Lakes Animal Clinic at 222 Illinois 173, Antioch, Illinois.

There is a lot to say about this place and none of it is good. My normal vet is an hour away from my house. Around Christmas we had an minor emergency and went here because it is closer. We sat in the small, DIRTY, hot waiting room for almost 5(FIVE) hours. We could have gone to our regular vet 2 times in that amount of time. We finally get in to see this "vet" and I don't think I have ever met a more incompetent person in my whole life. She was older(only relevant because I don't know her name) and she knew NOTHING. Everything I asked her she left the room to go ask someone else.

One of my dogs had a lump in his tail so they needed to do a biopsy. He is 15 and we just adopted him so we needed a check up and vaccines too. She didn't pet him first or even give him a minute to understand his surroundings. She just grabbed him and started poking. I am surprised he didn't bite her. She took him out of the room for the biopsy and when he came back in he sat on the floor...not unusual for a dog right? I didn't know what horrors were to come only a day after that. He started chewing at his tail really bad. He was yanking the fur out and chewed it so hard it was bloody. This office was so dirty, that after his tail was biopsied, he got an infection so bad he was going into SEPTIC SHOCK. He had to be in a cone and on medicine for almost a month. She told me that aside from his weight, he was in perfect health. I took him for a second opinion (this would be the first time he went to our regular vet as we got him right before taking him to Lakes) because it was hard for me to believe that a 15 year old dog is in perfect health. Turns out he had BLOOD in his urine and Lakes either missed it or just decided it wasn't worth telling me. He is in better shape now, because I had the sense to take him to a competent vet.

She grabbed my cat by his scruff and pulled him out of his kennel so fast his anal glands exploded all over ME. It was maybe 80°+ in that God awful, tiny room, and now I'm covered in some sort of poo concoction. It took everything in me not to barf right there. She told me that my cat needed 5 teeth pulled and that she will get him on the schedule right away. I am glad I went to get a second opinion because apparently cat jaws are extremely fragile and the teeth are connected to them. Getting 5 teeth pulled would have broken his jaw and he probably wouldn't have survived due to infection(which is almost a guarantee at this nasty place). Of course she explained none of this to me though.

It cost me over $1,000 to fix the mistakes made here. Even putting that aside, it cost me over $250 to go here that day. Regular, CLEAN, APPOINTMENT BASED vets don't even cost that much. Luckily both of my animals are still alive but had I not realised how bad this place is, I don't know if I would be singing the same tune. I would avoid this place at all costs. Animal medical center of lake Villa or fort Sheridan are very clean, friendly, knowledgeable, and comparable in price.