Live Oak Veterinary Neurology

Super nice staff. Took care of my baby kitty girl. They were great with her, and let me be a part of the decision making to help her, and no pressure to do more work with her than what was needed (or could afford) Dr King was great.nnThank you for taking care of us today!!!

Great jobnHarley doing great after surgery

My French Bulldog started showing signs of pain at the end of August. It started on a Saturday night. My husband took Sophie to the ER vet on Sunday morning. The doctor said she had a soft tissue injury. We took Sophie to our vet the next day. Our vet also felt it was a minor soft tissue injury, but because French Bulldog’s are notorious for a disease called IVDD, he referred us to Live Oak. We took Sophie to see him and he examined her and said he thought it was her neck that was in pain because her ear twitched during physical exam. We agreed she needed an MRI. He did a MRI on Sophie and said he saw 2 lesions on her brain and suspected an autoimmune disease so he also did a spinal tap. They are closed on Wednesday and that afternoon Sophie started walking like she was drunk. She was very wobbly on her feet and acting completely different personality wise. We took her back to the ER vet. The doctor passed all of symptoms off to the spinal tap and anesthesia.nnWe took her back home again. Within 5 hours of taking her home she became paralyzed. We took her back to the ER vet. This ER is in the same building as Live Oaks. I received a call from Dr. King and he said that the test results showed she had GME which is the autoimmune disease he briefly touched on. He said he was going to treat her with chemo agent drug as well as high dose of prednisone. He called me the next afternoon which is now Friday. Dr. King said the cocktail he gave Sophie, didn’t work as well as he hoped, and he recommended a MRI of her spine. I asked him why he needed to do another MRI on her spine. He then dropped a bomb on me and told me he NEVER scanned her back. He only scanned her neck and head. He said he wasn’t going to charge us for the 2nd MRI. He called me a few hours later and said she needed surgery on her spine. Of course we authorized him to do surgery on her since she was still under anesthesia. He called after surgery and said he had to operate on her L3 and L4. He also said she had a large blood clot under her L3.nnThey kept Sophie over the weekend. We picked her up Monday. Her butt was completely raw from sitting in her feces. We were told she had feeling in her hind legs and she had pain in her limbs. None of this was making any sense. What are the odds she suddenly developed GME and IVDD? Keep in mind we suspected IVDD the entire time. I asked him if he was sure she had GME and he said he had to go by the radiologist’s report. I asked him about the 2 lesions. Both my husband and I heard him say this. Now, he started back peddling. I knew something wasn’t right.nnSophie was so sick at home. We took her back to our vet on Tuesday. We asked him to please refer us to another neurologist for a 2nd opinion. We drove Sophie to Athens, Georgia. She was admitted through the ER department. Due to Covid, all communication was over the phone. I’ve already paid almost 7K to Dr. King and now I have to pay another $2300 to UGA which is half of what they thought my bill may be. UGA was waiting on Live Oaks to send over her notes, and scans. Again, they were closed on Wednesday which delayed the treatment at UGA. They didn’t want to put her under for a 3rd time unless absolutely necessary. I got a call later on Thursday from UGA. Sophie’s team had a conference call with Dr. King. Her team said they were all in agreement that Sophie doesn’t have the often fatal GME. They said Dr. King was also in agreement. UGA also concerned that Sophie had no feeling in her legs and that she was paralyzed, we already thought this even though Dr. King said otherwise. I can go on for days how great UGA was to us. Sophie also had no control of her bladder, and bowels. So, to summarize this experience, my dog became paralyzed because a window of opportunity was missed by Live Oaks neglect. We are now at 12K dollars for Sophie’s treatment and my dog is still paralyzed 7 weeks later.nnI don’t know why an MRI on her back wasn’t done. This is the very reason we were referred to him.

Our cat has been having seizures and my regular vet referred us here. Dr King is amazing. He obviously loved my kitty and was very thorough and gentle. He prescribed some meds and ordered a recheck as well as making me completely comfortable in our treatment plan. Highly recommended neurology specialist.

Very caring staff.