Dr Kimmel and his staff are absolutely AMAZING!!! Our initial visit with them was for our cat who had a mass in his ear....all other vets said they wouldn't touch it or they wanted a ridiculous amount of money! Dr Kimmel was able to remove the mass for an affordable price and take such great care of our cat that we decided to move the care of all our animals. The most recent visit was very sad....we had to have our 15 year old dog put down due to health issues....the staff was extremely supportive and walked with us all the way thru the process from starting to end. You will not be disappointed taking your pets to Academy West!

I have been taking my American Staffordshire Terrier, Shea to this vet for about 3 years now, mostly for vaccinations, once for a bump that was removed and biopsied. It seemed adequate for that and since I had pet insurance this was the place to go on my list of providers. but about a week ago I took her there because she was just not acting herself. weak and just sickly. she is nine years old so I don't mess around and took her in right away. they could not find anything wrong, not that they did anything but take her temp and feel her tummy. I requested a senior blood work to be done, which they said came back fine. Two days later I get home from work and she is having cramping in the rear area, around the stomach and intestines, very lethargic and cold body temp. I took her in immediately. I did not know it but she had also vomited a little in the car. They again said they did not see anything wrong, but took an x-ray which took a long time. I had informed him when I was there the first time that I had switched her to a raw diet in December. He said he did not recommend that but when I had her there this second time, no mention was made of checking her for e-coli and I didn’t know enough to ask him to. he had asked a tech to try to get a urine sample from her by taking her outside I guess, but that was unsuccessful. He came back in later with the x-ray and said he could find nothing wrong except her colon was backed up and full of poop. his diagnosis was constipation and to leave her in the yard for a while, otherwise he said I had a healthy dog who should live many more years . I got one more week. The following Saturday she woke up with the same symptoms. Unknowingly I'm thinking constipation again. I called the vet and they said just watch her over the weekend and see if she is better, if not bring her in. she continued to worsen, so when I called again I was told the Dr left for the day and there was nothing they could do, I had to go to the emergency clinic. In the meantime thankfully we all spent some time with her, she never acted in pain, just lethargic, cold, and the spasms now and then. But an hour later, she could not stand to walk, so we rushed to the emergency vet. They immediately said she was very critical, and "down" as they put it. After an hour of waiting for them to take x-rays and try to stabilize her, the vet came back and said it appeared that she had a perforated bowel which had leaked into her stomach and was septic. the option was surgery which being an emergency could cost up to $30,000, or to euthanize her. While we agonized and cried over this, my daughter, being a critical care nurse, explained that it was unlikely the surgery would help her. When I went back to see her, I could tell she was going, her eyes were already dilated. They put her on a gurney and we got about 5 minutes to say goodbye and then she was gone. In my heart I know that had this vet at Academy West insisted on cleansing out her colon and doing another x-ray, or even doing a blood test for e-coli because I have learned since this happened that a low body temperature in a dog is an indication of that, he probably could have diagnosed her correctly and performed the surgery before it went septic and possibly have saved my baby. As it is, I have lost my best friend and a large part of my reason for living. I am so angry at myself for not taking her somewhere else, among many other things. On top of that, when I called them this morning to cancel the appointment I had set on Saturday, I explained some of what happened to the receptionist. the vet has not called me to find out what happened or follow up in any way.

Every time we bring our Cats to Academy West we are taken care of with passion and true care! This is a great hospital to bring your family pet and I highly recommend there service!

Amazing service. My dogs love coming here.

We have been taking our dogs here for almost 2 years, after a recommendation from our dog trainer. We have always had good experiences and the prices seemed reasonable. Dr. Kimmel and the staff have always been friendly and knowledgeable. However, the last 2 times we took our dog in the staff was very rushed and not as welcoming. Our dog required 7 staples for a wound and the vet only came in for a few seconds and didn't even examine the wound. There were no instructions given as to what home treatment should be or when we needed to bring our dog back to have the staples removed. By the next day I noticed that there was a lot of swelling near the wound. When I called the vet to determine whether this reaction was normal, I was informed that we were supposed to administer some simple home treatments to prevent this from happening. The tech I spoke with said that these instructions were provided during the appointment but no one in the office took the time to tell us anything. If I hadn't called myself, we never would have known and the swelling would have gotten much worse. Though I am disappointed with the recent service, I am willing to give them one more chance based on their history of good service.