Los Feliz Small Animal Hospital

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OPEN NOW - Closes at 6:00pm

Where to begin. In short: never look to this place if you are considering having your animal in their care for boarding. Their judgement and medical practices are deeply concerning, not to mention their failure to communicate with pet owners over evolving medical conditions that would be alarming to anyone with a pulse and a set of eyes.

First of all, we really wanted our experience to go positively when we came here to board our diabetic cat. We followed all of their instructions to bring her in for a check-up a week before and had her vaccinated to be safe. Our cat is not an easy one to deal with and we know that, so that's why we decided to pick a VET HOSPITAL to watch her in the event that anything go wrong with her diabetic care...they would surely be the ones to know how to handle it and keep her safe. We couldn't be more wrong.

Over the weekend I checked in to see how our pet was doing and the receptionist let us know that she was grumpy (we expected as much) so we asked if it was serious enough that we needed to come back home, she said, "No, it's just a couple days". We didn't hear from them again because they are closed on Sundays (already a bad setup for animals who need more care than others, because you cannot get to them) and on Monday when we got back into town we were told that we couldn't pick her up that evening because they were closed. Again, bad sign. If you can't pick up your animal when you are IN TOWN they don't understand boarding special needs animals. When I finally got the chance to pick up our pet on Tuesday morning, it was a nightmare to behold. Our cat was unrecognizable; with an upper respiratory infection, blood under it's chin and paws, a bruised ear, discharge on her eyes and due to fear and stress had began urinating on herself. Next was the kicker: a vet tech came out to let me know that she wasn't eating for a day and hadn't been given her insulin in the last 24 hours. Word to the wise: this is mayday when it comes to diabetic cats. Instead, the staff was totally casual and insisted that she just needed a bath and that she would probably eat at home. I asked if a vet had seen her and how terrible she looked and they gave a vague answer that they would have to check (seriously??). Our cat looked like she had been living on the streets for years, and was so far from the healthy cat we dropped off a few days earlier.

After about an hour of her being at home and looking like she was on death's door, she had to be rushed to the emergency vet because diabetics who don't eat are an urgent situation...not a, "Oh, let's just skip some doses, maybe give them a bath and not tell the owners" situation. In the end, our pet was in intensive care for 3 days and was close to being put to sleep. I never thought we would have to deal with this situation when boarding her at a vet facility, and in fact, our 24hr emergency vet couldn't believe she was being watched by vets. I called and spoke to the managing vet (I was too angry to listen to his name to be honest) and when I told him the laundry list of medical problems our cat had he chalked up to, "stress". In fact, he basically said our cat did it to herself because she's an angry cat. He also said they "lost her" at one point when she jumped out of a cage presumably trying to escape their care. Not only was their initial care terrible- but their understanding of problems arising within an animal is self-serving at best. You could tell he was trying to cover any responsibility...such as not giving her insulin and not calling us at any time to warn us of what was happening. That was their choice and it was a life-threatening one.

We've worked with a lot of facilities across the years, but this was alarming and I'm usually not the type of person to write a bad review but I am honestly concerned for other pet owners out there who visit this practice. We are very fortunate to have saved our cat in time, but please go elsewhere and tell others the same.

Something that comes to mind when writing reviews is thinking about how we treat others in the world and in the case of this review how we treat our pets also. The Dr.s and the staff at the front desk plus the technicians at LFSAH have all been kind, caring , considerate and extremely skilled.
Mind you the Gals at the front desk are also professionals some with degrees in science, some parents etc...They have all been wonderful and helpful, put yourself in their place, some days are crazy some days were grouchy...try asking them how their day is going or what their pets names are , instead of the selfish entitled attitudes people carry now a days !!!
My cat is 24 years old and has been a patient there for 12 years. She is currently under the care of both the young Dr. C and Dr. H . Ive taken good care of my cat, they see this and without question have provided me with thee best service. Also how can we talk and complain about money when were dealing with another's quality of life ? This is not about bargain shopping. They have also given us excellent references for specialists. Once again everyone at LFSMH is amazing and if you have problems refer to the first sentence in my review again !!!

I don't know how things were previous to my two years here - but I have had two sick babies and this vet hospital has been nothing but professional, deeply caring and reasonable with my charges. I have compared pricing with a few big ticket items with a few local hospitals and it seems that they all are within 5% of each other. I can't imagine charges vary so much from hospital to hospital. I know I can trust them with my dog and my kitty.

The three stars in my review is for their prices, which are some of the highest I've ever paid for comparable work at other vets. I do believe they could be more competitive in that way, especially given wait times, etc.



That said, my experiences with the doctors have been very good. Dr. Costin was great with our cat, who is quite difficult, and helped us clear up an eye problem quickly and accurately. When he had another flareup, Dr. Costin was out of town and Dr. Fuller called us. She was incredibly helpful, and even asked us to call her back and let her know how the cat was doing later, even if we didn't need her.