Luv My Pet

Nice people and inexpensive shots for otherwise healthy pets. They show up at pet stores on weekends for busy pet parents. A good choice for people who don’t make much money.

Too many vaccinations in that cheap pack at once. My dog shit herself, rolled her eyes back in her head and almost dropped dead whilt the vet told me to take her to a vet — and it was SATRUDAY so please — give your pets vacc’s a few at a time — better this way thanks

***WARNING: One of the chief selling points of Luv My Pet is the fact that you don’t pay a fee for an exam. No one said that there wouldn’t be any exam given! This doesn’t seem to be a responsible practice!!!
Even if you don’t care about getting a yearly exam for your pet, there are other problems with the Luv My Pet clinics.
Today, we went to Petco in St. Charles, off of North Avenue, for our first ever vaccination clinic (This is the Dempster Ave, Des Plaines, IL, Luv My Pet branch providing the Petco Clinic.) From the information on the Petco website, as well as the brochure we received, we thought perhaps it would be a less expensive option than going to our vet. However, it wasn’t much less expensive, because there were hidden fees located in the fine print, which is honestly unreadable. The checkout person told us she’d asked many times to have the brochure changed, because so many people couldn’t read it and had been upset, but nothing is ever done.
The other issues are the horrendous wait times, long lines, and disorganization. The clinic was scheduled to run from 10:00 to 12:00 this morning. We arrived at 10:05 and didn’t exit the store until 11:45. No one greeted us and paperwork wasn’t handed out until we’d been there for over an hour. When we arrived at the store, there was no one to tell us what the procedures were, and pets (mostly dogs) were lined up in such a way that anyone entering the store was obstructed by the end of the waiting line. The poor adoption kitties at the front of the store had a huge line of dogs stretching in front of their cages, and there was no separate waiting line for the cats waiting to be vaccinated, who looked scared to death. When our pet was vaccinated, there were other pets in close proximity, including a German Shepherd that had been snapping at other dogs, and whose owner had warned everyone around them that he didn’t like other dogs. This is not good safety practices, at all!

We brought in a neutered male Boxer that had been adopted from the Springfield IL area and has paperwork from Morgan County (shots, de-​worming, micro-​chip, etc). A very rude and abrupt woman from the store who was working with Luv My Pet walked up to us and started talking to the dog, not to us, saying, «Buddy, you need to get your balls snipped.» We showed her our paperwork from his last rabies shot, which listed the dog as neutered, and explained he had been given a vasectomy style surgery rather than having his testicles removed, because the people who originally bought him had wanted to preserve his «male look» and show him. The store worker kept arguing with us and kept saying things like, «My dog is neutered and he doesn’t have balls. Show dogs have plastic ball implants, does he? Even the vet says that isn’t the way it is done. «Finally we said, «What are we arguing about here? What’s the point?» Then they told us that it was an extra ten dollars for an un-​neutered dog to get a rabies tag. How stupid! Why was this worth alienating customers and holding up the line behind us? Wouldn’t it have been more responsible to explain this rather than being so confrontational and argumentative?
The young woman who took our paperwork before the vaccinations was nice, and she apologized for the rudeness of the «balls» store worker. We were told later that it was company policy to assume pets were un-​neutered if they had their testicles. Then we were told that if we could prove our dog was neutered we could contact the company in Chicago and get our $ 10 back. They insisted they needed paperwork from the breeder, and that his earlier vet/​vaccination record wasn’t sufficient. Again, this was just such a huge amount of wasted time, stress, and inefficiency. We agreed to pay the extra money just to get out of there, and to avoid holding up the waiting line that still stretched back to the main entrance behind us.
Really people, if you value your time and your sanity, and don’t wish to tangle with verbally abusive staff members, don’t bother!

Never, NEVER again. I wish there was a minus rating. I went to the Luv My Pet clinic at the Petco in Hillside only because we were a week late in updating our dog’s vaccines and he needed them for his play days at the park. The techs handling the paperwork were a dream. They obviously love animals and made it a point to play with our big baby boy (a 2-​year old, 70 lb German Shepherd). The female vet was HORRIBLE. Immediately she had her hands on our dog without properly introducing herself to him. Everyone knows you don’t approach a dog without letting him sniff you, especially a German Shepherd. The first shots were no problem. Then came the heartwarm test. Because our dog was a rescue, I wanted to get him this test. BIG MISTAKE. I have never heard our boy Unilocal and cry like he did. Then he tried to bite her. She then blames me for his acting out. I calmly told her that I wasn’t the one with the needle. I was then scolded for telling our dog «good boy, good boy» while having direct eye contact with him. This stupid woman then told a male tech to grab a muzzle and hang on. He had our dog in a choke hold and the vet went after the other leg. I wish I could have bit her. Then she had the audacity to tell me that the dog was full of adrenaline and his heart was racing. Again, my fault for not keeping control of him. After I paid ($ 81), I took our boy and left. While passing the other people in line, I warned them about the callousness of this vet. Next year I will pay the extra money and go to a real vet.

Ethically I don’ t know how these veterinarians sleep at night. To vaccinate a pet without even talking to the owners or laying their hands on the pet? Without even listening to their heart or taking their temperature?
I’m a Vet and I would not be able to sleep at night.
In my book they are preying upon people by offering low cost vaccinations without examinations. People can be mislead into believing they are «taking care» of their pet by getting them a vaccination every year meanwhile serious medical problems can go undetected.
Veterinarians that give vaccinations without examinations? I wouldn’t trust them. I don’t appreciate what they do. They shame the Veterinary industry in my opinion. They are doing a grave disservice to any pet owner that goes here and thinks they are doing «right» by their pet. I am saddened each time a client of mine shows me the paperwork from here, and hope that there isn’t something wrong that I could have helped with if their pet had only been given an exam.
All that being said I do realize some people will go there because they are cheap. Cheap. Think about it. It’s not a good word. You get what you pay for.
I do not recommend them, period. But if you do, please get a wellness exam yearly at a Veterinary Clinic.

It came due for my dogs to be re-​vaccinated. My 8 year old by had the 6 in 1 shot with bordetella. This was his first time having this shot. (previously he only had rabies, distemper and lepto). He Immediately he began to cough. He coughed every day, every hour after that vaccine for a week and a half. Luv My Pet emergency numbers told me this was a normal reaction. My vet told me it should clear up on its own in 10 days.
My boy didn’t live 10 days. He DIED.
Do not EVER give your dog this vaccine. It has too many vaccines in one shot and your dogs immune system might not be able to handle it. RIP my sweet boy. I’m so sorry I gave this to you.

So I went to the luv my pet clinic at petco in Schaumburg for the first time. First and foremost the woman handing out paperwork were very friendly. I totally just got there in the nix of time too because when I was at the paper work table I looked behind me and there was a LONG LINE!
The girl helping with my paperwork was awesome and very friendly even looking up different luv my pet clinics because I wasn’t able to come back in two weeks on a Tuesday because of work (they had to split my shots bc my lil guy is 9 lbs)! so 5 stars there! I agree with the other reviewer it would be nice to have a pager and walk around but since I didn’t have to wait too long I was ok.
OK so next I go to the line for shots I guess I went a little too far from where I was supposed to stand and dude was all like get behind the white paper ma’am god I hate nothing more than being called ma’am! Ok so it was my turn and the «vet» seemed in a rush … She popped my lil man w all these shots so fast and he was shaking and scared because «security line man i.e. vet tech» was man handling my dog I guess he wanted to practice his MMA moves or something because had him in a choke hold while the shots were being administered. I didn’t say crap! He was so worked up he peed!!! Then it comes to drawing blood for the heart worm test. This was traumatic for ME and my guy! The vet was sticking him w the needle he’s whelping in pain and freight. I swear to god she had the audacity to look at me and give me a frustrated scolding on how I shouldn’t tell my dog good boy when he’s shaking and whimpering. I’m being nice and not arguing back and I ask ok what should I have done she goes tell him NO! EXCUSE ME??? (i get that its telling him its ok is saying the behavior ok, but damn hes like my kid! You gonna tell your kid NO when he’s crying while getting stuck with a sharp needle! NO your gonna comfort him!!) After she stuck him he Unilocaled really loud and I guess pulled his paw back and the vet like yelled at him like it we his fault «why did you do that I had it in the pain was already over». HELLO MY DOG ISN’T HUMAN STUPID! So the whole blood drawn was a horrific experience for me and him! So she doesn’t know if she was able to get enough blood ugh!
All in all affordable vaccination prices! 5 stars on that.
Staff helping gets 5 stars
Vet and tech get 1 star IF THAT. Didn’t care for how they preformed the service.
I’m going to try out Randell Road Animal Hospital in crystal lake next time! Free visit first time after that 29.00 (which I’ve never seen anywhere else). Thursday, Friday, Saturday half price vaccinations by appointment !!! So don’t have to wait in long lines!
Hope this helped!

Luv My Pet is a vaccination clinic that is hosted by several Petco stores in Chicago and the suburbs. They also have clinics in several other states.
If you check out their website
, you can look up times and locations for the clinics as well as prices. The prices are phenomenal, but the waits can be VERY long.
One time I got there about 10 minutes after the listed ‘start’ time and there were already about 20 people in line. I had to wait over 3 hours. Last night I got there 30 minutes prior to the start and it only took 1 hour (for wait and vaccinations). I would give it more stars, but there are two things that they need to improve on.
One is to come up with a better system for people waiting. Have a ‘Take a Number’ stand. Then people could at least walk around the store. It would be better for the Petco too, because you’d have people looking at things instead of just standing there. Another suggestion would be that they could have those little pager disks that restaurants have. Again this would allow people to walk around the store (or take their dog out for a potty break).
The second thing is the fact that you HAVE to get a heartworm test if you want heartworm medication. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had your dog on it for several years nonstop. They won’t sell it to you unless you get the test. I will say the test is only $ 15 more dollars (plus the cost of the preventative medication), but it is the point that you shouldn’t need a test if they’ve been on the pill all year long. You would think they’d be happy to sell the meds, just so that people would keep their pets on it.
So 4 stars for awesome prices, lots of available times and a multitude of locations. –1 star for the poorly managed lines and setup. –1 star for the mandatory test to get the meds. +1 for the fast and friendly vet, although getting a face full of kennel cough vac wasn’t pleasant. (It’s squirted up the nose and my dog blew it back out in my face. She told me to look into her eyes and talk to her face to face. Can I just say… YUCK!?! At least I don’t have to worry about getting kennel cough).
Bottom line, if you are having trouble affording vaccinations, go here. All pets should be vaccinated. This place makes it affordable (even on a tight budget).