Milwaukee Emergency Center for Animals

Reviews 3

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Dana M

I recently sought emergency care for my very ill cat, Jade. I chose MECA due to weekend hours, proximity to my house, and my cat’s anxiety for car rides. Upon arrival Dr. Lichtenberger (business owner) completed the initial evaluation of Jade and concluded that she needed to stay overnight for blood work and IV treatments. I insisted that the blood panel be completed immediately, while I waited in the lobby, in hopes of ruling out any more serious health concerns. She verbally explained the results informing me that Jade had a serious respiratory infection that enabled a blood parasite to attack her red blood cells to a point where she became anemic. The recommended treatment would involve a blood transfusion and 6 weeks of steroids. I inquired about my cat’s quality of life and the doctor said that Jade would live a long, healthy life and further noted that she has been practicing for a long time and only one cat needed a second steroid treatment after recovering completely. I approved the treatments recommended. Jade did not respond to treatments and was progressively getting worse. By the fourth day they were saying they did not know what was wrong with Jade and that a feeding tube was necessary. That is when I decided to make the tough choice to have her put to sleep to end her suffering. On my way out of MECA, I requested a copy of Jade’s health record. Upon receipt of the initial blood work panel completed within the first hour of our initial visit, I saw that Jade had an extremely high value for blood sugar/glucose. Normal values should fall between 75-125, Jade’s was 355. That is 230 points higher than the high normal range. She also measured with a 265 for ALT and Bilirubin was a 1.4, both of which are liver values. Normal ALT values should be between 0-120 and Bilirubin values between 0.0-0.5 are ideal. Her ALT count was 145 points higher than the high range. These values are concerning and would have prompted immediate reaction from me. If Dr. Litchenberger had presented these values to me from the start, I would have had many follow up questions as to the quality of life and the treatment both short-term and long-term. I am not a medical professional but I have strong concerns related to liver and pancreas issues, especially in a small and older cat. I can tell you right now with 100% certainty, I would have elected to bring peace to my Jade upon awareness of such health concerns. In my heart I felt she was really ill, but prolonged care after being told by Dr. Lichtenberger that it was a respiratory infection that just needed to be treated with steroids and Jade had a high prognosis for a full recovery and rich life. As of right now, Dr. Lichtenberger, the owner of MECA, has not and will not discuss this matter with me directly. I have questions regarding the diagnosis and how it was achieved. Dr. Lichtenberger’s staff has reached out to me, however it has been after 10pm on multiple occasions. I requested to meet with Dr. Lichtenberger to go over my concerns, but this has also been refused. This has been an ongoing issue for over two weeks and I have yet to receive a helpful response from the clinic. There are going to be times when options for pet care are limited to emergency hospitals. If that is the unfortunate circumstance that you find yourself in, please take the above into consideration if choosing Milwaukee Emergency Center for Animals (MECA). You will be paying for emergency services offered 24 hours a day. You will need to be the best advocate for your ill animal. Ask for all results in print so that you can view them yourself. Ask as many questions as you can about any numbers that may not be clear to you. You deserve all of the information that the veterinarian knows so that you can make the best informed decision possible. Remember, your loved one trusts you to make health decisions on their behalf.

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Liz C

Horrible, insensitive. My bird passed away unexpectedly yesterday morning. I raised him from a baby and have had him for over 23 years. He has been through everything with me, and I loved him very much. We had taken him to MECA 7 months prior and saw Dr. Lichtenberger for symptoms of bleeding in stool and feather picking. Intestinal parasite testing should have been done but wasnt. Instead, she injected him with doxycycline which caused his chest to bleed and swell and bruise. It was clear he couldnt tolerate the doxycycline, and she didnt give us any other options. Lichtenberger continued to stick to her story that it was some kind of strange blood bacteria. The symptoms didnt seem to jibe with that. However, there are no avian vets in our area, so I cared for him myself, gave him yogurt, and he seemed to do better. The picking and scratching continued; however, and I tried to call Dr. Lichtenberger, but she refused to speak to us. Two nights ago, our bird got worse, with picking and with a few blood drops in stool. We thought it was dye from his food. When I woke up yesterday morning, he had passed. I brought him to MECA and I was told a "vet" would speak to us. We waited over an hour and finally, the rudest girl, Sheila, very insensitively came in and informed us the "vet would give us a call." They made us pay over $300 for a necropsy and held the bird. We waited until 4 pm without any call from anyone. When I called, Sheila snapped at me, "Well, we are seeing LIVE animals now, not dead ones." How insensitive and rude is that, especially after I paid them over $300? I had to call the Pathology lab myself to try and get answers to my questions. When I tried to call MECA again, I was put on hold for 30 minutes, so I came in to pick him up, and they had not stored his body correctly, pressing ice packs against his chest, which froze the tissues and could damage the results of the biopsy. The vet still refused to see me or speak to me. I asked for my birds records, but again, they refused. The place that does the necropsies on birds is a referral based service, so it is important that the referral is done correctly. We are also having to drive over 2 hours to get there and drop him off because we dont trust the personnel, who seem insensitive and inexperienced and should not be giving advice that really should be coming from the vet. If Dr. Lichtenberger would have done the correct tests, the situation could have resolved itself and my bird would be alive today. All of his symptoms mimic an intestinal infection, which is readily diagnosed, and should have been ordered. My experience does not appear to be the first bad one, based on the other reviews. Bring your pet to a real veterinarian/emergency service, and one that treats all clients fairly, not just choosing and picking who they are going to treat. The place touts that is "care for exotic animals and birds." It is not. Save your money and sanity....and your pet....and go elsewhere.

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Stephanie Silbar

This is a warning to anyone who takes their pet to MECA: Do not trust them. Get a second opinion. If you go there in an emergent situation they will prey on you. When I came in with my yellow lab for a second opinion on a facial infection Dr. Lichtenberger (the owner of MECA) told me the list of procedures she wanted to do would cost $2,500. After sadly deciding I couldnt afford $2,500 I chose to leave MECA and go home to think about my options. After trying to convince me to sign up for Care Credit, and the Receptionist taking 30+ minutes to charge me for the $90 5-minute visit, Dr. Lichtenberger came out and tried to convince me that if I couldnt afford the $2,500 that I should just put my dog down. My otherwise incredibly healthy 8-year old lab who should live happily until at least 14. She wanted to get any money out of me possible! The moral thing for her to say would have been "You cant afford care here, take him somewhere else where you can afford the care he needs" but instead she told me to let her put him down and then immediately proceeded to explain all the options of how he would be put down and if I wanted to be present it would cost more and on and on they went. Well, thank god for women’s intuition because I didn’t trust anything she was telling me after that. She even went as far to tell me she had a facial infection once that was so painful she just ‘wanted to die’ and compared that to how my dog must be feeling – trying to guilt me into putting him down right then. After realizing Dr. Lichtenberger was just trying to get any money from me possible, I went to Greenfield Vet Clinic for a THIRD opinion and they did EXACTLY what Dr. Lichtenberger quoted me $2,500 for, for UNDER $400. Yes, UNDER $400! Dr. Lichtenberger and MECA are present day robber-barrons and I fear they have forgotten all about the moral and ethical side of veterinary medicine and care more about paying for their huge fancy building instead of caring for our pets. I am so disappointed that I ever trusted Dr. Lichtenberger and I will warn everyone that I possibly can about going to MECA. Just because they have that big fancy building and 24/7 receptionist and seem to the blind-eye very professional, just realize they do not honestly have you or your pets best interest at heart. Please don’t trust her – if I had trusted her my baby boy wouldn’t be alive today. I am currently looking into reporting her to the Wisconsin Veterinary Board of Ethics or the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association.