Last Thursday, VCA All-Care held my cat's life hostage for money. My cat lost.My 7 year old cat Duncan began throwing up frequently. After taking him to our regular vet and getting a clean(ish) bill o... Read More
Last Thursday, VCA All-Care held my cat's life hostage for money. My cat lost.My 7 year old cat Duncan began throwing up frequently. After taking him to our regular vet and getting a clean(ish) bill of health, he deteriorated to the point that he was throwing up blood on the day after that visit. Long story short - Regular vet was closed the day this happened. Her voicemail led me to an emergency hospital that didn't open until later that night. THAT vet referred me to another vet clinic (Community Veterinary Hospital in Garden Grove). I rushed him over to that clinic. CVH were very sweet and caring, and hustled to get Duncan stable and take x-rays. X-rays showed an obstruction, and they wanted to do surgery. Unfortunately, they didn't have an ultrasound person available to go a deeper scan. And then before Duncan could make it to surgery, he collapsed.Concerned that he wouldn't survive surgery, they urged me to go to VCA All-Care, as they would have the tools and equipment to help him survive through the surgery. Again, rushed him to yet another clinic - VCA - and expected them to take this critical animal away ASAP and stabilize him, especially since CVH called ahead to give them the head's up. Instead, I was left at VCA's front counter for 5 minutes explaining that I wouldn't start doing their paperwork until they triaged my dying pet. Finally, someone came back to take him, and after 30 minutes we were told he was stable by a very brusque vet with terrible bedside manner. We were told we would have to wait for a technician to take an ultrasound of Duncan to know how to proceed.More than an hour later, while Duncan has been left in an oxygen chamber without fluids or any other care, they finally get around to taking the ultrasound. In the meanwhile, three other pet parents had come and gone with their dogs. Apparently Duncan had an abdominal mass and it ruptured.The next events just completely left me sick and speechless. My husband and I were brought into a hallway and told in a very cold, clinical way that Duncan had cancer, and he was bleeding internally. He would need to have surgery to survive. Surgery was $6000. 6x more than at CVH.As we're trying to wrap our heads around this, we're trying to get more info. Will the surgery save his life? Answer: Maybe. Will he die without it? Answer: Definitely. Will the surgery kill him? Answer: We don't know. Maybe. Can we pay in installments? Answer: No. You have to pay up front. We were left confused, shocked, and weeping in a hallway with other people coming and going around us. It was horrifying. We would have done anything in that moment to save Duncan's life, including finding $6k, somehow. But the urgency to make a decision without enough data was too much. We couldn't make a decision that wouldn't result in his pain and suffering. In the end, it had taken so long to get adequate answers about Duncan's health that he had deteriorated to the point that euthanasia was the only humane option.As soon as we decided to put him to sleep, the staff moved into overdrive. Hustled into a room to sign reams of paper and decide on how to handle his remains. We were charged what seems to the the standard rate for VCA - $1100. At this point, I can't really fault the clinic - they are apparently very practiced at helping people say goodbye to their pets, and some of the staff were very compassionate. That's where they get two stars. The vet giving him the injections to put him to sleep makes some comment about Michael Jackson while my cat is dying. They lose another star.But for leaving Duncan alone in a box without any urgency to save his life in his last hours, alone and in pain, and to hold his life hostage for more cash than most people have readily available... That's what I'll never forgive them for. Shame on them. Read Less