Livewell Animal Hospital of Austin — Attraction in Austin

Please avoid going here, esp. if your pet has a complex medical condition (i.e., FIV+). My pet had a missed diagnosis, which if found earlier, may have extended his life.

I was not going to write this review because I know LABAH will reply with a defense blaming me as a pet owner and attacking me or they will cite that "my cat's immune system was compromised from his FIV+" and blame my dead cat. Please do not go here to avoid the pain that my family has dealt with:

I took my FIV+ cat, Tony, here for the four years that I owned him after adopting him from APA. I had been happy with their care, overall. The doctors are well-intentioned, however, unfit for complex cases. Three years ago they diagnosed Tony with asthma, on top of his FIV+. Tony, this year, started having issues that seemed to be his asthma in March 2018. They prescribed more medication. When I returned from my honeymoon in May, after leaving him with a sitter for two weeks, Tony was not doing well: he was barely able to breath easily.

When I took him back to LABAH, the different vet looked at the chart, and again cited asthma (as written on the chart, thus was anchored instead of thinking for herself) and prescribed the SAME pills that we had filled and he was already taking, after we told her he was already on them. We didn't realize this until we got the prescription refilled. We had to call to fix this and explain to them her logic, as nothing was notated on the chart. She had changed the prescription from what she verbally mentioned from being in the room, to going in the back, to returning to the room.

We brought him back because it wasn't working. The new vet from the last, again, looked at the chart after we waited 60 minutes, even though we had an appointment, and again cited asthma and another medication. No tests were ordered for cancer between March - July or anything besides asthma as "it's Tony's asthma". No tests or action was ordered to test anything else. This is how doctors are trained to think: eliminate the worst possible situation, esp. after something persistently does not work. They did not do this.

Tony was diagnosed at Austin Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center (AVES) with Nasal Lymphoma. Now, when I look at photos of him from last March, you can see one eye is larger than the other, indicating the tumor was behind it. AVES' philosophy is to treat for the worst possible outcome to save your pet's life.

We took him to the best care, Texas A&M University Vet hospital, to remove his eye, as the tumor caused him to go blind in July. Within two days of the surgery, the tumor had spread to his left lymph node when it was not there prior. I think every day what would have happened if we had been able to treat the cancer earlier: would the cancer have not spread? Would he have not lost his eye? Sadly, due to the 5-month time loss between symptoms and accurate diagnosis, we don't know how much longer his life could have been.

He went through radiation, then chemo and fought hard, and was able to live a happy life for another three months with these treatments. Once he was in pain and the chemo was no longer working, we let him go.

We are heartbroken and still recovering from his sudden death. I hope that you greatly consider going to another vet over LABAH, esp. if you have an older pet, an animal with a weakened immune system or complicated medical history. LABAH is not the vet who will admit a situation is out of their care and refer him/her to others. In fact, they may even miss the diagnosis in a five-month window.

These vets are kind and seem caring, but pack too many patients in a day. For us they missed key, potentially life-extending details in Tony's case. I really wish they had thought more critically, rather than followed what was on his chart and also took more time on his case, rather than "processed" his case to get to the next appointment. Most of all, I hope they read this, discuss it, and make changes as a hospital to provide better care for their current and...

This place is everything you want in a veterinary clinic/animal hospital. The staff is kind, welcoming, and skilled, the doctors are compassionate and pragmatic, and they practice responsible medicine. That is to say, evidence-based and invested in preventative care, yet connected to your individual companion and your family’s needs. The clinic and surgery center are both situated in vintage Austin houses that make the place feel homey instead of antiseptic, but they use state of the art technology to give the best medical care in both the surgery center and treatment area. They rescue animals themselves, and they help the Austin rescue community, and have since they began.

This place will never be what you don’t want in a vet clinic/animal hospital. They aren’t pushy or aggressive, they will help you understand finances if that is an issue before you make a big decision, while still laying out for you what various types of care will mean medically for your pet. They don’t overextend themselves by trying to be a boarding facility because their focus is being a top-notch animal hospital.

If you are like most people, you stopped reading my review after the first couple sentences. But if you are that rare person who is still reading, I’d like to tell you that my experience with LABAH isn’t casual. I first met Dr. Spitz in 1995. I was working for the Humane Society at the time, and my husband and I had rescued a sweet pit bull who was nearly bald with mange (we named him Brouhaha, or Brou for short). I knew Dr. Spitz had done pro bono work for the shelter, and so I went to Lake Austin, where I met him, and Leni, and they have been my family’s most preferred care team since that day. The skills Leni brings to her practice are many, and she does so with such self-effacement that you might never notice how adept she is in her interventions. I really love that Dr. Spitz never bases his medical decisions on the moment once he has history on a patient; instead he draws on all his knowledge of them over time to come to an individualized care plan, and he knows when and how refer patients for specialized care as needed, maintaining an integration between them all. Brou lived a long life; he beat cancer once and had his knee repaired after a Frisbee-related accident, and Dr. Spitz and Leni were there every step of the way, even when his cancer came back to stay, and they helped my family support him in the best health possible in his final year of life. Since then, many of my animals, cats and dogs, have been lucky enough to find care at LABAH. Dr. Wilson and Dr. Honeycutt have both helped us through some difficult times with our older pets, always with such grace, wisdom, and compassion. As for the current staff, although many faces at LABAH are new to me, they always seem to carry a friendly smile! There’s just something about the place that attracts kindness and the drive to deliver the best care, and I think it’s amazing that such a well-established and respected veterinary hospital is always finding ways to support growth in its staff (as well as its own methodologies), which means that often receptionists and techs spend a few lovely months or years there and then move on, of course with the support of their buddies at LABAH. Are you still reading? Why? Get on the phone and make an appointment at LABAH, you...

Terrible. My sister took her 4 year old pup in here and dr Gomez was extremely cold and suggested extreme treatment. He told her she had a tumor which needed surgery with general anesthesia immediately to decide whether is was malignant or benign. She went to another vet and they said it’s a histiocytoma and goes away on its own and 99% of them are benign and there is no reason to think it could be malignant currently as it’s small and healthy looking and not bleeding or bothering her and her pup is younger and healthy.

Just like the below the review said, Dr.Gomez and the rest of the staff were cold and prescribing unnecessary surgery is absolutely insane and malpractice in my opinion. The second vet agreed. For what it’s worth, another bad experience my sister was going to give them grace for: “a few months ago I took my dog here to get her cytopoint shot and when I left they told me I’d have to pay the next day because the credit card machine was not working. They said they would call the next day and collect payment over the phone and I left thinking all was fine. 30 minutes later they were blowing up my phone and I was at the grocery store, then they call again when I am driving home and say their CC machine is back up and they need my payment now. I tell them I am driving and they said to pull over to give it to them and I told them no, I’ll call when I get home and they said they were closing and needed it in the next 10 mins and would not stop calling me until I paid. It’s not my fault their CC machine was broken and it was SO rude to call me 5 times and treat me like this when they could have just left a message and I would have called back when I got home. I had never had any issues paying so this made no sense but I decided they probably were worried they would get in trouble or something and it had nothing to do with me….”

Then this happened with Dr. Gomez and we are convinced this clinic is just a toxic place with rude people who do not care about anything except money and will absolutely put your dog under general anesthesia for no reason and it’s disgusting. The other clinic she went to was completely different and so much better DO NOT GO HERE UNLESS YOU WANT TO PAY THOUSANDS FOR UNNECESSARY MAJOR SURGERY FOR YOUR...