Chicago Veterinary House Calls

While I was not there, Dr. DiBartolo was there for my mother and her cat when she was needed. It took no time for my mother to make the appointment and Dr. DiBartolo was there promptly, even with a snow storm! It is the third cat of ours that has passed in the past 6 months (one was almost 18 years old and grew up with me from kittenhood, my Florida kitty was less than two but had a stomach disease, and the last little guy was older and had a hard time moving around and eating, I swear we are not bad pet owners, just a bad year for them!). When it rains it pours, right? Anyways, it was an emotional time for my mother and very hard on her that I was not there, but Dr. DiBartolo was very understanding and helpful. I am forever in her debt not just for being there for the animals, but for being there for my mother during a hard time as well. The little guy had a great life and there was nothing anyone could do to make it last longer, so she put him down in his own home with a no stress atmosphere. Dr. DiBartolo stayed and conversed with my mother for a while and by the time she called me she was sad, but was okay! My mother has husky sled dogs so they got a quick (free) check up as well! I would highly recommend this wonderful woman who took such great care of my family! My mother (Kristine) is very grateful and will forever call Dr. DiBartolo.
If it helps, it says Chicago house calls but my mother is all the way out in Arlington Heights, so Dr. DiBartolo does make the trip outside of city limits.
Thank you!

Please, if your pet is sick, take them to a real vet or call another home vet service. Dr. DiBartolo is a lovely woman and is very knowledgeable. However, I cannot recommend her for completing any sort of technical/​medical procedure on an animal.
I’ve waited about a month to make sure my reaction to this event wasn’t purely emotional. I still feel compelled to warn people against this vet, so here goes:
Our beagle Bell had a recurring mast cell tumor that blew up on a Friday afternoon. By Saturday, Bell’s leg was very swollen and we called Dr. DiBartolo to come to our house to evaluate the situation. I have no doubt that her diagnosis (that the tumor had hit Bell’s lymphatic and blood system) was spot-​on. She was kind and gentle and honestly, pretty awesome, during the evaluation. Our plan was to give Bell pain meds and take her to her regular vet the next day, mostly likely for euthanasia. Before Dr. DiBartolo left, she suggested we try to relieve the leg swelling by draining some of the fluid.
That was when things went straight to hell. Dr. DiBartolo jabbed a huge needle in the affected area, «hit bone» and then left the room to go get an anesthetic shot. I am not in a medical field and I know you numb the area before, not AFTER you begin a procedure. I’ve had pets all my life and been the vet my fair share for shots & such. I would say Dr. D’s technique is inexperienced at best. She did not seem comfortable AT ALL using a needle in any capacity.
BONUS: My husband and I were acting as the vet techs, holding our poor crying pup still during this mess.
Bell was clearly dying from this cancer, but before Dr. D got her hands on our girl, she was pretty happy and calm. After the botched «draining» Bell could not calm down, was bleeding everywhere and could barely hobble. We were pretty traumatized, as was Bell, and we decided we couldn’t make Bell wait another 24 hours to make it in to our regular vet.
Dr. D gave Bell another pain shot to calm her down while we filled out the paperwork. She was visibly upset that we did not want to order her «pet memory box» but instead only opted for the clay pawprint. Dr. D attempted to use the last few minutes of Bell’s life getting that paw print. Blubbering & trying to say goodbye to my beloved pet, I had to tell Dr. D to back off because she wasn’t getting the picture that I wanted some time with my dog! To brighten the mood, Dr. D’s cell phone went off several times throughout the draining & euthanasia. It was super-​awesome to hear LMFAO singing to us as our pet was suffering.
After Bell had passed, Dr. D went out to her car to get a blanket to wrap Bell in for transport. She came back in griping about a parking ticket she’d received in the last hour. Dr. D had parked her car IN the crosswalk at the corner of our block. Our street is not busy at all and there were plenty of other places she could have parked. But she didn’t. She parked in the crosswalk and got a ticket. And then complained about it to a couple who had just put their pet to sleep. If I hadn’t already been out of my mind with grief, I would have had some choice words for this woman, but my husband just offered to pay for her ticket to shut her up. So yes, she effectively guilted us out of another $ 55 on top of the $ 800 Sunday visit/​euthanasia.
If you want to put your sick pet through the most excruciating version of euthanasia possible, by all means, call Dr. DiBartolo. On the other hand, I am still sick with guilt that we didn’t just wait to get our girl to her regular vet and wish that we had never found Dr. DiBartolo’s phone number.