patients - paying HER to help us!!) What I received - from start to finish was an abusive nightmare!!!

Dr. Ami Maloco stayed in the exam room with us for less than 2 minutes. She was VERY clearly annoyed that my cat defecated on the exam table besides he was so nervous…until I suggested that maybe she could use those as stool samples (for which she ended up still wanting to CHARGE ME FOR!) but in the moment when she saw that he had defecated on her exam table she was so clearly mad, as a VET that an animal would do THAT, and I had to be the one to politely suggest that perhaps she could use the stool sample as part of the exam, something she hadn’t even thought about because she was so clearly and visibly annoyed that he had done it! What vet is in the business that isn’t used to seeing animals defecate, especially animals who are already under stress to begin with because they are at the vets office in the first place! She made it very clear that it inconvenienced HER! She scoffed as she grabbed the spray bottle and sprayed it all over the table to clean it up, all while my cat was still ON the table and was terrified to even be there, much less see a spray bottle coming at him!! When she sprayed the bottle multiple times he jumped just hearing the sound and her clear lack of disregard that it even mattered that she was spraying it at him, and was clearly more concerned that it smelled and made a mess on the table!! The whole time my cat just cowered in the corner of the table as I tried to comfort him.

I then watched Dr. Ami Maloco aggressively pick up my cat and take him away, out of the exam room without any explanation. After over a half hour of hearing my cat cry while he was in there with her, I went to the treatment room to see her throwing my cat around in the treatment room (the room that they usually take your pet to do tests and work ups after they take them from the exam room.) Thank goodness I followed my instinct (based on her treatment to my cat and I during the less than 2 minutes that she spent with us in the exam room and not listening to ANYTHING that I said, it was never even explained to my why she was taking him away, and out of the exam room, or what she was going to do, or doing to him in the treatment room because she literally never asked me questions to find out what was going on with him, or ever cared or wanted to know…she made that VERY clear!!) Thank goodness for all of these reasons that because of my instinct I found the treatment room to look through the window of - which I only found by following the sounds of my cat’s cries for help (not a normal cat cry of being in a strange place, a “it hurts and it shouldn’t” cat cry! Sure enough, when I looked through that window I saw her VERY annoyed body language and movements through her abusive treatment to my cat (I don’t know how she could have been annoyed with him, he is a very docile cat who was crying out of fear and pain and not acting aggressive to her at all – as she was so clearly treating him aggressively.) When she noticed me standing at the door, looking in through the window watching her, she threw my cat down onto the table & then threw her hands up in the air and walked away, leaving by my cat shaking and crying on the table…all because she was apparently so disgusted and enraged that a pet owner would want to check up on their animal that they love!!

When Dr. Ami Maloco FINALLY came back into the room (after I had been listening to my cat crying for over 30 minutes at her hands in the treatment room) she was aggressive towards me, annoyed, & offered no help! She got in my face more than once, then would turn around and look at the computer – which had the price of my already very expensive visit ($400) already listed on the computer screen, as she clicked through and added more and more things to the bill, increasing the price more and more! All she did was repeat over and over and over and over again that my cat needed his booster vaccines NOW (when he was really there for very serious medical issues, that had nothing to do with the boosters! I’m all about vaccines and boosters but I was there for very serious medical concerns for my cat that had nothing to do with the boosters - and she had already found a way to suck $400 dollars out of me without telling me in less than a half hour - 98% of that time by doing things to my cat that I didn’t approve, and while my cat wasn’t with me to incur such a cost. I’m NOT ok with talking about vaccine boosters when I just want answers for why my cat is severely ill, that have nothing to do with needing just a booster vaccine that was only a month past due!!!) When I told her that we could talk about doing the Rabies booster in the near future at a follow up visit, (my cat is a purely indoor cat and never, ever goes outside, and therefore is not at risk for rabies as other cats who are outdoors are, and wasn’t the reason that I was there) and just wanted to focus on getting my cat healthy for other reasons that he was sick, that had nothing to do with a vaccine booster. The entire time she was back in the exam room (with my cat still in the treatment room) she talked about the rabies booster the entire time, she never ONCE gave me any sort of plan about a treatment plan for my cat, and the reasons that I had brought him there to begin with – even more importantly, she never once gave me any answers about if my concerns about why I brought my cat there to begin with, for some of the things that he was experiencing were true, or if her examination showed what could be going on with him medically for him to be having those symptoms. When I explained that my bill was already very high, and we could talk about the rabies booster that he needed after we talked about what might be wrong with him based on the symptoms that he was having, which was my main concern – and not wanting to rack up an even higher bill…only wanting to pay for whatever I needed to make my cat feel better, she became VISIBLY enraged, threw his chart down, slammed the computer mouse on the desk, and told me I was putting her staff at risk because he was a month past his rabies booster! When I tried to explain, to no avail (because she kept yelling over me) that my bill was over $400 already and wanted to just focus on getting my cat better for right now, and didn’t appreciate her pressuring me into the vaccine, instead of what the plan was to help him - she threw open the exam room door and said “I don’t know how I can help you then, and this is MY PRACTICE, you won’t be able to talk to him, I OWN this place!!’ and with that slammed the door shut and yelled so loud (that I could hear her through the shut exam door) to her staff for someone else to help me, she didn’t want to!! She never ended the visit with me –never said good-bye, never gave me ANY kind of treatment plan, never told me what she her findings were by having my cat in the treatment room for a half hour, never told me when to expect the blood work results back that she had just taken (over $200 JUST for the blood work by the way – it NEVER cost that much when Dr. Zimber owned the practice,) never left me with even fake cordial good-bye, NOTHING - the way that she ended the visit was by slamming the exam room door shut – slamming it so hard that it made the walls shake, and I can only imagine how it made the animals in the waiting room, other exam rooms, and in the treatment room feel – it made me jump and had to have made them jump and be even more scared than they already were – especially knowing that this monster was coming at them to treat them! I never saw her again except to see her huff past the door, angrily muttering to herself on her way to the next animal! The entire experience made me cry at the end of it all after Dr. Ami Maloco slammed the door and left me in the room on my own to gather my things on my own, and see myself out after being screamed at, yelled at, having a vet in my face. I and my cat are still VERY traumatized from the entire thing,

The only thing I know that that Dr. Ami Maloco’s did to my cat was too abuse to him, because I saw it! Thank GOODNESS I went to the treatment room window to watch her - my instincts told me something and I followed it to witness exactly how she treats animals which is through abuse, and follow up that abuse to abuse the animal owners - alllll because she is money hungry and doesn’t care about treating them - she and her husband just want the money, plain and simple – they could care LESS about the animals, or their owners – they have made that VERY clear – and not just to me but to the many other negative google reviews that they have since they have taken over! I don’t know HOW she got her license to practice as a vet because she isn’t one – she’s an animal abuser, and people abuser, and her husband Ruel talks down to women and abuses anyone that he sees is a threat to his bank account!

Dr. Ami Maloco’s husband, Ruel is the Co-VP of the Clinic and “office manager” now (conflict of interest much?!?) Ruel is the “manager” who you will see on here that responds to some, (not all) of the negative google reviews about them and this practice under their new management (and there are a TON of negative reviews since they have taken over…which was never the case when Dr. Zimber owned the place – Dr. Zimber only had positive reviews when he owned the practice because he is what a Vet SHOULD be!) Ruel will respond to some of the negative google reviews and ask folks to call him to resolve their issues for the many negative reviews that have been left for this practice in the last 3 years under his / their new management. Today after the technician called me with the blood results that were taken (all I was told was that the “blood work seemed to look good” – nothing else, and still no treatment plan for why my cat is sick, or what to do to fix it!) I asked her if she could put in a message for Ruel to call me so that I could express my concerns about the visit with Dr. Ami Maloco the treatment that my cat and I both experienced last week during our visit. The tech was wonderful, and was who I worked with that day of the visit, at which time she was also wonderful – she actually told me on the phone today “I really felt for you during that visit last week, you and your cat shouldn’t have been treated the way that you both were treated by the Dr.” She was, and has been the only comforting factor of this entire nightmare of an experience.

Well, Ruel the monster did just call me back this afternoon – luckily, because of the past treatment of them I had an instinct to I recorded the entire conversation, on what I thought at the time might be an off chance that he was abusive also! I was very polite the entire conversation, and when re-explaining some of the mistreatment during my visit last week did get a bit worked up, because I’m still recovering from it all (and explained that.) but the entire conversation I was polite and told Ruel what happened very professionally. Ruel did not return that courtesy to me. When I picked up the phone barely introduced himself and to asked “what is going on” (this is literally what he opened the conversation with) after reiterating everything that I have put here, he BLAMED ME – told me that my questions to Dr. Ami Maloco were NOT valid (literally, the words out of his mouth,) asked me more than once “what I wanted him to do” and when I said that I simply wanted an apology and explanation for why I was treated that way, and how I could go forward trusting that it wouldn’t happen again – and that a genuine apology would help me being able to trust that - he told me, You’re being TOTALLY unreasonable to even ask for an apology, we don’t owe you ANYTHING!” I then said that I thought it was the least that he could do was just apologize, he told me that I or my cats weren’t welcome as patients there any longer. When I explained that I have been a client there for over 8 years, and I couldn’t believe he was talking to me, a client and a human being this way he said “well, there’s new management now and we’ve changed a lot of things for the better, so THIS is how I get to talk to you!” When I said I wanted all 8 years of records for all of my cats he said he “ I will only give you what I can find.” When I told him I didn’t trust that he would send me all of the records for all of the years that I have been there with multiple cats, and that I would need the records for all of my cats – all 8 years’ worth for every one of them so that I could properly get them to a new vet, he said “that’s not my problem.” He then said, “everything about your visit here last week was explained to me after you left, and I have determined,” (keep in mind that Ruel was never in the room for any of the visit,) “that my WIFE, did NOT DO anything WRONG to you!” - he yelled that into the phone! When I didn’t respond to that, he then again angrily asked me “What were you looking for in having me call you?” To which I said “at the very least just an apology, it would have been nice if your wife had called the day that all of this happened and apologized and that would have solved all of this.” To which he VERY condescendingly said “Yeahhhh you are NOT going to get an apology from either one of us, this is our business now and we can do what we want with it and treat people how we want!” At that point I was distraught that he was saying any of these awful things to me with such venom and anger in his voice, and responded, “well, it seems that the way you treat people and animals is through abuse and that, if I had said even one of the many abusive things that you and your wife have said to me, to any of the clients that I work with I would be fired on the spot.” Ruel responded by saying, “well that’s the beauty of owning your own business, maybe you should try that because,” (and at this point he uttered an evil laugh) “when you own your own business you can talk to people any way that you want to, just like I can I can to YOU!” When I said that he was being very mean he said “Well, I let you talk for 2 or 3 minutes, now it’s your turn to hear me talk” When I explained that he was the one that called me (yes at my request) but he opened the conversation with “what is going on” I told him what had happened, and there was so much that did happen during that visit that it, understandably took me that long to tell him all of my concerns, if nothing had happened I wouldn’t have even asked him to call me, or had to take that long to explain all of the events at mistreatment to myself and my cat at our visit last week. When I said that he said “your concerns are no concern of mine!” And with that – he HUNG UP THE PHONE on me! I have no way to know if he is going to send all of my records, or have a way to get in touch with anyone there now because THIS is what I was left with! How can I get my cats to a new vet when the one that I trusted, who just verbally, emotionally, and mentally abused me, multiple times just left me with nothing! And I still have a sick cat! I am appalled that an already bad situation, because of them was made 10 times worse with a phone call that was supposed to resolve the situation! An abusive person is the only kind of person that would say the kinds of things that Ruel said to me today on the phone, and that his wife said and acted towards me the last week during the appointment! I am a very reasonable person who just wanted my sick cat to get better, and took him to a place and to people who I THOUGHT I could trust – I didn’t ask or demand any kind of unreasonable things in any of this – I was polite and professional the entire time to both of them, even while being verbally abused by Ruel on the phone just now I remained shocked yes but, treated him with courtesy and respect and only got vile, awful, mean abusive comments and poison thrown back at me through his words and tone of his voice!! I’m still shaking after that conversation. To know that they would just shove off a long time client that quickly because of legitimate concerns that they had about a visit with very concrete proof of the way that they were treated and not only not apologize but just say “you’re not needed here any longer” is hurtful, disrespectful and a PERFECT example of who these awful, awful, awful people are!

The negative google (and on other sites) reviews of this business all say the same thing – that they if you go here you will experience abusive and awful treatment now because they are the new owners is getting worse and you can see the progression of this practice going from very positive reviews, under Dr. Zimber’s management and ownership – to completely negative reviews as soon as this husband and wife fraud of a couple took over. All of the negative reviews under their new management and ownership have the same themes – rude, abusive, not treated with care or respect (animal and owner alike) the staff not being organized or getting things right, and awful treatment start to finish!
I brought my cat there because he was sick and she kept pushing everything but the things that he was there for…she was pushing the things that would make her the most money!! DO NO TRSUT THEM to bring your animals to – you will regret ever being in their presence, much less under their inexperienced, unprofessional, abusive care!

and I’m even more traumatized now after the awful and abusive conversation that I just had with Ruel. I still have no answers of any kind whatsoever about what I should be doing for my cat, or what’s wrong with him! I never and will never expect any sort of “special treatment’ or ask for unreasonable things. Asking for answers about why your cat is sick is a very reasonable thing to bring your cat, or animal to a vet’s office to find out - only receiving abuse (to you and your animal) from the people that you trust to give you those answers and treatment is the part that is unreasonable –having a vaccine booster shoved down your throat as the only “treatment” plan, is unreasonable, charging over the top prices and the client and animal getting nothing in return for it, is unreasonable.

I still can’t believe that I paid $75 just to walk in the door, and then another $300 after that all to be verbally, emotionally, and mentally abused, have no answers, no treatment plan, and only left with complete and total trauma from the entire experience! $375 for abuse is what I paid, and a long time from here on out to try to recover from being bullied, abused and treated with total lack of human respect or dignity! Then to have a male talk to a woman the way that Ruel did to me (not surprising as they are from another Country that encourages misogamy and the abuse of women) – a longtime client who just paid him $375 for less than an hour, that he pocketed and benefited from and not treating me, that client with even a shred of respect, appreciation as a client, or even so much as semi apologized – is appealing and beyond hurtful!

I will be talking to my attorney about this to explore further legal action, especially if I’m not sent all of the records of my cats visits over the last 8 years, which are rightfully and legally mine and which I already paid for with each visit! I will also be telling everyone that I know NOT to go here, and posting this review on every site that I can find – along with contacting the Better Business Bureau about malpractice and their mistreatment and abuse of animals and people alike! Their website home page is sure to list the few accreditations and supposed awards that they have received but, IF those accreditations and awards are true (and at this point it’s clear that they can’t be trusted with anything) they are NOT a reflection of who these awful abusers are, and more than likely those awards and accreditations came under Dr. Zimber’s management and they are masking them as their own! Their mission statement in the “About Us” section of their website couldn’t be anything FURTHER from the truth! They are liars, abusers, bullies, and awful people who only have their self-interest and bank accounts in mind – not the compassion of people and pets in any way shape or form! Let this review be a warning to all – STAY AWAY, and if you are already a client – GET OUT AS FAST AS YOU CAN – their treatment will only get worse – much worse, and at the expense of the people that are giving them money and taking their pets to them, they can’t be trusted! Like any abuser, the more “Power” they get the more abusive they will get! The best thing that could happen is that this veterinary practice shuts down and they find another line of work that they can abuse people in!
by Katie xxx.xxx.35.143
July 26, 2021
Were the waiting room chairs comfortable while waiting for your pet?
Yes
Would you recommend this provider to others?
I Already Have
Was this provider's office clean?
Totally yes
Did this provider thoroughly explain the risks and benefits of your treatment?
Yes
Did this veterinarian prominently display their diplomas or business license?
Definitely! I saw it as soon as I walked in!
by Erin xxx.xxx.134.181
August 26, 2017
Best around !!!
by Daliz xxx.xxx.186.152
March 27, 2017
I have used this vet for all of my animals and have always received good care and treatment for them. Recently my Shiba Inu contracted vestibular disease suddenly. I thought he was having a stroke. The doctor and staff were very helpful and provided me with information and the correct medicine for him. He has almost completely recovered, He still has some balance issues once in awhile but for a 14 year old he is doing quite well.
by Foxyma xxx.xxx.153.130
January 19, 2017
Since I moved to Rochester in 2010, I have been to 3 other vets before I was recommended to Midtown and I have at last found a wonderful vet to bring my pets to. Good and quick service, very knowledgeable about all types of animals,and very friendly atmosphere. Best prices for everything and never trys to "sell me more " than necessary. explains everything clearly and answers any questions. I recommend Dr. Zimber and his staff to anyone who is looking for good, quality healthcare for their pets.
by Marilyn xxx.xxx.152.233
August 24, 2015
Great service, wonderful staff and not too expensive.
by The Mom xxx.xxx.42.152
January 06, 2015
Would you recommend this provider to others?
I Already Have
Were the waiting room chairs comfortable while waiting for your pet?
They were average
Were handicap accommodations well done?
Mostly
Are you confident that this provider will continue working with you until a solution is reached?
Yes
Does this veterinarian offer flexible appointment times?
Yes
by Anonymous xxx.xxx.17.194
October 06, 2014
Great first experience, we are going back very soon to finish Milo's vaccinations. The doctor and staff were fantastic!
by Milo xxx.xxx.157.111
September 25, 2014
best place i ever took my dog to.they treated him from the day he was born til the day i had to hv him put down.very caring an understanding staff an doctor.
by john crandall xxx.xxx.161.233
September 02, 2014
Were the waiting room chairs comfortable while waiting for your pet?
Yes
Would you recommend this provider to others?
I Already Have
Does this provider answer the phone in a reasonable time when you call?
Definitely
Were you able to get answers to simple questions from this veterinarian without scheduling an appointment?
Absolutely! I'm always able to get my questions answered over the phone right away!
Was this veterinarian's office easy to locate?
Absolutely! It couldn't have been easier!
by Anonymous xxx.xxx.158.223
May 29, 2014
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