Vet in Tonawanda NY
Your Local Partner for Every Step, Every Generation
Full-spectrum vet in Williamsville, NY, including reproduction, rehabilitation, and surgery.
Welcome to Pathways Animal Hospital!
Compassionate, Comprehensive Veterinary Care in Williamsville, NY
If you’ve been making do with a vet Tonawanda NY residents settle for, one that rushes through physical examinations and moves on, this veterinary clinic operates differently. Pathways Animal Hospital is a privately owned, woman-led practice in Williamsville, NY, where Dr. Claudia Gray, DVM, has spent over two decades building something the area genuinely needed. Veterinary services here cover the complete picture: routine wellness exams and preventive care through advanced surgery, reproductive medicine, and rehabilitation therapy, all with the small-town warmth that sets a locally rooted clinic apart from larger multi-location groups.
Why Choose Us
Surgery Performed By The Vet Team Already Managing Your Pet’s Care
The surgery suite here handles the full range of pet surgical services, performed by the same vet team that completed the physical evaluation and will guide recovery. A vet carrying the patient’s full diagnostic care and medical assessment history into the operating room brings contextual judgment that a referral surgeon meeting the animal for the first time has to build from scratch. Digital x-ray, laboratory diagnostics, and other diagnostic tools feed directly into surgical planning, so every procedure is built on the most complete picture available.
Reproductive Services Built For Breeders Who Need More Than A Basic Consult
For breeding programs, veterinary care is only as useful as the depth behind it. This practice has spent years developing a reproductive program well beyond what most general clinics provide. Pathways Animal Hospital holds Certified Zoetis Freeze Center status, earned through a working program with real, documented outcomes. Regional specialty hospitals send their clients here specifically for this work, and for breeders, that referral pattern is the only endorsement that matters.
When Your Pet Becomes A Regular, The Team Makes It Personal
Long-term patients here get recognized. The staff goes the extra mile for animals coming in frequently: creating custom themed bandage artwork for patients needing regular wound care, from Cookie Monster to an under-the-sea design to champagne and fireworks for New Year’s. Dental work, routine surgery, recurring treatments, and the team brings the same personal attention to every visit, every time. That level of investment is hard to manufacture and impossible to fake.
Other Vets Call Dr. Gray, And That Means Something
When a colleague has a reproductive or surgical case they need guidance on, Dr. Claudia Gray, DVM, is someone they call. That peer-to-peer referral pattern builds over years of handling difficult cases well and being straight with people about the outcomes. For pet owners, it means the vet managing their animal’s care is the same one other professionals turn to when a case gets complex.
Privately Owned, Independently Operated, And It Shows In How Decisions Get Made
Corporate veterinary groups run on protocols set far from the exam room. Here, every care decision comes directly from the doctors who know your pet. That independence gives the team room to spend real time on a complicated case, have honest conversations about what a test will actually tell them, and build the kind of long-term client relationships that a high-volume practice model trades away for throughput.
Our Veterinary Services
- Preventive Care
- Reproduction Services
- Bloodwork
- Puppy Vaccination
- Conditioning & Rehabilitation
- Full-Service Veterinary Care
Preventive Care
Good health doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built visit by visit, and that’s exactly how we approach things at Pathways Animal Hospital. We use pet exams and lab work to track your pet’s health over time, and when we need a deeper look, diagnostic tools like X-rays and ultrasounds help us find what’s easy to miss. Staying consistent with preventive care means fewer surprises and more peace of mind for you.
Our team is also here when your pet needs more than a wellness check, serving families throughout Tonawanda with a full range of surgical services. From everyday procedures like spays, neuters, and dentistry to more involved soft tissue and abdominal surgeries, we handle it all in one familiar place. No referrals, no unfamiliar faces. Just the team that already knows your pet.
Reproduction Services
When breeding is on the horizon, having a team you can rely on for precise, timely answers changes everything. At Pathways Animal Hospital, we conduct Breeding Soundness Exams, OFA clearances, and DNA testing alongside comprehensive blood work to make sure your animal is ready and meets the standards your breed club expects. Getting this right from the start protects both your animal and the integrity of your program.
Our Tonawanda vet team invested in an in-house progesterone testing machine for one practical reason: breeding windows do not wait. Same-day hormone results let us identify peak breeding dates and guide C-section timing without sending samples out and losing critical hours. Accurate data, delivered fast, so your decisions are always backed by science.
Bloodwork
Your pet cannot tell you when something feels off, but their bloodwork often can. We run comprehensive in-house panels covering organ function, hormone levels, and key health markers, delivering same-day results that keep care moving in the right direction. At Pathways Animal Hospital, having that information quickly means our vets can act on findings right away rather than waiting on outside labs.
Specialized testing, including progesterone diagnostics, is handled entirely on-site, which is part of what makes us a dependable Tonawanda vet for both routine and complex cases. Every result is reviewed in full, with our team using the data to spot early changes and shape a care plan that reflects your pet’s actual health picture. Bloodwork is one of the clearest windows into your pet’s wellbeing, and we treat it that way.
Puppy Vaccination Timelines and Medication Education
The first year shapes everything, and a well-timed vaccination schedule is one of the most powerful tools you have for protecting your puppy long-term. We build each plan around your puppy’s breed, size, and environment, so every recommendation is specific to them rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Knowing what to expect at each stage makes the process feel manageable instead of overwhelming.
Pathways Animal Hospital pairs every vaccination plan with hands-on puppy vaccination timelines and medication education so you understand the reasoning behind each recommendation, not just the schedule itself. Families across Tonawanda trust our vet team to cover how preventive medications work, proper dosing, and how your puppy’s needs will shift as they grow. Prepared owners raise healthier dogs, and that starts with the right conversation on day one.
Conditioning & Rehabilitation
Some dogs are built for competition, some are working through an injury, and some just need a way to stay active when the weather does not cooperate. Our conditioning & rehabilitation program meets all of them, with a setup that goes well beyond what most facilities can offer. An indoor swimming pool and an underwater treadmill, both on-site, make Pathways Animal Hospital the only practice in the area with that combination available to patients.
For Tonawanda vet clients who bring their dogs in during winter, a single treadmill session delivers the equivalent of an hour-long hike without the ice and cold. Our team brings genuine firsthand knowledge to every session, with staff and clients who actively compete in the sport dog world at national and international levels. That experience shapes how we build every conditioning & rehabilitation plan, whether your dog is an elite athlete or just getting started.
Full-Service Veterinary Care
A pet’s health needs change over time, and having one trusted team that can grow with them makes all the difference. We offer wellness visits, sick pet care, chronic condition management, bloodwork, and senior wellness exams alongside targeted therapies like laser treatments and ear infection care. Rehabilitation modalities serve both high-performance sporting dogs and everyday household companions, so no matter what your pet needs, we are prepared.
What drives full-service veterinary care at our Tonawanda vet practice goes beyond the range of services we provide. Pathways Animal Hospital was founded on the belief that supporting the human-animal bond is at the center of everything, which means every visit, routine or otherwise, is treated with the same level of attention and genuine care. One team, one practice, for every stage of your pet’s life.
Meet the Doctors
Dr. Claudia Gray, DVM, studied at Skidmore College before earning her BS in Biology from Binghamton University and her DVM from The Ohio State University. She owned and operated Alliance Animal Hospital starting in 2014, building ownership experience before founding this practice. Her focus areas in small animal reproduction, surgery, and cryogenic preservation have earned her a standing invitation from peers across Western New York who call her directly when a case goes beyond their comfort zone.
Dr. Amanda Donovan, DVM, was born and raised in Buffalo and began her veterinary career in Lancaster after graduating in 2007. Her general practice foundation runs alongside a deep specialization in reproductive medicine, giving her the range to handle both a standard wellness visit and a technically complex breeding case with equal fluency. Dr. Abigail Carr, DVM, is originally from Rochester and holds a BS in Zoology from SUNY Oswego, a starting point that led her to hands-on zookeeper work, then a master’s in zoo conservation biology from the University of Plymouth in the UK, and finally a DVM from Ross University in 2022.
Our Mission
Most pet owners have had the experience of leaving a vet visit with a stack of charges and a sense that the decisions were made without them. Dr. Claudia Gray, DVM, built this practice around a different standard. The goal here is for you to walk out of every appointment with a clear picture of your pet’s health.
The team treats every diagnostic recommendation as a conversation, shared between the vet and the owner. That principle drives every interaction at this veterinary clinic, from the first preventive wellness visit through long-term condition management, including the full range of wellness services your pet needs at every stage of life.
Your Search for Vets in Tonawanda NY Ends With a Practice That Earns Repeat Visits!
There are vets in Tonawanda NY, and then there are practices worth building a relationship with. The difference shows up in the fifth visit, when the team already knows your pet’s quirks, remembers their history, and can flag something new because they know what normal looks like.
Dr. Claudia Gray, DVM, and the team at Pathways Animal Hospital have built that kind of practice deliberately. Follow the practice on social media for a real look at the team, the environment, and veterinary care in action. When you’re ready to schedule, call 716.936.8387, because your pet’s health deserves a vet who’s still around next year to follow up on it.
FAQs
What's it actually like to walk into this practice for the first time?
Nothing about this office feels like a typical veterinary clinic. The building itself has the character of an old house, warm, lived-in, and comfortable in a way that purpose-built medical facilities rarely are. The front desk team sets the tone immediately: you’ll hear laughter, you’ll hear staff genuinely excited about the animals coming through the door, and you’ll have actual conversations rather than being handed a clipboard and pointed to a seat. For pets that tense up the moment they smell “vet,” that atmosphere makes a real difference before they even reach the exam room.
I heard there's a clinic mascot. What's that about?
There is. Stitch holds the official title of Designated Trouble Maker and has earned it. Having a resident pet in the practice reflects something true about how this team operates. Whether a pet is coming in for urgent pet care after a bout of vomiting and diarrhea or a routine wellness exam, every animal here gets genuine attention. Stitch is living proof that the people in this building are here because they actually like animals, and when your furry friends are the ones on the table, that makes a bigger difference than you’d expect.
Does the practice have an online pharmacy, and how does it work?
Yes. The online pharmacy is accessible through the Client Center on the practice website and lets pet parents order and refill prescriptions directly. Managing a pet’s ongoing medications, whether a monthly preventive, a long-term prescription, or a post-surgical refill, works best when the process is straightforward. Orders connect directly to your pet’s medical record, so what gets dispensed stays consistent with what the vet on file has recommended for your animal companion’s specific needs.
Is there something different about a practice that's entirely woman-led?
In practice, yes. Every doctor, licensed veterinary technician, and front desk staff member here is a woman, and the team is small enough that the culture actually holds. What that means day-to-day is a veterinary clinic built on listening, consistency, and clinical confidence delivered without ego. From spay and neuter consultations to complex reproductive cases, Dr. Claudia Gray, DVM, has been deliberate about building a team that’s technically sharp and genuinely warm in equal measure.
How does Dr. Gray approach cases that are genuinely complicated?
She’s known for treating veterinary medicine as both a science and an art, and her clients have made that reputation for her. People come back years later with new pets and bring up surgeries she performed that they’ve never forgotten: elaborate, high-stakes cases where the skill required went well beyond standard general practice. Her instinct for when a case calls for something unconventional, paired with her directness about what she actually thinks, is what keeps clients coming back across decades and multiple pets.
