El Cid Animal Clinic

For your New Year, DO not bring your pet here! All of the things stated are absolutely the truth. I thought the rude greeting was off putting, like they were exerting their dominance.... then the SEVERVE high handedness of one staff members, I actually thought this woman/man was the doctor, she/he kept correcting me, as to where to sit, put the dog, etc. She/he was a Harley Davidson type looking female ( who knows). Then I get slapped with a $900 dollar bill, ( I brought my dog in because he is CONSTIPATED!) I refused all the services they offered and they reduced the bill to $700 dollars and change. Two weeks later, the dog was STILL constipated. They wanted to charge me to bring him in, performed expensive ex rays, etc. They are certainly MONEY grubbers and have zero bedside manner and just NOT what you what expect from West Palm beach, more of a tacos and tequila roadside stand in Tiajuana, complete with flies.

Dr. Garcia and the wonderful staff in the office took awesome care of my cat. I was so scared to lose him and after two days with them he was back to his normal self. I wouldn’t trust anyone else with my pets! Everyone is very nice and attentive. Highly recommend.

I discovered Dr. Xavier Garcia and his El Cid Animal Hospital more than 1 1/2 years ago, when my beloved little Coton De Tulear suddenly fell inexplicably ill. The doctor immediately diagnosed extreme heart failure. Dudley was not expected to make more than several weeks, maybe months, if lucky. Due to the care of Dr. Garcia — and his amazingly kind, loyal, generous and attentive staff — the Dud is still with us as he approaches his 14th birthday. In addition to being prescribed just the right combo of various K9 and human medications, Dud visits the Clinic once a week for a medical procedure that keeps him alive, much like a person on kidney dialysis. Dud, who has the heart of a lion and Lab tucked into a small body, still has an amazing zest for life, quality of life, and a huge appetite! Doctor Garcia is as good with the "parents" of our beloved 4-legged "children" as he is with his actual patients, the dogs and cats. He also has great patience, is available to his clients, and takes the time to meet with you and explain procedures, prognosis, etc. He does not push huge batteries of expensive and unnecessary tests, as a first line of fact-finding as many vets do. My current and late dogs and cats have previously been a outpatient/in-patient of some of the country's top veterinarians and vet teaching hospitals, from Florida to Louisiana, to Kansas and California, and places in between, and Dr. Garcia ranks amongst the best of the best, top-tier! Cannot say enough good things. I trust my animals' lives with him, and would trust my own as well. Also love his devotion and commitment to a wide variety of pet and human charities and causes, his determination to place rescue animals, AND he is very good-looking, too! LOL. Wonderful to have a handsome vet who is easy on the eyes! Doc Garcia is also a WORLD-CLASS opera singer! A very interesting man with so many fascinating facets and qualities. My yellow Lab Scoot, Golden Doodle Calliope and rescue kitty Micki-Boo are also El Cid patients.

This post is long overdue but I wanted to share the amazing experience I had. I went to El Cid earlier this year with my new puppy. I’m a first time pet parent so I was obviously very nervous and had what felt like a thousand questions. It was a 10 out of 10 experience from the get go. Let’s start with reception. Amazing service. The two female receptionists up front were so incredibly kind and friendly. I spoke with one of them on the phone to schedule and she was very patient and went through a basic pricing with me so I knew what to expect. And when I arrived both receptionists came over to gush over my new puppy. They immediately helped me to relax. And Ollie definitely loved all of the attention. Even at checkout they came to say goodbye and even gave Ollie a cute little goodie bag full of treats, toys and other helpful items. They offered to answer any questions and told me that I could easily direct any questions to them through phone, text or email. And that they were open Saturday too if I had any concerns. It put my worried dog mom heart at ease. Me and Ollie saw Dr. Poole and her technician. I believe his name was Daniel? He was very gentle with Ollie. He was very polite and warm, then when he went to get the doctor he graciously offered me water or coffee. When he came back with Dr. Poole, i was immediately further impressed. They worked like a well oiled machine- he verified information with the doctor and was in and out of the room quickly with the items she needed- sometimes even before she even asked for them. It was honestly very impressive. . Dr. Poole answered all of my questions and the appointment went so smoothly. When it was time for vaccines, I was absolutely beside myself. It was the first set of vaccines for my little guy and I was afraid that he would cry. But nothing! Dr. Poole explained everything step by step. And even told me that they were using the smallest needle they had so that Ollie wouldn’t feel anything but a pinch. They explained what to look out for as far as any type of reactions to the vaccines and let me know that it was okay to breathe. That Ollie was a healthy pup who took his vaccines like an absolute champ! I really liked that the staff asked me multiple times if I had any other questions or if there was anything else I needed. It made me really feel like my concerns as a new pet parent were valid and heard. Ollie and I recently had to move but I would go back to El Cid in a heart beat!

This review is overdue but I was just looking at my pup’s scars (she had three red bumps surgically removed by Dr. Garcia at the end of December) which have healed absolutely beautifully and I felt the need to leave a review of my experience because of how exponentially grateful I am to Dr. Garcia and the entire team of El Cid Animal Clinic. I live in NYC with my rescue dog Lolly and come down to West Palm Beach quite often to visit my parents. After dealing with two separate vets in NYC beginning last July 2023 regarding the three red spots, I was extremely hesitant to listen to their advice — the first one quoted me 3k for removal of the three spots, told me she had to go completely under anesthesia, AND that she needed an entire dental procedure and teeth removed as well meanwhile nothing about her teeth had ever been mentioned prior. This seemed like way too big of a surgery for her (she’s around 7/8) and I was worried about her being under for so long so I got a second opinion (basically, I felt they were just price gouging me and didn’t actually care about what was best for my dog). Next vet said she definitely needed to go under and quoted me another insane price and said it’s always a risk for them to go under and that we could just monitor the spots. Please mind you I also paid almost 1k at each of these vets for biopsies to see if the growths were cancerous which all came back inconclusive. Fast forward to December, I decided to take Lolly to El Cid Animal Clinic as I had taken her before for minor things and they had always been lovely. I know this is long but I just have to tell you how absolutely wonderful Dr. Garcia was. Upon just looking at the spots he simply said “why haven’t they just been removed” and I told him the entire story to which he said her teeth look absolutely fine, of course nothing would come from the biopsies because the spots were so small, and he said that based off of her demeanor (she’s very calm) that he could remove the spots that day without using general anesthesia (this was literally music to my ears). I picked her up a couple hours later, all spots had been removed no problem which have all healed wonderfully and I ended up paying much less than anything I had been quoted previously. Lolly’s spots were keeping me up at night I was so worried about them being cancerous I just wanted them gone and I truly could not be more thankful to Dr. Garcia and the entire team for being so forthright and honest and taking the absolute best care of my fur baby. I will definitely bring Lolly back in the future with any other issues that arise regardless of my living in a different state because of how unmatched I find their quality of care to be.