Business ProfileforVCA Animal Hospitals, Inc.

On June 28th 2024, my 8 yr old dog, Marlie, was taken to ************** Animal Specialists in ***********. She was lethargic and hadnt eaten or drank water in 3 days. She spent 9 hours at the hospital, the majority of which was in a crate, and they did not hydrate her. They did blood work and aspirated the liver for ************** her home with us with a gabapentin prescription & an appetite stimulant. The prognosis was potential liver cancer or inflammation. We had to wait 2 days for her results, but from the moment she left their care she was worse off. It shouldnt take an unlicensed pet owner to wonder why they didnt ask to start her on antibiotics & an IV to treat any of the possible diagnoses, or at the very least make her feel more comfortable. Two days later, on July 1 2024, she suffered and died in front of my mother at 5am. We were set up to watch her suffer, because those in her care treated her condition like there was no sense of urgency. Even so far as to be recommend for an appointment for her on July 31st, which she obviously would not have been alive for.We called multiple times the day before her death trying to receive guidance on her declining health. No one was available. We finally got a call back an hour after her passing that next morning, to be told that she did not have cancer, rather, she had an infection in her liver. An infection that not only should have been treated as a precaution immediately, but the procedure she was given, the aspiration of the liver, gave her a high risk of causing more of an infection, and without antibiotics, led to her fatal decline. They did not pay attention to ******. They were negligent, & failed in their responsibility of treating her. She succumbed to an untreated infection, exasperated by the procedure on her infected liver, & was given nothing to prevent a further decline. This is not only a case of being too busy of a hospital for their own good and clearly understaffed, but case of negligence.