Complaint Review: VCA Animal Hospitals - Denver Select State/Province

 It is past 3am and we are up waiting at the VCA animal hospital waiting for our dog to get stitches for the 3rd time for the same injury/wound that keeps reopening. We have been waiting here since 11pm and they still haven't started. Almost a month ago our dog cut his paw near the carpal pad. We took him to VCA and they gave him sutures. They charged us $416 for the first procedure. Fourteen days later we took him back in to have the stitches taken out. We were assured that it "looked good" and assumed it had healed properly, but that evening during a walk around the park the wound reopened almost completely.

We took him back in to have the sutures redone. We were assured on the phone that it wouldn't cost anywhere near the $416 we were initially charged. We brought him in at noon and were made to wait until 5pm. Meanwhile the orderly claimed the original sutures might have failed because the outer tissue died from blood loss. Yet, we were still made to wait till 5pm for the original doctor that had seen him. Which, if the orderly was correct, meant our dog bled and his tissue died for 5 more hours before the second set of sutures were put in.

This time the wound was bandaged with a couple of Ace bandages. Despite the reassurance we received on the phone initially that the procedure would not cost "anywhere near as much" as the initial cost of $416 for what appeared to be about 10 small sutures, the second set of sutures and bandages cost us another $368. That's pretty amazing. If this was my car and I took it to a mechanic to fix a problem, if the problem was not fixed or worse and I brought my car back, I wouldn't be charged because the mechanic should have fixed the problem in the first place for which I was already charged. This is now our 3rd round at the 24 hour VCA ER.

After 5 days our dog's bandage fell off during a walk. Yesterday evening we took him for a walk and the wound reopened while the sutures were in. We brought our dog in at 11pm. The orderly saw us at 11:30 and the doctor finally came out a little after midnight. He alleged they had a lot of emergencies and that he wouldn't get to it till much later and that he would call us. We waited till about 2:45am and heard no word so we came to check on him. When we arrived at 3am they had not even started his procedure and we were advised to go home and wait. We decided to stay and wait and we are still waiting as of this writing.

I would never leave my dog in this filthy hospital alone. What we find suspicious about the doctor's claim about being "slammed" with emergencies is that the hospital was practically empty when we arrived. Each time before when we brought him in there were far more people and yet we were still able to get our dog the same day. Once again, if the orderly was correct our dog has been made to wait and bleed while his tissue is dying for several more hours before getting new sutures. We don't think this is just incompetence. It seems entirely economically motivated.

If they do a poor job on the sutures, the wound will reopen, we will have to bring him back in to have them redone, and they will charge us more money. We are never given an estimate of the cost of the procedure in advance. Instead they do the procedure and return to tell us it will cost in the range of 3 to 4 hindered dollars. We are told that we must pay the entire bill at the time of service and they refuse to consider any type of payment plan for smaller and more manageable payments. In fact, they make it appear as though they will hold your injured pet hostage unless you pay the full outrageous bill at the time of service. It is likely that the VCA will again charge us another 3 to 4 hundred dollars for a procedure they have had to do for the 3rd time for the very same injury.

This means we will have paid nearly $1200 for stitches in a small wound on his foot. I have never even shelled out $1200 for a medical procedure for myself! I strongly advise everyone to avoid the VCA animal hospital in Denver, CO if your pet is ill or injured. They will let your pet die in front of you if you can't pay. If there are any attorneys who specialize in small claims please contact us. If there is a class action against VCA we would join as plaintiffs. If VCA wants this to go away without litigation or further consumer complaints on other sites all VCA has to do is give us back our $1200. We will never take our pet to VCA again.