VCA Canada Western Veterinary Specialist and Emergency Centre in Calgary

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comments 5

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  Bev Stevenson

  :: 01 April 2018 13:16:20

  Unfortunately, my elder dog deteriorated rapidly - late on Good Friday. The clinic wasn't busy, and staff met me at the door. They were ALL very VERY kind, understanding, and made my sad situation as easy as possible. Me AND my dog were treated with the utmost care & respect. Dr Longmore was gentle, efficient & caring. My dog's last moments were peaceful. Thank you.

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  Leala Mitchell

  :: 01 March 2018 22:09:17

  Amazing experience with the doctors, amazing experience in person, but I live far away and trying to get a prescription faxed somewhere local is a nightmare. My dog is terminal and we're just doing pain management now. Last time I called for a prescription, no one passed the message on and it took 4 more calls to get the prescription signed and faxed. This time, I spilled the pill bottle and lost a couple of pills down the drain so I'm out before I planned and they seem to have no ability to tell me when they might actually fax the prescription off. Super frustrating to have to fight with the people who have made tens of thousands of dollars treating her to keep my dog from having pain during her last months. Edit: Apparently they assumed this is no rush because "all shoppers drug marts are 24 hours." Uh, no, they aren't.

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  Robyn

  :: 26 February 2018 19:01:18

  I have had to take my cat to this hospital on 2 occasions. If i can ever avoid it, I will. When I went to visit my cat (she had to stay for a week) and was told they are too busy to bring her out to me for a visit in the quiet room so they brought me to the back to see her through a cage door. She was miserable to say the least. There was so much noise and things going on with animals everywhere and she was just scared to death. She was in a small cage with a litter box in there with her and the blanket I had left for her was gone (I was told they lost it). I was not allowed to take her out of the cage myself to try and calm her. I was furious. I took her out of the cage anyways and took her home to care for her myself. My cat ended up being just fine and is still with us today. It was heartbreaking to see her being treated that way and the fact that they lost her only comfort from home (the blanket) told me this isn't the place for my baby.

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  Kelly Tong

  :: 05 February 2018 13:13:52

  McKnight referred us here because Western has the tools to scope a bone out of my dog's esophagus. However, they don't staff specialist regularly, instead on-call basis. Since they didn't have anyone until next morning, they tried to persuade us to perform the procedure next morning and have the bone stuck in her esophagus overnight. We were warned of all scary things that could happen and the extra $700 emergency fee if we call the specialist to come right now. They said C.A.R.E operates the same and do not have anyone in house. Eventually, the specialist can't even make it the next day, so we took our dog down to C.A.R.E, Turns out CARE has specialist staffed and completed the procedure immediately! Western had have friendly staff, but we didn't appreciate their approach of operating their business. If they can't scope right now, they shouldn't have promised McKnight over the phone and brought us down.

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  Luke Esau

  :: 10 January 2018 13:15:30

  I am really disappointed with Western Veterinary. I brought my cat in before Christmas because she had been limping for a few days and then stopped using her left front leg completely. Western did x-rays and found there was no fracture or break. They also shaved her leg to ensure she was not bitten by my other cat. Blood work was done and her calcium level was on the high side so they suggested another round of blood work be done because high calcium could mean cancer (yes - dropping the C word really makes a pet owner open their wallet). We agreed to do the 2nd round of blood work and were told this would let us know if she in fact had cancer, turns our you can not diagnose cancer from blood work alone. We were sent home with some pain medication for her leg and told they would call with the blood work results. We got a call a few days later and they confirmed her calcium was elevated. The recommendation made was to bring her back in to see an internal medicine specialist to start exploring why her calcium was high. It has been 5 weeks and my cat is still limping. I feel Western forgot why we brought her there in the first place and starting doing procedures that were not needed. This visit cost us $1200.00 and did not even help or fix why she was limping. I feel completely financially taken advantage of. I will not be returning to this vet.