VCA Emergency Animal Hospital & Referral Center

Reviews

• JN

  James Nason

  Jun 20, 2026
  5.0
  My German Wirehair Pointer Otto “injured” his right hind leg and was limping badly and in obvious distress. I brought Otto to the VCA Emergency Hospital located on Mission Valley Road for an evaluation. This is a first-class modern facility, and everyone we dealt with during our time at the hospital were kind, considerate, attentive, and friendly. After a thorough evaluation I was informed that Otto most likely injured his cruciate ligament in his right hind knee. I set up a consultation with Dr. Kevin Barber (surgeon) for the next week to discuss the issue further and to learn more about what is involved in resolving this issue. I met with Dr. Barber and his staff in a private setting and learned more about the injury and the surgery that would be needed to get Otto back “up and running”. The interaction with Dr. Barber and his staff gave me a a full understanding of the surgery and the post-op recovery that would be required. I felt complete confidence in Dr. Barber and made the decision to have the surgery done. I brought Otto back to the hospital the following day and he went into surgery that afternoon. Dr.Barber and his staff called me several times following the surgery to give me updates on how Otto faired during and after the surgery. I picked Otto up the next afternoon and was given a full 45 minute education on how to care for Otto’s recovery by Haley, Dr. Barber’s assistant. Otto is home now in the early stages of recovery and doing well. I cannot say enough about how our entire experience went at the VCA Hospital; the staff, assistants, and Dr. Barber are all rock stars in my eyes. Thank you to all involved for caring for Otto!!! Sincerely, James Nason
• KC

  Katelyn Coffelt

  Jun 19, 2026
  2.0
  Sat for almost three hours in cardiology upstairs for a follow up. Only animal being seen by cardiologist at the time (other rooms were labeled with oncology). Can’t speak to the hospital side but previous experience with other VCA up in Carlsbad were extremely helpful.
• KG

  KD Granger

  Jun 12, 2026
  1.0
  This place is the equivalent of a dirty mechanic. Found out our Doberman has DCM and have consistently been uncharged and fear mongered here. They quoted us $1300 for X-rays and tests but weren’t able to get us in that day so we came back the next day and were quoted $2600. They talked us into doing 2 sets of X-rays in the same week and what do you know everything was still fine. The final straw was after we paid almost $3000 they had us come back two days later to talk to the cardiologist to discuss medicine doses and test results and plot twist they wanted to charge us $290 for this follow up appointment and didn’t even tell us we would be charged. Initially it sounded like it was included with all the other testing we did, you know to go over the tests. We took our dog left the appointment and will be making an appointment somewhere else.
• PD

  Potland Dispensary

  Jun 12, 2026
  1.0
  Lying, cheating, scamming. This place emailed me a quote for one price and when I showed up the quote grew to more than double. They fear monger you into things. Sure enough the extra test they ran came back just fine and they charged me double my original quote. After being there literally all day from 9:45am-6:30pm They told me to come back the next day for an exit exam that is included in what I already paid. I get there and they try to charge me another almost $300 on top of the $2500 from the literal day before. Terrible office manager, lying, cheating, scamming in every price they possibly can. Wasted my sick dogs time and mine, horrible people.
• SP

  Sofia P

  Jun 12, 2026
  1.0
  I never leave reviews but if I can help one person save their time and money and help them protect their fur baby this review will be worth it. I took my 1 year old frenchie (super healthy) who’s never had any prior health issues here because I came home from work and she had a fever out of nowhere and one of her eyes was extremely red. I got there at 5:30pm filled out paperwork and they took her temperature and put her in a waiting room but they did not see or actually help my poor baby till literally past MIDNIGHT they had me wait OVER 6 HOURS keep in mind I was in the waiting room the entire time and I was the only one there waiting so I saw with my own eyes that they were not busy at all) when they initially took her temperature when we got there she was at 105 (anything above 106 can damage their organs, cause seizures, and even death) yet they gave her nothing to reduce the fever until 6 hours later. all she needed was an IV fluid and some antibiotics but they tried to scam me and wanted to keep her over night which I wasn’t against due to her fever not going down but once they told me it was going to be 7k just to keep her over night I literally told them to give me the antibiotics and i’ll take my baby home and somewhere else in the morning. they charged me $500 for the antibiotics which I paid for because my baby needed it and at that point I just wanted to leave and go home and I knew I couldn’t leave with nothing. the next day I took her to another vet clinic and told them what happened and showed them the antibiotics they gave her and the vet was shocked that they charged me $500 he told me that he could’ve given me the exact same antibiotics for $120… moral of the story do not go here they will scam you!!!!! they don’t care about your pets health they will wait until your pet is close to dying before helping you. thanks to them I have trust issues now when it comes to taking my dog to the vet.I literally don’t understand how this place is still in business the people who work here should be ashamed of themselves truly they’re evil

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