El Centro Pet Medical Center

I have been taking my dog here since he was a month old in 2009. He is now 13. At one point, this place was always packed. Hard to even get a parking space. I see why that’s no longer case. Don’t bother coming here as a walk-in despite their website saying they talk walk-ins. We’ve brought my dog Max as a walk-in before. I understand having to wait as appointments have priority but this is a medical facility. You can’t predict and plan an appointment before someone gets sick. My dog started acting a bit strange Sunday so I brought him to El Centro Monday morning. The lady at the front desk did not care about my dog or what was wrong with him. No compassion whatsoever. Didn’t even ask why we were there. Just told me I could come back at 1:45 as a walk-in and then still expect to wait 4-6 HOURS??? So basically sit there till they close and HOPE they can see us. That doesn’t even make sense. Not to mention there was 1 person waiting in the lobby, they weren’t even busy. She didn’t even try to recommend another place to go. Done with El Centro, their bank hours, and apathetic employees. Must be nice to have a 90 minute lunch everyday. This place is a joke.

I have been taking my pets here for years. They are a wonderful vets office. The staff all are very friendly and approachable. The pricing is reasonable. They really care about what they do. In April I had to put my dog to sleep because of kidney disease. They were there with me for the whole thing and cried right there with me.

The people and staff here are amazing. I had to rush my fur baby smiley in and this was during there lunch because he was tragically hit by a car and they did everything possible to help him, unfortunately he passed away a few minutes later. But Thank you from.the bottom of my heart for everything 🙏🏾

Update: El Centro did reach out to me in an effort to correct their original mistakes. We did get in for a surgery consult with Dr. Davis, who is just a lovely person and experienced veterinarian. She was excellent with my cat. We scheduled surgery and was able to remove the mass inside of his ear. We are happy with his care in this situation and I appreciated the office's willingness to try and make things right. I wanted to make sure that was publicly acknowledged. We were referred to Dr Davis by our veterinarian who does house calls. She diagnosed our cat with an ear canal mass and not every office will have the necessary equipment to do a surgery like this. On Friday at 2pm we were told Dr Davis is semi retired and no longer seeing new patients. We agreed to see Dr Black instead. We were told a 5pm consult was available Monday. Took the appointment as this is a time sensitive issue. Called back today around 4pm to confirm before loading our cat in the carrier. NO appointment. NOT in the system at all. No real apology. No attempt to fix the error because now they are suddenly booking into August. Apparently moving forward the clinic is only open Tuesday through Friday. Ive worked in and around the veterinarian industry since 2006 and this is completely unacceptable. An appointment is the most basic step. Front desk always reflects on the entire facility. Red flags everywhere.

I have used several different veterinarians in the area. The change was not from bad service. I just couldn’t get an appointment in the time that I needed it, so I found another office that could accommodate my needs. El Centro is a great office. Most of the staff are animal owners. I recently took my dog in to get shots to prepare to have her boarded. The tech came in to do the initial screening and determined that my dog didn’t need shots. I still had a well visit done just to make sure that my dog was doing well. They looked out for me and didn’t try to give my dog shots that she didn’t need. This office is now my primary veterinarian office. They also have an after hours number to call if your pet is not doing well after regular business hours.