This place is alright. They have a GREAT website - it's honestly what got me in the door here. Prices are best in the area so if you have budget limitations but care about your pet's health, this will... Read More
This place is alright. They have a GREAT website - it's honestly what got me in the door here. Prices are best in the area so if you have budget limitations but care about your pet's health, this will be a good option for you. I came for a feral cat trap/neuter/release (TNR), so that's what I'm going to tell you about in this review. TNR here costs $45 as of August 2017 and includes rabies vaccine, surgery and ear tipping. I have done TNR at SNAC in Ridgeland SC and at PetFix in Savannah and my review is in comparison to those two programs.It is important to note right off the bat that this clinic seems to prefer text messaging over calls and the folks reviewing this place on Google do not appreciate the communication system. I did not talk to anyone on the phone except when they called me to pick the cat up. When you call in, an answering machine answers and gives you a phone number to send a text message. I successfully set up an appointment and had several questions answered via text message, which I assume is interfaced through a messaging feature on their computer.Tuesdays are spay/neuter days at Coastal so I made an appointment in advance, hoping to catch the local queen at my work. I did not catch her but caught the surviving kitten of the season so took it instead. While the website states that dropoff is 7:30-8:30 am, the instructions I received were to drop off between 7-8 am. Website pick up time is 5-6 pm, instructions pick up time was "usually between 4-7 pm".There were three dogs and three cats (including me) dropped off while I was there. I had the only feral, which as usual is required to be brought in a live trap. I read their website thoroughly and communicated with the staff before arriving to let them know I was bringing a feral, but at no point was I advised they would need the tare weight of my trap. (Neither SNAC nor PetFix needed this; they just take the cat in the trap and do weight later.) Coastal took the cat out of the trap to weigh him since I didn't have a tare, determine gender and placed him in a smaller, normal cat crate. They did all weigh-ins in the lobby area during in-processing, increasing the wait time for check in. There were 3 vet techs and 5 or 6 pet owners but it seemed chaotic and disorganized and took a long time to check in each animal because of weighing them during check in. The interior space is very small for a bunch of people to be standing around with their pets. Unfortunately, the end of the day when my feral was ready the communication fell apart. After surgery the clinic staff will call you when your animal is ready. They called around 5:30pm but did not leave me a voicemail or send a text. I tried to respond, but it took another hour to hear back. When they called me a second time and I answered, they said they had been "trying to get a hold of me", which I find odd since they called once, didn't leave a message, didn't text as we'd been doing all along, and didn't try to call again for another hour... by the time I received confirmation to pick up it was 6:50pm. I didn't receive my call until nearly 7pm and then had to drive 30 minutes to Hinesville. So beware, ferals being squeezed in to the schedule (even though I'd made an appointment) may actually mean you are going to be called to retrieve the animal unpredictably late in the evening.At the end of the day, this clinic rates 3rd of the three clinics I've used ***for feral cats*** because of the sceduling. Price is the best in the game, as it includes the rabies shot and ear tip; it is $10-25 cheaper than others if you have a female. Drop off is confusing and the flexible pick up time was extremely inconvenient. Communication is difficult and is mostly handled by text message, which might not work as well for older or less tech-savvy members of the community. The staff seems hardworking and obviously puts in super long hours, because I dropped the cat off to the same people I picked him up from 12 hours later. Being a Liberty Co resident I know how lacking funding is for everything that affects *real life* and how badly the adjoined humane society hurts for support. They are making do with what they have, are providing services that are affordable to some of the lower income pet owners in the area, and are committed to using their profits to continue to reduce the cost of spay/neuter services. Don't discount this place for actual veterinary services based on my review (this type of very small clinic seems par for the course in Hinesville), but I felt it would be useful to share my experience, especially with regard to the pick up time/uncertainty and the communication challenges. Read Less