Rancho Village Veterinary Hospital — Local services in Spring Valley

I have never experienced such a poor vet in my life. I understand with COVID there are new regulations and that it isn’t always easy to follow for an establishment, but that doesn’t excuse the fact for blatant disregard for my pet’s care. I rescued a kitten at the end of July and was looking for a vet to take her to because she still had vaccines to get. A coworker recommended this vet to me so I decided to schedule an appointment. First appointment was fine, waited in my car and the vet called me to discuss her next steps. I asked for guidance on her eating habits, but was just told to follow the food package guidelines. No real bed side manner, but again I was in my car so I didn’t get to ever meet this vet in person. They wanted to do a fecal sample, so we went ahead with that. I dropped it off a few days later and was told they would contact me with the results next day. The following week I still had not heard back, so I sent them an email. I work all day and cannot call during business hours. After emailing them twice, I finally received a call that her test came back negative and sorry for the delay. Her next appointment was for her last set of vaccines. The vet tech came to pick her up out of the car and said “Ok, she’s here for her Rabies shot?” I proceeded to tell her no, I had already told the vet and the receptionist that I wasn’t going to do the Rabies vaccine and she was here for her last booster vaccine. Afterwards the same vet tech came out and proceeded to put my kitten in another person’s car! I understand this is all new for them, but it was only me and another car there early on a Saturday morning and that car had a huge dog in it. Hello, pay attention! Then they called again to take payment and schedule her next vaccine. I asked why and the receptionist told me it was her final vaccine. Didn’t make sense to me at the time, so later I emailed them asking what exactly was this next appointment for. Didn’t hear back for 4 days and finally they said her last booster vaccine and the Rabies vaccine. Well no, after I did some research the next vaccine shouldn’t be for a year! I emailed back saying again, and let them know that NO I did not want the Rabies vaccine as I’ve told everyone several times and I didn’t understand why she would be getting a vaccine that she shouldn’t be schedule for, for another year! I got a phone call shortly after from the vet letting me know they had made a mistake in coding in the system and I was in fact right. She is all up to date on her vaccines and shouldn’t be scheduled again until next year. Then she said, well you pre-paid for the fecal test and we can still do that if you want. I told her I already had and got the results that took me hounding them to get and to please just cancel my next appointment and send me her records. We only visited this vet twice, how hard is it to get her records? I emailed this morning and got a response that they had sent it yesterday with the forwarded message attached. They sent it to the wrong email address! I can’t make this up! It just scares me that if I would have gone in for the next appointment and not have done my own research, my kitten would have gotten a vaccine she isn’t scheduled to have for another year. Makes me wonder what other types of things they screw up on all the time! The communication is terrible and obviously they are not organized. I will never go back and I warn others to really check what they are scheduling your pets for because they could be doing serious harm...

Have taken multiple cats here over the years and your experience will vary greatly depending on your vet.

Had Dr. Bowman the first time we came I believe, our regular vet couldn't see my boy for an anal gland expression in a reasonable time frame so they were able to see him ASAP and get him fixed. It was a great experience and one of the few vets in SD that hasn't tried to push for fungal tests on all-indoor cats on our first visit. Dr. Bowman may have come off agitated and apathetic but she was the only vet I've met here who knew what she was talking about, had ideas and solutions other vets missed, and was no-nonsense about treating our cats appropriately. My vet visits with her were always more affordable.

Our last three visits were with Dr. Karr and all were unpleasant. I brought in the same boy cat for another poop blockage after Dr. Bowman left. I knew that's what it was, he had it occur for years despite being on a high-quality prescription diet and I told the vet this, he insisted on doing an unnecessary x-ray and found out my cat indeed had a stuck poop (duh). Second time I was trying to get a surgery estimate based on what Dr. Karr found on the xray about a diverticulum issue, NOT schedule an appointment, the staff was assertive and rude about me scheduling an appointment anyway despite having his medical history on file. I caved and scheduled an appointment with Dr. Karr and it was a waste of our time (he even said it was an "easy visit" 🙄 -- but hadn't heard of and couldn't give me any feedback on the surgery I called about), and he said some off-collar things about my tough work schedule and needing a therapist when we talked about my availability to provide more round-the-clock care for my cat. It took him over a week to provide an estimate or even referrals to other vets who may know about the surgery only after I called the desk and asked about it. My husband came in after the visit to pick up a refill for boy cat and the staff (including Dr. Karr) LIED to his face about what I asked for and how I tried to schedule an appointment for "something new" when I was very forward about only needing an estimate. I vowed not to go back to this place for my own cats and FINALLY found my previous vet I loved (who moved to a different office a drive across San Diego) to sadly put my boy down because Dr. Karr failed him and he was suffering with another blockage because his other refill was late and he had stopped eating. All I could think was it wouldn't have happened with Dr. Bowman.

THIRD visit today (yes idk why my husband went back), we had to get his kitten they had already seen spayed and they put a SECOND MICROCHIP in her despite having all of her paperwork on file saying she already had one. 🤦‍♀️The poor communication killed this place for us, so now he's done going to this vet also.

We haven't had to pay for some of their mistakes, which was nice, but I just wish I was able to find my original vet or find out where Dr. Bowman went sooner. Wendy (staff) is great. But as someone else said, it's clear there is high staff turnover here and we've been to 8-10 vets in San Diego over the years and really just wanted to finally find a vet that was open on the weekend and could help us care for our special needs babies. A great vet is worth the...

Just called in with an emergency, Been taking my partners ESA dog here for years with 0 issues. Most of the time, the ladies in front of are nice. However I don't know is she's new or was having a bad day "Breena" just lost my business she was rude when I told her I had an daytime emergency, her response was we don't do emergency and where not a walk in, when I know from the past I have done walk in and prior desk ladies have told me you can come in especially if it's an emergency and if a opening opens we can take you. However breenas response was more like to bad, we're book tell Wednesday, and told her respectfully you do due walk ins I've done it in the past, than she changed her mind and said oh yes if there's opening from cancelations but no we can't take him, like she knew everybody was gonna show up for all there appointments and there would be no possibility of a slot opening. I informed her I have been going here for year her response with smirks attitude. "OK" than I told her her response were coming off a little rude, I don't know if your having a bad day or what but the way your just talking down to me and not helping me is rude her response again was "OK" with pure smirkyness and zero thoughts of maybe just saying I apologize we are just slammed today, if you wanna try and take your pet in and if someone cancels we can maybe squeeze you in or at least inform me of another place to take my pet for emergency, not just shrugg me off with zero concern for my pet who's actually having a emergency. Thankfully VCA down the street had openings and there staff was little more friendlier and came off less rude, which I sad because I've been going here I don't ever recall any of the other ladies in front being rude tell Brianna or However she may spell her name. Her attitude and 0 care for my situation and lying may have been just enough after 4+ yrs with you guys to change my services. Her response after telling her this was "ok" like I didn't matter. I also requested to speak with someone else and she said no. So I really hope you guys can teach her to have better customer service because, as of now, my business may be going somewhere else and she could possibly do this to more people and coming off rude and making others due the same as I. She...