Animal Hospital of South Bay

Always a great experience. Very thorough. Love the availability when I need an appt. Friendly staff and always willing to make sure my kitties are well taken care of. My cats doctor is Dr. A and he is always attentive and has a great personality. Even when I need to see other doctors they are all great. All in all I absolutely love this facility. I know my cats are always getting the best vet care. I love the hours and how they are open on Saturdays. Most vets aren’t even open on Saturdays. Very clean and very beautiful inside. If your looking for great doctors and great staff this is absolutely the place to go.

Brought in our entire circus, one dog and two cats, and somehow the team handled it like seasoned professionals. No dramatic escapes, minimal side-eye from the cats, and everyone left well cared for.

Special shoutout to Vanessa and Danielle at the front desk for managing the chaos with smiles on their faces. I’m pretty sure they deserve hazard pay for coordinating my tiny zoo’s check-in. Absolute pros.

10/10 🐾

The amount of times this team has saved our furry guys is uncountable. Their appreciation of people is wonderful. And the care for your pets is always in great hands! If you want real answers and help.. look nowhere else!

Friendly staff and reasonable prices.

Animal Hospital of South Bay is the best veterinary clinics I’ve ever taken my dogs to, and trust me I have seen many of them. The service they provide from regular checkups to surgery has been superb.

was referred to Animal Hospital of South Bay a few months ago and brought my two senior male cats in for their checkups. The first thing I noticed was how adorable the office was — they had it decorated for Halloween, which made it feel so welcoming and festive.

We saw Dr. A, and he was incredibly thorough with both exams. He handled my boys so gently and confidently, which immediately put me at ease. At checkout, the staff was attentive, sweet, and made the entire experience seamless.

Because of our amazing first visit, we came back today — this time with our big girl, Aria. For her very first visit, she was way too comfortable here (photos below!). We saw Dr. Mori today, and she was just as wonderful — kind, knowledgeable, and great with Aria.

I highly recommend everyone here. We’ve had nothing but positive experiences!

I can’t say enough good things about this Hosital, When my dog got sick, they took incredible care of her from the moment we arrived.They were patient, thorough, and really took the time to explain everything to me so I felt comfortable and informed. You can tell they truly care about the animals they treat, not just medically, but emotionally too. If you’re looking for a dependable, compassionate place to take your animals, this is it.

Dr. A (Andrew Arriola) and the whole staff at Animal Hospital of South Bay is wonderful. I brought my dog, Sophie, a 7 year old maltese-shih tzu, here after leaving my previous vet, just for a routine checkup as well as to observe a cough she had developed. He diagnosed her that day with heart disease which was obviously a shock as she had been nothing but healthy according to our previous vet. He took X-rays and showed us everything and walked us through it all.

As a puppy, we were told by our previous vet that she had a heart murmur but to bring her in every 6 months for a check up so they could continue to keep an eye on it. We thought they were monitoring it but according to Dr. A, they were not. This was extremely jarring to hear but Dr. A was very reassuring that with proper medication (that we started immediately) and seeking a cardiologist, we could delay her heart failure. Throughout this whole process Dr. A understood our surprise, sadness, and frustrations and did an amazing job at educating and comforting me and my family.

After following the proper protocol and doing everything we could for Sophie to ensure she was comfortable, we unfortunately made the decision to euthanize and, when we did, Dr. A and his staff were extremely supportive. After her passing, we received a card signed by all the staff members which meant a lot. Although we lost Sophie, Dr. A was able to buy us invaluable time with her that we wouldn't have gotten had we never gone to him and stayed at our previous vet -- grateful doesn't even begin to cover it.

It is hard to overstate how compassionate, kind, and thoughtful this entire office is. Everyone from the front desk to the doctors are extremely professional and compassionate.

Poor professionalism and customer service after a puppy’s death

On August 5th, we lost our ‘healthy’ (according to the multiple vets at this hospital through regular check-ups) 6 months old puppy, Luna, during the spay surgery. Per post mortem which hospital offered to pay for, we learned that she had a congenital heart condition. This is a devastating experience to any pet parents, but the hospital’s poor professionalism and prioritization of their business interests were so outwardly at display throughout the whole experience. There were vital signs missing in the surgery records which the hospital shared is caused by a broken machine. Sure, given the heart condition, the hospital didn’t “kill” our puppy technically, but we are not returning to this place again based on how things were handled after the death.

Few examples:
- Lack of access to the vet who performed the surgery: when my husband and I arrived at the hospital, we talked to the vet (Dr. Andrew Arriola, who performed the surgery) for 5 minutes. He has always had the bad bedside manner as he is impatient in explaining things in laymen’s term. (FYI, we are not in the medical field) As distraught as we were at that time, he was certainly not the most comforting figure to be around. Those 5 minutes were ALL we got since August 5th. The vet who performed surgery, leading to our puppy’s sudden death, was only willing to chat with us for 5 minutes.
- Disarray at the front desk: when we sent Luna’s body to the necropsy facility, we specifically requested the report to be sent to us directly once available. I had to make 5 different calls between the hospital and the facility to confirm that was done. Front desk staffs are always short staffed and they do not follow-up, leading us to call them multiple times for a simple task.
- Lack of urgency: as we reviewed the surgery records, there were missing vital signs, and the doctor’s notes were illegible. We asked the front desk on August 6th to perform a medical review to understand what exactly happened during the surgery. On August 21st, we found out they never started the review process, asking us for additional 45-60 business days.
- Refusal to exchange communications over emails: the medical director, Dr Roberto J. Marchan, reached out to us few days later Luna’s death wanting to talk on the phone. Again, we are not in the medical field, and medical jargon goes over our head. So we asked him to send us his findings about missing vital signs from the surgery record and their theory on what happened to Luna so we can pre-read and digest them before getting on the phone without getting too emotional. He refused to share anything via email and kept requesting to talk over the phone. When we point blanked asked if there are any things to share with us based on his findings, he said no. That’s when we knew this hospital is just a business at the end of the day. That really hurt our feeling.
- Lack of empathy: on the day of Luna’s death, we were in one of the exam rooms holding Luna’s dead body for 7 hours. We were in shock, and grieving. It was difficult to let go and accept. During those 7 hours, nobody offered us water or came in to check in unless we went out looking for a staff.
- No flowers, no condolence cards: I know the hospitals are business at the end of the day. But we have been taking Luna to this place since she was 8 weeks old for regular check-ups and vaccinations. Even our daycare that Luna attended for THREE DAYS sent us a card filled with kind notes from all staffs that met Luna.

We have another older dog, and we are never returning to this place ever again. Puppy’s death alone was tragic, but the hospital’s treatment of the situation during such a difficult time really showed us who they are.