Waterford Lakes Animal Hospital — Local services in Alafaya

If I could give zero stars, I would.

1. My cat is a stray cat who has never been to the vet before. However, she is very confident, friendly and a prime candidate for adoption. I have handled her since she was 3 weeks old, she eats out of my hand, etc. We brought her to the hospital to get her ready to come home. Now here's the thing: SHE IS NURSING a 3 week old kitten. I brought both her and the kitten in to WLAH intending to get mama vaccinated. My family requires our pets to be vaccinated and cleared before they are brought indoors.

When I brought my cat in, I was told that I would not be seeing my doctor, as she is pregnant. It is unclear why this is such a concern as I am vaccinated, always willing to wear a mask, and intended to maintain social distance. My cat has never been handled by someone other than myself and my father before, and I anticipated her needing some reassurance from me. PROBLEM 1: At the time of scheduling the appointment, no one told me that I'd have to do a curbside visit, and that the doctor would call me after evaluating her. To this date, I do not know my doctor's name, and she never called me.

I exclusively interacted with a vet tech, who took a brief history of her, went in without the cat (PROBLEM TWO) and returned with a hefty bill. This hospital wanted to charge me $500 for standard vaccinations and then ANOTHER $500 for spaying and microchipping. Having done a little research prior, I know this is not a normal cost for vaccinating a cat. It should fall anywhere between $100-$300 tops. Afterwards, he took the whole carrier in. I waited. After some time, they brought my cat back with her kitten and said she could not be treated because she 'lashed out.'

I have no idea what happened in that exam room, because this is completely out of character for my cat. The vet prescribed her with GABAPENTIN, a feline sedative, and told me to bring her back in later. PROBLEM 3: THIS IS THE BIGGEST ISSUE. Gabapentin is not recommended for cats that are NURSING. In fact, she should not have been vaccinated at all until the kitten was weaned. This was an unacceptable oversight.

When I brought my cat home, she was traumatized. She started to to bang her head against the garden wall, yowled, and paced. I could not touch her for the next two days. I have no idea what happened in that exam room, but clearly, something alarming happened.

Later that week, I brought my second cat to a different local hospital which is accredited with the AAHA. This was an entirely different experience. My second cat, despite being more skittish than the one I brought into WLAH, was swaddled professionally, evaluated in front of me, and sent home with a bill of $209, a free sample of the Revolution One Parasite Protection (which is $30/month) and a referral to get spayed at a lost-cost rescue clinic. When I left, the doctor told me to bring in a stool sample at my leisure for a fecal exam. Even before I came in, the receptionist gave me a ballpark estimate of how much it would cost and gave me some idea of what my experience would be like in their hospital. I could handle my cat, if need be, and be present with her. The whole team was phenomenal and accomodated me at 7:30 in the morning.

I would not recommend Waterford Lakes Animal Hospital to anyone that loves their pet, which I'm sure is everyone. The doctor I had was Dr. Donelly, and I only know this because her name was on the...

There are two types of veterinary clinics: ones that care about the health and well-being of your animals, and ones that try to nickel and dime you due to the emotional distress from your hurt pet. We've taken our pets to WLAH for 2 years without any problems until now. I took my dog in 5/24 because he had a pretty deep cut on his ear. Their treatment plan was to clip and clean the area [$45.85], an injection of pain meds and antibiotics [$74], medically super gluing the wound, and the cost of the cone [$25]. Then the tech mentioned that she quoted me wrong and needed to tack on another $67 charge for their exam fee after I signed for the original quote, and the vet had to talk to me on the phone asking for the adjusted payment. The tech that day mentioned that if my dog needed sutures that they would have to send me to the emergency vet, but that the super glue would be enough in this case. The vet said to keep my dog in the medical cone for 10 days. I received a call on 5/27 from Karen seeing how he did on the pain medications and that he was fine and that no other check-ups were needed [unless something out of the ordinary happened] and that the wound would heal on its own.

This review brings me to today, 10 days later. My dog scratched his ear, as dogs do, and the wound is the same as the day I brought him in. I called and a technician took down my information and mentioned "so he ripped off his cone and scratched the wound" but I had to correct them twice and say that the previous vet said that the 10 days would have been enough for the wound to heal. Then I was put on the line with another vet [not sure if it was the same one from the first time] that said that it takes "a couple of weeks for wounds to heal via medical super glue.” I asked why they didn't suture the ear on the first day since the cut was deep enough, but they said that they “don’t normally suture the ears” but I still waited to see what their new plan would be for today's visit. The tech came back asking me to sign paperwork to board my dog but did not provide the estimate for the service, so I asked them to get me a printed estimate. The estimate she came back with was the same exact treatment plan they did the first time, so at this point, it was truly frustrating.

My husband also spoke with the vet saying that we followed all of their medical instructions for the care of our pet, but that it did not heal correctly. When the time came for us to retry treatment and we were offered the same plan which would more than likely bring us back to the same exact place, we felt that this veterinary clinic cornered us to get the surgical glue treatment again, just so we could pay for it...

DO NOT TAKE YOUR PET HERE. If I could give less than one star I would. My dog passed away due to the lack of care or urgency from this place. I am completely floored as we have used Waterford Lakes Animal Hospital for the last 6 years my dog was alive and never had issues with Dr. Reinheart. And I am still in complete disbelief at the total neglect my dog received at this place that caused his life. I had called in the morning to have him seen as he was vomiting the night before. They were able to get me in around 8am, and by 12pm I got a call from Dr. Maria Donnelly telling me the exact diagnosis (something trapped in his stomach and small intestines) and they are unable to operate, but not to worry as this matter was not urgent. Not being a doctor and hearing what she said, I even felt as though this was urgent. She informed me she would try to contact facilities in Tampa and Gainesville (very confused as to why anyone would go all the way out there when there are emergency facilities that operate 24/7 within the area). Alas, they told me no one was available at any facility to take my dog and dumped me at the emergency vet down the street. Not only did they give me my dog back at 6pm after informing me surgery wasn't urgent, he was now vomiting blood upon as soon as he was dropped off with me. The doctor didn't even have the decency to come out and speak with me after they had closed, but let a technician bring him out as if she could not be bothered by my dog and his condition. The ER claimed he has been in critical condition this whole time. They were able to operate but it was too late. He passed away after his operation. WHY would Dr. Maria Donnelly tell me it's not urgent, take money for leaving him there all day without the care he NEEDED and insist on telling me there's no urgency? I've been trying to contact the facility leaders and no one is getting back to me. More than likely I will have to take higher action as this is absolutely unacceptable and NO DOG OWNER should ever have to endure what I went though. I left my dog to what I thought was the care of a competent doctor. He had just turned 6 years old in February and from what Waterford lakes animal hospital always told me (even after his checkup in January), he was healthy all around. This is absolutely UNACCEPTABLE. DO NOT make the same...