VCA Aurora Animal Hospital

My 7 year old rescue dog, Molly, recently underwent a liver tumor surgery at another vet clinic. After the surgery, they told me to get her to an ER vet asap due to a large loss of blood. I called VCA who got me in immediately, quickly assessed her situation and started treatment. Molly stayed 4 days and the vets kept me advised of her progress all along the way. They also went over options and costs letting me decide how much I was willing to commit for treatment options. Every pet parent has these tough decisions to make, and unfortunately, the outcome is not guaranteed. I felt the vets gave me their best opinion so I could decide whether to commit the $$. When I made the decision to get a dog I also made a commitment to provide the best care possible for Molly - which included vet care which is not always expected or in the budget. Molly’s outcome was a huge success and she is a happy and healthy dog enjoying life today. Thanks to the committed team at VCA for saving her life. It was worth every penny!

I am typically someone who tries to stay positive, even in negative situations, and I never like leaving bad reviews. However, when it comes to my pets, I treat them as I would my own children and do everything I can to help them. So, I feel it’s necessary to share my experience at VCA Emergency in Aurora in hopes of improving their services and making sure others don’t go through the same frustrations I did. My 5-year-old French Bulldog has always been active and healthy since we brought him home at 11 weeks old. On February 26th, after he had been vomiting and refusing to eat. I understand that emergency hospitals get busy, but I was disappointed in the lack of communication and I had to explain the situation to three different people, and each one seemed to have different information. This gave me the impression that they weren’t fully paying attention to the details of his care. When we finally met with the vet, she was very informative and recommended an ultrasound, which would have to be scheduled for the next day due to the time of night. I live an hour away, and we ended up leaving around 3 AM and returning at 7:30 AM for the 9:00 ultrasound appointment. Upon arriving I was told that they don’t make appointments and it’s first come first serve for the ultrasound. After waiting a few hours for the ultrasound, the results showed a foreign object in his small intestine and they told us that was unlikely to pass on its own, and they recommended immediate surgery. After going over the procedure and the costs, we approved the surgery without hesitation, wanting only the best for our pet. Now, here we are, 4 weeks post-surgery, and he is still not his usual self. He has been lethargic, shaking, and unresponsive when we call him, which is very unlike his normal behavior. My husband has had a few uncomfortable conversations with the staff, the medical director, and the office about billing issues. We were told that he would need to have a certain surgery but wouldn’t know for sure if they had to do something else after opening him up so the bill reflected the worst case scenario and if they didn’t have to do that the bill would be less and in fact they didn’t have to do that but our bill stayed the same and all they kept saying is your bill is still what we quoted. They also said that they can lower my bill by not including the medications he needed to go home with for the pain. It wasn’t about lowering my bill it was about being charged for something that was not done. I reached out to VCA to inquire whether his post-surgery symptoms were normal, but after waiting 24 hours for a response, I followed up multiple times and was told that no one was available to speak to me. I was eventually informed that we were no longer allowed to use their services, but I wasn’t given any clear explanation or any opportunity to speak with a doctor or manager. I was shocked to learn that I was being "banned" from their facility over a situation I had no control over. I was also alarmed to find that the procedure they performed on him was different from what we had been quoted, leading to confusion and frustration about the nearly $11,000 bill. I feel that the the refusal to address my concerns is not only unacceptable but also speaks to a larger issue with how this facility handles customer service and patient care. Is it typical for a veterinary practice, especially one that handles emergencies like VCA, to completely neglect follow-up care after surgery? In my opinion VCA should offer post-surgery follow-up to monitor the pet’s recovery, address concerns, and ensure there are no complications. Follow-up care could include phone calls or appointments to check on progress, as well as answering questions or concerns that arise during recovery but apparently this is not how they do business since I never received one call after I picked up my dog and paid my bill in full. At the end of the day, it seems to me that VCA is more interested in making money than providing the level of care and attention that pets and their owners deserve.

Great experience with the care provided by VCA Aurora and Dr. Peacock. We are super happy with the quality ACL surgery, post surgical care and thorough discharge instructions they provided. After the typical 3 month recovery, our dog is 100% and been given the approval to play off leash. Thank you!!

Have been here twice for emergency on weekend and late evening. Both times the evening doctors were very professional and compassionate. We have decided to bring our new puppy here for primary care and we are not disappointed. Doctor Walther and the entire staff were great. The doctor took the time to explain in detail about my puppy’s condition and steps to remedy her problems. I would recommend this place to everyone! I just wish the weekend primary care was more available. That schedules out 3-4 weeks out otherwise they are great!

We recently had to come in twice to the ER with our almost 13 year old fur baby Maverick. Everyone was amazing from reception, to vet technicians, to the Docs. First visit was 2/20/25 - we ran labs and they overall came back unremarkable - because overall vitals and lab work was pretty good we all thought for sure he had a kidney infection and we were sent home with meds while waiting for the urinalysis to come back. Unfortunately 2 weeks later we saw no improvement and we returned 3/5/25 - imaging scan was done and we discovered metastasized cancer. We were given 2 weeks. Palliative care meds and we were reassured that no matter what time or day, when the time came, they would be there for us. Again his vitals and labs never indicated stage 4 cancer destroying his body silently - & the lab techs even got him to play a bit with them. Truly they were great. I wish we caught this sooner but prognosis with his type of cancer would be grim either way. Symptoms were so subtle initially and he still looked so good that I truly think it shocked everyone. Everything they did and the information and decisions they made reguarding care and steps taken were by the book. They were also great and patient when I called to check on the urinalysis results and promptly emailed me and our home vet records from the visits. It's taking him quicker than we hoped but he's still with us - taking it day by day. We made plans for euthanasia through our local vet to avoid transport stress on him but our family has peace of mind that if we feel he is suffering VCA is there for us 24/7. Thank you guys so much. 💓 Ps: Also first visit was a bit steep - $1700 but the second for the imaging & palliative care medications was only $700...being an emergency vet - between the two visits for the care, time of day (evening), the care provided, I thought it was very fair. They could have easily taken us the second time - they didnt. They were extremely informative, gave estimates ahead and let us decide with them the whole way. You have to consider level of care provided, the fact that they are staffed and available 24/7 as a full functioned hospital, and that just like with humans, emergency room & hospital care is going to be more pricey than an Urgent Care or your primary veterinary clinic. I believed the overall expense was extremely fair and worth it - this dog means the world to our family. 🌟 Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.