VCA ASEC — Local services in Los Angeles

VCA ASEC saved my bulldog's life! Splash had an obstruction thanks to her habit of exploring the world through taste. She had abdominal surgery requiring multiple incisions in her digestive tract at another hospital, and it failed and ruptured internally on the third day of recovery, sadly not utterly unexpected. The contents of her stomach and intestines were leaking into her abdomen, making it septic.

The other hospital discovered this whilst I was visiting, confessed the needed surgery was beyond their capability and sent me to VCA ASEC.

I'm so glad they did!

Only an hour and change later, board certified surgeon Dr. Sroufe arrived and completed what he later told me was a "pretty gnarly surgery", removing unviable tissue, resectioning her intestines, cleaning out the infectious goo from her abdomen to put poor Spash's digestive system back together.

Splash had an extremely long recovery time in hospital, several weeks. Her poor insides had been through a lot and stomach motility had stopped. She regurgitated (something very familiar to bulldog owners), aspirated, and caught pneumonia. She was in and out of the oxygen cage and required a GI tube for feeding and aspiration of fluid build up in her very slow tummy, and for a while an abdominal drain. She was on IV meds for darn near everything. For a while, she was on IV fluids, but then had edema and needed treatment for that; another familiar thing to the breed. It was ages before she was out of the woods.

Each and every step of the way, for days, the team was kind, compassionate and patient with both her and us.

Doctors Tovar, Spurlock, Regalado, Ixtlahuac, Judge and Ong all at one point of another took care of Splash and communicated with us in person or over the phone. Tovar, Spurlock and Regalado made a point of calling us with updates once and often twice a day; they would even take time to keep Splash with them around the hospital, to ensure she was able to keep her emotional state up.

Both my husband and myself were always made welcome on our daily visits to see Splash. Each visit, the doctor on shift would come and fill us in and answer all our questions. We always felt they cared about both us and Splash. If we called, someone would ALWAYS call back within an hour or two.

The techs and nurses were also amazing. They were invested in doing the best they could for Splash and helping her survive and live. They even took time to pet her and comfort her. When she was able, they took her out of her kennel for play and walkies. Everyone she passed when I was there would greet her by name with a cheerful voice.

The total care for her entire time there was expensive. That's around the clock board and care, medication, oxygen cage, food, IV placement and replacement when the vein blew (which is a fact of life; eventually, you need to move to another vein.) repeated scans throughout her stay such as x rays and ultrasounds and blood/fluid tests to see how her recovery was progressing, treatment for edema, and more. Critical hospital care for much of the month of July. This is not unusual or a rip off of any sort. We have no pet insurance, as bulldogs are expensive to insure, and that's what it cost.

The finance department were very clear about charges, and gave us a high and low estimate, letting us know that anything not used would be refunded or used as credit for the next period we pre-paid for. They were patient as we did our best to gather funds from our savings, credit, and eventually a GoFundMe. They worked WITH us to ensure we could continue, as everyone could see she was fighting and not ready to die.

Without them, I would have lost the sweetest dog in the world!

Now she is home and nearly back to herself, playing, snoring like a bear and demanding treats and...

We are not at all in a position to recommend ASEC to anybody. Please consider alternative options for ER Treatment of your furry family member.

Here’s why: We reached out to Animal Specialty & Emergency Center (ASEC), which is part of VCA in hopes that they could tell us what was causing the lump on our cat Butch’s neck.

The weekend evening team was nice and very accommodating. - So was the Emergency Vet. - She was the ONLY one who suggested and asked for permission to shave Butch’s neck after she noticed some discoloration on his neck below his beautiful fur. The bruise was deep purple and very large. With that knowledge she recommended to schedule a CT scan with Ultrasound and potential FNA, all for which Butch would have to be sedated.

We scheduled the procedure for the following Monday, since his first visit was on a Friday night.

Butch was brought to the Vet ER for the procedures and after a long anxious waiting period we were told that the test didn’t reveal anything.

We did, however, receive an alarming phone call the very next morning from another Vet, telling us that Butch was anemic and needed a Blood Transfusion. We asked if they could do that at ASEC and were told that yes, but for that we had to bring him in again and then had to wait until the cat blood was available. It was strange to us that ASEC does not store cat blood, even though it is an Animal Emergency Center.

That particular phone call was alarming, stressful and did not raise any comfort level of trust in us.

In fact, we reached out to another Emergency Center and were told that they did have Cat Blood available. After a check up of Butch by one of their doctors we were told that he didn’t need a blood transfusion that night, but since his numbers were stable we should wait until we got to see the Internist at ASEC two days later.

Needless to say we didn’t put Butch through the agonizing procedure, but instead took him to the Internist at ASEC.

That doctor didn’t spend any time with us, just told us that he “glanced” at the blood results of Butch and he was not worried about it. In fact, he suggested that we should bring Butch back in two weeks for a follow up visit.

That was it. No additional tests, no images discussed, not even a suggestion of what might cause the lump. He did hint that it might be cancer, and if so, then we need to take action at that time.

We went back a few days later as Butch started to cry out in pain when eating / swallowing and we needed to find out why he was losing weight in such a short time.

That visit with ASEC was a horror show! - We have NO idea what they did to Butch in the “treatment area”, but we do know that the staff that day couldn’t care less. The “nurse” who brought Butch back into the exam room roughly swung the cat carrier onto the treatment table, causing Butch to sway back and forth, crying out in pain. - He was panting so heavy that we had that “nurse” leave the room while we were getting help from someone else.

When that female ER doctor finally came to see him he had calmed down, but was visibly in distress. This ER doctor told us that she briefly looked at the records, which then turned into a “didn’t read it” as she didn’t have time to look at everything. - This is the second Vet who did not find it necessary to look at the medical record of the patient they are about to examine.

Butch was traumatized, we were in shock and neither of us was any closer to know what was causing the bruising and the lump, which was getting larger by the day.

Needless to say we are not at all in a position to recommend ASEC to anybody. Please consider alternative options for ER Treatment of your furry...

I would first like to speak about Dr. Mary Sommerville. After interviewing several referred surgeons for my cat, of which Mary was one of them, I decided to use Mary. The reason I decided on Mary was because she gave me the most detail description of what exactly needed to done surgically to help save my beautiful 23 pound ragdoll who had a tumor on his stomach and stones in his bladder. This was a huge decision since it was such a major operation. She immediately described everything in plain laymans english and took more time with me than any of the others surgeons. Also what tipped the scale was the fact that she had also operated Dr Revel's cat and Dr Reval is the head of the West Hollywood Animal Hospital. Good enough for me and was I ever right!

After the surgery she called me everyday my cat was at Asec Hospital not only once but three or fours times a day to give me a report. OMG who does that? Usually when you call a vet much less a surgeon you can't even get them on the phone.

After a year of dragging my poor cat to three differents vets I have finally found the greatest place of all and that is Asec Hospital. They always answer their phone without having to press different numbers and listen to 10 different recordings to get to where you want to go. You can always speak to a doctor immediately and only once did I have to wait to get a call back. And the wait time was only 10 or 15 minutes. This place rocks!!!

Now they are not cheap but you get what you pay for. The best surgeon, the best service and the best results.

The first day I brought Teddy home, I was able to call them and get whatever answers and concerns I had addressed immediately. Whatever I needed to know, they gave me the answer immediately. I was a crazy mom, calling them 5 and 6 times a day and they were always kind, patient and there for me.

I run a service business myself for 30 years and they treated me the way I treat my clients and I have to tell you that is hard to find these days.

Thank you Mary and...