VCA Yucca Valley Animal Hospital

Seeing as my last review was removed I Took my puppy Sunka to the VCA after he displayed symptoms of vomiting and lack of appetite. When we took him to the VCA we informed the staff he was not current on his vaccines because he was a stray we had found 8 months ago. When I explained to the Dr that we could not afford treatment and we didn’t want the X-ray because it didn’t seem like he had an obstruction the vet was annoyed and pushed us to give him fluids so we agreed. On his way back to the kennels (Which were full with over night dogs I mean the room was full) we were informed he had an episode of bloody diarrhea and they tested him for parvo. It came back positive and they treated us as if we knew he had parvo which we did not. But they did not head my warning and carelessly exposed other dogs to my dog knowing he was not vaccinated. After he was out down we were given 5 minutes and then the assistant came in with the bill like we were at a restaurant not giving my family time to say goodbye . If you bring your dog here and they are sick this place is more liken to a morgue than a hospital. This place blatantly ignores people and the staff are beyond disrespectful. They deleted my original post about this issue and hide the fact they exposed a room full of dogs to parvo

posted: 08/09/2023

This veterinary clinic has saved my dogs life TWICE now! My dog got bit by a brown recluse and started developing necrosis, we thought we’d have to say goodbye to our boy, but these people saved him and now his necrosis is gone and he’s back to normal ❤️ Cannot recommend enough!

posted: 06/11/2023

Worst place ever! They put me on someone else's account because we had the same last name. They sent all of the information to those peoples email billing them an sending them my info. I called to see if I could pick up my fur-baby and they told me we just called you. I had no phone call from them, they had called the other person on the account. When I went in to get my fur-baby the woman was rude and was trying to tell me it was my fault they screwed up. I asked to be removed from the person's account and the woman got even more rude raising her voice at me because I said I didn't want my own account because I was never coming back.

posted: 03/31/2023

Well, my poor baby is under the weather. VCA is new to us. We had to stop going to Companion due to their inflexible schedules/hours/lack of Doctors in-house. I did like going there…. months ago, they saved her, treated her when she was very sick.

posted: 10/27/2022

Update: I went to a vet down the hill who did the procedure for $800. Also, turns out this vet missed a huge tumor in my dog’s mouth the other vet found. Apparently the VCA vet is not very good at her job. Summary: You will get the standard big business vet experience at the standard big business price you would expect from a monopoly owned and controlled by a big business (Mars Inc, the candy bar company). In the end though I did not have a bad experience (or a good one), the staff and vet were untruthful about what medical procedures are necessary or even beneficial. If you look at the reviews for VCA nationwide you will see that it is common practice for VCA vets to recommend or require an X-ray ($350) and blood work ($200) to be done for almost anything- these are added procedures and expenses that are usually completely unnecessary and not helpful. The VCA is owned by Mars Inc who has been buying up local vet practices to create a monopoly, and then they require the vets to charge certain prices and recommend certain procedures. That is why you see the same bad practice nationwide. My specific visit: I took my dog in to get a growth looked at. I had googled it prior to going in and the estimates cost for removal was $300-500. I figured I could spend that much to get it removed, though the removal isn’t necessary. While there I also decided to get him his shots. I was quoted about $2,000 for the procedure, which was a big surprise to me. I had asked about older dogs and being under anesthesia. The vet mentioned it’s a concern but didn’t tell me per the VCA website about 1 in 100,000 animals have issues with anesthesia (so less than 1%), so it’s unlikely to be a problem. The vet was requiring blood work and an X-ray before they would put him under anesthesia. Neither the X-ray or blood work is necessary just for anesthesia (think of all the pets that get spayed and neutered without it). Then when I mentioned I would think about the procedure and I don’t have $2,000 I received information on CareClub (which is actually a VCA owned program and not an independent pet insurance). The cost of the program is about $1,500/year and would cover the cost of many of the unnecessary procedures they included in the $2,000 estimate for a procedure that should be about $500. At this point I am starting to get super suspicious. It seems to me like there was some sort of kickback to the vet for the CareClub and it was super weird to me that their quote for the procedure was 4 times what I had researched online. When I left my vet bill was $200. $90 for the underwhelming vet advice and $110 for the three vaccines. Seems a little bit steep, I think $60-65 for the vet visit would be more on par. When I left I searched the internet and found that the VCA is owned by Mars Inc and that the same type of situation I ran into is common for the VCA nationwide. I learned that less than 1% of animals have issues with anesthesia, I learned that the VCA vets always do an X-ray and blood work (probably for the money), that CareClub is owned by the VCA, and that Mars makes 5billion a year off the VCA. So I can’t say I had a bad experience, I’ve been to vets before that were just your average vet. But I probably won’t go back, mostly because my trust in their ability to truthfully and honestly provide me advice on my pets care is broken. They lied about what care was necessary and they didn’t give me all the information to make an informed choice.

posted: 06/19/2023