Affiliated Veterinary Specialists

If you are looking for truly specialty care for your pet, this is not the place to go. If you are in the central Florida area I strongly recommend that you make the drive to the UF Small Animal Hospital. The level of care and professionalism you will receive here is exponentially greater than what you will get at AVS.

My experience here was terrible. I was referred here for a cardiology exam and they have no cardiologist working there. They have a doctor who comes in twice a month so we had to return when he was available. Ultimately I had to find out the hard way I should have gone to the university in Gainesville right from the start. Please save yourself some time and protect your pockets. Go somewhere else.

The hospital manager told me that I was the first client to ever tell AVS that the exam preformed by the cardiologist is not recognized at the UF Small Animal Hospital where they ultimately referred me to. I find this difficult to believe and I was not pleased that I got to pay for an electrocardiogram twice. She did not apologize for my experience but I was given a minimal refund from the original exam.

Preston E. 01/11/16

DR. Knight operated on our dog Bella one year ago. and she was back to her old self in 30 days. Dr. Knight showed me her MRI and explained what needed to be done. She spoke to me right after surgery, and followed up on Bella for weeks. Dr. Knight is a true professional and a class act in my book/.

Words escape me as to how to appropriately express how impressed I am with the level of care and medical expertise that was given to and performed on my miniature dachshund, Sherman. He went in unable to move any of his limbs. Since his neck surgery, he is now walking - and Thriving!

I am so incredibly grateful to Dr. Smith, Dr. Knight, Dr. Wilson, Dr. Ellis... and ALL of the Dr.'s and staff who cared for my boy. "Thank you" doesn't quite seem to be enough to express my appreciation and gratitude. From the bottom of my heart (and Sherman's) we thank you! I now cry tears of joy.. :)

Sincerely,

Bonnie & Sherman

I was referred here by my Realtor/former client. These Doctors are wonderful,. I moved into the area the day after my four legged companion had double eye surgery, they took over the aftercare without any complications and sent progress reports to the original Doctor. What a great Clinic, you can not go wrong.

Never have I ever experience the love care and understanding of a Hospital such as AVS in Maitland. My first contact when I was referred to AVS was with Linsey she has the voice of an Angel and trutly listen to me when we first talked and what help I needed to take care of my Haze. Linsey if you are reading this as well thank you so much my tears have not stopped and as I type I can not stop. YOU made the difference and we very happy to have chosen AVS as our provider for care to our wonderful Haze thank you. We can not express all the words to find for the service and attention that was given to all of us and the most important was the level of treatment Haze received you are all Angel's. Thank you Dr. Weatbrook for treating us as people and going over everything step by step thank you Dr. Westbrook for being caring understanding and most of all the LOVE you have for your job Haze saw this in you and so did we thank you. Thank you Dr.Laslo for the level of service and kindness YOU also give our family and the treatment and care of our little girl Haze she also saw this in you as well. Thank you to all the staff members who did the x-rays and the ultrasound on Haze. If their was a chance to save Haze deep in our hearts we knew AVS was the place to go. Our Haze fought a good fight and was over taken we all tried but it was her time and we did not want to see her suffer or in anymore pain, Haze gave us 12 years that we will never forget and those around her who knew Haze and took care of her from time to time were sadden and losted for words by her passing. She was a very big part of our family now she will be a part of AVS family as well. Thank you AVS for everything and thank you so much for trying. With sadness and much love George Iris and Jack Vazquez what to say thank you for everything we did try

The office staff was polite and supportive, the doctors were all so helpful. When we arrived we thought we were facing cancer and although it was still a possibility up to the day of surgery I knew how it would be handled and what to expect. Thankfully, it was not cancer and my dog, Phantom was able to have the knee surgery. He left the hospital walking on all four legs which is amazing to me. He's just three days out of surgery but he's eating well, walking comfortably and other than sleeping a lot seems to be FINE. I was especially impressed with the way in which all the possibilities were discussed ahead of time. I felt that everyone was in love with my dog by the time I took him home. Everyone was so caring that I felt very comfortable leaving him in their care. I will be singing the praises of this clinic to anyone who will listen.

I took my 7 year old German Shepard to AVS after she had lost a lot of weight from not eating. They found a 5 lbs. tumor in her chest. The specialists were very professional and very sentimental after their findings. Although it was a very delicate surgery, they were able to remove the 5 lbs. tumor from my dog's chest and there were no complications during or after the surgery. Just recently (almost a year after that surgery) I had to take my dog back in to AVS for similar symptoms. I drove over an hour to AVS because I do not trust any other vet with my dog's life. Unfortunately they diagnosed her with Thymoma. My dog received her first dose of chemotherapy and is doing better than I thought. The specialists at AVS have made our unfortunate journey a much pleasant one by being professional, friendly and caring. I would recommend AVS to everyone!

Please don't assume that all of the vets at this facility are "specialists", even though you are paying for a specialist. Be sure to check the nametag of every vet and ask about the letters adjacent to their name. Although an intern is a DVM, they are not a "specialist." Please be sure to insist upon meeting and speaking with the veterinarian who is charge of supervising the intern who is assigned to your companion's case. Look at the nametag of the veterinarian assigned to supervise the intern, and if she is not a specialist, demand to see one who IS a board certified diplomate of the ACVIM. You are paying for a specialist to handle your companion's case, therefore, you should be entitled to see and speak to a specialist .





If you take copies of labs, etc, on your initial visit, please be sure that those are reviewed while you are present and make sure they are compared to any bloodwork ordered by AVS in a timely fashion, i.e., when AVS receives the results. Be sure to ask for medical records as they are being generated.



If your companion animal is hospitalized, be sure to ask for a precise list of what will be monitored and how that will be accomplished. Ask if the veterinarian/intern on duty overnight will be willing to call you periodically during the night to update you as to your companion's condition. Since our companion animals are family members, we are just as concerned about their welfare as we are about any human family member, particularly since animals can not speak for themselves.



Please do not assume that if you take your pet to AVS with a particular test in mind, that that test will be performed at your request, even if you are willing to pay for the test and are willing to assume the risks of that particular test.



We were very disappointed and quite shocked by the lack of professionalism of the surgeon who operated on our companion. We never saw Dr. Stacey Madden, nor did she speak to us after the surgery was completed. After our dog, Peach, died, we asked repeatedly to speak to Dr. Madden, but she never contacted us, by phone, by fax, or in person. I am a senior citizen and have had companion animals for my entire life, many of whom have had some form of surgery, and I have never run into a situation where the veterinarian performing the surgery had no contact with us and would answer no questions. Imagine having surgery done on your child, your husband, or any other family member, and not ever speaking to the surgeon. That would never happen in "human" medicine, nor should it happen in veterinary medicine.





If your primary care veterinarian refers you to AVS for endoscopy or ultrasound, please at least consider calling Dr. Honeckman as an alternative, as he is a board certified specialist, a mobile vet, and from our experience, very good and very thorough. Granted, there are certain tests like MRI, etc, that can only be performed at AVS, but from past experience, it is our opinion that your companion animal would get much better care/diagnostics from Dr. Honeckman than from the veterinarians at AVS. ( especially Dr. Marika Laszlo and Dr. Susan Randell in the internal medicine dept.)



Dr. Honeckman is very thorough, and his written report after doing a procedure is akin to what one would see in 'human' medicine....i.e., it is very thorough, extremely detailed, and gives valid REASONS for his recommendations. For example, he lists findings, physical examination, assessment, and recommendations in great detail, just as one would expect if they themselves were having the same test done, instead of the test being done on their companion animal.



His business name is: Mobile Veterinary Diagnostics, P.A.

His phone number is : 321-279-3MVD