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CB Animals and Pets Review of Kailua Animal Clinic
Kailua Animal Clinic

Kailua Animal Clinic review: Deadly service! 6

L
Author of the review
12:00 am EDT
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On a Sat. morning about 8am, my husband had discovered my cat had been poisoned when he found small drops of a white foamy substance outside of our porch. When he called for her she was foaming from the mouth in small amounts and convulsing every 3-4 seconds apart. Being well aware that time was crucial in this situation, we had rushed her to the closest animal clinic. When we arrived at Kailua Animal Clinic we explained to the receptionist that our cat may have been poisoned. She brings our cat and the box she was in to a room and she gave us paper work to fill out. As we were filling out the paperwork she had asked us if we had applied Hartz topical flea control and we responded "no". 50 minutes pass and still no word from the vet. The clinic began to fill up and pets were being seen. My initial reaction was, "What is going on, are they working on my cat, why haven't I heard from the vet and why can't I be with her to comfort her?" I assumed they were treating her, but at that moment, an aid had opened the room to let a patient(dog) in and sure enough I see the box still sitting there and the aid grabbed the box and took it to the back. Something didn't seem right, I don't know much about animal poisoning and their protocol for this situation, but currently a nursing student, I'm sure it is pretty close to human protocol. Minutes after that sight, they address me with the bill and I still wasn't informed of what was going on with my cat. They finally ask me into the room and they bring in my cat still in the box, convulsing faster and foaming excessively. The vet explains that blood was drawn for a toxoplasmosis Titre and the results won't be back till the next day, well that would be a sunday and they are closed on sundays. I mentioned to him that she has had all her shots and recently had a check up. He then says that her symptoms must not be parasite. He then tells me they will bath her and run an IV to possibly flush out whatever poisons she may have. Again I thought, " why wasn't this done already?" I knew something wasn't right and I was know starting to have doubts about this vet and the way he was dealing with this emergency. To top it all off, my 4yr old daughter wanted to be in the room to comfort her kitty and he just handled our cat aggressively with no compassion being that she was sick. I understand they have their ways of handling the animals, and picking them up by their back skin may be considered proper, but this really emotionally scarred my daughter. "Why did he grab her like that and pick her up by her fur when she was meowing and crying and sick like that mommy?" she asked me in tears when he left. I understand animals may bite when they are injured but my cat was twitching and gagging out foam, there was no way she could fit in a bite of his hand amongst all her misery. Till this day I have to explain to my daughter in a motherly exaggerated way why he grabbed our cat that way.

After his talk, we had paid the bill and I walked out of that clinic VERY upset. I knew proper protocol was not done. I called an emergency pet clinic and also my cat's animal clinic because I felt bothered by this whole experience with Kailua Animal Clinic. From what they told me and from what he did he handled my cat's situation poorly. I feel that I was taken advantage of. He was well aware that this was an emergency situation and he did not make my cat first priority or start protocol right away. He should have referred me to an emergency pet clinic or another clinic that had the means of proper care like blood test results within 40 min. or less, bathing my cat minutes from her arrival, medication to ease her convulsions, IV and fluids right away. Instead she suffered for about an hour until we were able to pay a deposit, of which we paid the bill in full. We brought her in at 8:30am and she was finally treated over an hour later (bathed, fluids and sedated). I called at 11pm to check her condition and they said she was still wet. Did they just bath her? At 2pm the vet left a message that my cat "EXPIRED" and that he apologizes for not answering the phone (I tried calling him back when he was leaving a message on my cell phone voicemail) because he was leaving the office. They closed that day at 1pm. I called him several times seconds after he called, so I could pick up my cat and bury her. I knew if he didn't answer, I would have to pick her up 2 days later. Could the vet be that heartless. My family had to pick her up 2 days later, frozen in a white bag tied in a huge not. I've had other pets put to sleep because of old age and the clinics placed them in a thick bag, placed them as if they were sleeping. The vision of this notted bag reminded me of a small bag of trash. 3 days after, I called the clinic for her blood results and they still haven't received them. Why did he send out a taxoplamosis titre knowing it wouldn't come till more than 3 days later. He did not take any other blood test besides that one.

I will always wonder if my pet could have been saved if she was taken care of differently. I am just furious and disappointed that her emergency situation was handled poorly. There are other families in this island that feel the same about Kailua Animal Clinic with nothing positive to say about this place. When my cat's regular pet clinic asked me where this happened they mentioned that they do not ever refer pet owners to Kailua Animal Clinic. If only I knew all this.

It's sad to say that I entrusted this professional with my cat I loved dearly and now feel cheated but worst of all my child thought all vets are heroes and this vet had to ruin it for other hero vets out there. It will take her some time and our family time to heal and we now know were not to go if this happens again. Hope other pet owners in Oahu read this.

6 comments
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DR. D.
, US
Jul 11, 2011 11:45 am EDT

I'm sympathetic to your story. I cannot trust the owner of this clinic to do what's best for the animals. There's a 24-hour emergency clinic at Aikahi Park Shopping Center, two miles down the road (Feather and Fur) with a tech always present and a vet on call after midnight. The owner of Kailua Animal Clinic instead chose to refer his patents to Aiea for emergencies. When I explained how this had caused my cat and me hours of suffering during a downpour when driving to the other side of the mountain was out the question, he decided to add the VCA in Kaneohe as a second emergency number on his web site (but not the door sign). This is not good enough. VCA has an answering service after 9 pm. I've concluded that the owner of the Kailua Animal Clinic is more interested in protecting his business turf than in the well-being of the animals and their owners. Too bad, as there are two other compassionate vets working there--but I will never take any of our animals there again, and I encourage everyone to find another clinic where the animals come first.

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Dakine 1
Honolulu, US
Sep 06, 2009 12:28 am EDT

Is this a joke written by a third grader? Your ignorance killed your cat lady not Kailua Animal Clinic. When you brought your cat home did you research emergency clinics in your area? Thats the first thing you should do when obtaining an animal. If you would have done this you would have found that the V.C.A. in Kaneohe is a Emergency clinic and Kailua animal clinic is an out patient animal hospital. "Scruffing " a cat is how the mother would carry a cat and is the proper way to handle a cat. Another thing it's "Knot" and "knotted". I hope you learned your lesson and are more prepared to handle a situation like this if it happens again. All I can really say is I'm glad I'm not one of your pets!

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j_barr
, US
Aug 03, 2009 3:59 pm EDT

I really need to apologize to Kailua Animal Clinic and the author of the second comment as I have no reference for the comment above. All accounts of my comment actually occured at Makai Animal Clinic in Kailua. I'm very sorry for mistake. If I could delete the comment I would.

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j_barr
, US
Aug 03, 2009 3:39 pm EDT

Well in response to the comment above I have no doubt that this COULD AND PROBABLY DID happen at Kailua Animal Clinic and for the author to say that the story is some kind of joke is just outright rude. I have a puppy which is about five months old and since Kailua Animal Clinic was the closest to where I live that is where I took him for his beginning booster shots. I have not been impressed with the vet. The vet assistants and the desk clerks are all very nice, but Dr. Zane is sub par.

On our very first visit I took our puppy in for his boosters and I pointed out that he seemed to be a little scratchy. Well Dr. Zane took an eternity to explain how it might be mange so they were going to check for that. Anyway to make a long story short we needed to buy this remedy shampoo and get some more test even though he wouldn't get the results for over a week. I went home got online read about itchy puppies and guess what little puppies get itchy from playing in the grass. A week went by our puppy got used to the grass and all his hair grew back but not before I had spent a hundred dollars on tests and shampoo we didn't need. I'm sure the vet was just looking out for our puppy's and his pocket book, but you would think that a professional would mention that maybe he was just from his playing in the grass.

As for the last time I was there less than two weeks ago. I saw an old couple crying and knew they must have just had to put an animal down. About five minutes after they left, the staff haul out this large and very dead dog out into the lobby for everyone to see including several children of varying ages. Wow! How about some disgression? I was not envious of all the parents who were trying to explain how he/she was just sleeping.

I understand that I haven't witnessed anything as severe as the story above, but from my dealings with this vet it isn't suprising to me at all. I can promise you that if something does happen to my dog and he needs more than just the most basic care I will not be on my way to Kailua Pet Clinic.

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Hauula, Hawaii
Hauula, US
Jul 13, 2009 2:48 pm EDT

What a JOKE. This would NEVER happen at this clinic. I have been taking all my animals to this clinic for years. Even in the hardest situations my animals along with myself were treated with nothing but respect. Still taking them there and don't plan on switching.

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Renee - South Carolina
Gaston, US
Sep 21, 2007 10:54 am EDT

All of this is soooo sad! But let me tell you... They all don't have ANYTHING on Platt Springs Road Animal Clinic in West Columbia, SC! Even in emergencies I guess it's better to wait it out or deal with MAJOR mistakes! : (