VCA Emergency Animal Hospital & Referral Center — Local services in San Diego

This was a purely terrible experience for me and my 4.5 month old German Shepherd pup Lemon on Sunday night. Lemon was on the receiving end of a vicious bite to the face that night. She had blood pouring from a puncture wound just below her eye (that went into the sinuses as is turned out with a broken sinus bone) and a ton of swelling to her nose that lead to obviously labored breathing. I am an ER doctor so even though this was very traumatizing, I was far from panicking. I washed out the wounds, applied pressures to stop the bleeding and immediately drove her to VCA. I called the triage/reception line as soon as we parked since no visitors are allowed inside. That’s fine, I know as well as anyone that with COVID things are a little difficult. However, when i spoke to the receptionist and explained what was going on (major dog bite to the face with deep open wound, facial swelling, and labored breathing), she explained to me they were only open for “real” emergencies like “seizures and dogs hit by cars”. I explained that I was fairly certain this was a “real emergency” given the airway issue, or could at least become one very quickly given the airway swelling. She sounded annoyed by my concerns but said a tech would be “right out” to check on Lemon. Nobody came out to see us. I watched as the vet tech came out to greet car after car that pulled up to drop off their pets for routine boarding/hospitalization (since many animal hospitals/clinics have closed overnight kennels bc of COVID, this pre-paid scheduled boarding must be more lucrative for their ER than seeing emergencies).

As 45 minutes passed and the tech still ignored us, I did start to panic. VCA: if you guys are making an ER doctor panic, you are doing something horribly wrong. I called the triage/reception line again. They again assured me someone would be “right out”. After an agonizing 5 additional minutes, the tech finally came by. Before even looking at Lemon he said they were full and only seeing...”real emergencies”. He then took 2 seconds to actually look at my pup, and was prompted by her distress to actually ask what happened (a miracle it felt like!!). He agreed this was a “real emergency” and said that’s why they are there, to see “dogs hit by cars, seizures, and serious dog bites”. Thank god he was willing to expand the list of dog emergencies. However, without actually examining my pup, just a cursory look through the window, he said the wait would likely be 3 hours or more.

Luckily In the 50 minutes I was parked, I managed to get a hold of our primary vet at 9:30PM (Dr Schultz at Coastview is AMAZING!!) and send her a video of Lemon’s labored breathing and wounds. Although she said she could see us first thing in the morning, she recommended we get seen tonight to get the wound thoroughly washed (which is tough without strong pain meds), get her started on antibiotics, and make sure there were no major broken bones to the face that could lead to more serious breathing issues. In other words, a delay in care could lead to a worse outcome. Which obviously didn’t matter to the VCA staff whatsoever. Luckily, Dr Schultz recommended a couple ERs that would have less wait.

After a senseless 50 minute delay, we ended up going to Animal Emergency Clinic Of San Diego (in Poway). They said there would be a 40 minute wait. But the moment we got there, they knew we were coming, and tech was out IMMEDIATELY to see Lemon. She showed Lemon lots of affection and was clearly concerned. But she also offered me reassurance that she would “be ok”. Which is all A scared puppy dad wanted to hear. Lemon loved the tech, and the whole staff was great. Lemon is healing up well and I already got two follow up phone calls

VCA, you should be absolutely ashamed of the (LACK OF) care you are providing. If you say you are open for emergencies, you need to do your F*ing job. COVID-19 is no excuse for not being compassionate towards someone’s injured loved one and...

Edit: it appears they respond to reviews but they must just like people thinking they do.. I was hoping for a chance to discuss my visit with a manager!…I’ve emailed and no one has responded after 5 days.

Our puppy ingested a sock and needed to throw it up before it became a problem. We called our Vet but we have just moved to the San Diego area and it was late evening. We went to an Urgent Care where they told us it’s appointment only and they gave us some numbers for close by ER’s and recommended we call. We kept getting quoted long wait times and had already spent 20 minutes driving to the urgent care. We called this location and the woman who answered had the worst monotone “I’m annoyed with all clients voice” and when she asked how long ago and we said 30 minutes her only reply was … “well that’s a really long time” yes ma’am that’s why I’m calling because I understand it’s time sensitive. Horrible and she didn’t have anything else to say. But at this time they are closest so we head over. It’s for the dog not her. I go in without the dog as he’s very anxious, just out of the rescue and I wasn’t sure what I was walking into. Turns out there were 3 other dogs in the waiting room so I stand by my choice. The woman at the desk was AGAIN stupidly confrontational and not helpful. She did NOT LISTEN TO A WORD I WAS SAYING. She kept repeating “well you have to bring the dog in…” okay that’s the plan lady I just was coming in to see if you can help us!! And when I said that she said “they are doing CPR in the back it’s going to be a lot of hours” what this is a time sensitive thing I understand other patients are first but if I’m waiting 6 hours then you can’t make my dog vomit! I hope this woman gets either fired or re-trained. She’s rude-unempathetic and all around a nasty human. I went back out and called and spoke with Melissa- and was able to get my dog care. a gentleman at the desk assisted as well. Stupid and rude people thinking they know everything before you can open your mouth. I worried about turning my dog over to these people- honestly I wasn’t sure based off the front desks reaction. You don’t want me to give you his history or inform you he’s only been to the Vet sedated before? Why didn’t I receive help the first time I called when I was on the way?? Today I will find another emergency Vet in the area because while the drs were nice I prefer not to see that horrible woman again!

*forgot to add: while waiting they were nice on keeping us updated but one tech came out and said everything was going smoothly- he was given the anti nausea and needed to stay for 2 hours for observation in a room. I asked okay could one of us possibly sit with him to keep him calm? And her reply was confusing and something about his room being skipped if anyone was in with him? So that’s a concern if they aren’t sure what’s going on with their own patients that they skip him? Worked out because the Vet called us very soon after and said he was actually...

Worst Nightmare comes true. Steer Clear of this place, they only want is your Money. On December 21st we went to Mission Vet Specialty + Emergency because our regular vet’s answering service instructed us to. We arrived at 10:09 pm on 12/21/24. At no time were we told how much the cost was to examine our puppy. We were handed a sheet of paper to complete and then told to go wait in my vehicle until a vet tech could triage the puppy. We explained to vet tech the symptoms the puppy was having (gagging, and vomiting). The tech took our puppy back and he said the Vet would come and talk to us as soon as she examined the puppy. Then after waiting an hour and half, they took us back to examination room because they were closing the lobby up. This is a 24/7 emergency Vet, it makes no sense, but they locked the front doors and turned off lobby lights! We waited another hour and half in the examination room. Still, no one had come to speak with us. As employees are leaving for the night, we asked an employee to get our puppy, seeing as nobody had come to speak with us, the puppy must not have been examined yet. After waiting 3 hours and the time was 1 a.m. on 12/22/24 and we haven’t heard any news, nor did anyone get our puppy as we requested. we went back into the lobby. There was a different girl behind the desk at that time and all the lights in the lobby were back on. We asked for the dog to be brought to us. She responded that the cost would be $204.00. We asked about the cost seeing as the dog had not been examined. We were told by the girl behind the desk that the dog was seen by the vet. I asked to see the written assessment. She responded that the vet would not write up the assessment until the morning, yet we would have to pay to get our puppy and receive the assessment by email in the morning. When asked why no one had informed us that the vet had seen the puppy, the response was that there were other emergencies. It takes one minute for a vet tech to come and tell us she would be with us shorty, particularly if we were told that she would come and speak with us as soon as she examined the puppy. We paid the $204. Got our puppy and left. The next morning, we received the assessment which read verbatim what we had told the vet tech were the puppy’s symptoms were and the reasons we were bringing him in. We paid $204.00 for absolutely nothing. The assessment also stated that the vet examined the puppy at 11:59 pm on the 21st. When it comes to your beloved pet you expect better treatment.

I can say that we then took the puppy to another emergency vet (Blue Pearl), and the first thing we were told was what the cost was for the exam, and x-rays. The puppy got the care and medication he needed in all under 2 hours and we left there within 3 hours. Please don’t take you baby to Mission Vet Specialty...