VCA Veterinary Specialists of CT West Hartford, Connecticut

Vet Spec has been wonderful for us. We brought our husky here for vomiting and they were with us every step of the way. Matt, Nicki, Stacy and the entire veterinary team bent over backwards to help us until the end. Dr. Knaak is a fantastic internal medicine doctor, he never gave up and made sure to take the time to talk to us about our pup. In the end, Vet Spec was extremely compassionate and helped us through the toughest decision we have ever had to make. They care deeply about your pet, deeply about their owners, knew me by car and first name, and will do everything they can to help. I can’t recommend Vet Spec enough, they were amazing to us. Thank you, Vet Spec, for everything you did and tried, for never giving up on us and helping us through every step; i cannot thank them enough. If I ever need something, I will return here but hopefully not too soon.

Great experience at the emergency room! From the initial phone call all the way to my dog’s discharge, everything was handled with great care. Knowledgeable staff, easy contactless pay options. Convenient location.

I have never in my life been so moved by the loving care I was given at this hospital and especially Dr Norkus. My baby got sick and had to be put down in a matter of 24 hours. I was hysterical. They rushed her inside and took the best care for her comfort and with me. I was given plenty of time alone with my Lucy to say goodbye. He was so loving and caring as well as the rest of the staff. I was absolutely devastated and they were the only one's to send me a sympathy card! Hand written! If your fur baby is sick or is at the end of their life, this is where you want to bring them! THANK YOU Dr. Norkus and everyone else there who handled us with such care!!!

I am absolutely in love with the way that they handled our unfortunate situation.. i had to put my cat of 16 years down and it was a lot for me but they took such good care of us and sent us amazing little gifts with his ashes and paw print it brought me to tears thank you guys so much for taking good care of me and my baby i can for sure say that in his final moments he was in the care of people who actually cared once again thank you

Someone give Judy a raise!! We had the nicest experience with the Vet tech Judy who had some of the best customer service skills I’ve seen in a long time. She helped us with an emergency early this morning and she was so friendly, so calming and super attentive. I would come here again solely to be taken care of by Judy!

I've heard of clients waiting for up to eight hours! And for that you get to pay emergency prices if you're coming in as an emergency! After the change of ownership and then the onset of the pandemic, things really deteriorated dramatically. They have some staff that I have witnessed act rudely, unprofessional, or speak so poorly it was difficult to determine what they meant. I even watched one staff person be what I thought was unecessarily rough with an animal. Obviously I won't be returning there except in a rare emergency where all other local clinics are closed. Lastly, be warned they are certainly NOT "budget-priced", you are billed for absolutely everything and prices are high. It is a good idea to read over the invoice as soon as you get it, in case you are billed for something erroneously.

I have always been happy with VCA in the past. But not this time, My dog has been inside there 10 1/2 hours. Other when I spoke to the doctor (6 1/2 hours) after my dog has been here, no one has called me ONCE. I have had to call myself. I am frustrated. I know there are emergencies. But I honestly feel like my dog is just not important nor am I.

Cant say it was great Basically a rip off operation They know they have you by the balls so the charge stupid high prices. Next emergency we will drove farther and prob still be seen sooner. Dont ask me to reach out to you. Damage is done. Lesson learned. Read the 1 star reviews.

I cant say enough about my experience at Veterinary Specialists emergency hospital. My dog was hospitalized there for 3 days with a very serious illness. Every single person I was in contact with throughout that time both by phone and in person was kind, compassionate, professional and knowledgeable. Although my Jake is gone, I am comforted knowing that everyone who cared for him in his last days was kind and gentle and truly cared about him. Thank you so much ????????????

I had a very disappointing experience yesterday. The interaction I had with this location began at 8am and ended around 12am. After a couple prompts on the phone about wait time, it was recommended around 3pm to "you can try and come now!" and resulted in other pets that came after me being seen before me and leaving before me. After a call to "come in shortly" waiting an additional hour to still not being seen. I understand maybe a lack of staffing and wait time varying. I get it. But it's not fair to see another person wait maybe 4 or 5 hours, coming after me, to then being called in and leaving before me. Or another dog coming in and waiting maybe 2 hours after me and leaving before me. It feels weird being a POC and being basically ignored. Thankfully, I was given a refund with no fuss. It was eerily too easy, almost welcomed.

About a month ago I lost my 15 year old cat in a tragic accident. It was a sunday afternoon and I was alone when it happened. I googled emergency vets in the area and came across Veterinary specialists and called them, they were so understanding and said yes bring her here, come right in when you get here, so I somehow pulled myself together to transport her to them and they were so good. They took care of me immediately and gave me as much time as I needed to say goodbye to her. I literally do not know if I could have gotten through that day without their kindness. The fee I was charged for cremation was very reasonable, and when I picked up her remains I was so surprised at how nice it was with the vase, paw print, small bottle of her beautiful grey hair, and flower seeds to plant in remembrance. They also sent me a card, and notified my regular vet who also sent a card. I miss her to pieces, but am so thankful for the kindness they showed on that day and will recommend them for emergency services to anyone I know going forward.

This place is horrible. the wait times for their “emergency” services is at LEAST 4 hours. I waited well over 4 hrs for my pet to be seen. meanwhile I saw WALK-IN clients bring their pets INSIDE as me and a line of other people had to wait in their cars. When i called and politely asked if they could give me an estimated wait time they said “we can’t incase an emergency walks in”. TERRIBLE customer service. even urgent cares for humans are faster than this place which seems understaffed with only one vet. Absolutely will never come here again. I get that there’s priority, but for goodness sakes a 4 or more hour wait is too extreame.

I took my Havanese Tye to this hospital after he was attacked by another dog. The staff was so friendly and professional and the Vet explained their findings in complete detail, which put my mind at ease. I would highly recommend them to anyone who’s looking for a Vet or in need of emergency services for their pet, they were amazing.

Our dog met with a porcupine at 5am this morning. We tried one emergency vet that told us they aren’t taking any patients at this time. After calling Veterinary Specialists of CT’s emergency line, they let us know we could come down. We arrived at 6:10am, checked in and our boy was taken in by 6:20. The vet, Dr. Deborah Lindsay was very compassionate and took the time to explain everything to us that would be involved to have the quills removed. By 7am, she came out with an update that all went well and he is just waking up from the sedation. At 7:40am, we had our big boy back with us, still groggy from the sedation and pain meds, but doing well. We are grateful for the care and attention the entire staff took, especially Dr. Lindsay with the step by step updates and status checks. Knowing how busy all veterinary offices are, this facility and care team were excellent.

I brought my young cat in a few months ago to the ICU because her family vet found that her blood work was extremely abnormal and indicated that she was experiencing severe kidney failure. I adopted her from a shelter last year after I got through having COVID for a few months (I'm immunocompromised and unfortunately lived in a crowded building with indoor common areas). I developed long COVID afterward and it was beyond debilitating - everyday tasks were a constant struggle. She was by my side every step of the way, and when I got super weak and was bedridden, she would just nap with me. Suffice to say, I developed a really strong attachment to her. Although the hospital is definitely understaffed, all the nurses and doctors made sure to walk me through everything and help me make the best decisions for her. They also went above and beyond to do whatever they could - a few times I called to ask if the doctors or nurses could do something beyond what's expected of an ER, only to be told they did it already without me even asking. Before I go on, let me say (write?) first that these 5 stars are for the staff here who went above and beyond to save my cat, not management. The issues with the hospital are pretty much all things the staff can't control, such as being understaffed and overworked (hence the long wait times), as well as the steep out-of-pocket cost of emergency vet care. These issues may all be endemic to ER vet care in general, but that doesn't make it okay, and it just creates more frustration for everyone involved. The staff are already bearing the brunt of the frustration because ER visits are so frightening for pet owners, why increase the staff's stress further by running them ragged? Anyway. Ahem. Back to it. Most every time I visited my cat, her doctors or her nurses would come to talk everything through personally which seemed pretty above-and-beyond considering how busy they were. She kept fluctuating quite a lot and went in and out of the hospital, and the staff really tried to do everything they could. Luckily her condition was covered under her insurance, so I had a lot more options including the normally-insane-due-to-cost like dialysis or a kidney transplant. Once they understood things were doable and I had already looked into how feasible things were, the entire staff really bent over backwards to ensure she could get transferred to somewhere that could help her get the testing necessary to see if she even qualified for a transplant. This was my first time experiencing anything like this, and everyone was very patient with me despite me bothering them every 2 seconds. Thanks to the staff doing as much as they could, she got a kidney transplant last month and is still alive and well today. It's honestly miraculous she even got that far, especially because she started (and unfortunately remained) in such dire straits until she got help. She's also best friends with her donor cat (I adopted him), which is ridiculously cute. Thank you to her primary doctor Dr. Norkus, as well as Dr. Uschek and the entire staff here. Hopefully my cat will stay healthy for many years (the longest-living recipient has lived 10 years and counting) to come! :)

The receptionist did not offer any good possibilities for me just being I am a struggling single mom with 2 sick cats.. she pretty much said there's nothing she can do for me

If you own a cat, love your animal, and need emergency services, do yourself and your kitty a favor and go somewhere else. We brought our 11 year old diabetic cat to this place when he was in extreme abdominal pain and not eating. We were told, after they did blood work, urinalysis and a through examination, that our cat had nothing wrong with him and they told us to go home after charging us over $500. The same day we brought our cat back because once again we could tell he was having extreme abdominal pain, told us to pay another visit fee, even though we were just there that morning, and that we should do an X-ray, to once again tell us there's nothing wrong, your cat has no abdominal pain, go home. The next day, we called again because our cat situation was declining, he would cry in pain when we pet his belly, and I even said I suspect he has pancreatitis (I'm no doctor, and I knew what was wrong). No, he just have diabetes and there's nothing else we can do, go somewhere else and get a second opinion. What kind of place charges someone over $1,500 and tell them to go somewhere else because their vet is not good with cats, and we should get a second opinion. To say the least, those first 48 hours could have saved my cat's life. He's dead now because of your incompetence. I will never come back here or recommend your business. You are only interested in making money, you don't care about our animals.

We brought our cat in due to vomiting, lethargy and no appetite. We were told he may be diabetic and they need to send blood work out to be tested. They gave us an appetite enhancer and sent us home. We never heard from them regarding this additional blood work. 3 days later, things were worse and there was more vomiting. We brought him back in and the made us wait 3 hours with a dying cat in our car. We saw dogs sprinting up the stairs to go in and we were told that they had priority, they told us that they were VERY sick. Meanwhile, our cat couldn’t walk 3 feet without resting. We left our baby with them and received a call less than 2 hours later that we need to consider euthanasia. We were also told that they don’t know why diabetes was ever mentioned because his blood work was okay. We lost our little guy that morning. They are not professional. Cold hearted and condescending.

They are very bad at communicating. They seem to consistently “forget to call you.” They do not communicate at all with one another. They will ask you to bring your animal in then look confused when you show up at their door. I would not feel my animal is safe bringing them here again. They will let you go an entire day without a phone call while your animal is in there care for a high stress situation. But, as soon as money is in question they will pick up the phone and call right away.

STAY AWAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have had pets for over 40 years in my experience with this facility is by far the worst I have ever !! Subsequent to waiting approximately two hours in the parking lot in the rain I was required to pay for the appointment prior to the dog being seen in an emergency situation . Subsequent to speaking with facility employees I was told it would be 8 to 12 hours before the dog would be seen by a vet . As the animal was in distress I felt it would be prudent for said animal to be in the care of a veterinarian so unfortunately I relinquished possession of that animal. The aforementioned animal was suffering intestinal distress and fever . Having not been out of my home or fenced in yard the animal had not ingested anything to her detriment. At approximately 1 AM the facility made contact requesting to do on necessary x-rays at the cost of $400. To which I denied. At this point I was told the dog would be seeing the vet NEXT .After an additional approximately two hour wait I decided to retrieve the animal. Upon retrieving the animal they had done nothing in an attempt to treat the animals distress. This facility is a total and complete scam only interested in generating on necessary fees without fulfilling an ethical obligation to properly care for animals . This is my personal belief subsequent to interaction with this facility I would recommend finding a capable practitioner for animals in distress . STAY AWAY !!!

We’ve been patients at Vet Specialists for 8+ years and unfortunately have seen it change into a group driven solely by money. I wish it wasn’t this way, but they have little regard for the patients/pets for which they are “caring”. They are anything but customer focused. Want to get a prescription filled outside of their pharmacy (who’s prices are 20%+ higher than outside options)? They no longer will call it in. In fact, the only way to do this is to drive over and pick up a hand written prescription to hand deliver to the outside pharmacy. Cool. Pet needs to be seen, though not a true emergency? First available appointment is 2 weeks out. Go ahead and take the appointment but don’t expect them to keep it!! We had them call the day of to cancel and reschedule. Only to then be called the next day to cancel that rescheduled appointment. When questioned about getting in sooner, they tell you to go to their emergency services. Emergency services - the place where you get to pay extra just for walking in the door and endure exorbitant wait times? Excellent. Save yourself the time, frustration, high prices and go elsewhere. Go somewhere that truly cares about the well-being of your pet…and not just the money they can make off of you.

I called VCA at 530 AM on a Saturday because our dog was vomiting during the night. I spoke with Gina who was very kind, listened, and gave me some good preliminary advice. She told me to bring him in if it didn’t stop. It didn’t stop. We brought him in and were greeted by Jacob. He was kind and down to earth, and so good natured while cleaning up after our dog got sick 3 more times on their floor. We offered to clean it up, but he said that was part of his job and did it with a smile. Our dog was seen promptly by Dr. Norkus, who was warm, calm, professional, kind, and knowledgeable. We discussed the options and he kept us updated along the way. Given that it’s an animal hospital and it was a Saturday, I knew he was busy, yet he patiently answered my questions. Our beautiful baby is now back at home resting. I can’t say enough about the care he was given. I don’t often write reviews, but made it a priority to write this one. It’s upsetting when your baby is sick, and so comforting to interact with people who care. Thank you so much.

I have never met a staff that is so compassionate to my dog. They made me feel like I was talking with friends. A+++++++

A month ago took our Shepard mix into the emergency for test our vet did not have the equipment for. We were lead to believe if we put our pet through a $10,000 surgery our 9yr Shepard mix would live for several more years. We were told there was no sign of cancer. We made it clear if he has cancer we do not want to put him through this extensive surgery. Two weeks after the surgery we were told he has cancer all through his body and would need to see an Oncologist. More money and suffering for my 9yr old dog. We are now headed to our vet to put him to sleep. He is in so much pain.

I was profiled as soon as i walked in the door... I am a colored man. My 4 month old puppy was very lethargic from vaccines and as soon as I brought him in from a bad reaction to the vaccines they immediately assumed he was high on drugs. They asked me over a dozen times if I was sure he wasn't high as if I am a drug addict or something. They implied it over and over and I had to hold back from complete frustration! Very rude, I wonder if I was an old white lady would they have questioned me the way they did. People need to stop stereotyping, I will NEVER go back here. Get it together people!

Terrible service. Only out for the money. 5 hour wait for emergency. Now they won't fax your pet prescription to a cheaper place to buy. Very disappointed in them.

My dog Buddy's health declined rapidly in the middle of the night I was relieved there was a place to end his suffering we just couldn't wait for our regular vet to open. The staff was so kind, compassionate and respectful to us during this heartbreaking time. Thank you.

For one of the worst experiences of my life, they made it the best it could possibly be. I rescued my dog Cap (Cappuccino) who had to be brought to the vet within 24 hours of getting him. Unfortunately he had canine distemper, which is untreatable, and had to be euthanized 3 days later. Dr. Usechak and Dr. Gargamelli, as well as the rest of the staff, could not have been more pleasant, helpful and compassionate. They cried with me when I said goodbye to Cap. They followed up with me after he had passed. They sent me a card with personal notes from staff in it. I can’t thank them enough for how much it meant to me that I had them with me in one of the hardest times in my life. I will highly recommend them to everyone and anyone who will listen.

The staff and Dr was extremely compassionate, empathic and very thorough. Offered more than one alternative how to treat my pet. I would highly recommend them to my friends and the general public to make an appointment for your pet if needed.

I wouldn’t even give them one star but that’s the lowest. This place is all about money and not the care and compassion of animals. I helped a friend by calling to make the appt gave all my friends info but know they are coming after me for payment because I called. I called and spoke with their collections people who told me there was nothing I could do. Never mind when my friend showed up with his very sick dog they wanted thousands before they would really do anything and because he didn’t have it he was sent on his way and his dog passed away. I would never use this place. Or recommend it to anyone the staff was rude and uncaring unless you were there throwing money around. This place is disgusting and will never use them or refer them to anyone I know!!!