Business ProfileforSanta Cruz Veterinary Clinic

I would give no stars to this place if I could. This is by far the WORST PLACE to take your pet / family member. My dog was in need of being spayed. My vet suggested a few "reputable" companies and this was one of them. Upon making an appointment, I notified the clinic that my pet was very shy and had separation anxiety. The staff assured me that they would take good care and have her out in about 2 hours after surgery which was to be at 8am. On the scheduled day, I came in and was told that pick-up was now at 315 pm. Once again, her appointment time was 8am. They said she would need time to recover from her surgery but if things looked good, I could be called to come pick her up early. Although uncomfortable with this, I agreed to leave her there for the surgery in hopes I could get her earlier. At 11am I called to check in on her. The staff told me that she was in a kennel and had NOT yet had surgery. They even informed me that she had howled herself to sleep after they gave her a sedative I WAS NOT INFORMED ABOUT. When questioned about the howling the manager said that she should not have told me that. So what?? Keep me in the dark about how you were handling my loved one?? So, they lied to me about her actual appointment details and then lied to me when I dropped her off. She was not taken outside to use the bathroom and had not been given water since midnight due to the surgery restrictions. This is straight forward ANIMAL ABUSE. When told all this, I raced over to collect my pet. I WILL NEVER use this clinic and will make sure that many know not to do the same. Shame on all of you. Do better.

We are sorry you had a bad experience with us. All surgery clients are instructed to check-in between 8 and 9am. All animals receive an exam by on duty veterinarian in order they are received/checked-in and are then sedated after passing pre-operative exam and placed in a kennel. All clients are told pick-up time starts at 3:15PM unless the patient is ready early and we will call if this happens. All animals require time to recover from surgery and are not released until safe to do so. As a high-volume clinic, the order of animals in surgery is dependent on many factors and we triage anywhere from 30 to 60 surgeries a day. Animals must be fasted for surgery and all females have their bladders expressed before spay surgery, so we do not walk animals for bathroom breaks as this can also be a safety issue if an animal slips a leash. It sounds like there was miscommunication on both ends are we are sorry for any confusion about what the 8AM appt implied.