VCA California Veterinary Specialists - Carlsbad Carlsbad, California

Front desk staff are rude and unprofessional. I've had my dog to this ER 6 times in the past few months. The past 2 times in calling back to report my dog was not better and I needed to bring him back, I was told "this is not a primary vet service." I had just told her that my dog was seen there last week twice AND had been to his primary vet 2 days ago. He is now acutely ill again and though I was told to bring him back if he had issues, they said they are at capacity for today and tomorrow. That could be true, but I was willing to wait since all his recent records are there. I was turned away. The vets are nice enough although my last experience was frustrating. The plan of care with 4 medications was not explained to me prior to picking up my dog. Nobody likes surprises, so admittedy I was upset. The tech had to go back and forth to ask my questions to the vet multiple times. My neighbor cautioned me about the bad service she had received here but it's closest to me. My experiences were ok enough until the last time and calling this morning and speaking to the rude receptionist is not okay. This is the second offense for this same person. I'd like to have continuity of care without the unprofessionalism. Now I'm being forced to go elsewhere probably because I'm being labeled as a 'bad client' for being upset about my recent verbalization of the lack of service and communication. The front desk gal also suggested some false statements on a recent call regarding what veterarians will prescribe as med dosing for my dog. I did tell her what she suggested isn't true and cautioned her in giving out information that was invalid. I used to work in veterinary. I'm disappointed. It doesn't have to be like this. I hope my experience with the specialist here is better. I just want my dog to be ok without all the hassle and attitude. It just adds to the stressful situation being a worried pet mom. I called 2 other animal ERs and no wait. I was able ti schedule my arrival at the one in San Marcos. I know covid has impacted many industries. When I lived in WA State a few months back, I had to call around to 4 differnt ERs in the middle of the nite for my other dog. 3 of them were at full capacity. Why i was told that CVS was at full capacity for 3 days is hard to understand. They said they had been at full capacity since Thursday and weren't taking patients until maybe Saturday night. I have a very hard time understanding that.

You know I'm not going to waist my time explaining all that happened. I pretty much experience what others on her experienced and overall the staff they have no sense of proffesionalism. I'm already stressed because my dog is sick and I have to pay out of pocket for fees. Just rude! rude! rude! I have told others that I know to stay away from this place!

More than enough employees/staff to communicate with us AND take care of our cat with urinary issues however this was not the case. They made us wait for hours with no updates, staff was rude, unprofessional and had terrible hearing because no one listened to anything we had to say. They wanted to sedate our cat to look at him! Terrible terrible terrible experience. They do not like cats here either. They favor dogs. That was also disturbingly obvious.

When my cat was dying and there was no 24 hour vets close to me I asked what advice I could be given to help my dying cat. The receptionist who answered the phone disrespectfully informed they couldn't do anything over the phone (which was obvious I was calling from a state that had a 3 hour time difference and no open 24 hour vets) Could have been more respectful in your tone. And the delivery of your opnion and unwillingly to express any emotion or care to my dying animal. I used to use this office when I was stationed at camp pendleton. Now I would never go back there even if you gave me free pet care for life.

I'm updting this review to let people know that once I got face to face with decision makers they were very polite and reasonable. I assumed bad intent but I honestly think now that they are simply overwhelmed with work and understaffed. This led to poor communications and slow responses. I want to walk back my previous statement of them being a cancer to the community.

My stepmother rescued a puppy from Tijuana. We took her to this vet immediately because she looked pale. I am a vet tech myself in the ER so I know all the signs. We waited hours with no update. I get waiting...people wait all the time at my ER too. But we generally update people. About five hours later after I asked for an update they said the parvo test was negative and they thought she was fine. They said they were going to give her sub Q fluids and anti nausea medications. I asked if they had done bloodwork or anything and they said no need, she was fine. I thought this was weird. A puppy that is pale should not be shoved out the door. At my hospital we wouldn't atleast recommend bloodwork or x-rays. They said they would bring her out in thirty minutes. An hour and a half went by (again, I get that things happen) and I asked if she could come out now they look confused and they said they couldn't find her crate. I explained that she didn't have it back there. Then they brought her out. We woke up today and she was dead. If they had even taken a minute to do some bloodwork or xrays or anything they likely would have discovered this 8 week old puppy was not ok. I told them she was pale. I told them she had black stool. I told them she wouldn't eat. Now she's dead. Below is a picture of her. Her name was Bonita. The even crazier part is we spent $700 but we would have spent $4000. The money didn't matter and they still were too lazy to even suggest bloodwork or xrays. They didn't even give us the option.

My pet died there. We called a Manager Lisa Romo to find out what happened and instead of explaining sent a $1500 bill. We had already paid the $3400 for a 2 day stay. They are the worse. Stay away. Lisa Romo Mgr or business owner never responded so I wrote , called and emailed New(?) Mgr Rebecca Donnarumma and Business owner informing them my precious Sugarray received Negligent Care resulting in His Death. Still no response from either.

Have been taking our pets for 11 years to VCA Encinitas and had been quite happy with their 24/7 service. However, VCA decided to terminate that location as a hospital requiring after-hours emergencies be taken to this facility in Carlsbad. Low and behold 6 months later, one of our huskies got bit by a rattlesnake late in the evening (fortunately he had received a rattlesnake vaccine shot a few months earlier) forcing us to rush him to the Carlsbad location. First, because of Covid the facility was locked down, so we communicated via their intercom only to be insanely told we had to call in by phone to check-in. Then not only did they have no record of our pets requiring us to fill out paperwork before they would even bring the dog in, they were bureaucratic and short, and absolutely wasted critical time before finally taking our pet in for treatment. No excuse for not having a shared history of our pets between locations, no excuse to delay admitting and treating an emergency. In the future we will be taking our pets to the VEG emergency facility on El Camino Real in Encinitas.

Their care is great but they're chronically understaffed. On multiple occasions I've had to wait on hold for 15 minutes or longer.

This place on Faraday in Carlsbad, they call themselves 24/7 emergency and at 1:30am they turned me with sick cat away and told me they only care for dying animals. My cat was very sick with bloody urine and vomiting in pain. They just turned me away and I had to search for another emergency Hospital miles away who would take care of my cat. Pretty disgusting. Unreliable unprofessional and unresponsive exactly how this place is.

Bottom line, if you come in with a pet that is critically ill, and you are not ready to pay 1000 dollars just for a consultation and blood work (just to start understanding what is going on), do not take your dog. They will not treat them, and he will pass away on a cold flat metal bed as people stare at him wide eyed. I payed 300 dollars initially for them take a look and that is all they did, wish they would of been more proactive not because of the money that drives the business, (consent to treat the dog they had), but because in this world we need more professionals that are not only about the bottom line. From a business model what I share is only wishful thinking, but matters of life and death should not be reduced to business transactions. Best wishes to everyone with a sick dog.

I took my cat here they fixed him I mean my cat means the world to me and to have him fixed is awesome. he ate a dart and now he’s better than ever

Although we appreciate the Vet and Tech’s care for our pet, they really need to improve their process regarding the Financial Coordination and train all of their employees to follow the same protocol. Consumers have the right to receive accurate financial estimates approved by pet owners through written consent or email confirmation before proceeding with care. We were given wrong information regarding the estimated costs 2 different times and the final bill also included charges that didn’t even occur that were then removed upon our review and request for removal. Prior to deciding to have our dog stay at CVS after a surgery with our vet, we needed an estimate to see if we could even afford the 24 hour post-operative care. We were quoted around $400 for the 1st 24 hours over the phone. Once we dropped the pet off we received an emailed estimate of over $1,000 which was much more than what were expecting given the verbal estimate. Nonetheless, we felt we didn’t really have much of a choice since our dog was already taken in. We approved the charges for the 1st 24 hours via email and paid a deposit. Upon the recommendation of the Vet, we were encouraged to keep the pet in their care for monitoring for another 24 hours. Knowing our financial constraints, we again called to get what the estimate would be for the next 24 hours and were also quoted what the costs would be for only 16 more hours to see if we could afford either option. The financial coordinator reviewed our bill and confirmed that after our first 24 hours, our total was $885 which was below the deposit amount we paid as they didn’t run some of the labs or give certain misc. meds that were on the first estimate. We were then given a verbal estimate for our first 24 hours + additional 16 for $1047 and then a quote of our first 24 hours plus an additional 24 hours for $1177.42. We verbally approved the additional hours and were told we would receive the new estimate via email within the hour. This was around 7:00 pm. We never received the new estimate and did not approve or receive any new requests for a deposit like we did the first 24 hours. When we were contacted by the Office Manager the next morning (12 hours later) our bill was over $1600. We were extremely surprised that the total was already over the 48 hour quote at only 36 hours. We confirmed that it was higher than the verbal quote we received and that we still never received the emailed estimate to authorize. They told us that the coordinator is not going to call us in the middle of the night with new charges. Mind you, the start of the next 24 hours would have been 8:00 pm not the middle of the night. Furthermore, it’s a 24 hour hospital that we had been calling several times per night and received updates mid-night from Doctors. I would imagine if there was another financial need such as an emergency treatment in the middle of the night that they would be required to contact the owner to get authorization of both the service and the associated costs. We feel that they should have honored the verbal amount given since they never emailed the new written estimate and we never authorized the new amount other than the lesser amount we verbally approved. Furthermore, our Vet tried to speak with the CVS vet and they did not want to speak to them as we were approving to discharge the animal. They also refused to give us the food that they told us over the phone we could ask for a few cans of to take home. We felt like we were suddenly being treated poorly because we chose to discharge our pet due to financial constraints and were in disagreement regarding the bill. It was a very sour ending to an already stressful and expensive situation where all we wanted was to give as much care as we could reasonably afford for our pet and trust that we were given accurate information to inform our decision to extend care. Please improve in this area so that owners have correct information and so that there is a approved paper trail with consent in the case that the verbal total is not going to match actuals.

A lot of inconsistent information was given to us throughout the entire visit. I understand it’s an emergency hospital but all pets should be cared for equally after waiting the 6 hour wait time. Tried to give a second chance for them to redeem themselves with the absolute minimum given. So I’m here on google. Very disappointed , no follow through on Lisa’s part “looking into the inconsistencies”

‼‼ATTENTION‼‼ Would highly NOT recommend coming to this hospital unless you feel like throwing away your money this is the spot ahaha. Complete joke coming. I called to see how long the wait time for the night and was told 2-3 hours. Once I arrive they telling me that the wait time is 5-6... Once they took my pet in they tell me they were going to run some test that it would be really fast. I arrived at 11pm.. . My pet did not get released till 5:30am just from getting a urine sample. Then they tell me I was going to be charge a certain amount on the phone. Once I get to the door they increased it to another hundred. Really unprofessional staff. To top it off I get send home with medicine saying about pills... I received a liquid medicine and when I call to ask what I should do they tell me we will give you a call back we are too busy rn... THESE PEOPLE DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR PET!!! THEY JUST WANT YOUR MONEY!!

My English bulldog would be dead if it were not for the quick services this establishment rendered. I want to thank everyone here from the front desk clerk to the surgeon that saved Honey Buns life. They pulled off the impossible, my dog should not be alive. I’m an rn and a 8404 corpsman and I know how unlikely a positive outcome was for my best friend. No matter what I write will not do this place justice. Thank you -Alex

Thank god for CVS Carlsbad. Our dog got a foxtail stuck in his nose and was sneezing blood everywhere. Seven vets turned us away because they were too busy, but CVS Carlsbad squeezed us in. And they were able to find the foxtail. I'm just so grateful they were able to see our dog. They are super professional, super nice, great 'bedside manner'. Thank you thank you thank you CVS for taking care of our baby and hearing the desperation in my voice when I didn't know where else to go.

On 2/23/2021 I called VCA Carlsbad, as I have in the past without a problem, to request a doctor to see my 8 week old puppy that was having continuous bloody diarrhea. My regular vet could not work her in and my go to has always been VCA. The woman who answered the phone told me they could not see my puppy. She said, “we are a level one trauma emergency vet and only see emergency problems”! I said, “a puppy with bloody diarrhea is not an emergency” and she said no it is not but I can give you the names of other vets that might be able to see her. I was shocked and disappointed. They are a 24 hour emergency hospital for what? As she put it level one trauma? What? I have never had a problem with them seeing my senior dog on a short notice, including just a few months ago. I was able to get in with Surfside Animal Hospital for tests and treatment and the service was amazing. I will never use VCA again. I will no longer be able to trust their judgement when they feel bloody diarrhea is not an emergency.

The doctors and staff are compassionate, caring and knowledgeable. We have full confidence in their ability to take good care of our dog. They truly care about the well-being of your animal. Thanks to everyone!

Amazing staff! Took care of our Frenchie right away. Very caring, thorough and skilled at what they do. Would highly recommend.

Our cat Scout has IBD or something similar. We've had great treatment from Dr. Benedict and the whole VCA team!

The hospital in Carlsbad is the best ever. We took our little Coco there last year when she was suffering from diabetic ketoacidisos and they worked so very hard to save her...and when it was time to let her go their compassion went above and beyond. We rescued a little one about a month after we lost Coco and two days ago she became lethargic and wasn't eating. All we could think was "we can't lose another one." They admitted her and ran a multitude of tests. They kept us in the loop and took care of our precious one. We don't know the diagnosis yet, waiting for results but we know whatever happens, they will be there for us with care, compassion and the best of care.

The Doctors at VAC CVS has literally saved my dogs life. Two years ago my general vet told me there was not much we could do for my 4 year old Golden, Shelby. Now, two years later she looks healthy, plays like a carefree puppy and her tests are all looking near perfect. Thank you!

The doctors and specialist seem to give a lot of care to the patients, giving me daily reviews on how things are going, they did a great job. The issue I have is with the people at the front desk and non doctors passing on incorrect information to me. These daily radiation treatments take about 2 hours, I was told it would take 4-5 hours on the last day as tests were needed. So I made plans, then to confirm the next day's appt, I was told incorrectly and it would only take 2 hours. Lots of bad communication from what I see. I was also told on day of surgery to have her fasted, then after inquiring, I was to feed them a small amount. I do not use credit cards and pay by cash. I go in to pay $5800 on day one as 75% is needed to start, the receptionist would not count the cash in front of me and wanted to take it around back where she was unseen. She only said she was not comfortable counting in front of me. She would not budge and I had to count in front of her while she ignored me. In summary, the specialist and doctors I feel did a good job but lots of issues their help...

This place has never been the same after 2018 horrible experience for my pet and myself

Very much appreciate the attentive and kind care of our sweet cat, Peanut Butter, for treatment of lymphoma. We are very hopeful he has a lot more time with us and are grateful for the staff at VCA California Veterinary Specialists. Our oncologists and the technicians are wonderful and Peanut Butter always comes back feeling better & more energized (and smells like he's been cuddled by the ladies at the hospital) :)

Took our dog in for coughing that our regular vet missed on their diagnosis and VCA found he had pneumonia. They kept him for the night with intravenous antibiotics etc and got him back to good health. Hard to deal with anything these days with Covid but the staff and Drs were great! Very caring and helpful. Would highly recommend!

VCA saved my dogs life. They also kept me calm and were so empathetic to my state of mind. From Monica at reception to the amazing doctors, I cannot say enough about my positive experience despite the circumstances. ????????????

Received the news that my beloved pet had cancer and needed radiation after having surgery. I met with the team, headed by Dr Olgilvie on Friday and started treatment on Tuesday. There was absolutely no pressure to proceed with radiation and they very carefully explained all my options with the utmost care and concern for not only my Desi but for me as well. Randall, the technician in charge of radiation, was more then I could ever ask for. He took such great care of Desi and myself, keeping me posted and informed at all times. Randall was our angel and I will be truly grateful to him. If you want your pet to have the best care and to be treated by staff as if they are family, then go to VCA California Veterinary Specialists. VCA gave me two extra years with my sweet girl that I wouldn’t have had and I am so thankful!

One of the best experiences I've ever had with vet. These guys are amazing and were able to accomodate my dog even though they were on a packed schedule. All the people I interacted with include the surgeon who did my dogs surgery, were all amazing, super knowledeable, and felt genuinely loving towards my dog. I highly recommend them!