Route 66 Veterinary Emergency & Critical Care Center Albuquerque, New Mexico

My poor little kitty got sick on Christmas eve, and since my usual vet is closed for the weekend, they sent me here. I was very lucky because although Smokey did require hospitalization and stayed two nights to be monitored and taken care …

If I could give 0 stars I would! Horribly neglected my cat and caused further damage. If you love your pet DO NOT bring them here …

Very efficient. Did not waste time on anything. Full waiting room but it was roomy and pleasant. Lots of pets seen tonight and took me 4 hours. I think its fastest in town.

These people do not care about your animals. They are rude unprofessional and only want your money. Worst place ever! The doctor was clueless. He said nothing is wrong with your dog and clearly she was sick. I had to take her somewhere else where they actually know what they are doing. The nurse and the tech were rude. And the supervisor, who told me to bring my dog back. She said I will wave the fee for the exam changed her mind when I got there. Take your animals somewhere else.

Amazingly kind, generous. We unfortunately had to put out pet of 13 years down and they were all so nice and respectful. We received a card in the mail today giving us their condolences with a message from everybody there. Was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen! Thank you to all the kind staff!

My regular vet clinic is not open on Sundays and my dog had been vomiting non-stop all morning so we went to Route 66 and they were great! We were the only ones there at the time so we got taken back and examined right away. The staff was friendly, Dr. Centola was very sweet, knowledgeable, and discussed things with me, answering all of my questions. Any emergency clinic, for animals or humans, expect a wait time as emergent and critical patients are always prioritized. I’m glad we got lucky with the time that we went in but I would have been happy to wait now knowing how wonderful the staff was with my dog and with me.

We had to take our cat in, Princess. She deteriorated rapidly and could not wait for a vet appointment. Unfortunately our baby did not make it. What I can say, is all of the staff was amazing. They took her straight back and did everything they could to save her. They were caring, compassionate & warm. They sent our family a beautiful condolence card. Truly a wonderful bunch that is passionate about their jobs.

This place is awful. First I was made to wait in the lobby for four hours for something they told me was “very urgent”. When my dog started throwing up in the lobby they told me to just clean it with paper towels from the bathroom and showed no concern at all, nor could they be bothered to lend me a mop. When we finally saw the doctor she told us our dog was very sick and she would treat him “right away”. But that she “needed” to keep him overnight. She then asked how much money we have in the bank then left the room and returned later to show us an estimate for every dollar we had for a catheter insertion. After telling us we had to leave our dog we went home. Three hours later I called to check on my dog and he STILL had not been treated. Finally I gave up around 11:00pm (the dog had been taken in around 2:30pm) and went to sleep only to have the doctor call at almost 1am to tell me she finally treated my dog but that I still wasn’t allowed to bring him home. Frustrated I went back to sleep only to have another person call me at 5:30am to tell me if I didn’t pick my dog up within 30 minutes they would charge me another four hours of hospitalization which the doctor had already promised NOT to charge us. The final charge was more than the estimate and to add insult to injury they didn’t remove all the catheter from my dog. When I called to ask about the strange bit of plastic sewn to his belly I was told that was intentional but to go ahead and bring him back so they could look. A different tech at the vet took him to the back and removed the plastic and told me “oh sorry they forgot to remove that”. While we were there waiting it was very very obvious they were in the middle of a Christmas party while they ignored the sick and injured animals in the lobby. They were giving tours in the back and exchanging chocolates from what we could hear. Finally this vet didn’t even fully take care of my dog instead telling me to contact another vet to perform surgery to fix a mistake she made.

We had two chocolate incidents with the same dogs in one week. This clinic made sure my babies AND myself were taken care of. They come out, offer you food and water, and their prices were reasonable in my experience. They were pretty booked though, so bring a book or something to do. Thank you to the staff that helped my doodles :)

Came here for antibiotics for out of control facial hotspots on visit to ABQ. Waited an hour only to be told “we don’t do skin issues” by a tech, never saw a vet.

Excellent facility with wonderful doctor and techs. Took loving care of our Shih Tzu puppy. Highly recommend!

The doctor had bad bed side manner. Had no compassion towards my husband, my dog, and me. The doctor snapped at me for wiping my nose and tears, told me I need to keep my mask on the whole time. Not everyone has covid and I was planning in pulling my mask up after wiping my tears and nose. My dog hurt her front leg somehow, and woke up whimpering all night long. Before taking her I was not sure if she hurt her leg or she had some illness because she is an older dog. After being up with her all night we decided to take her in and the doctor said it was no emergency. When a dog is up whimpering and shaking all night, you don't know what an emergency is. Felt like everyone there hated their job, very uncomfortable environment. I would not recommend taking your animal here.

The vet tech told me she held my dog in her arms the entire time he was under observation for an allergic reaction.

Being an ER can make waiting to check in and meet vet very long. We have been waiting here for over an hour to simply talk to the vet with our dog. The front desk lady is rude. The vet was very nice.

Unfortunately, we had to put our 12 year old Dachshund down very suddenly last week. The only positive thing that came out of that experience was that we were introduced to Route 66's staff. Everyone there made this terrible experience a little better. I would recommend them to everyone.

My older cat is prone to chronic severe constipation, and these episodes have been getting more frequent and more severe. So after he produced a 7 inch poo with great difficulty and discomfort after 11 days of no poos, I was very concerned for his life. I'm a widower who never learnt to drive as my wife was our driver. So, a kind friend drove us to Route 66 vet clinic very early one morning recently. We checked in at 5:50am when we were the only ones in the waiting room for an hour. I was quite pleasantly surprised that we only had to wait about 2 hours which was reasonable, as my cat was by then non-acute and stable. My cat, Kedi, was seen by Elsbeth Centola DVM. And the cat was examined but they declined to do bloodwork, but did agree to do X rays which she said were normal and shown no constipation.The really important thing I learnt from her was that the laxative of choice for chronic constipation in cats is now MiraLAX which is OTC from CVS pharmacies, safe, and very effective, and not expensive as his dose is only 1/16 of teaspoon of a white nearly flavorless powder every 8 hours mixed thoroughly into canned wet cat food. I had to wait to start treatment until I got a set of accurate measuring spoons, the brand is U-Taste which is well designed and well made, within 36 hours. While I was waiting on the spoons I researched MiraLAX for cats in the vet med literature, and found that, while it works on all cats, the effective dose varies widely. So I started at half the recommended dose which is 1/8 teaspoon twice a day for cats, and after 8 days and 3 poos I have settled on 1/16 teaspoon every 8 hours or so for my cat. My life and my cat's life have been transformed for the better, as his appetite is now excellent, and now his poos are more or less as they should be and are produced without discomfort. So we are both very grateful for the advice given to us by Elsbeth Centola DVM at Route 66 Vet Clinic which has just moved to 3601 Central Ave NE.

A decent emergency room - you will most likely expect a waiting time of an hour for any update. Techs are quick and responsive and took my dog back quickly and got her stable in about 10-15 minutes upon arriving. Techs are also super friendly and informative. The vets could be better at communicating between each other or just on animal’s notes. I was told one thing by one vet and another thing by a different one. But I guess that goes for any type of medical office. This ER is close to my house, so I would use again (hopefully not, I don’t want my dog in any critical condition ever again). They are much better than VCA

I will never bring my pets here again. I brought my kitten who got attacked by a dog. They took her back right away and i had told the woman to do whatever needs to be done. The wait wasn't the problem i could have waited all night for her to be ok or for them to say sorry. They charged me for radiographs and her being seen by "doctor Welcome". He talked to me saying she was a lucky kitten that she only had an abscess in her abdomen and prescribed pain meds for her. They handed her back in the same condition; lethargic, in shock and in pain. I asked that if it was okay that her gums were still white white and the tech said oh thats how puppies and kittens gums are. I'm so pist and hurt that they had the audacity to charge me when they did absolutely nothing! They charged 30ish dollars for a vial of 3cc of pain fluid as well.

This is hands down the worst emergency clinic I’ve ever visit in my life, I’ve been in 4, 3 of them out of the state of NM, they admit your pet based on ‘urgency’, and they get that info from you, waiting on the parking lot with no clue about what’s going on with your pet, SERIOUSLY? There is no other emergency clinic nearby otherwise I believe things will be different. I hope your pet is well and taken care of if you live in the SE area. This is place is terrible and expensive. Avoid if you can.

. I arrived there and they were so rude. They were talking badly about other customers, in one instance they said they were going to ignore a customer in the waiting room because they didn’t want to deal with her. they claimed to have said my dog that’s parvo right off the bat. Even tho he was fully vaccinated and up to date on all shots. (1yrs old) They didn’t do blood tests or anything. Said he was positive with parvo. They offered to keep him in house for 3 days at a total of 7 grand. We decided to take him home and care for him. He unfortunately passed away, when I tried to call them because he was dying on my floor they NEVER answered. I called 10 times. we found out it wasn’t really from parvo… this place killed My dog. Please do not bring your animal here.

My dog was injured by a horse and the closest emergency facilities encouraged me to try elsewhere. I called Route 66 Veterinary Emergency and was advised, just as all the veterinary emergency facilities do, that the wait time might be significant based on acuity. I arrived and my dog was triaged in minutes and was seen by the Veterinarian shortly thereafter. Everyone was professional and understanding from the moment we arrived. Thank you to all the staff for being thorough with my dog and with me! Your support is appreciated.

The doctor & the techs were amazing. However, they are quick to separate you from your pet putting them in a kennel as you anxiously wait. I would of overlooked the above, However when I called back to get the final lab results I reached a COLD voicemail that simply said something like “ We will be closed for the next few days due to moving to a new location .. So you can NOT leave a message for us ..Sorry.. click…” So two days later I call back AGAIN & I was told “a doctor will call you back shortly so stay by your phone.” That was Saturday & over 48 hours later, & I am still waiting. Honestly what is the point of leaving a worthless phone number on the discharge paper for questions /concerns if you can not even leave a message. Well I will not be fooled again.

We arrived before 5am with our sick 11y.o. diabetic cat who could not urinate & everyone , from the receptionist to the techs, nurse & Dr were wonderfully kind, helpful, efficient& skillful. I recommend Route 66 Vet ER 100%& would return there in any Vet emergency.

This veterinary hospital has been great. But very slow not enough help. Thank u for all you do for our fur babies. Thank you for doing all that you could for Princess (Chihuahua).

Horrible mistreatment of the pet owners as well as putting our little treasures in kennels all day long awaiting lab work, not allowing you to leave the premises while you wait and wait and wait. Arrived at 8:30 in the morning with a sick pup, he was triaged within an hour and put in a kennel, sick and shivering. He would’ve been much more comfortable sitting on my lap in the waiting room while we waited and waited and waited. Finally checked out at 2:30 but they wouldn’t give us our dog back until 4:30 because their rule is a vet tech has to bring the dog out and they didn’t have one available.

We had to take our Labrador Tess to Route 66 after she had a seizure. The vets and personnel were so attentive to our Tessie. They were very thorough and explained in detail what had most likely happened to Tess. That night we made the very difficult decision to let our Tess go to doggie heaven. The staff was so compassionate and didn't rush our last moments with our treasured Tess. After a few days we received the nicest card that was signed by the all the staff sharing their thoughts for our loss. I can't tell you how much this meant to me and my family. If I ever have to take a pet for care, I won't hesitate in taking them to Route 66 Veterinary Emergency. Thank you all for your hearts for our pets and their people.

My dog and I were very fortunate to have vet tech Marylyn Elliot help facilitate care for us. We went in after my dog had an eye injury. I was so nervous and worried, but Marylyn and all of the Route 66 staff were very caring and calming during our time of need. We were able to get in and out within the hour, would definitely return!

Horrible! Employee that answered the bell at the door seemed pretty rude right off the bat. They checked us in, took payment over the phone and my dog was triaged in our car. We waited for over 3 hours as they kept taking other pets in. When I called them again to see what was going on I was told " we are an emergency care facility and your dog was triaged as STABLE other pets that are arriving are critical." But my dog was BLEEDING. I ended up leaving and taking her to a different ER vet, which was a much better experience. Sadly my dog had to be put down as she was in critical condition. Horrible.

THIS PLACE IS SO UNORGANIZED AND UNPROFESSIONAL!!! They lost my friends dogs ashes. Now Her and her boyfriend have nothing of their dog. She paid extra to have their dog cremated separately so She could place her in an urn and the vet lost her????? Misplaced her??? You mean you threw her away… Here’s your refund lady have a good day. Ugh… I hope nobody EVER GOES HERE!!! Don’t do it!!

“There’s google to answer that.” Maybe my question was annoying to the tired receptionist or whatever the case was, but I really hope that woman spills coffee in her car.