Lake City Animal Hospital — Local services in Acworth

I am not one to leave reviews like this but given the fact that I was EXTREMELY mislead I felt the need to share our experience with this so called animal hospital. I had a 9 week old Great Dane puppy who managed to break her leg in 2 spots. Tib and Fib. Euharlee Animal Clinic took xrays of our baby and referred us to Dr Toby Carmichael. They informed us that they did not deal with bone breaks but he was a orthopedic surgeon that could repair her little foot back to normal! We trusted our vet so we immediately took this baby to Lake City Animal Hospital. Toby Carmichael informed my husband splinting this dogs leg may not work since she would grow so quickly so the better option was to put plates and screws in her leg for a better long term fix. We agreed. He was shocked at our quick agree since most people don't go with that option. Looking back I now understand why he was so confused. Anyways fast forward to the day after surgery we pick her up. She seems to be doing great! She's happy to be home able to use the leg to go potty and kind of keep her balance. We were told to keep her as still as possible and if we had issues with restlessness please give them a call for a sedative to help keep her more calm. 1 day post surgery we notice the stitches at the bottom are loosening up. We call to let them know she is howling in pain and needs to be seen. They bring her in and let us know they need to press and squeeze on the leg that just had surgery to get all of the fluid out. Ok.. strange but post surgery it may be totally normal. They send us home. No sedative or additional medications or instructions. Warm compress should do the trick. 3 days after being seen this puppy's leg is oozing a burgundy fluid and saturating her bedding and bandage we put on it since they didn't fix the stitches. At this point her leg is twice the size swollen, oozing excessive amounts of fluid, and has a smell. She's also not gotten and rest bc of being in so much pain!! They tell us to bring her in immediately. We do so and FINALLY they decide to take additional xrays which reveal that THE SCREWS are COMING OUT!!! He tells my husband that we should have taken her to a specialist.. he said back up.. you ARE the specialist.. he said no I am a practitioner who performs surgery to save customers money.. he said first of all you have charged me 2 separate times. What money did you save me? He said and if you don't have a license to perform orthopedic surgery why did you do surgery on my animal?! He was confident that he could perform the surgery and mislead us that he was a certified surgical vet!! As a result of this malpractice I now have to take my animal to UGA who is ACTUALLY an Orthopedic Specalist and see if we are able to save this dogs leg or if we have to put her down! This scam that they are running just cost us a little over 3,000$ thankfully they came to their senses and refunded us our money however this will not be over. There will be a major lawsuit for malpractice and a veterinarian operating without an orthopedic license! This is not over...

Classic BAIT and SWITCH at this animal hospital. I read reviews before posting and Jennifer Newkirk's review was spot on with the service we received. Just wished we would have read these before my wife actually went in.

My wife brought in a kitten off the street that had an eye infection. She was told that they would wave the office visit if they had to do anything to the kitten. They also offered free "things" if we brought her in to them such as free flea medication for the kitten. Once there they immediately took the kitten back. At this point the office visit hard started. My wife was then told that she would definitely owe for the visit and whoever told her they would wave it was wrong (bait and switch). The kitten still need to be seen but so far my wife and father in law did not like where this was heading.

On to the eye exam. They looked at the kitten and said she/he is too young for any medication. They then TRIED to upsell her on eye drops that they previously stated she would not be able to use right now. Once she refused they started talking about irresponsible pet owners.

Then it was onto "infectious diseases". They told my wife that the kitten needed a shot to fight against a disease they didn't even KNOW if it even had. They tried to sell her on the shot. Keep in mind they stated that the kitten was too young to receive ANY shots. Then when my wife called their bluff on the logic they started questioning whether or not she was a responsible pet owner (Remember this kitten came off the street). Everytime my wife refused (because things weren't adding up) they asked if she was really wanting to keep the kitten or just leave it with them (basically saying "lets see how bad you really want this kitten so we can see if we can upsell you some more while we can CLAIM we are just being responsible"). My wife didn't bite. Proud of her.

She then paid the 50 dollar exam fee that they demanded which we were told would be waived initially over the phone. We felt we owed it because we didn't allow them to move forward with anything else (why would we?). At this point the girl started say things like "so are you just not going to get the kitten looked at?" My wife's response was "Yes but not by you." My father in law was there as well witnessing all of this.

We took the kitten to another vet office at which point they stated that Lake City has a reputation. We didn't know that going in but we do now. Even more interesting was we called a third vet that we know very well, but are far away, to schedule updated shots for our dog (pretty irresponsible of us to get our dog her updated shots heavy sarcasm) and THEY even said they heard of Lake City having a reputation for this.

This above situation is factual and really did happen. Whether it was a misunderstanding or not it is my opinion that people who love their animals avoid this place like the plague but please feel free to come to your own...

If I could give negative stars, I would. I cannot prove that this animal clinic were responsible for the death of my dog, but I 'know' they were.

It has taken me several years to write this, as the traumatic events surrounding my dog, Charley, still upsets me to this day. I took Charley to see Dr. Carmichael because I knew he was suffering discomfort with his back legs. Dr. Carmichael suggested x-rays, which I agreed to. However they were not able to perform the x-rays at the time, so asked me to leave Charley with them for a few hours, and pick him up later that day. Which I did. This was to be his death sentence.

Charley was not all sick when he went into the vets, but 3 days later he started eliminating alarming amounts of blood. I took him back to Lake City, where they made me wait a very long time to see a vet, despite knowing that this was quite possibly an emergency situation. After briefly checking Charley over they prescribed medications such as Metronidazole, and sent me on my way with no confirmed diagnosis, and another high bill. Later that day I became increasingly concerned when Charley started passing blood around the house. He had lost control of his bowels, and looked lethargic. I phoned up Lake City and explained what was happening, and that I was VERY worried about Charley. Their response floored me! They advised I brought him in to them so he could be kept in a cage (alone) all night, so that blood would not get on my carpets. My carpets were of absolutely no concern to me whatsoever. I was horrified to think they would even entertain the idea of leaving a deathly sick pet alone in a crate, overnight.

I hung up immediately and decided to rush Charley to Georgia Veterinary Specialists in Sandy Springs. This is a 24 hours emergency vets. He was there, in ICU, for 5 days. He received intravenous antibiotics, a blood transfusion, and a plasma transfusion. He did not survive. 5 days later we had to let him go. The bill was in excess of $5k, but I would pay this happily - I just wanted my Charley (who was only 7 years of age) to continue his happy life with us.

8 days previous to this Charley was a healthy, energetic boy who loved his food. Other than Lake City Animal Hospital he had not been anywhere else since his first visit there and the time he fell very sick - not even on a walk. I had several other dogs, and none of them were sick.

The necropsy stated that Charley died from a bacterial infection. There was only one place he had been, other than my home. Lake City Animal Hospital. And as none of my other dogs had shown any symptoms of illness then I can only draw one conclusion.

I will never step foot in this place again, and every time I drive by there I am sickened at what other animals may be suffering, during their stay there.

Draw your own conclusions from this,...