Niguel Animal Care Center

2 years ago my cat Buckets had surgery here and I think almost every day about how grateful I am for the quality of care he received. Dr. Shah and the team did an amazing job and Buckets is the happiest, healthiest lil guy. Even though the surgery was on his hips, he is now jumping as high as any cat I’ve ever seen and knocking all manner of items off the counter. Thank you so much, Doctors & Staff from NACC.

Dr. Shah is the worst veterinarian I have ever seen. He charged $15,000 (yes, 15K) for gastropexy that normally costs between 1,500 and 3 to 4 K at most for the complicated cases. He presented the situation as life-threatening (that was not) and I had to make the decision on the spot. I would say this is what is called greed. I saw him once or twice before and he was okay until he sensed an opportunity to get advantage of the situation and profit from it (as the owner of the clinic). I paid, and I would pay again, to save my dog. But when the doctor in the intense case hospital, where my dog had to spend the night after the surgery, saw Dr. Shah's bill, she could not believe her eyes and said this is outrageous and unfair. Another doctor, in Shah's own clinic, suggested to ask him about the price to confirm it was not a "mistake". When I asked him, he said he does not know and does not care about how much other clinics charge and that he charged his price. This is predatory practice. People like him should not be doctors.

I was on a trip from Alaska to visit my family in the Laguna Niguel area and needed a health certificate for my pup to be eligible to fly back home. I called and scheduled to get my dog seen here at this office where they said they can do the health certificate. However after the appointment, I received a phone call that they actually aren’t able to do health certificate because the vet is NOT USDA accredited. Fortunately they were kind and refunded me the cost for that exam. However it is alarming that the staff does not know the limitations of the services they are able to provide. In addition to this I also expressed a concern for my dog contracting heart worms during her 3 month visit in California. It was to my understanding that mosquitoes in Alaska do not have a long enough of a life cycle to promote the development of heart worm as heart worms require temps above 57 degrees in their larval stage and at least 2 weeks above 80 degrees to develop which is impossible as winter temps are frequently and consistently below -20. Through research, I found there is a super small chance of contraction being possible if an infected visiting dog is bit by a mosquito then that particular mosquito bites another dog. However, there are NO documented cases of heart worms in dogs in Alaska that have not left the state. They informed me they can do an $80 heart worm test which I accepted so I could ensure my dog is healthy. I later went to another vet so I could get the proper health cert for her to fly and they informed me that most heart worm test look for the uterus of adult female worms which requires them to be at least 6 months of age, double the time my dog was in California which renders the test nearly pointless for an already rare infection for a young 1 year old dog. The other vet recommended my dog just takes one dose of heart worm medication for $20 which is more affordable and ensures that if any are present, even in the larval stage, that they are eradicated. I reached out to the Niguel Animal Care Center and they confirmed they did the adult heart worm test but denied any reimbursement and were also rude, unprofessional, and dismissive on the phone. My problem with this situation is the lack of information given by the provider with how the test looks for adult worms and that the infection needs to be ongoing for at least 6 months for anything to show up. If proper information about the procedure was provided, as it should be in any type of medical field, I would have denied receiving that test. In addition to this, they recommended a more expensive test where I could have just gotten a single dose of heart worm medication for significantly cheaper and ACTUALLY ensure my dog was healthy (which the other vet promptly expressed). It was an unnecessary intervention that wasted money and again even more time. They have provided good care for my parent’s pets in the past as we have been taking our animals to this location for the last 25 years, but I personally would urge others to be cautious here and we will no longer be going here. There are many great veterinarian offices in Southern OC to take your beloved pets too but unfortunately this no longer seems to be one of them. We don’t see the point of going to a location that is unknowledgeable, deceitful, and dismissive especially towards long lasting loyal customers.

Had a sick kitty that needed to see a vet before Monday. I found Dr Shah, who is open 7 days a week. I called and spoke with Tiffany, who was extremely nice and helpful. She set an appointment for me in early afternoon, but said she would speak with the Dr as soon as he came in because of the possibility of a serious problem. Within minutes, she called back and asked if we could be there within the hour. Dr Shah was very thorough and explained everything along the way. He gave us a few treatment options without pressure. The office is very large and very clean.

Took our dog in on a Sunday night. THey were about to close, but the doctor said he would wait for us to get there. Dr. Shah and staff were very good to Keegan and were able to help him right away. Also, we were very pleasantly surprised that they did not charge the usual significant mark up simply because it was a Sunday night. All in all, a great experience. Thank you and highly recommended!