Lake Street Animal Hospital

Honestly, I couldn’t be more thankful to have spent countless weeks of research to find this INCREDIBLE place. All of the staff are so wonderful and compassionate. All of my questions get answered and I never feel disappointed whether I call in for advice or to simply make an appointment. The Veterinarians are so gentle and very knowledgeable. The prices are wonderful. They’re never pushy and you get great discounts if you’re a new patient! I appreciate this place so much. Thank you for your genuine kindness.

Simply put, Lake Street Animal Hospital is the best for your furbabies.
From Sandy at the front desk to Mike the Vet. Tech to Dr. Homann, we had an informative and positive experience.
Our 8 week old pups were scared and shaking but they were soon at ease from the gentle hands of the wonderful people at Lake Street Animal Hospital. Highly recommended.

I had to downgrade my review because of a recent experience. My friend’s black labrador retriever puppy, Murphy, was staying at my place and went out for an appointment at Lake Street Animal Hospital. While getting his nails trimmed, he let out a high pitched squeal and the veterinary technician dismissed his cries of pain, saying that he was being a drama queen. We noticed drops of blood on my newly cleaned floor and traced it to my friend’s puppy.
Luckily I had read the Ottawa Valley Dog Whisperer article about what to do if your puppy’s tail gets severed and provided quick advice and supplies to treat the injury. My friend received no response from Lake Street Animal Hospital, even though he had their paid Paw Plan. He called again the two following days, leaving voicemails, and still didn’t get a response.
I’m so glad that I switched to Army Trail Animal Hospital for my beagle puppy a few months earlier. Lake Street Animal Hospital charges 25% more for office visits, 5% more for vaccines and ignores urgent injuries that their staff inflicts on puppies.

Millie’s first Vet visit here. Highly recommend everyone to go. Genuinely amazing staff, techs and vets are both great with throughly answering your questions

Brought my dog in here for an emergency work-​in at the end of busy day. I was able to get fit in and did not have a very long wait. Dr. Sasser and Rachael (the CVT we had) were absolutely wonderful. They were compassionate and understanding and everything was communicated to me wonderfully. I was also a part of the decision making, which I find important. If it had not been for my initial phone call being a little ‘rough’ I would have given it 5 starts. It was definitely 5 star veterinary care, just the customer service on the phone was a little off. However, the receptionist checking me out was wonderful as well.

I love this place and even better my dog loves them also! We went here when my last dog was getting sick and they were so kind and gentle and always had a place in their schedule for her. After she passed, about a year later we got a puppy. They are so patient with our new puppy and how they treat her is above and beyond from knowing her name and giving her tons of love! This is the best place for our family treasure, our dog!

We’ve been bringing our kitties here for a little over a year now and we love it! From the front desk to the vet techs to the doctors, the staff is great; you can tell that they really love what they do. When you come in you’re greeted by Beatta and Morgan (the sweet lazy kitty), and you automatically feel like you’re in the right place.
We’ve had a few health issues with our kitties, including an episode that became life-​threatening but didn’t have an obvious origin. During that time we were in their office every day trying to figure out what was going on with our kitty and keep her from getting worse. In the end we had to have her hospitalized at Blue Pearl, which worked out great too. During this whole ordeal Dr. Fritsch was very concerned, I could tell how much she really cares about our pets. It’s nice when you have a vet that listens to your concerns and gives you great care, but it’s such a bonus to have vets and staff who make you feel like family. I highly recommend this animal hospital.
Hint: if you have any on-​going health problems or an aging pet and don’t have pet insurance, buy into their Paws Plan, it’ll save you money in the end (especially with those pricey dental cleanings).

The front desk staff/​customer service team are AWESOME and super friendly. The doctors and their assistants are very knowledgeable and thorough. The facility is very clean. I highly recommend them!

Front office staff is excellent — the vet techs and Dr Bowman are professional, friendly and it is obvious they love to work with animals. I think they would do their best to take care of my family dog.

Lake Street Animal Hospital is the best in the area. I love Dr. Fritsch — she’s been seeing my cats for 5+ years. She remembers them when they come in, and always follows up on previous health issues. The entire staff is extremely empathetic and truly seems to care about the well-​being of my cats. At times they have adoptable cats in the lobby, and they promote adoptable cats and dogs from local animal shelters on the TV in the waiting room. It’s great to know that my vet is involved in the animal rescue community.

I love love love this place. I used to work at animal hospital for 9 yrs and when I decided to get a pet my manager and some of the other staff were extremely rude to me about it. I had a great doctor but some of the employees used to tell my dog to shut up or would bang on her cage to be quiet when She came in for shots. When I came to Dr. Bowman and the lake street animal hospital staff, they made it feel like a family. Everyone There was so welcoming and warm hearted. Dr. Bowman answered all of my questions and called me 2 days in row to check on sparrow after her spay. The staff there always remembers sparrow and plays with her every time she comes in. Beata, one of the receptionist, is one of the most friendliest loving people I have ever met. She is so nice and bubbly. Everyone there really likes what they do there, they all seem to get along very well. it just has a great vibe. I recommend this place to everyone with a pet. They have a paw plan which j have th at includes a dental routine of course and covers 4 exams unlimited nail trims and some blood work. Also gets discounted on xrays etc. which in my case helps cause my dog got sick quite a bit in the last year. So yes love this place!

The staff here is the best so lovable towards my dog. Unfortunately, my angel baby king passed yesterday. They did everything they could. Every time king was sick i knew they always had the answers. I just want to say thank you for everything you did for my bulldog King Griffin.
Thank you

The customer service here compared to other clinics is beyond great. They take extra care and consideration and understand someone’s financial state may not be entirely stable. Unlike other clinics, they don’t pry money from you but tell you the costs and plans, etc. I highly recommend this place for a longterm clinic to go to.

I never write reviews, but the customer service as well as the special care they show to my pets is incredible. I can’t describe how amazing this animal hospital is. I would recomend this place to everyone who is an animal owner. You won’t regret it. Thank you Lake Street!!! Keep it. up!

Olaf is my first dog and I would have not found this wonderful office without Unilocal.They are great with him. He was found on the street prior to being rescued and can be skittish around new people. He loves everyone there from the receptionists to the assistants, to the vets. They provided me with useful information, without being condescending. I have been there 2 times since our initial visit. I had his teeth cleaned and his lepto booster. They are helpful and they were quite understanding when he marked. I signed up for the pet plan and it is really working for me too. I pay a bit each month, get a yearly teeth cleaning, about 4 vet visits among other things. I would recommend them to anyone searching for a vet. They truly care about you and your pet.

The staff here are really nice and friendly. When I walk in it seems like they all get along and work well together. They remember my dogs when we come here and it refreshing to get this traditional kind of customer service because it’s almost nonexistent.
The nurses are gentle and the doctors are very knowledgeable. They’re not quick to jump to performing surgery on your pet if something was not right. The fees are also very reasonable. With grooming, the service is offered and not very expensive.
The only hang up I have is that to get their shots done here is expensive compared to other veterinarian clinics I have been to. Otherwise. Everything else is perfect.

Do not trust these people with your email address. I gave them my email specifically so that the vet could contact me through email since I live through email. Receiving calls is problematic for me during the day since I’m at work.
Imagine my surprise when not even a day later, I start receiving emails from them and other companies about their pet portal, surveys from sterling research (who the heck are they?), and the national vet society. Not even two days!
Edit: so it’s 2 years later, and I’m STILL getting spam from them, through Belly, after I requested that they stop spamming me. So much for their REMOVE option.
When I do get contacted by the vet, it’s by phone.
When I gave them my address, no one said I’d be opting in for all this garbage. Spam filters don’t work perfectly. The best way to keep spam away is by not giving your email to anyone untrustworthy, and up until now I’ve been reasonably clear of spam.
When I called to complain, they tried to explain that I could easily opt out (!!!) I don’t want to opt out! I don’t want to ever be opted IN without my EXPRESS permission!
Don’t give these people ANY information you don’t want spread to third party companies. You can’t trust them!

Not my standard vet but the rescue group I adopted my dog from set up the appointment for me to get puppy shots. All the staff were extremely friendly and the vet was quite nice and treated me with respect which I wasn’t sure to expect since it was a ‘free’ visit for me. They did the needed work, talked to me for a while and then I left.

After Petsmart/​Banfield basically traumatized my sweet baby cat, I had to find a new vet when both of my kitties were sick at the same time. Zuka wouldn’t eat and kept throwing up for days (which was the same issue she had a month prior when Banfield didn’t do much about it), and Bogart wouldn’t stop peeing anywhere. Our apartment was a constant mess of puke and pee. It wasn’t pretty. And we needed to get them feeling better, quickly. Petsmart was out of the question, so after a quick search on Unilocal and asking for some recommendations, I decided to entrust Lake Street Animal hospital with the care of my babies.
Oh, I am so glad I did.
We got in quickly. There was a short wait for our appointment, and the appointment itself was great. The staff (vet/​vet tech) took their time with us, asking many questions and really listening to everything we had to say about the cats. They were patient and kind towards my babies; neither of them were scared. After we talked, they did a couple tests on the cats, skipped a few tests, and gave a little bit of medicine to Zuka. I did have to return a few days later with one of the cats for a check-​up and that went smoothly too. Actually, the vet that looked at her had just put a cat down moments before looking at my baby. She was clearly sad about having to do so, which touched me. She CARED.
I am so thankful they didn’t try to force me to run all the tests and rack up hundreds of dollars. They did everything one step at a time, consulting with us before making any decisions. Their sicknesses were discovered: sensitive stomach and kidney stones. In the end, we did pay about $ 300 — which I think is GREAT for the care/​tests/​meds of TWO sick cats. My husband and I were thrilled. Both cats are now on prescription diets and are doing wonderfully!
There was also a kitten in the office that would walk around on the reception counter, which was adorable and awesome. They didn’t mind when I put Zuka on the counter (in her temporary carrier — my purse!) and cooed over her. All the ladies paid so much attention to my pets — they weren’t just another number or patient — they were living creatures. This kind of care was so important to me. They also showed in interest in me, which made me feel like a very valued pet mama.
Highly recommend this place to locals who want great care for their furry babies.

Please allow me to set the scene… I’m home recovering from major surgery. I’m trying to get better as fast as I can so I can get back to work. What does this scenario need? A sick dog, of course!
Our sweet fur kid, Jackson, starting vomiting on Tuesday night this week. He threw up about 5 times and since it seemed like it was not stopping, my husband was forced to come home and take him to the vet ASAP. Our regular vet is Banfield and that is of course who I called to get him in right away. Long story, short, Banfield was insistent on running a whole slew of tests that was going to cost us about $ 450 to find out what was wrong with our dog. I’m home talking with the vet over the phone because I obviously can’t be there and after they ran a test that was not able to find what we were looking for and charging us several hundred dollars to do so, I told the vet to not do anything else and send them home. We’ll find someone else to take care of our dog.
I posted a comment on Facebook asking friends if they could recommend a good vet in the area and people listed all kinds of places, but Lake Street Animal Hospital was the only place that had so many great reviews, I didn’t think twice about calling. They were able to get him in right away and off the boys went.
Just a short while later, my husband called me to tell me that they did not see any blockages in his X-​ray and they decided to hydrate Jackson with fluids and give him some anti-​nausea medicine to start. If, for some reason, this did not work, then we would bring him back in for further testing and possibly exploratory surgery, but not to be concerned until we got to that bridge.
Now, I was not at the office to tell you a thing about the facility, but I can tell you this… the first thing my husband said when he got home with our dog was «That’s the new vet! They were great with Jackson! It’s clean, and the people were awesome! They even gave me a tour to show me the whole facility and all that they do there… this is the new place we’re going to take Jackson.»
If you know my husband at all, you know that he’s not insistent about anything and is very much a go-​with-​the-​flow kinda guy, but he has decided this is the new animal hospital for us and he truly felt like they cared about our boy.
Jackson did not drink any of his water the whole night and following day that he was home and I started to get concerned, so I called the animal hospital and asked the woman that answered the phone if this was anything to be concerned about and if she could ask the vet for us. Just a few moments later, the vet, herself, got on the phone with me and answered all my questions. She explained to me that she gave Jackson 350 CC’s of fluids so if he continued to throw up, we would just have a ‘sick dog’ on our hands instead of a ‘dehydrated sick dog’. I was so happy she took the time to talk to me and the fact that she explained everything to me over the phone was fantastic. She knew our situation and I was not there when Jackson was brought in, so I did not get to ask all the questions I might have if I was there. They did not take advantage of us like Banfield wanted to and pretty much did. They started with the simplest thing and most logical option and prepared us for what might come afterwards should the meds and fluids not have worked.
I was more than satisfied with the care they provided my fur kid and definitely plan to use them in the future. They had a Unilocal check-​in offer to save $ 25 on new patients and my husband successfully used this discount so out the door we spent just over a hundred dollars and Jackson has been himself the last few days. He hasn’t thrown up since his visit here and my husband and I are both happy puppy parents!
Thank you Lake Street Animal hospital for taking such great care of our boy! He means the world to us and you treated him like he meant the same to you.