Cabrillo Pet Hospital — Attraction in San Diego

This saddens me to have to leave a 1-star review, but as a pet owner, I hope this review brings about some change. I have been a client of Cabrillo Pet Hospital for just less than a year. I have had to have a handful of interactions with mainly just the front desk and that is where the 1-star review comes from. I should have listened to my gut-instinct after the first appointment. The front desk was lacking any empathy or compassion. I have never been to a vet where the front desk has no interest in interacting with the animals. I chalked it up to a busy day. Our first puppy appointment was thorough, but scripted. I cannot say much about the doctors because thankfully we did not have many issues needing that level of care. The interactions with the vet techs were pleasant. They seemed to genuinely care and provided adequate minor treatments (nails, etc). Fast forward to the remaining interactions that were only with the front desk. When requesting monthly heartworm/flea/tick treatment, I was questioned about my animals weight in which they had 16 pounds (from January). I was in the clinic in April to weigh my dog in order to receive the next months worth. I HAD to report that weight (26 pounds) in order to get the correct dosage. That was NOT recorded in his chart but was updated after I requested for his chart to be brought up to date. I can deal with all of this. The most recent incident occurred when my puppy became lethargic and was not eating or drinking. He also developed what looked like a bad eye infection. I immediately called the people I put all of my trust in to provide guidance in the care of my little guy. I spoke with Carrie (spelling) at the front desk who provided no reassurance, asked no further questions except for how many months he has been on his medicine. I told her I did not know of the top of my head and that she had the records. She told me she did not have his records in front of her. Ummm, so where are his records and are they even accurate knowing that his weight (which his medicine is based off of) was not even updated. I requested that a vet CALL me and I explained I was very anxious because my puppy quickly became lethargic and was not eating or drinking. It was explained that all of the vets were either busy or not available. Again - I understand. The conversation would have ended there on Cabrillo's end however I really needed their help. Receiving no resolution or assistance, I had to use other resources and was introduced to an awesome vet and entire staff at Bay Side Vet who saw my puppy the same day and I am happy to say, he is greatly recovering. I did receive an email from a vet at Cabrillo later, asking about the eye, but nothing about the lethargy until I brought it up. I also explained I had found him care elsewhere. I heard nothing back from Cabrillo since. To the staff of Cabrillo. We pet parents are placing our trust in you. That trust starts from the front desk. A little bit of compassion or empathy goes ALONG way especially in a moment of anxiety that comes with our pets being very sick. You all are the experts and we depend on that more than I think you realize. If you don't like animals, please don't work at a vet. If you are not good at customer service and I specifically mean the front desk offering any reassurance or again, compassion, please don't do this kind of work. I hope this very long review is taken as constructive and nothing but that and that change will occur so when the next pet mom or dad panics, you can be...

Noting that this is an old experience, however, this review never made it to be a public post but it is important nonetheless.

We’ve seen both Dr. Johnson and Dr. Cammarata. Both making large errors and/or obvious misses.

We brought our giant breed dog in because he had been limping. They did the whole suite of xrays and Dr. Cammarata concluded that he “likely had tendinitis” and prescribed him pain medication. He told us to come back in a few weeks if it didn’t get better. With it not getting better it was time for us to change vets as our fear was cancer. We brought our dog into our new vet and the VERY FIRST THING HE SAID was “I’m not trying to scare you, but with this breed it’s typically cancer”. He didn’t have the xrays to read as my 4 attempts to get Cabrillo to send them to our new vet’s office failed. Our new vet did the xrays himself and he was right, it was Osteosarcoma. The weeks we lost because of Dr. Cammarata’s miss and lack of basic knowledge of large breed dogs were invaluable in getting his amputation and chemo treatments started and could have cost him his life.

And our second, less dire, but still an issue nonetheless. A couple months before our cancer issue, we had brought our giant breed dog and our small dog in at the same time to see Dr. Johnson. After our giant breed’s exam it was time for our small breed. Dr. Johnson couldn’t have been more inattentive to our small (newly rescued dog). We told her the info we were told regarding a heart condition and had to ask her multiple times to go back and review her xrays that had been recently taken. She took her own xrays and her explanation to us “well she’s a small dog, they have these kinds of problems”... as if we were supposed to know all of the possible conditions a mixed breed street dog were to come with and she was careless with our concerns and didn’t take the time to really explain anything to us. She also told us she didn’t think our dog even needed the medication she was on but prescribed her double. Our small dog then started having extra thirst and began peeing in the house (all signs pointing to the medication change). After researching ourselves the next time I brought her in I asked if she could possibly be taking too high of mgs for her weight. Dr. Johnson was quick to shut that down stating “No she’s on what she should be on, that’s the other heart medications dosage” without doing any double checking and instead scheduled bloodwork and a urinalysis (which came back clear). We have now confirmed 2 other vets that Dr. Johnson over-prescribed our dog’s heart medication for months.

Perhaps Dr. Rose is better and the desk staff were always friendly, but I would not recommend Cabrillo Pet...

HORRIBLE HORRILBE HORRIBLE.

I was just there today. I had to call 3 times this AM to get through to someone. Got hung up on this AM - no big deal. Called back and made an appointment for 3:30pm.

This was a follow up because my dog was still limping horribly. Show up, call them and let them know i was downstairs (my dog doesnt like other dogs) so they could clear the lobby and put us in a room. Called, staff member said something i couldnt hear and then hung up on me. I called back and said "hi, should i wait downstairs, come upstairs?" Was told to go up so i did. Went right to the room. Vet tech megan was the tech assisting today. She was HORRIBLY rude and short with me. I brushed it off that they all were having a bad day, i get it. All the staff seemed flustered and all over the place.

Vet came in, found out she didn't x-ray my dogs foot like I thought she did last week. She did his shoulder. They went to x-ray him and brought him back and she said he has ostreosarcoma. He probably has 3-6 months to live. I asked to pay so I could leave and call to other doctors because I'm clearly in shock.

I get home and call them back and ask if they can send the x-rays to a radiologist for a second opinion. First time i called the girl hung up on accident (this is the THIRD time today I got hung up on by them). I call back and get a different girl and I'm now extremely frustrated. The woman asks what I need so I repeat myself and she's confused, so I asked if I could just talk to the lady I spoke to before. She put me on hold and another person answered, and she wasn't the woman either and started asking what I needed. I said "before I was hung up on i just was asking for my dogs x-rays to be sent to a radiologist". This woman is getting MAD AT ME that I said she hung up on me... then she is being rude and short with me saying "where do you want them sent?" What?? That's what the first girl was trying to figure out! First girl then takes the phone and starts DEFENDING HERSELF FOR HANGING UP ON ME! I DONT CARE! I JUST WANT MY DOGS X-RAYS SENT FOR A SECOND OPINION!

The staff is INCREDIBLY rude and honestly heartless. For you all to have an attitude towards ME when you guys have hung up on me MULTIPLE times today, and when I JUST FOUND OUT MY DOG IS DYING?!?!?!

Is this a joke??? These people just want your money. I should have known when 2 years ago they misdiagnosed my weimaraner, said she probably was sick just from a fungas, suggested a teeth cleaning and 3 days later I had to put her down because she actually had cancer and blood was pooling into her lungs.

Shame on you all. Absolutely horrible. Don't take your animals here. Staff and doctors...