VCA McClave Animal Hospital Love your Pet? Don't use this Pet Hospital, They lied about his treatment, sent him home sick, Overcharged what they stated. Reseda California

To whom it may concern:
I'm filing this complaint against McClave Animal Hospital because they didn't take care of our dog as they promised and they charged us a lot of money to do so. On Jan.24,09 our Rott got sick and could not stand on his legs very long. It was a weekend and the only Vet Hospital open near us for emergency was McClave which was not our regular Vet but we even though we have heard bad reports about this hospital we had to take our dog there. He was transported by ambulance that we hired. He was taken in on a gurney. They quoted us about $700 and my daughter even gave them a $100 cash to buy snacks for the hospital staff so he would get good treatment. We told them he was use to a pad and blanket because he is old and it wasn't good to put him on the bare floor as we had seen in their cages, also we asked that he get a large cage as he was a big dog, they said they would comply. We watched as they put him in a large cage and gave him a pad and blanket. We returned on Jan. 26th un-announced to visit him. They had asked for us to make chicken for him as he wouldn't eat their food. We seen that he was in a smaller cage with only a dirty old torn rag under him, nothing else. It was a cold, damp, dirty cage with the tops of needles laying around and spoiled food and very little water. We asked the nurse why and she said it was temporary as they were busy. The place was putrid in smell. We asked the Vet what they had found out and were told that he possible had the Flu or maybe a reaction to his Arthritis pill that were prescribed by his regular Vet at Fallbrook Animal Hospital which by the way is owned by the same corporation but a whole different staff and look. They said they had him on a different arthritis pill and we should keep him on that one when we take him home They said they would walk him twice a day until he went home. To make a long story short they said he was better on Jan. 27th so we could take him home. When we came he looked to us to be in the same shape he was when we brought him in. They brought him outside and had to lift him into our SUV as he couldn't get in on his own. We asked them before if they had bathed him and they said no but they had cleaned him up. We also asked them if they had walked him as they promised they would and were told no as they were too busy. When we got him home we noticed a bad feces smell in the SUV. We had to lift him out and we got feces all over our hands, his back end was full of it. They had not cleaned him. Also when we left they gave us a new bill of over $2000 which we balked at but had to pay in order to get our dog. The next morning he was still unable to get around on his own and looked terrible.

The very next morning Jan. 28th we took him to our regular Vet at Fallbrook Animal Hospital and they had to gurney him in just as they did the day we took him to McClave. They checked him out and said he needed immediate care. He was there until we checked him out on Jan. 30th. When we picked him up he was walking on his own and had been bathed and cleaned up. They said to put him back on his regular arthritis medicine, which we did. They gave us pills and said not to use the one's from McClave. He was in good shape the rest of the time, they had made him well. We had visited him there and he was in a large cage and they had a pad and blanket and everything was clean, much better care. That one cost us $1500 more. We balked at the charge from McClave and complained and filed a complaint with our credit card company. They told us to contact McClave and to ge a not from our Vet. Our Vet who is owned by the same company gave us a letter but naturally they couldn't condemn their other Vet hospital but it did have a few items in the letter that were for us. We asked McClave to alter the bill and return $1000, they said they would but when it came down to the nitty gritty they wouldn't so this is why the complaint. DON'T TAKE YOUR PET TO THIS HOSPITAL

TERRY
CHATSWORTH, California
U.S.A.