Gary Adams, DVM

Killed two of my dogs in succession. One was older, but he prescribed a drug, Rimyayl, that has been taken off human market for causing kidney failure. She died of Kidney failure 2 weeks later. Then he even made her last days awful by asking me to leave her with them to replenish her fluids. He assured me she wouldn’t die and was just dehydrated. She spent her last days alone in a cage on a floor. Just awful. Before I learned about rimadyl, and realized how very negligent he had been in casuing the situation in the first place, I took another dog to him.
Second dog was a totally healthy puppy I rescued. She bounced around the house happiily til I took her to Dr. Adams. He loaded her up with some sort of deworming solution. She died of total necrosis of all of her digestive system 3 days later. He shrugged and said it must have been a previous injury, and not the caustic solution he injected in her, and what must have been too strong of a dosage.
This guy is a hack and a careless murder of beloved pets. I’ll never get over kicking myself for not realizing how negligent he was in time to save my second dog.

8 yrs ago i went to dr. adams when he was at his place before… he saved my dog Beau’s life. i had been to a few other vets they said your dog is almost dead it’s time to put him down. i knew in my heart he was sick. his vet before at value vet had given him cortisone i had been giving him meticam for ages, vet knew yet sloppy beau almost died 3 days later, i found dr. adams thru a friend he gave me 2 months to say goodbye, i never would have had that time if hadn’t worked miracles, everyone said impossible he didn’t die. Dr Adams is great ” let’s just do this and see what happens’ no drama no extra tests. i’ m excited to have found him again. now i have Babe my belgian sheepdog chow mix. she’s my heart. thank you dr. adams.

I took my dogs and cats to Dr. Adams for years. In February my 14 year old, 4 ½ pound yorkie-​Chihuahua Mazie became ill. She had an enlarged heart for years and Dr. Adams was her vet for years — this time he loaded her up with a ton of medications and when I gave them to her, she began to vomit violently. I called Dr. Adams and he said to get an over the counter medicine for nausea — it didn’t work. I called again he said to give it time and meanwhile my dog was getting worse. I called again but I didn’t get to speak with Dr. Adams. On the fourth day I called and said I was bringing her and he better see her — she was so much worse. Dr. Adam examined her and took tests even though it was obvious that she was dying… she died one hour later after a seizure. Now I am fighting with Dr. Adams and California Animal Hospital about the bill. It was obvious that Mazie was dying and he should have just told me euthanize her rather than make her last hour miserable with tests and seizures that didn’t have to happen. I will never forgive him for the loss of my sweet Mazie. He knew her age and medical condition and he should have seen her rather than telling me to give it time… there was no time to give. She is gone! He has changed — so has California Animal Hospital. They went from the best to the absolute worse.

Dr Adams is the best vet I’ve ever met. Granted, all the vets at California Animal Hospital are pretty awesome, but Dr Adams really goes the extra mile to listen to everything you have to say, even if you take up more time than you’re probably allotted. He is my favorite vet to go to in the hospital. My kitty has a broken foot, which means periodic vet visits to check on the healing process, which means $$$$. But Dr Adams seems to really try to minimize my cost, not upselling painkillers like some other hospitals I’ve been to, charging the cheaper office visit for repeat visits, and when my cat decided he wasn’t going to wear his splint anymore and ripped it completely off, he just took the cat to the back and bandaged him right back up without having me checking into an examination room, to spare the additional office fee. Also, he let me see the Xrays and explain my kitty’s healing process to me, so I could see the logic to why he decided to stick with the splint a bit longer and everything. He is simply the best!

Reading some of the reviews below, I should be clear that this Unilocal is for Dr. Adams, not for California Animal Hospital in general, or for Dr. Adam’s former clinic, and certainly not for another veterinary clinic that has nothing to do with him.
With that out of the way, let me agree with those giving Dr. Adams their highest praise. While I’m sure everyone has an off day or a problem patient, my experience has always been that Dr. Adams is simply the best vet we’ve ever been to, and we’ve been to many. He is exceptionally knowledgeable, caring, ethical and patient. We never feel rushed, his advice is always spot on, and his prices reasonable. Follow-​up phone calls are almost always made by him personally, and if there’s a reason to follow up, he calls without our having to call him first.
My experience with Dr. Adams is for cats only, and we’ve only recently started seeing him again since moving back to the area, so I don’t yet have much to say about his new office. Seems fine so far.
I do think it’s unfortunate that some of the negative reviews have absolutely nothing to do with Dr. Adams, and it looks like a few have nothing to do with this clinic. While I have a hard time believing that anyone could have had a negative experience with this Dr., if you did, then you certainly have the right to share it.; but for those who posted reviews that have nothing to do with Dr. Adams or THIS California Animal Hospital, shame on you.

Dr. Adams is wonderful. He really takes the time to listen and will let you ask as many questions as you want. Also, his staff is super competent and friendly.

The GREAT: Dr. Adams is a great veterinarian. He is gentle with the animals, he is extremely intelligent, he’s soft spoken (which seems to help the animals relax) his diagnoses are spot-​on, he LISTENS to the pet owner and acknowledges that YOU know your animal best of all. He spends as much time talking with you as you need. This man never seems to be in a hurry to get to the next client: The client that matters is the client that’s in front of him: you and your pet. Thanks to his diagnosis, we prolonged the life (with full quality of life) for my beloved cat with kidney/​renal failure issues for three years longer than other vets expected. I have referred him time and again, and have received rave reviews from friends. He is a great, great vet.
The «WELL…YOU CAN’T HAVE EVERYTHING…»: Because he’s so focused on each client/​pet at a time, and he refuses to rush, you can be sitting out in that waiting room for quite a while. He is awesome in the room, but absolutely impossible to get on the phone. The burden to find out test results is on you, and you may have to call several times. It’s a pain, and it’s annoying, no question. This is one of the reason’s I don’t use Gary for my regular pet checkups — I choose a reliable local vet for basic health care. But the fact is, when my animal is in trouble, there’s no other vet I will go to – even though I live deep in the Valley and he’s way over on the West side. When it’s really bad, I just don’t trust anyone else.
So, five stars for pet care. Probably two stars for customer service. But when I’m really worried, I could care less about the latter. Just save my animal. And he has, over and over again.
Footnote: All my complaints about Gary’s office management reflect when he had his own office on Wilshire in Santa Monica. Now that he’s moved back to California Animal Hospital, all those may be a non-​issue. I hope so. He’s too good a vet to get a bad reputation because he has lousy office managers.

If you want a Dr. who listens and GETS IT about your animals, Dr. Adams is the one. He has saved my elderly cat several times and I won’t take her anywhere else. He performed a FHO surgery on my dog when everyone else wanted to do hip replacement surgery for tons of $$$$. My dog gets around fine now. He always goes over the options and isn’t out to do a lot of tests to run up the bill. I heard about him from a Rescue Group and I see all kinds of Rescue groups in his office.

I foster dogs for a rescue group (Lhasa Happy Homes), and Dr. Adams is their go-​to doc. I really like working with him. I love that he does so much work for rescues pro-​bono or at a discount. You can tell that he’s committed to helping the animals, not just out to make a buck.
Dr. Adams has a great bedside (exam-​tableside?) manner — he’s gentle, caring, and easygoing. He’ll take the time to go over treatment options and answer questions without making you feel rushed. He’s clearly very intelligent — you can tell he knows what he’s talking about. He’s always thorough and conscientious, from the initial examination through every step of treatment. You should feel confident putting your pet in Dr. Adams’ capable hands!

I tell people about Dr. Adams all the time. He kept my 20 year old little Siamese cat alive — my Doberman too and a heavenly Siamese with the aids virus alive and HAPPY for 15 years.
He has humor — a calmness– spends as much time as you need–
he really is bright and at 3am I heard other clients talk about the «Hollywood Vets» and how expensive they were AND no results — sometimes the pet was worse.
YOU WILL LOVE THIS DOC.
now at CA Animal Hospital.
— jennifer W.

I love Dr. Adams. I had a very difficult dog, a rescued pit bull with very bad health issues as it turned out. For years Dr. Adams treated my dog monthly, espcially for arthitutus. He relieved alot of his pain. He was very cost conscious with me. My dog just loved him. I am sure since he is such a caring dr. he has gotten extremely busy now and maybe it’s hectic over there. My dog has since passed away but for an abused animal to trust someone so much Dr. Adams has to be a wonderful person. I believe he loved my dog alot and understood him.

When I first went to Dr. Adams, I was a fan. He was all sorts of awesome things a good doc should be. But something has changed there at that office… My cat started *a-​hem* masturbating with his paw. I was horrified at first. He wanted to be near me when he did it too, and finally I realized he was trying to tell me something. So I followed him around and noticed this mostly happened after he went to the bathroom. I diagnosed him with a UTI and made an appt with Dr Adams right away. Being an emergency clinic, they have always accommodated my sporadic schedule promptly. I detailed all the symptoms, and the doc said he didn’t think kitty was sick, he thought his environment must be stressful and he had anxiety and he prescribed *gasp!* kitty Prozac. Seriously?
C’mon. lets make sure it’s not a damn bladder infection before we start talking about treating something I know he doesn’t have — he’s so mellow I think he’s dead sometimes. I laughed maniacally at first because I thought it was hysterical, then realized I’d insulted him, then suggested we wait for the test results before making any decisions about treatment. (Wait… who’s the Vet here?) Of course, the urinalysis came back positive for UTI. But I had to call them THREE times to ask what the results were — delaying antibiotics for kitty for FIVE days. Yeah, the office staff has also become very strange and dastardly disorganized. Maybe they’re vampires?
Damn. I still can’t believe it. Prozac for a bladder infection. So kitty is due for his follow up, but we are going elsewhere…

Follow-​up…
Quite simply, I’ve yet to hear from Dr. Gary Adams… and yet to receive ANY of the records requested! Don’t you think this a little odd? St least very non-​professional, since he was our Vet for years!
If anyone reading these reviews has any idea as to where to go to report so many similar and negative behaviours of his staff, etc. would they be kind enough to contact me?

I liked Dr. Adams very much. He was caring and gentle with my cat. And he did return two phone calls that I made regarding my cat. I also brought a rescue dog into him to be spayed and he gave me a discount.(?)
His office staff; however, is another story. At the time of payment for the dog’s spay, no certificate of sterilization was generated (which I understand is standard procedure). I asked Nina twice for a «certificate of spay/​sterilization.» Twice she reprinted out my invoice (the invoice had no description of the dog). When I asked for a supervisor, she kept saying «no.» I left in frustration. I called several days later and spoke to Frank. I explained to him what I needed. He said he was very busy and would have to call me back. Call me stupid, but I believed that he would call me back.
I won’t go into how many phone calls I made or days elapsed, when, out of the blue, Rebbecca called me, saying she found my message and did I ever get the Sterilization Certificate, and, if not, she could generate one for me. So, there is someone on the staff who is conscientious, considerate, and knowledgeable. Now the dog’s owner can get a license for his dog.
Because of my frustrating experience with the office staff, I will hesitate to go back.

Adams has been my vet of choice for 5 years and three sick/​complicated animals. His bedside manner is genuine and competent. You simply won’t find a better veterinary doctor — especially in those difficult moments — than Gary Adams. Email me if you want, but trust me. He’s one of the very good guys.

Took my dog there when she was hit by a car. Dr. Adams was kind of a jerk and his staff weren’t all that sympathetic either, despite my complete state of panic. He didn’t actually do much other than wrap her up in a big ace bandage, administer some pain meds, and take some xrays, then «monitor» — thanks for the $ 700 bill. They kept her overnight for observation, fed her lots of IV fluids, but apparently she was not walked to relieve herself despite a note in her chart that indicated so. She was so need of a walk that she peed in the back of my car on the way home, which she has never done in 10 years of having her.

For months I was on the love bandwagon just like all these other reviews but Dr. Adams has totally blown me off. After 6 weeks of numerous phone calls and faxes to him, I am still waiting to get the results of my pets blood tests, who at the time had just been released from 5 days in ICU with a life-​threatening illness. Granted, I didn’t take him to Dr. Adams, but Dr. Adams was out of town during my emergency and it couldn’t wait.
For months I brought all of my pets to him and I thought he was the best but 6 weeks is way too long not to respond to a patient in some form. I asked him to call or fax me at any time, even in the middle of the night but have gotten no response. I am heartbroken because I have a great rapport with his staff and thought I had the same with him. I can’t believe he doesn’t care about my pet but his actions speak louder than words.

Dr. Adams ROCKS! Even though this is technically an «emergency vet,» they see pets for regular visits, too. We consider Dr. Adams our «regular vet,» and the convenient hours (6pm-​8am) mean that we don’t have to deal with traffic, taking off of work or stressing about finding a parking space when everyone and their uncle is on Wilshire. Dr. Adams is super-​nice and takes the time to explain everything to you in detail, and, unlike a lot of the vets I’ve been to, doesn’t try to push unnecessary treatments or tests on pet parents that would spare no expense in making sure their babies are okay. In fact, the last time we were there with a sick dog, I used the DVM I’d earned from the school of Google Search and suggested a few of the things I’d read about, and he responded with, «Well, we could… but, we’ll find out the same thing from this test, and it’s much less expensive.» Gotta love that!!! Plus, all of the staff are nice, and many of them rescue animals themselves, so you know that they are not there just to pick up a paycheck.
It is a little small, sparsely decorated, and the wait can be a little long if they’ve had an emergency come in before you (call before you go, for sure – they will tell you what the wait looks like), but I don’t give a rats about bells, whistles or fancy-​schmancy offices… I just want a vet that is knowledgeable, compassionate and honestly cares about animals. That’s exactly what you get with Dr. Adams!!!

Dr Adams and his crew are great! I take the cats to see him and always nkow they are getting the best care and treatment. Highly recommend!

Dr Adams is GREAT! We’ve taken our dogs here all the time and the people there have always been good to us. They’re also super friendly to shelter rescue organizations. Their hours are great for most people too. They’re open from 6pm to 8am every night, so you can go by after work and drop your dog off, then pick them up in the morning.
Support organizations that have good karma like this one!