Choosing the right vet is a matter of life and death for your pet. And it can make a significant dent in your pocketbook. And either free up or tie down your own precious time.
Despite the proximity of their names, do NOT confuse this business with the Cat Clinic of Seattle.
Dr. Romatowski is very thorough. For instance, he spent at least 50% more time than either vet at the Queen Anne Animal Clinic.
He doesn't push expensive procedures of dubious value, as is often the case today with vets.
I would say that annual check-up here for your cat would be outstanding, among the very best in the Seattle area.
I sought a secondary opinion on my cat's health from him, and the office visit I received was the best one my cat ever had. He was cordial, congenial, knowledgeable, caring.
He was also the very first of four vets to test for high blood pressure, which is a serious condition for cats in renal failure. We promptly got my cat on amlodipine to keep it within the normal range.
And he brought to our attention a critical problem with the regime set out for us by the Cat Clinic of Seattle.
Unfortunately, when my cat was seriously ill with melena (black tarry stool with diarrhea), he was unwilling to write a prescription for sulfacrate, a protectant/absorbent for upper GI tract ulcers, which may have been very helpful in jump-starting my cat's appetite.
My cat' s health began to go rapidly downhill only 24 hours after the last visit here, which the vet had not been able to foresee--and I had to go to another clinic to let him go another 24 hours later, which, for me, was devastating.
The explanation of the treatment that day was particularly unclear--to what end was the injection of prednisolone? He also told me to return in 8-9 days if it "it didn't work" and we'd "try something else." My cat was dead within 48 hours.
"Stuff happens," I guess. What is most perplexing is the thought that if I had brought him in, say, only two days after I had noticed his appetite was "off," that THAT probably would not have made any difference, since the vet had not been able to, apparently, predict the seriousness and urgency of the problem even just one day before the final crash.
Also, I wonder, with great sorrow, if my cat had been immediately treated for the melena and diarrhea that had occurred three times during the two-week interval before my beloved cat's death? I had requested him to write a prescription for sulfacrate, a common upper GI gastrointestinal tract absorbent/protectant, which he refused tow write.
In sum, although I think Dr. Romatowski is a good vet, I do believe that communication with clients is always the best it could be. When I wrote to inform him, for instance, of the death of my cat less than 48 hours after he been to the Cat Clinic of Northeast Seattle--and of my concerns about the injection given, I received no response.
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