Nona's Ark Animal Hospital — Local services in Orlando

UPDATE: It is now 5PM the next day and still no medical records from Nona's Ark. Because this is urgent I just called and Dan claimed that Dr. Norton is "reviewing the records which normally takes about 24 hours." First of all he never mentioned this in person yesterday or by emailing or calling me. Second of all it has been well over 24 hours already and we are still waiting.

Nona's Ark and Dan at the front desk are incredibly dishonest. I went there at 10:30am this morning to request my dog Biscuit's complete medical records. Dan only printed the recent lab results but promised to email me the complete records. It is now 7pm and I still don't have them. Biscuit needs surgery and we need the records to consult with our new vet as we no longer trust Nona's Ark to care for our pet.

Not only is Nona's Ark dishonest, they are disrespectful of your time. We always showed up on time for our appointments and always had to wait 30 minutes to an hour to see the vet, even when there were no other customers in the clinic.

They seem to be focused on profits and up sells as many other reviews have mentioned. For example we aren't concerned with Biscuit's joint health because she's very active and mobile at 12 years old but Dr. Norton continually insisted that Biscuit must have hip pain and upsold us on some joint supplement that isn't proven to work. We never administered the supplement after realizing it had food coloring and artificial ingredients. Biscuit is still moving fine.

Because Biscuit didn't allow Dr. Norton to examine her hips, Dr. Norton prescribed a sedative called Trazodone so that Biscuit would be more compliant on our next visit. Dr. Norton described it as being like a glass of wine for Biscuit. The dosage was apparently massive overkill as Biscuit was lethargic through the next day and started having intense bouts of coughing for several nights after a single dose.

At one point in casual conversation I asked Dan if he was related to Dr. Norton since both mentioned having 3 kids. He said no, not related. That was a falsehood as they are in fact married. Who cares? Well, this comes into play when you read another 1 star review which mentions Dan and Dr. Norton badmouthing a customer as soon as they walk out the door.

For some reason Dan rather than Dr. Norton called us to discuss Biscuit's lab results. That wouldn't be as bad if he were just relaying information, but he went so far as to say he had done Google searches on the interaction of post-surgery medications when we mentioned that Biscuit might need more pain relief than ibuprofen. Dan isn't a licensed vet and we aren't paying or asking for his medical opinions.

Lastly if you look at the positive reviews for Nona's Ark, most of them appear to be fake and written in a similar style. That style is also similar to the responses left by Nona's Ark.

We have many options for veterinary care and trust is the absolute most important thing. Nona's Ark's dishonesty and apparent profit motive are dealbreakers. Withholding my dog's medical records when I came in person to get them...

If I could leave zero stars I would, I absolutely do NOT recommend this vet what so ever. I say this because I took my puppy there to get her 12 week evaluation. And get her shots. Upon examination the vet called me to give me the GRAVE news of our puppy. The vet stated she had a life threatening hernia and signs of negligent breeding along with a “parasitic” skin infection! I asked her what we need to do to correct this and she said she needed a surgery. Keep in mind this is a 12 week old yorkie puppy. We did not want to do a surgery but if it was necessary to save her life we would!! After hearing this grave news I was so stressed and feeling like I got ripped off and now have to deal with our new addition to the family possibly leaving us after we already fell in love with her. After telling my wife we decided to not make a haste decision to have a surgery on a 2lbs puppy and get a second opinion. We took her to TWO other vets where they examined her thoroughly. Both of which stated they did not feel any hernia, and if there was one it was not significant enough to cause any life threatening issues. The “parasitic” infection was just a rash that is common in new born puppies. And has healed on its own without the treatment she was prescribed. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing life threatening. All in all the experience was absolutely terrible, on top of that we spent $450+ on treatment SHE DID NOT NEED!!! Save your self the trouble and do yourself some solid research before you take your beloved...

The Veterinarian is really good and caring, she knows what she is doing, she explained everything to us about the illness, she advised us on the steps we have to take to try to make our baby feel better, she gave us a list of things, vitamins and food that can help , as well as treatments to delay the process of his illness, the truth is that we had not felt that way since we discovered what our precious canine baby has. We are confident that we have someone who knows what they are doing. The other Vet, where we were going for many years could not tell or advise us about anything, we had to do our own research to find out how this disease was. I thank God that we saw that this hospital was located there. The veterinarian knows what she is doing, she is very knowledgeable and Dan, who was the one who answered the phone when we made the appointment, he is very nice and from the beginning he explained us on the phone how was this illness, everybody there is super nice, they really show your pet love, and the doctor devotes all her time and attention, she is not rushing to leave the examination room. I recommend them a hundred percent, you will see the difference, as we have realized comparing with the previous veterinarian, and the hospital is super nice, super clean and you feel relaxed when you are there. We love our baby and we are more than confident to know that there is someone who has the knowledge...