Yamagata Maya, MS, DVM

We are very grateful for Dr. Yamagata. She did a fabulous job with my dog’s ‘entropion’ eye lids condition. I rescued a 50 lb. black Sharpei who was harmless and gentle but she did not have a home. We decided to keep her and take on the responsibility which nobody else did. After receiving her and getting an assessment and evaluation I learned this is common in a Sharpei. We were fortunate to be recommended to Dr. Yamagata and we were not going to look to other options of who would do the surgery. She came to us as a referral by a trusted source and we put our trust and confidence with Dr. Yamagata and she delivered. Following the surgery there were no signs of she having any prior surgery at all. The surgery was flawless you couldn’t tell she even had surgery on both eyes. It was a success and we are grateful. Thank you Dr. Yamagata!

Dr. Yamagata is excellent! Unfortunately, my little dog was not a candidate for cataract surgery. She was very informative and returns my calls promptly. She’s very kind, caring, and takes her time to explain what the problem is and whether anything can be done about it. Her staff is also very friendly and helpful! I would highly recommend her!

We were referred to Dr. Yamagata from our regular vet for an issue our dog was having with her eyesight. It took a while to get an appointment, but once we met with Dr. Yamagata she took a long time to explain very clearly, in detail, what was going on with our dog’s eyes. She used a model, a binder of photos, and other props to make sure that we understood exactly what was going on. Then she outlined our options in a very clear, but no-​pressure way, and allowed us to come to our own decision. Throughout the entire interaction, I found Dr. Yamagata to be very knowledgeable, compassionate, and kind. She is everything we would want in a doctor.
Dr. Yamagata is a wonderful vet.

This is the worst veterinarian I have EVER been to in my life. I wish there were negative stars to give.
My dogs eye ruptured yesterday. The kaneohe VCA where I took him to, for emergency services, told me to contact her this morning because he needed surgery to repair his eye. They informed me she is the only one who did this type of surgery on island.
We made an appointment for 8am on a Friday which is normal business hours. We show up and the receptionist was very young and inexperienced. She takes me back to the room and at this point my normal vet (feathers and fur in Kailua) had called back saying they could do the same blood draw and panel for $ 120 when she was trying to charge me $ 600.
Her fee for just a consult was $ 280 to $ 380 already and surgery was $ 2800 to $ 3600. The Dr. came in and was very cold and rude off the bat. I simply asked her if I could please get the bloodwork done at his normal vet because it would help me a lot to save $ 500. She started to YELL AT ME stating I should have told her this over the phone and I was wasting her time. That she spent a good amount of time on the phone with the VCA already last night and I was wasting her time. I simply stated that a normal person can’t just fork out $ 5,000 on any given day and she needed to be a little more compassionate with people and their pets and then I started to cry. She continued yelling at me saying this was not true and she saw my car I drove up in, and that I drive a nicer car than hers and that I could obviously afford it. (I drive a 12 year old lexus SUV and she drove a new Honda Pilot, not that this is even relevant.)
At this point I picked my dog up while still crying as she continued to yell at me. I walked out so distraught I forgot my papers that were his medical records, discharge papers and instructions for his meds i recieved from the VCA last night and realized it a half a block away. I quickly turned around to retrieve them and she had closed the gate on me so I could not come back in. I called 5 to 6 times to just please let me have the paper work and she didn’t respond. I honked my horn a few times and nothing. I ended up having to go back to VCA to get new copies of the paperwork while the entire time my dog is in the car suffering in pain.
This woman is a heartless, money grubbing, malicious human being. She does not care about you and most of all she does not care about your pet. Please do not give her your money.
Additionally the other customer that was in there told my husband that she double charged him a $ 400 emergency fee. So he ended up paying $ 800 on top of the consult, blood draw and surgery.
THIS WOMAN IS EVIL

I was referred to Dr. Yamagata via my vet at Feather & Fur. My vet did all she could, and we decided my dog needed more specialized care. It is a very long wait to see Dr. Yamagata (1 – 2 months), so I opted to pay the fee (approximately $ 85) in order to get an emergency appointment.
During my dog’s examination Dr. Yamagata was very gentle and explained what she was doing every step of the way. She was thorough and made sure that I understood my dog’s condition and what the possible resulting scenarios might be. She explained the procedure she wanted to do, and told me that there was an 85% chance that my dog would respond positively to the treatment. We were then sent home with instructions for medicating her and told to return in 10 days. On our follow up visit, my dog had healed nicely, and Dr. Yamagata then instructed us on how to continue treating her condition. I am very happy with the results of the procedure Dr. Yamagata performed, and I am also thankful that she was kind and gentle with our dog. It’s very stressful when your dog is sick, and I appreciate her compassion and making sure that we understand the situation. Services are expensive, but I’m completely satisfied and happy with this clinic and our results. I feel completely secure in recommending Dr. Yamagata to anyone who has a pet with an eye condition.

Staff was very professional when I came in. It did take 1.5 months to make an appt on the account that no one returned my calls. I finally left an angry voicemail telling them how many times I had called and asking why no one would return my call. I got a call back within the hour. They apologized and got an appt 30 days from when I finally spoke to someone. They have front paring which is nice. Wait was not long and Dr. yamagata was thorough. I like her conservative approach to first trying one treatment then checking back in a month to see if we need to try more medication on my dogs eyes. So I’m not happy that it took so long to get in but at least I know now my dog is in good hands.

Very good care, but not very good communication or return on phone calls from front desk. Unfortunately, the only one in town! Be prepared to be assertive with staff, as they sound young and inexperienced!

Let me just start out by saying that Dr. Yamagata is a wonderful veterinarian. Very compassionate, knowledgeable, and kind.
I’ve had to take two of my pets here and have been here no less than half a dozen times with more appointments to go. The staff is always very friendly but rather small. Because of this, communication can be a bit lacking — in terms of reminder calls and callbacks.
Because she is the only specialist on the island her schedule gets full rather quickly. It is well worth the wait, though. For being a specialist, her fees are pretty reasonable, especially for Hawaii. Overall, I would recommend this clinic and this veterinarian.

i’ve taken both of our dogs there when i’ve had some crises like a cat scratch in the eye getting infected… had great, caring experiences every time…

My dog Daisy’s eyes started to get cloudy about a year ago. we took her to the vet and he said that she had matured cataracts.
we were pretty stunned. Daisy is only 6 years old, too young to have vision problems. the vet recommended Dr. Yamagata and told us to go see her soon.
we made an appointment and went to see her. we found Dr. Yamagata to be very kind and caring doctor. She recommended that we have Daisy undergo cataract surgery.
meanwhile, Daisy’s vision was slowly getting worse. she was a little skittish about going out for walks and didn’t want to play anymore. she was miserable. so we decided to do the surgery
we were a little apprehensive. we didn’t know what was going to happen and what the results were going to be but Dr. Yamagata thoroughly went over the procedure with us and what was going to happen post surgery.
anyway, we had the surgery done and after the surgery, we noticed that Daisy was able to see right away and after 2 weeks of Daisy wearing the cone and the pills and the eye drops every 4 hours her eyes are clear and she is able to see
We would like to thank Dr. Yamagata and her terrific staff in taking great care of Daisy and giving her life back
Daisy is a different dog now. she runs, plays with her toys, chases birds and lizards and seems to be smiling all the time now.

I first met Dr. Yamagata several years ago when we were referred by our vet to have her take a look at our pug’s eyes. Since they bug out, they seemed to be constantly irritated. We were told that this was not uncommon for pugs and were prescribed an ointment to apply daily. As things improved, we did not continue with the ointment and last year was faced with the decision for surgery for a ruptured cornea. This happened just a few days before Dr. Yamagata was scheduled for vacation; however, hearing the panic and concern in my voice, the office staff scheduled a consult for that afternoon. We had taken our dog to VCA as an emergency visit because my vet is closed on Wednesdays and I didn’t think of calling her after hours (which she later told me I should have). Dr. Yamagata’s office retrieved the records from VCA for her to review so by the time we went to the consult she was already familiar with Milo’s case. She thoroughly explained our options in detail and told us of all possible risks involved should we decide to go ahead with the surgery. Because our dog was 13 at the time, she also explained that if we did decide to have the surgery to repair the cornea it would be contingent upon the results of his pre-​op physical done by my primary vet. We decided to go ahead with the surgery, and Dr. Yamagata performed it on an emergency basis at 8:00 that evening. We did not pick him up until close to midnight.
I found Dr. Yamagata to be kind, compassionate and understanding. We were made fully aware of the risks involved and thankfully all went well and though the healing took many months, our dog made a complete recovery. He is no longer in any type of pain but he is partially blind in the eye he had the surgery. This was explained as a possibility prior to the surgery so it was not unexpected. Of course my hope would have been for Milo to come out of surgery having his total vision back and just because it didn’t turn out that way I still have the utmost confidence that Dr. Yamagata provided an excellent service. I can understand «Ryan C’s» dismay since his situation didn’t turn out as expected but I am confident that Dr. Yamagata was upfront and honest in her diagnosis and treatment so to give such a negative review seems so elementary. I am so confident in Dr. Yamagata that I referred my mother to have her dog treated by Dr. Yamagata for the same thing Ryan C’s dog was treated for — cherry eye.
For those looking for a veterinary ophthalmologist for their furry babies, I would highly recommend you visit Dr. Yamagata and get a feel for what she has to offer. I am sure you will find her to be a highly trained professional with a heart for what she does and that your pet will be in excellent hands under her care.

If it were possible to give a zero, I would have chosen that option.
If you love you pet, steer clear of this vet. That should be this «doctor’s» moto.
My pet had a problem where his internal eyelid kept flipping inside out. She charged me over $ 800 for surgery to fix it and the surgery undid itself three days later. She charged me another $ 800 to redo the same surgery that she botched and that undid itself a week later. I ended up seeing a different vet and she said that the eyelid was so damaged at that point, it needed to be removed.
This lady is not a «specialist», she just calls herself that to charge people exorbitant prices for lousy, uncaring service.