West Coast Animal Hospital — Attraction in San Diego

UPDATE: West Coast’s response is filled with lies, gaslighting, and lack of accountability. How dare you capitalize on my dog’s death as an opportunity to publicly save face. Cooper lost his battle with meningitis. I blame no one we saw after WCAH for not saving Cooper, I blame West Coast for not listening to us, giving us false information, denying the need to consult a neurologist and not getting us the help we need early enough to help our chances. How dare you frame this as a situation that was out of your hands. We never heard from you about our complaints but now you get notified that he passed and “Yay! This is our chance to discredit her and act like we care!” We came to WCAH 4 times seeking help when he was healthy with minimal symptoms before getting a second opinion because our concerns were not taken seriously. We did NOT see “numerous practitioners” because no could save him. His condition as defined by the neurologist was treatable. He did NOT have “multiple conditions”. He was NOT always very sick. The second opinion immediately referred us to a neurologist who we worked with before Cooper was recently put down at an emergency hospital. YOU could’ve helped us get to a neurologist. YOU could’ve followed up on our emails and calls. YOU could’ve responded to my email and review addressing our concerns versus answering when we called to get Coopers records and just complaining about the 1 star review we left. Shame on you. You chose the wrong business if all you care about is money and reviews. Horrible disgusting business and person.

WARNING: On Monday the 17th, we went to the Veterinary Neurology Center and learned that our pup was suffering from acute brain swelling and inflammation from either a bacteria or fungal infection. The swelling was severe and was affecting his behavior - the same behavior we reported numerous times during our visits at WCAH. If we were to follow their guidance and trust that his behavior was just a result of his new NSAID, Cooper would not be here with us today.

On our first visit to WCAH on the 11th, his behavior was disregarded as possible joint pain or anxiety and I was told to not worry about anything cognitive - regardless of the details of his behavior that I described.

On our second appointment on the 13th when we came in once again very concerned about his declining behavior, and providing multiple videos as evidence, the staff offered to give him a blood test and once again insisted "we really don't think it's a brain thing" and even questioned the necessity of it when I asked about a neurologist. I was told once again that NSAID and anxiety explained his dissociated and unbalanced behavior. The team continued to suggest that we just give him the pain medication regardless of no issues showing up in his x-ray or blood work.

I called on Friday the 14th, in complete distress mentioning that Cooper's behavior was continuing to decline and that I've started to see symptoms like knuckling, walking into furniture, and not being aware of his surroundings. ANY vet should have immediately seen this as a red flag and suggested we see a neurologist immediately. Instead, once again we were falsely told that it could be because of the NSAID, and that we needed to wait 5 long days until we could hear back from our vet who was currently out of office.

It was only once we scheduled an appointment with a new vet in Del Mar that our concerns were taken seriously. Cooper's gait and balance were examined, his eyes were looked at, his reflexes were examined and his symptoms were researched in medical resources - as they should have been originally! The vet then told us to prioritize seeing a neurologist ASAP.

It was not until Thursday the 20th that I ever heard back from West Coast Medical, receiving a call not from our Vet but a vet tech checking in on administrative duties and how Cooper was doing. When I communicated the severity of the issue I got a passive "Oh wow" with no apology and acknowledgment for the severity...

If you are looking for a place that sacrifices the quality of care in order to squueze more patients in and make more money you are definitely 100% in the right place. If that doesn’t sound appealing please, please look elsewhere. I went to this clinic twice, with the sole intention of seeing Dr. Greene for my German shepherd and boxers chiropractic care. She is absolutely fantastic and this review has nothing to do with my experience seeing her. I never intended to write a review and honestly I’m just not the person to complain about someplace publicly, but I just can’t over look this. I came into their clinic and I had to get an intro done to see the Chiro so I did. During that visit I got exactly 10 minutes of the vets time despite sitting in the waiting room for at least 60 minutes. The vet came in, it’s been awhile so I cannot remember her name, but she was FAR from holistic. So if you’re coming there for this type of care please look elsewhere. She basically told me I should not event try to feed them a raw diet and made me feel very bad for making my dogs a daily meal everyday. Something I still do to this day, despite her terrible advice. I mean yeah, maybe i could have improved their diet by adding something else to the diet, but no real constructive criticism was given and I have since improved their diet on my own with the use of reputable holistic vets I’ve seen on IG. I assume she eats McDonald’s everyday and believes it’s a balanced meal. But here’s the kicker. For my boxer I specifically told her he has been having trouble peeing and it takes him forever when he goes, especially in the morning. She performed her physical including checking the prostate and told me by boxer was very healthy and had nothing to worry about. She literally did the digital rectal exam in front of me and said there was nothing to report. I won’t even get started on what happened with my shepherd. I took her word for it, as any dog owner would taking their beloved animal to the professional, and yet I felt something was off and decided to take some precautions and get a second opinion two months later. Turns out she has no idea what was going on and my dog has an extremely enlarged prostate that fully explained all the symptoms I had explained to the vet! I’m honestly not sure how long my baby is going to be around due to their negligence. I was just another number in their system. Had she taken her time and performed the exams with care , perhaps my pup would have gotten the attention he needed and would t be fighting for his health. This clinic is absolutely trash and I will never ever be back. Even if they paid me. I fact they should. If anyone from the staff is reading this I would like a full refund and if you have any decency you will hold yourself accountable and fix the problem so other pet owners do not have to go...

I will start this review with I have been in the animal health field and wildlife rehab for over 35 years. I have worked with great vets and not so great vets. And I am well aware that mistakes happen and sometimes things just happen and I would never want to jeopardize a person career if unwarranted. That being said... I would never take my pet to this clinic The ethics are very much in question IMO- on May 14 my son's cat, Tobias went in for a routine dental. 24 hours later the cat was lying in a pool of urine, drooling excessively with labored and wet sounding breathing. my son called the clinic and was told by a vet tech that this was all normal for having a dental.(BTW it is not) the next morning the cat was found with cloudy eyes and unable to draw a breath that was not labored and dripping liquid. My son again called and they said yeah sound normal but send us a video, then they said yeah bring him by for a drive by- cat was admitted and 20 mins later was euthanized. reason...pneumonia, sepsis and pancitititis. this was 36 hours post dental on a cat that had been perfectly fine 37 hours prior by their own records. The vet who saw him on Emergency was not the dental vet, but he would not even talk about the reason why this was happening and why so close to a procedure performed at this clinic. This was on a Friday- I was able to get ahold of the clinic owner Dr. Gibbings, on Monday. After I told the story and asked her opinion, she advised that her clinic made no mistakes and they don't make mistakes. (I had told her I thought the cat was inadequately intubated causing fluid in the lungs. This was also the opinion of 3 other vets who I spoke to over the weekend and that had reviewed the xrays) . she advised that the cat had an underlying condition that caused this. she said a mass in the abdomen? I asked her where she was seeing the mass, as I also had the xrays and did not see anything. she then advised that she had not reviewed the records or xrays. I assume she was just going on what her staff had told her. I asked for her to review and get back to me. When she called back all she advised was she had sent this to her insurance and will not speak to me anymore. bottom line. the ethics of this clinic in my opinion are lacking to non existent. Medical care is non existent and I would warn anyone of this. This clinic is about money and only that. They even had the nerve to charge my son an emergency visit. when this was a post procedure visit. I will be transparent. Yes, I want my son's money back but I also want them to admit their fault in this. Heck Mistakes happen. no one is above that (apparently, they are according to Dr. Gibbings) But own it. I would have had the utmost respect if they had and I told her that up front. So go forth at your own risk with...