Animal Cancer Center

Horrible! I am still traumatized after trusting my dog Buddha's care to the Animal Cancer Center (ACC). I brought him to Dr. Arteaga starting 9/22, ending in 5/23 when she abruptly announced, "he's in kidney failure!" and then dismissed us as clients in the coldest, most brutal manner. When I brought Buddha in initially, his BRAF test revealed 2% cancer - very early stage bladder cancer. I gave him all the cancer meds she suggested along with the NSAID, Meloxicam. In 3/23 we tested his blood, Dr. A said to come back in May - 2 months later. He started to not eat very close to our appt. Friday before - we live a few hours away. When we got into see her that Monday, Dr. A tested his blood again and announced his kidney failure, as if telling me that the weather was nice. No emotion, no kindness, no compassion. I didn't understand the severity since I had a dog with "kidney failure" who lived a good quality of life for an extra year and a half on subcutaneous fluids. I got him home and back to my local vet, we re-ran the CBC panel and he confirmed that Buddha's kidneys were in failure. When I checked the CBC panel from 2 months prior and consulted with others, I was told conclusively that he should NOT have continued the Meloxicam because of his kidneys. Instead, Dr. Arteaga continued those meds and didn't have us return for 2 months. Many times, we came once a month. On my way out of town from the May appt., I dropped off a BRAF test at ACC. Instead the Dr. ran and charged me for a test that was totally invalid due to the liquid in the collection jar for BRAF. It was diluted, so not valid. It made no sense why she ran that test with BRAF liquid. My home vet had to redo this test and I paid twice for it. Then, I got the horrifying news that Buddha was going to have to be put down, not for the cancer he was being treated for, but for his kidney failure. Dr. Arteaga even rejected a prescription order I made for Buddha one week after visiting her office telling Chewy's pharamacy that "Buddha was no longer a patient". ONE WEEK LATER! I was beside myself, going through the worst time, facing putting down my beloved dog while ordering the very same fluid kit ACC sold me. I had to find out from Chewy's (not ACC) what her office had done. ACC discarded us completely. No condolences, no kindness - just heartless. After that, I had to scramble for fluids since I was almost out of what Dr. A sold me. Another demonstration of Dr. A's heartlessness is what she did regarding my dog Winston. He had bloodwork with elevated lymphocytes, likely leukemia or lymphoma. I immediately sent his bloodwork and called ACC to set up a consultation. I was making the trip to see her in a week. Dr. A said she would need a "two hour block" of her time to consult on Winston's case along with Buddha's appt. Her office did not have a block of two hours the following week. I ALWAYS traveled to her office with both of my dogs, as I did for that appointment, but respected her need for a "two hour block". So, I waited a heart-wrenching, anxiety-provoking additional month, waiting on pins and needles over Winston while also dealing with Buddha's cancer. We went up a month later, Dr. A re-ran his bloodwork, which was the same result as the bloodwork I sent to her from my local vet the month prior. Dr. A told me not much could be done to help him since it is such an early stage. She had us in and out - seeing both Buddha and Winston in less than an hour. !? She made me wait an entire month just to tell me nothing could be done for Winston. What kind of a person would do this? Buddha died on June 2, 2023. I miss him terribly and the grief is severe. Dr. Arteaga made everything even more painful. I will never understand why and how she was so heartless. I can only think that she is overworked - she is the only oncologist at ACC and clearly doesn't take enough time off. Her obvious burn out results in poor outcomes, callousness, lack of adequate research and attention to detail. She let us down profoundly and I would never want anyone to go through what I did.

posted: 08/16/2023

She is wonderful, has saved the lives of two of my cats now. I only wish that we had a way to put people in remission of cancer so quickly. Truly a miracle, Bella Noche is in remission in less than one week.

posted: 04/14/2023

Dr. ARTEAGA IS AMAZING!! BY FAR SO WELCOMING! WE drove from a far and is WORTH it all!! I made the BEST CHOICE EVER!! We will come back in a week! "Lucky" did soo well!

posted: 10/26/2020

Please read the negative reviews on Yelp carefully (especially from Priya V) as I failed to before visiting this office. They are buried under what seems like what would be a good business. Also, one of the positive 5 star reviews here was written by Dr. Arteaga herself so not sure if all these reviews are legitimate or objective. I have never seen a business run like this, but it's clear that customers have experienced the employees drop the ball and then give them attitude (again see Yelp) Maybe it was a good business in a past, but the more recent negative reviews on Yelp speak to a very poorly managed business. My husband called to get a prescription for our dog for the immune therapy treatment that was recommended previously. They refused to give the prescription for medication so we can order it for our dog and insisted that he needed to be seen again (likely so they could charge for another examination even though he had been evaluated recently). This was contrary to conversation we had with them previously where we were still deciding if we wanted to move forward with immune therapy and Terry the receptionist told us the medication could be ordered over the counter. Terry avoided talking to my husband and had their office manager Robert speak to him instead as she knows she was backtracking on what she had told us which was incorrect information. Now they insisted that they still needed to determine if immune therapy was appropriate and instead of owning up to providing inconsistent, unclear, and incorrect info, they denied what they said and then said they would blacklist us as a customer out of retaliation as we wrote a negative review on Yelp due to the rude behavior we experienced previously from Terry. As mentioned in several Yelp reviews, this office is unprofessional in its conduct with customers and it's communication to customers is unclear and inconsistent, in addition to being very rude.

posted: 08/09/2022

How lucky are we on this west coast to have such a caring compassionate and brilliant oncologist to care for our furry family. Dr. Arteaga and staff are just the sweetest gentlest most professional group of people I’ve come across. I hope no one ever needs her services but if you do, it’s the best you could ever hope for!!!! Thank you Cancer Care ❤️🐶

posted: 04/29/2022