VCA Arboretum View Animal Hospital Downers Grove, Illinois

Brought my older cat in through emergency this past weekend and was so glad I did. Teal and Dr Luo were so sweet with Big Papi as well as very thorough and explained what was going on very well. Though they were incredibly busy, Laura and …

The pandemic has made every facet of life more difficult. So yes, the wait times are long. Yes, if more critical cases come in, you will wait even longer. When my dog wasn't well (internal bleeding), our estimated wait time was 4 hours on the phone, and it ended up being 6 hours before the vet was able to see him. He was triaged in less than two minutes after walking in the door, but because he was stable more dire situations came before him. And yes, that part sucked, but it was out of their control. But do you know what this team did? They responded with grace and empathy. Not only did they care for Baron like he was their own, they were communicative and gave me updates as often as they were able and they cared for me too. We were encouraged to stay on the chance he may need emergency surgery (as at this point, January 2022, some cases are okay to be dropped off and picked up later). As the hours passed, our hunger increased and being tired + emotional + hungry + enduring a ice storm is a bad combo. They helped me figure out how to use the lobby coffee machine when my addled brain couldn't process the simple signage above it. When I asked if they had any kind of food, one gal gave me part of her own (prepackaged) lunch to tide us over until we could get answers. And when the answers came, and they weren't good, their on call surgeon had the humility to admit the surgery Baron needed was a bit beyond their present staffing capabilities (which would not have been a problem during normal business hours). Instead of "giving it the good ole college try," they called other clinics and tracked down a surgeon who could do it, and they transferred us there. While pricey, these folks sure as heck aren't in it for the money. They care, and I mean truly care. Now, this emergency case isn't our first visit with VCA Arboretum View. We started seeing them a couple years ago (same dog, different problem) and though the situation was a bit less dire at that time, the staff still responded with the same warmth and empathy. We've had dealings with the Neurology and Internal Medicine teams, and they are consistently communicative and their bedside manner so to speak has been amazing across the board. They break scary information down into manageable bite sized chunks and they will thoroughly answer your questions. And if you, like me, are too emotional to think clearly to figure out what those questions are, they will happily take your phone calls and emails after you leave and answer them then as well. Even if our outcome had been different (Baron is now home and recovering), my review would have been the same. Any time our pets need specialty care, or if there is an emergency and they are stable enough for us to make the longer drive to get here, this is where we go. The people make the price worth it. Be kind to them, they truly are angels.

Receptionist was very rude and unprofessional she has a attitude problem when I told her I didn’t have appointment she made this face like really I thought this hospital was emergencies like this very expensive for this type of service

I hope they improve their wait times by getting more staff. Staff is nice except for sometimes the techs seem like they don't care. I had a tragic experience so I am unfortunately biased. The doctor is really nice.

The second time I came here, it was a better experience than the first. The eastern european doctor lady was super nice, and so was the tech. I hope the reception desk improves a bit in their client service.

I couldn't be more pleased with my experience. I am First of all, it is not the staff's fault if there is a long wait to treat your pet. They cannot control the amount of patients that come in. They do examine your pet upon arrival and add them to the cue depending upon severity. Due to the nature of our visit my puppy was treated right away. The staff were professional and truly compassionate. I was kindly offered water and tissues while I was very upset ands crying in the waiting room. All animal hospitals are expensive!! That is why you should get pet insurance! To anyone who is curious, my puppy ended up recovering quickly and is fine. The staff gave her a lot of love while she was kept over night. These people are SAINTS.

Brought my dog in for a Major laceration on his paw. Took him in and gave him back 6 hours later. Charged me $700. Less than a week later the stitches reopened i called to be told it would be $500 to fix them. I then took him to our vet who said the placement of these stitches never would have stayed closed to begin with. $700 for a procedure that wasn’t even effective. Disgusted.

Excellent service by whole staff. Took special care of my cat during a troubling experience.

My husband and I went here last night around 9pm shortly after our 15 year old male dog had a stroke.I was told there would be a 5-6 hour wait before a vet would see our dog. We left as the wait was too long for a senior pet to endure. Update: Our dog was taken to our vet on 7/13 and was put down due to a poor prognosis. Response back to VCA: I would think that a stroke is considered critical. When we brought him there, he was alert so if he was examined sooner than later, maybe something could have been done for him. By the morning, he had declined and probably already had neurological damage that couldn't be treated. It doesn't matter now, does it? Due to this experience, my husband and I decided not to adopt another pet. Our fear is having to take another a pet to an emergency clinic and we go through the same thing. As of now, I am a volunteer at a animal shelter. It's a therapeutic experience due to the loss I endured.

5 to 6 hrs is not an appropriate time to respond to an emergency. My dog needed help and you failed. How sad you call yourselves an emergency hospital!

They took good care of my dog when she appeared to have taken a toxic prescription medicine. They were helpful and thoughtfully listened to all of our questions and helped reduce our angst. Top notch!

I cannot thank the doctors, techs, assistants, and receptionists enough who went above and beyond for my dog Carlo. I am deeply grateful for everything they did for us. Please know your pets will be safe, loved and well cared for here and receive the utmost best treatment.

called with an emergency and they hung up on me because "there was static." There was no static on my end. Called back and no apology, they didn't try to call me back, just "oh there was static so she hung up" like that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do for an emergency vet hospital. These people don't care at all. My dog could be dying and you just hung up the phone. Edit: If you took communicating with your clients seriously you wouldn't have hung up on me during an emergency. If you want to address this you can reach out to me, I'm not going to email you, you had the opportunity.

If I could give zero stars I would. Please read this review and reconsider taking your pets here. I have been going to this practice for several years now. We have seen dermatology, the ER, and internal medicine. We were referred by our primary vet to take our dog to see an internist to help investigate a chronic issue he has been having. We started seeing Dr. Danner late 2020. We did all the recommended tests, treatments, and follow-ups that she had recommended. Most recently he was diagnosed with an infection that was an incidental finding because of other lab work we were doing. Dr. Danner had her tech call me with the lab results and the recommendations to start antibiotic therapy and then do a redraw of his labs after the antibiotics were completed to determine if the antibiotics needed to be extended or what would be next in treating or managing this infection. I live over an hour away from the practice, so I asked the tech if we can fill the prescription at my local pharmacy and if it would be okay if I go to my primary vet to do the labs and I would have them send the results over to Dr. Danner. Her tech told me that was fine. Fast forward to recently, the antibiotics have been completed and the recheck of his labs were drawn. However, Dr. Danner refuses to follow up with me on what her interpretations are of my pets labs and what I should do regarding the infection moving forward. I spoke to two different techs and the practice manager. I was told that because my primary vet did the recheck blood work, my primary vet should be the one telling me their interpretation and what the next steps are in the plan of care. When all along Dr. Danner is the one who found the infection, made the diagnosis, prescribed the medication, and was managing this all along. My primary vet was doing me a favor so we didn't have to commute all the way to Downers Grove for a blood draw. If I had known that she would've refused to give me her recommendation and interpretation on what the next steps are in managing his infection because I did the bloodwork outside of their practice then I would've made the trip all the way to her office. Their tech gave me the wrong information, but I don't fault the tech. Dr. Danner should've been the one calling me with the official diagnosis of my pets infection when she got the initial lab results and she should've been the one telling me what medications she was prescribing for my pet, incase I have questions and to provide me more information on his diagnosis. That is not a task that should be delegated to a tech, exactly for this reason. They completely blew us off and have truly made me feel like they really don't care about the well-being of my pet. The way they handle your pets care there is completely mismanaged and unprofessional. I will never bring my dog to this hospital ever again and I highly suggest that you reconsider establishing care here as well.

This hospital was neglectful. They killed a perfectly healthy bulldog and refuse to give any real information as to why or what happened. If they had nothing to hide or cover up they would be forthcoming with any and all info. NOT ALL VETS ARE GOOD VETS LET ALONE CAPABLE OF CARING FOR OUR PRECIOUS BULLDOGS! # JUSTICEFORMACK

JUSTICE FOR MACK!!!! A healthy bulldog passed away in their care and now they don’t give no explanations to the owners. This is unacceptable and justice should be served for Mack!

Something not right about this place, ya might want to go elsewhere. Be it general attitude, staffing issues, Covid excuses. Just an overall negative aura within this office. Maybe it was just an off day, hopefully.

This hospital is extremely neglectful, unprofessional, and greedy. A young and healthy bulldog died in their care & they don’t want to provide any information to the owner. Bulldogs specifically require special care, this hospital was manipulating & clearly just wanted money. Makes me wonder how many other times this has happened. Just one innocent dog is already too many, this hospital deserves to get shut down. If they can be neglectful towards just ONE dog, then they don’t care about dogs. Animals in general actually. Is this a hospital you’d trust leaving your pets with?

We need answers because they didn't want to give us their mack paperwork? Why did the doctor inject him with methadone without telling us that she would give him that? And why when we called her after Mack died did she try to tell us something else? I just ask that you be honest and nothing is going to give me back my baby, he was my son and he died, nothing is going to give him back but I need to know what happened please ???? #justiceformack

They injected an English Bulldog by the name of Mack with Methadone without consulting with the owner first which led to Mack’s death. A perfectly healthy dog went in and never came out and now they are refusing to speak with the owner! I mean c’mon that is absolutely devastating! At the end of the day, they killed Mack and the family deserves answers at the very very VERY least! #justiceforMack

I took my pup here to see the neurologist, Dr. Casey Birkel. We had an appointment. Dr. Birkel was incredible. My pup loved her and she was thorough with the exam. Normally a sweet guy, he was having violent outbursts with no warning, and severe anxiety (anti-anxiety meds did not work). He had symptoms of seizures, so Dr. Birkel prescribed meds. We talked about specific symptoms to watch for. I work the same hours as the specialists at VCA, but was able to email with questions/concerns. She took the time to respond in a caring way to every message, of which there were many. Although we tried doubling the prescription, the medication did not work well enough. After a month of meds and strict training he continued to be unpredictably dangerous, and I had to make the heartbreaking decision to euthanize. Dr. Birkel went above and beyond, and was very thoughtful and informative throughout. Although the outcome was not what I had hoped, I feel my guy had the best care possible, all my concerns were addressed, and I had a vet to help me through. Thank you.

Way over priced way to many useless test charged for never told me want was cause of problems after 1250bill whanted to do more test turned out to be skin tag the dog scratched of i was told by my vet at follow up appointments .Also they wanted to sedate and cut my 10 year old dog for biopsy test for what? Skin tag? No for money highly disappointed in this placeER Docter should be ashamed of her self for even telling me such a test would tell me what problem was

First time here and they have taken such good care of my little one. Whenever we call for updates they answer the phone quickly and are ready to answer any questions that we have. Thank you for saving Papoy <3

I’ve taken my American Bully puppy twice to this location in the past year for emergency treatment. The first time in 12/2020 for a UTI and today because she swallowed one of her toys. I was very satisfied with the care she received both times. Today we were in and out within an hour. Thanks to all of the vets and front desk staff!

My mistake. Wrong link, wrong location reviewed.

After 24 hours of dealing with my sick pomeranian and no answers as to what was ailing him. The doctors and technicians here finally figured it out and my beautiful chunky baby is back to normal, bullying me into walks again. Thanks ????.

I do not recommend bringing your pet to this place for an emergency care. With an array of diagnostic equipment and services, one would expect a better outcome. Instead you end up with a huge bill, a battery of meds, and a dear pet that does not last a day after being released. I believe it is a lack of training in extensive care that ultimately does it.

We recently had to put our cat down due to congestive heart failure. Obviously the experience was horrible to go through and our cats condition worsened very quickly and late at night so coming to this vet was our only option but I'm glad we did. Due to the severity of her health they took her in right away and we knew we'd get the call that the dr would reccomend putting her down. The staff made the situation alot easier. Even though we were heartbroken we were happy to know she was handled with care and that's all we could ask for in her last moments here.

Arrived at arboretum view at 7:00 pm they took my dog right in it is now 1:30 am and I am still waiting finally brought my dog out to me at 3:00 am he's home now and seems to be doing great the wait time was bad but the results were good so thanks to arboretum view staff and doctors it was worth the wait

Me and my family took our puggle to this inhumane place. Before we took her there, she had a fever, her breathing was abnormal, and couldn't walk, and would collapse when she did try to stand. So we took her here to see what was wrong. So they gave her an IV to hydrate her and wanted to test her blood for anemia. Now look. She was clearly on her last legs and they said that her inability to walk was due to arthritis. Yet she was Walking fine a week before we took her there. She went down hill very fast and passed away the day after this vet visit. My question is, WHY DIDN'T THEY MAKE IT CLEAR TO US THAT IF SOMETHING WASN'T DONE, SHE WOULD DIE! If you go to this vet. Ask as many questions as possible. Because it seemed like they really cared about getting blood tests ($300) more then actually helping Mala. Why couldn't they tell us how bad she was.... Simple negligence at it's worst. I hope Dr: Scott Wood gets removed from his place of employment. She wasn't just a run of the mill dog. She was a registered seizure alert service dog. For a disabled Marine veteran (my mother). This day was heart breaking, and I believe if Dr Scott Wood cared more about our dog's health, then he cared about getting the $300 blood test, Maybe if he told us that she was going to pass away if we didn't do something, maybe we could have saved her.