VCA Animal Hospital Reviews
VCA Hospital– Animal’s Slaughter House
I have never been so disgusted with anything and anyone as I am with VCA Animal Hospital Management and staff. My pain for losing my dog was not even calmed and VCA Animal Hospital gave me another stroke. I had to say goodbye to my dog few days back which was the hardest thing anyone can imagine. I did that at my regular pet clinic and not VCA Hospital. The people were supportive and had the empathy to relate to my pain. I was atleast convinced that she was in good hands during her last few minutes.
Me and my mom were trying to recover with the pain. I usually feed animals including cats outside of my house and one of the cats allowed us to take her home. She recently gave birth to kittens and I was happy to share the love of my chica with these kittens.
One night, a kitten fell off and was in very bad condition. My vet stayed a bit far so admitted him to a VCA Hospital which was closer. It was an emergency entry and had to be given priority. It was 2:30 AM and still all dark outside. Looking at his condition, I was well aware of the coming fate but wanted to try my best and give it the last try to save him.
They took the kitten from my hands and asked me and mom to stay outside. I wanted to be with him in the examination room but wasn’t allowed and I do not know why. It took them hour and a half to come back to us. They asked for my agreement for allowing the fluid through the veins which I did. But these bastards couldn’t find his vein and put the needle in his bone. The doctor informed us about it and asked us to wait again. After another half an hour, they handed a piece of paper with $1000 written on it.
I kept on asking about the kitten but the answer was always no. They did not let me see my kitten. The doctor said the chances are negligible and we can take her home. But I stayed rigid and wanted them to help. I waited and waited and they kept us waiting.
At last, I was out of my mind and started forcing them to bring him to me. They brought him in a box with a paper to be signed. The paper said that I didn’t do what the doctor at VCA Hospital suggested. This was outrageous for me and I couldn’t take it. I told that the doctor was the one who insisted on taking the kitten home. But nothing made them change their cold heart. I had to do the needful and pay my bills of $1000 for nothing.
I took him home and tried to feed him but he was not able to swallow. I tried my best and then gave up. I kept on talking to him and tried to reduce his pain through the comfort of love and compassion. But I knew I will have to go through it again. Finally, I put him to rest beside my Chica. But I wish to spread this inhuman practice for making people aware of the act. This invokes action.
Selfish Money Grubbing
They will literally put a price tag on your dogs life and shame you if you can’t pay it, they underpay their doctors and staff and force club membership down your throat which you drop over a hundred a month per pet and rarely ever use that frequently. You end up blowing thousands of dollars for a twice a year visit. Disgusting.
Doctors with no credentials treating animals like they were money which is all they charge tried to charge
I took my dog to these idiot fraudulent lame f****** make believe doctors they gave me a prescription I took to a pharmacist and he said did a doctor did not write this prescription and he could not feel it because the doctor had no license to even write a prescription and when they called when the doctor called them or when the pharmacist called them they could not come up with a licensed doctor to verify the prescription for my poor dog who’s in pain and all they took $300 of mine wanted 2500 more didn’t do s*** for my dog these people are fraudulent and should be put out of business they don’t give up s*** about people’s pets all they care about is money bottom line. They suck don’t take your dog there don’t take your animal there if you do you’ll be sad saddened after they take your money and give you absolutely no help for your for your pet’s pain or for anything that’s going to make them feel better or actually heal I’m sick in to buy them they should be put out of business they should be ashamed of themselves for being pieces of s*** to pet owners who are grieving and worried about their pets well-being they don’t give a s*** they just want the money bottom line and there’s no doctors even there to even fill up prescriptions but I don’t see how because they don’t even have a doctor to to administer to prescribe them avoid them with all cost
No compassion
This is specifically about the VCA Animal Hospital in Tempe, AZ on Broadway Road. They did not provide proper follow-up care when my cat’s infection resisted treatment. After I called 3 times, a technician finally called me back and was unable to answer any of my questions! She basically blew off my concerns. The vet had told me this was a serious infection and the tech acted like it was no big deal. I was told spaying my cat would fix the problem They wanted to charge me $850 to spay vs $350 elsewhere!
Horrible, uncaring but quick to hand you a bill before even letting you know how your beloved pet is.. then the guilt trip of "you would do anything to save your your human daughter or son', isn't this the same! NO!!! I dearly love my sweet pet (my children are grown) but as much as I love my pet, but who can afford what it would cost for an appendectomy for a child to be charged for a simple ear infection! at the cost! I absolutely despise any vet associated with VCA Corporate fraud... Does Trump have a % of this company??
Is there anyway to give this ripoff 1000 minus stars.. Can not believe these uncaring, cold hearted vets that have joined in to making these corporate losers millionaires. Too bad we can not take our beloved pets to human doctors for a lot less!
Unprofessional and Expensive!
Terrible customer service and insane pricing! On 3/2/21, I brought our female puppy to get spayed. After peaking to the vet, I figured it was worth the $500 fee for the procedure. They ended up charging me $700 instead! Then, when I came to pick up my dog after the surgery, I was confronted by a mean, unkind and rude receptionist named Tracy. I had brought my dog there on a dog bed. Following the surgery, they forgot to give me the bed. When I asked Tracy for the bed, she frowned and told me to wait in the car and someone would bring it out to me. I waited 15 minutes, holding my shivering dog, and called to find out what was going on. She said: someone already brought it out and you didn’t take it. Puzzled, I told her that wasn’t true. When I asked if she could have someone bring it out to my car, she refused and told me to come get it myself. Then, I had to drag my hurting baby out into the cold and grab the bed myself. She had thrown the bed outside on the table. Horrible. When I called and asked for the name of the owner, she said she wouldn’t tell me because I was rude. She hung up on me. I will NEVER come back to this place again. How do they have the audacity to charge so much for such terrible customer service?
Horrible place.Carless people.Run away from that place
horrible people who care nothing about pets
Statement of events from Stephen Dorso:
4/28/19 – 8:00 a.m. – Noticed spots of blood on bedspread. Also noticed Carmela’s rear end appeared to have dried blood.
8:30 a.m. – Noticed small puddle of blood near front door. Was concerned but it was Sunday so I thought she could go to the vet the following day on Monday
10:00 a.m. – Carmela was lying in bed. I convinced her to get up and go to the backyard. She immediately pooped a large puddle of blood on the Concrete. No other fecal matter but blood came out of her rectum. I realized this situation could not wait until Monday, so I did a search to find a vet nearby that was open. None were open. The only place open was the VCA which was about 8 miles away from my home. I put Carmela in my car and drove to the location in Irving – 700 West Airport Freeway Irving tX. 75062.
Not sure when I arrived. I carried Carmela in. She was on a towel and somewhat lifeless. They had me bring her into a room where she bled all over the floor. She finally found a place to lie down in the corner. I waited about 15 – 20 minutes for someone to enter the room. Finally, the Vet – Dr. Tiffany Green entered the room and said we need to get someone to clean up the blood. She then asked me to pick up Carmela and put her on the examining table. She asked me when I noticed the problem, her dog type, her vet’s name, etc. The normal questions. She then had a gentleman who was her assistant pick up Carmela and they both left through a door to another room. I waited for about another 30 minutes. The gentleman came back and said they had sedated Carmela but needed to develop a care plan. I asked, “Do you know what is wrong with her’? He said no but they may need to keep her overnight. He then left. He came back with a three-page document outlining a three-day care plan in excess of $4,000. I asked, “Do you know what is wrong with her and what are her chances of survival.”? He said they didn’t know what was wrong with her which is why they wanted to keep her for three days. I again asked, “What are her chances of survival”/ I said, “I don’t want to pay over $4,000 if there is not a good chance she will survive”. He said, “we don’t know what the problem is which is why we want to treat her for three days”. I said, “Can you tell me if she has more than a 50% chance of survival”/ He said, “He didn’t know”. He then said if financing was a problem, I could apply for up to $5,000 in credit. I said, “I need to talk to my wife who was out of town”. He then left the room. I contacted my wife and we discussed the situation. We discussed whether we wanted to be in debt for over $4,000 to try to save a dog that we didn’t even know if she had a 50% chance of survival. We decided it would be best to put her down.
When the Vet Assistant returned, I informed him that we decided to put her down. He then left the room and came back with paperwork to put Carmela down. He asked if I wanted a paw print or the ashes which would cost more and I said no, He then left the room again. A few minutes passed and the Vet returned. She said, “Are you sure you want to put her down, I think we can save her’? I was dumbfounded. What the heck just happened? Now she has a good chance of survival? I said “$4,000 + dollars is a lot of money but my wife loves this dog”. I told her then let’s try to save her. She left the room.
A few minutes passed and the Vet Assistant returned with a revised estimate for the care. He said they knocked $200 off the estimate and asked if I wanted to apply for a credit card. I said “yes”, and he then left the room. One of the front office clerks then entered the room with a credit card application. I completed the application and gave it to her. The Vet Assistant then entered the room and I asked him “Do we know what is wrong with Carmela” He said “No”, but we will take care of her. I never saw the Vet or Vet Assistant again. The front office clerk then entered the room and asked me to come to the front desk. I was told I needed to pay for the entire three day stay ($4,000 +) for them to treat Carmela. I was told the entire balance was interest free for a year but if the entire balance was not paid off in a year, the original balance ($4,000+) would be subject to an interest fee (I believe it was over 29%). I felt backed into a corner and signed off on the payment of $4,000 + dollars. I believe I left after 2:00 p.m.
The following day I had heard nothing concerning Carmela’s progress. I called and was told the Vet would get back to me. When the Vet did call, I was told Carmela was doing well. The next time I heard from the Vet was on the third day when I was told Carmela was ready for pickup. To this day, I was never told what caused the situation or how to treat it, so it doesn’t happen again
Statement of events from Jennifer Dorso:
4/28/19 – 10:45am – I was in Arkansas at a corporate annual event for my company. My Husband called to say he was at the Animal ER hospital and Carmela was in bad shape. I was crying and my entire company stopped to pray with me. I waited for updates and my Husband kept telling me that they didn’t know what was wrong. After multiple calls between my Husband and I and the vet Dr. Green saying they did not kow what was wrong, or if Carmela would survive… we decided we could not put her through any more pain. We made the difficult decision to put her to sleep. 45 min later VCA was telling my husband if he paid 4K up front they could save her life. My husband knowing that I would be devastated without my Carmela, signed the papers they put in front of him. I caught the next plane home and on Monday the VCA hospital called my husband and said she “was better” and I could go pick her up. I went to VCA and they allowed me to see her for 20 min, but said I could not take her home till the next day. When I picked her up the following day, the Vet “we don’t know why this happened, it could happen again tomorrow… or never again” I said you just charged me almost 4K dollars and you can’t tell me what happened and how to prevent it? She said no I can’t. I was sent home with an itemized list of all the painful procedures my dog had to endure and a bill for almost 4K… but no answers. I called my regular vet and she said to let Carmela rest a couple of days and decompress, and then bring her to my regular vet’s office. I took Carmela to Dr. Capps on Thursday (May 2, 2019) and told her what had happened when she was with my husband. Before any exam or blood work, Dr. Capps diagnosed her with probable Pancreatitis. We did blood work and I was sent home with Antibiotics. Within 24 hours the lab results came back and she had severe pancreatitis. We made major changes to her diet and she slowly recuperated.
I am filing this formal complaint for several reasons:
1.) I believe they scared my husband with the “no hope story” then did suddenly came back and said they could save her for 4K. They saw the desperation in my husband’s eyes knowing this dog was my everything. She was with me while I have been recovering from breast cancer over the last 4 years, and he was afraid of what losing her would do to me.
2.) I believe having seen Carmela at VCA on Tuesday (with the IV still in her arm) she was ready to come home and get some real answers from our vet, but they wanted to keep her another day to pad the already high invoice. (an additional $1,140.26 in charges)
3.) They never did standard blood work to determine the issue. If I had not gone to my regular vet to get solid answers on what the issue was, I would have brought her home and continued to feed her the regular food I had been giving her…. Which would have put Carmela back in extreme pain, caused the same issue to occur, and would have probably killed her. At a minimum I would hope any decent vet would have tested for the basic symptoms of pancreatitis… lord knows my regular vet knew exactly what was wrong before a blood test.
4.) I know they are going to continue this horrible practice of over charging for people’s fur babies, and having them sign up for a ridiculously high credit card – to save their family members. What if I had been poor single mother…. would they have let my Carmela be put down… or provided care at a reasonable price with a real diagnose.
Please put a stop to this sort of animal and pet owner abuse.
I think they are all despicable at VCA
I don’t even Want to begin of my discussed with VCA
Beyond Poor
Pretty much the same as everyone else on here has already mentioned … and then some. I just thought I should speak up as well. I had to ask the staff to seriously take a closer look at who it is you are working for if you really do care for animals . I will give the benefit of the doubt here and believe they do however the staff is very young and probably thankful to have the job. Three out of the Four people I dealt with there simply agreed and genuinely felt bad. Please people, take the proper steps to be able to seek help anyplace but here . Thks and much love to our pets out there. ????
they couldn't care less about my pet
I feel that these guys could not care less about my pet or me. I will never talk to these people again.
No way
Changing vets! I took my dog for an ear infection and they sent me home without even cleaning his ear and giving him his first dose. All because I wouldn’t pay for further test. Still charged me 136 dollars!
Worst experience ever.
Don’t you ever take your pet to this disgusting place. Bunch of amateurs looking only for your money. They even “forgot” to give the injection in my cat. But sure they charged. Don’t get fooled by the warm voices of the assistants. The clinic are there only for MONEY! Couldn’t have had a worse experience.
Horrible
If you want your pet to die a slow painful death at great expense to you and be emotionally and psychologically tortured through it all-look no further- VCA is your place.
All Vets are criminals and their clinics should be shut down and hang them up or life time jail.
If you want pets make sure you go to school, learn about pets and read reviews of all Vets. If not do not adopt any pets.
I will never again go to a VCA Clinic or to a "vet" that re-commends a VCA clinic
THE WORST THING ABOUT THIS CORRUPT CORPORATION developed by two guys with no veterinary training, at all, is that they get your family veterinarian (who has been trained and is licensed to be a professional animal doctor abiding by a set of ethics) to claim they “don’t know” what is wrong with your seriously ill pet and to bring him or her to a VCA clinic. The VCA clinic vet also doesn’t know but they charge a lot more to not know. One vet at a VCA clinic wisked my sick pet away and said she was going to take her in the back to do an exam. My vets always examine my pet in front of me, so my pet is less afraid, and they get information by asking me questions about what the symptons are, when they began, etc. She said she took X-rays while my pet was in the back, but she never showed them to me, and I don’t recall being asked for permission. She said they didn’t show anything that would explain my pets symptoms (it turned out that if she had taken X-rays of the area where my dog was indicating there was pain – i.e., whimpering when that area was touched) the X-rays would have shown what the problem was. But she had decided to X-ray a completely unnecessary area. I couldn’t suggest anything because it was all over before I knew what she was doing. She said I then had two choices, I could either have the $800 tests (no explanation about what these tests were), or I could have the $1,300 tests (again, no explanations of what these tests were for, would they diagnose something unlike the last tests or be a waste, too? were there dangerous side effects?) Pet owners can’t give informed consent for procedures without information. I wondered if all she knew about them was their cost. I asked her what is the benefit of the more expensive set of tests over the less expensive tests? The vet said, “I don’t know.” I could barely believe she wanted me to choose between two options without any knowledge of the difference between the options except the cost. I rephrased, “Is there a difference between the more and less expensive tests?” and said a few things about why that might be something pet owners would want to know, even if they had all that money just sitting around. The vet look at me blankly and said, again, “I don’t know.” It took a lot of self control to not say, “Is there anything you do know?” She left me alone to decide which of the two choices I would take. Meanwhile, a front office girl came in and asked what was happening, I said we were trying to decide which of the two sets of tests to have done, the $800 tests or the $1,300 tests. The office girl said, “Oh, the vet would definitely prefer the $1,300 tests.” I didn’t even bother to tell her the vet had no idea which would be better for my pet. We left the so-called veterinary hospital, found a real vet that doesn’t say “I don’t know” reflexively, he examined my pet in front of me, noted where the pain was when he touched her, Xrayd that area, saw the cause of the pain on the X-ray, showed it to me and some student interns, and armed with a good diagnosis, cured my pet within 2 hours of us walking in the door, with no surgery and no set of $800 or $1,300 tests for who knows what? I will never again go to a VCA Clinic or to a “vet” that re-commends a VCA clinic.
VCA Animal Hospital Review
No one is there to take care of your pets… I have my baby cat been sliced by a dog and gone to treat her at VCA hospital.. the staff was busy and one one came to me.
Please take care of pets.. they are human.