VCA Northwest Veterinary Specialists

Reviews

• BR

  Brian and Megan Ruby

  Nov 14, 2025
  5.0
  These guys are AMAZING! Doctor Carvajal and his team exceeded any and all expectations. Our young hound Maizey was either injured at a young age or was born with a deformity. Her left leg was twisted in opposite directions upper and lower. Her kneecap was inside her leg. She had no grove either for the kneecap. Doctor Carvajal took two weekends to build molds and bone cuts in order to help our dog. If this did not work Maizey was going to lose her leg. When doctor Carvajal began the surgery he realized the procedure was not going to work how he wanted. He had to pivot right there in active surgery. Maizeys ligaments were incredibly tight. The surgery was hours! We listened to Doctor Carvajal as best we could with post surgery. We gave Maizey some rehab........ We have a new dog! She runs, she plays, she jumps up when shes not supposed to just like the other dogs. We cannot recommend Doctor Carvajal and his team more. We feel blessed and always indebted to this awesome team!
• MJ

  Misty James

  Nov 2, 2025
  1.0
  Keep your pets away from here! Seriously! The lady on the phone I just talked to you was literally dumb , uneducated and did not listen to a thing I said! I was charged $565 for an x-ray of her stomach when I needed it for the throat. So needless to say I spent all my money that I had to do useless stuff that didn't do a thing for my dog. She is still hard swallowing like she's choking but hey you know what I got an x-ray of her stomach! They are completely idiotic ! If you can find somewhere else to go for 24-hour service do not go to the one on 82nd ! You will go in there for a broken leg on your dog and they'll give her heart surgery. Stay clear
• JM

  Jayda Morris

  Nov 1, 2025
  5.0
  My dog Merle received four rounds of radiation here after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Dr. McDonald and her team were incredible. From the initial phone consultation, to receiving check ins via text, to getting daily reports, and then being able to speak with her directly on the last day of his treatment, I truly felt informed every step of the way. Merle can be on the more anxious / shy side, but every day during drop off, when he saw the CVT’s, he always greeted them with a tail wag & a little grumble, his way of saying hello. This ensured me he was being well loved and taken care of. The facility is incredibly clean, and when I was able to see where he had been each day, it made me feel even better - plush beds, ample kennel space, etc. They gave me a graduation certificate with his picture, and they all signed his graduation bandana. Tajhina, Melissa, Lori, Lauren, Kim, and Dr. McDonald, thank you for loving my baby like he’s one of yours, and being in such a delicate and difficult profession.
• JS

  Jessica S

  Oct 25, 2025
  1.0
  I'm starting off by saying that I am torn on what to review. I had to hospitalize my dog for a day and he is doing better, and the cost here was over half less then if i would have stayed at the original pet ER, And the staff was generally kind and loving on my dog. With that said I genuinely don't know that I would come back or recommend this particular clinic to anyone unless it was truly a life or death max capacity at other clinics situation. Maybe my view will change once the upset from everything settles for me. Although this morning when I went to fill his medicine at the pharmacy the vet refused to provide a DEA number so that I could get a discounted price on the medication. The price difference between the goodrx vs cash was a LOT (nearly $100 dollars) and only required them providing the DEA number for the pharmacy and to be frank them refusing to do so feels really terrible, shady, and flat out wrong. Admittedly I was frustrated and probably more short then I should have been, however given the circumstances I think it was to be expected. So ontop of the over 3k vet bill I had to spend another excessive amount on his medications. I really truly can not wrap my mind around being so unwilling to provide a DEA number to a pharmacy to make your clients life just a little easier, attempting to show any compassion or empathy towards your clients who just dropped multiple thousands, or even answering the phones for the pharmacy to begin with. But....what do I know right? I also noted some things on his chart notes that made me a bit sad during his hospitalization; Ie: Official hospitalization start time 4:45am, when brought in i told them he hadn't gotten any opportunity to use the bathroom because I was pretty frantic to bring him in.. first offer for a bathroom break was at 9:24am, (scheduled for 9) and doesnt seem he was given an appropriate amount of time because at 9:30am he peed himself in his kennel. He then wasn't offered another outside opportunity until 3pm, and inbetween his TWO what im assuming very short opportunities to go outside his entire hospitalization- he urinated on himself in the kennel several times. I know and understand staff are juggling multiple animals, and given normal circumstances where he isnt on a continuous IV he likely would have been able to hold it, twice in a nearly 16 hour span of hospitalization seems.....wrong. The tech, and the first (and only) vet i got to interact with were both lovely, seemed to really care, spoke in pretty plain terms which was nice, and made the clinical plan for my dog make sense. I didnt get to speak with the neurologist, nor his second vet who took over his care at 8am at all outside of a phone call sharing information on what medication we would be putting him on and when to follow up. When we arrived to pick him up I was only debriefed by the vet tech on meds, instructions, and how his stay was. They do require a "deposit" prior to giving any care at all, and that deposit is the low end of your estimated bill, which can obviously change once care starts. I thought others may want to know this too. They did do well when given a max number on working with me the best they could to stay in that area. If I could give different ratings: Tech-5 star Original vet-5 star Medication/getting ahold of anyone in office- 0 stars Overall care while hospitalized? 3 stars Front desk- 5 stars Pricing- 3 stars
• SL

  Stephanie Lawry

  Oct 13, 2025
  1.0
  I went in to the VCA Saturday morning (10/11/25) because my dog wasn't feeling/acting normal. When I arrived the lady at the desk (Priscilla) asked a few questions and said there's a $230 emergency fee needed to pay, then she can call someone to come to the lobby and get my dog from me I paid and they took him back to get started. I was happy that they were getting straight to figuring out what is wrong. About 15 minutes go by and the lady at the desk calls me up to "pay my account" I asked what is wrong with my guy and what are they going to do? She was less than helpful, didn't know anything nor did she check at all, she was just calling me up to put $800 on my account for "just in case", a thing they do so they can start any treatment they see necessary. She assured me it was refundable should they not need the full amount. I told her I was not comfortable , and I wanted to know what they are planning on doing to him/what was wrong with him before agreeing or paying anything. An hour and a half later we're finally getting called back to a room to talk with a DR. I still do not have my dog at this point and the lady (I'm not sure if she was the Dr or not) that met us in the room told me they took his vitals and everything looks/sounds good to the eye but she recommended blood work and X-rays to see if there's a blockage or something internal we can't see. She then proceeded to tell me the X-rays would be $500 or more ($339 for imaging and $159 for somebody to READ the xray) and $356 for blood work. I agreed to the X-rays, because at this point I think it is something in his digestive system. We are shown back to the lobby to wait for him to get the X-rays. I still haven't seen my guy, we're waiting over 2 hours at this point, so if something were wrong in his body somewhere, he's just sitting in a kennel waiting in line to be fixed. The front desk lady calls me up again "ok, we're just going to need payment for the x-ray and then we can get started" again money. At this point I'm reaching out to people who can help me because I'm already over $1000 in and I still have no idea what's going on with my dog. 35 mins later I ask if my guy has had an X-ray yet, the lady at the desk says "I'm not sure, but I will go check" and proceeded to finish whatever she was doing on the computer for another 15 mins, chatting and laughing with her coworkers. This whole time I've been looking up other emergency vets that would work with me and payment plans, lines of credit, absolutely whatever it took to have my dog fixed before it's (worst case scenario) too late to fix. I got up to use the restroom and when I came back out she was no longer at the computer. Another 5 mins goes by and she again calls me to the desk and says "they haven't done the x-ray, and whenever you're ready to make the payment they can go ahead and get started". So at this point (about 3 hours) my dog has been sitting in the back with a potential blockage in his digestive system and they're not doing anything about it until I give them more money. I was about to lose my patience all over this woman, and said if they haven't done anything yet I would like my dog and paperwork (showing whatever the Dr/tech has done at this point) and that I'm leaving. The paper they provide me with is attached. We left and went to Dove Lewis, and I wish we just went there first. You can read my review on Dove Lewis by searching them on Google reviews just like you did here. TLDR: $235 and no answers, no tests, nothing. $235 to sit in the lobby for 3 hours. Places that care more about money than the work they're doing should be shut down, this is the most disgusting thing I've ever had to deal with. Do better VCA and you should give me my money back I highly doubt a company so centered around money would ever consider doing the right thing. And they clearly didn't listen to anything I said about symptoms my dog was having. He never once vomited or had diarrhea, they're just throwing in what they want I guess? "Donating to a pet in need" is a complete lie also, beware.

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