Corrine Drive Animal Hospital — Attraction in Winter Park

At a glance: I brought in two dogs for routine vaccinations, stool sample, and heartworm test. When I checked out, my bill was over $700! After removing unnecessary garbage that was padding the bill, it was still over $300. As a frame of reference, my usual vet visit for all the same stuff averages about $180.

Pros: Everyone from the clerks to the vet techs to the doctor was polite.

Cons: The doctor is an extremely verbose salesman. He can't say anything in fewer than 5,000 words. He immediately started pushing different heartworm and flea treatments than what I was using, even though my dogs have neither heartworms nor fleas, and even after I explicitly stated that I wasn't interested in switching heartworm or flea treatments. The area is pretty run-down and ugly (it's not inside the borders of nearby gorgeous Baldwin Park). The building is tiny and not pleasant to be in. The waiting room is too small for more than 2 dogs at a time. I had an appointment and showed up exactly on time, but I still ended up waiting a long time to be seen. Prices are the highest out of any vet I've ever been to. Their pricing and billing practices are shady as hell (see below).

Details: They automatically add a $120+ VIP membership fee (per animal) to your estimate unless you notice and decline it. I declined it, but it was back on my bill again when I checked out. Most vets will provide an itemized estimate for the cost of your entire visit, with all animals listed together on the same invoice and a total cost at the bottom. Of the 6 other local vets and dozens of other non-local vets I've been to, this has always been the case. This vet, however, handed me two identical (literally) estimates, so I assumed one was a copy, but instead, it was two separate estimates, one for each animal, and neither had the total bill amount listed. They babble on and on while you're trying to read your estimate, making it difficult to pay attention while reading it and spot the VIP membership and other padding on it. They charge one giant fee to cover all routine stuff, rather than letting you pick and choose which vaccines and tests you want. This makes it difficult to know what you're getting and what additional things you might need to ask for, which gives them leeway to pad the bill even further, which leads me to... When you get your dog tested for heartworms, most vets simply use phrasing along the lines of a "blood panel to check for heartworms." This vet includes the heartworm lab as part of their general package, but you can't tell that by looking at the estimate, because it just lists the general package without any of the specifics of what it includes. However, if you ask for a blood panel to check for heartworms, rather than explaining that the general package already includes that, they add an additional $110 blood lab without making any distinction about what it is (it's actually the pre-anesthetic eval that vets normally do before some kind of surgery to see if it's safe for your dog to go under anesthesia, NOT a heartworm antigen test).

Conclusion: High prices are tolerable if they make sense, such as being in a nice area with a nice facility and exceptional care, but their prices are exorbitant for no apparent reason. Mediocre veterinary service + expensive and SHADY AS HELL business practices = I will not be a...

I cannot express how grateful and thankful I am to have this hospital be of service for my cat Luna. She lost a dramatic amount of weight after I came back from my vacation a month ago and it was bad to the point where she couldn't eat or drink even if she wanted too. She has separation anxiety and gets stressed out easily so it didn't help either. I went to an animal hospital that pretty much denied me service as I couldn't afford a $4000 down payment for all the procedures they needed to do on her. They suggested I euthanize her as they didn't believe she would survive after losing so much weight and proceeded to offer cremation services if I did take that route. They were adamant about money as all I could afford was a measly $200 at the time and mind you this happened in a span of a week. The nurse made sure she got my money before I left as I denied their service and I was left in shambles crying my eyes out until I decided to call Corrine Drive Animal Hospital hoping I can get some kind of help. Nicole is the DVM and she was the one who answered my call and heard how desperate I was as I couldn't imagine my life without my cat Luna. She honestly saved my cats life as I was $200 short of money and had no idea how to handle the situation at the time. She gave me advice on what to do with Luna since I couldn't do any kind of appointment till I got paid, which was today. A week has gone by and my Luna literally amazed me at how much she was willing to fight with my help and my fiance's help. If it wasn't for her and her fellow colleagues my cat would of not made it regardless of how strong she is. I only had to pay what I actually could afford and not some outrageous price like a hospital would normally charge for the same services needed. I will always treasure people who go out their way to help those in need despite money being involved. I definitely recommend this location and I forever will go to them for Luna and our 4 other cat babies as they all came from the same mom, different litters. Thank you to everyone who helped me at this hospital and took great care of Luna. I thank Nicole especially for putting herself out there, not only as a vet care worker but also as a decent human being who cared enough to show compassion in dire circumstances. I will forever cherish this memory and will always talk highly of them for going above and beyond for my...

When I arrived as the last appointment of the day and told the vet tech that this was my kittens first appointment with a vet, rather than being annoyed that I had forgotten to inform them of this before, he was extremely courteous and took a good 20 minutes to explain every package/vaccination option and patiently answered every question that I had. I really grilled him about the price of every shot and service because I had been previously burned/sticker shocked at the register of a certain downtown Orlando vet. The tech took everything in stride and was totally open and candid, which was appreciated. Evidently they routinely go over every detail of the visit prior to doing any work instead of just diving in then rushing you to the register. Anyway, the doctor was also remarkably pleasant and took his time to thoroughly examine my cat and answer my questions. Being this was my first cat, I wasn't sure how to clean its ears so, he had 2 techs come in and show me how to properly do this. Little services like that are what set your average (not poor, but I'm sure you've been to a 'blah' vet before) vet apart from an excellent one. The doctor left us with a Kitten Kit which had some important guidelines for cats and included a free month of Revolution, which was a bonus. The tech made sure to go over every form in the package with me as well.

Basically, it sounds corny but, you feel like an individual when you were there. Nothing was rushed or assumed, even though I didn't walk out of the door until 20 minutes after their official closing time. The staff was friendly and almost elated to see me and my cat. The cost of our visit was very reasonable as well! I will probably be back soon with my dogs. Bravo, Corrine...