A goose patient is brought in for some wing therapy. (
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On a rainy evening in April, Cindy and Tom Nigro pulled their brown sedan up to the front of the Animal Medical Center at 510 E. 62nd St. after a 1½-hour drive from their home in Trumbull, Conn. In the back seat, propped up on pillows and covered with a blanket, was their 3-year-old yellow Lab, Darby, who had just survived four hours of unsuccessful surgery to remove a sewing needle she had accidentally swallowed. Desperate to save their pet, the pair — who had already been to two veterinary centers in Connecticut — were bringing her in to the city’s most prestigious animal hospital.
“As soon as we pulled up, a valet jumped up and asked if we needed a gurney or any other assistance,’’ says Cindy, 43.
“When we walked in the door, one team was ready in pre-op, and the other was prepping in the operating room. At the hospital in Connecticut, it was ‘we don’t know’ and ‘we’re not sure.’ Here they were incredible, efficient, kind and confident.”
A procedure called a fluoroscopy, which not many animal hospitals in New York can perform, allowed them to see a live, moving X-ray.
“The doctor explained that without this equipment, they never could have saved Darby,” says Cindy. “When she was in recovery, they called to say she was fine and asleep, with her head in the nurse’s lap. They sent us pictures of her, and even gave us the needle to keep!’’
The entire ordeal, including the visits to the veterinary centers in Connecticut, wound up costing the Nigros nearly $5,000.
“Hey, I might not be able to send my daughter to college,’’ jokes Cindy. “But as a dog mom, you have to do the right thing.’’
Fluoroscopy is hardly the only advantage at the AMC, which has been around since 1910, and boasts some of the most state-of-the-art equipment of any animal hospital in the city.
Among the high-tech options are a 64-slice CT scan (something many human hospitals don’t yet have), an ultrasound just for abdominal scans and a gizmo that looks like a stamp machine but cuts biopsy tissue paper-thin.
There’s also a rehab department with underwater treadmills, low-level laser therapy for wound healing and acupuncture for everything from arthritis to stress reduction.
The rehab department even has its own YouTube channel so owners can watch their animals on the mend, and the walls are covered with pictures of their beloved patients.
“It’s very important to train at AMC because you see things you wouldn’t see anywhere else,” says Dr. Cindy Bressler, an NYC veterinarian.
“When I was an intern, a very large snake was brought in with pneumonia.” Bressler also recalls three duck patients — Huey, Dewey and Louie — who lived with a Labrador retriever.
One weekend afternoon, during an ill-fated brunch the owners were throwing at the animals’ apartment, a bagel fell on the floor. Both Huey and the Labrador went to grab it, and the Lab ended up biting half of Huey’s beak off.
“Huey lost a lot of blood, and we had to give him a blood transfusion,” says Bressler.
“Because we didn’t have duck blood, they brought in Louie, who donated blood for his brother. We made Huey a prosthetic beak for the part that was bitten off, and everyone was fine.”
Indeed, even leaving the ducks and dogs aside, there’s a virtual Noah’s ark of animals who are patients at the center.
“Currently, we are treating a wonderful goose named Boswell; he is a Toulouse with bone tumors,’’ says Dr. Kathy Quesenberry, the hospital’s head of avian and exotic pet service.
“We detected them with a CT scan, gave him radiation and chemo and now he’s doing OK.’’
Although the treatment cost Boswell’s owner thousands, he didn’t flinch at the bill.
“The owner got him when
he was a baby, so the goose imprinted on him, and follows him around everywhere,’’ says Quesenberry.
“People become very attached to their animals.’’
Even their rats.
“Yesterday we had a rat with a brain tumor,’’ says Quesenberry.
“We saw it on a CT, and we are able to treat it with drugs. The owner loves him. It’s different from a street rat.’’
The cost for this rat’s treatment? Between $300 and $400.
Among the creatures that owners particularly bond with these days are bearded dragons, a type of lizard.
“We’re seeing more of them,’’ says Quesenberry.
“They’re very cute, and have little personalities. We just had one who was egg-bound; she kept forming eggs, but didn’t lay them.’’
Even ferrets get the finest medical care: George, a 4-year-old, sandy-hued ferret who lives in New Jersey, has an owner willing to foot the bill for his neurosurgery.
“He had a tumor at the base of his skull, and he wasn’t walking well,’’ explains Quesenberry. “We did an MRI and then neurosurgery to take off part of his vertebrae, and now George is doing great.’’
While most AMC patients have relatively short life spans, some birds live as long as humans.
“I have one I’ve been seeing since 1984, and they really know what’s going on,” says Quesenberry.
“Some of them like to be pet and cuddled.’’
Sohnya Sayres, a 60-year-old professor who lives in Union Square with her two African gray parrots, brings her birds in for regular checkups.
“Ariel actually scolded the doctor on our last visit,’’ she recalls.
“He went to draw blood, and she said, ‘That’s bad!’ ’’