Aloha Animal Hospital

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OPEN NOW - Closes at 6:00pm

Doctors are knowledgeable and caring. Have been going to this hospital for many years and strongly recommend it to anyone looking for excellent veterinary care.

Carefully evaluated my dog. After thoughtful contemplation and very tactfully suggested that there might be another diagnosis than the one a previous vet had given. Suggest a new drug protocol and frequent bathing. The dog is already improved. Second dog was candidate for accupuncture. This dog was also carefully evaluated. Some response to new protocol.

Very pleased with the options.

I took a severely ill kitten, demonstrating neurological impairement, inability to eat or drink, respiratory distress, diarrhea, elevated heart rate and high fever in for consultation with Dr. John Abella. He made a diagnosis of feline herpes virus (FHV), that turned out to be incorrect, solely from a brief inspection that proved to be both incorrect and potentially life-threatening to my pet, without performing any substantiating tests. He prescribed and administered an inappropriate antibiotic shot known as Convenia, that is not only expensive, but is only approved for skin infections, of which my kitten had none. In addition, he recommended the kitten be put on an expensive, life-long regimen of Lysine for control of the FHV - a protocol that was discredited in the early 2000's as being completely without merit of any kind in reducing the severity or recurrence of the disease. He further recommended the kitten be put on the expensive, anti-parasitic Revolution. Both the doctor and later the nurse attempted to sell me a year's supply of Lysine and Revolution, before leaving their office.

My kitten's condition continued to rapidly deteriorate in the next 2 days, despite the antibiotic injection. So two days later, I took her to the Veterinary Specialty Hospital in Escondido. With no time to waste, they immediately started giving her critical care of IV fluids and broad-spectrum antibiotics, while performing extensive testing of every feline infectious disease possible. The finding - not FHV at all - but a severe micoplasma bacterial infection, plus an unidentifiable viral infection.

So, had I not done my research and sought secondary diagnosis and treatment, Dr. Abella's misdiagnosis would - as a worst case scenario - have resulted in the death of my pet. At a minimum, his recommendations would easily have resulted in approximately $1000+ in inappropriate and unnecessary expenses a year.

Suffice it to say, I will not be bringing any more pets to Dr. Abella's Aloha Animal Hospital, nor will I recommend it to any of my many friends or followers...