Will never use VCA again. Had to put down my Australian shepherd today. He along with 3 other…read moreanimals of mine have been patients there for 4 years. They could not do it today. Only had 2 vets working today. Could make an appointment for tomorrow which would have left him in pain for another 24 hours. Where is your compassion for animals? Obviously not there. I would suggest going to Parkway Animal clinic. They were very kind and compassionate even though they had never seen my dog before. I will definitely be going back to them.

We were with Catoosa VCA for 14 years and left their practice this month following what was…read moredescribed to me by another thoroughly established licensed vet as negligent care. Two weeks ago, my 14 year old shi tzu underwent the routine dental cleaning that she has received every year. Before her cleaning, we did the required blood work. We received a text from one of the doctors stating that the blood work was "all good". The lab results were not available for us to view at that time, and the front desk clerk said it takes a while for them to load into the system when we called to state we couldn't see them. Taking the doctor's word, we schedule her dental, which is done under anesthesia. When we dropped her off, she was her normal, completely spry senior self. When we were called to pick her up, we were told everything went well. When we arrived, she was barely responding to us and didn't seem to know what was going on. This is different from every other time we have picked her up, but the tech assured us that she had taken her out and she walked around, but was just sleepy again. On the ride home, I was completely worried but thought she might need to sleep it off. After taking a brief nap, she was completely agitated and confused. She did not sleep the entire night. We called and explained her confusion and now new hunched posture, and were told to return to the office if we were concerned. We went back and Dr. Collins examined her and said she just needs time due to her age and the anesthesia. When I asked about her posture, he said maybe they "tweaked" her back since X-rays were done also. Tweaked her back??? So he prescribed an NSAID, and off we went. Well, at this time she was also refusing to eat, which we told him, and he did not seem concerned. The NSAID was given, and she began to vomit in the coming days, so we again returned to VCA Catoosa. We saw a female doctor this time who stated it was just her back and prescribed a steroid right after an NSAID with no washout period. She began to have diarrhea. Luckily, she did not develop a stomach ulcer or GI bleed. She still was not eating a week later. We decided to see another respected vet office in the Chattanooga area, which immediately drew labs and found that she had sustained a kidney injury from surgery and that her pre-anesthesia labs showed that she was developing acute pancreatitis and should not have had an elective procedure. They also checked blood pressure, which showed that she was severely hypertensive. Catoosa had never routinely monitored her BP. I wasn't aware this was something done for dogs until I went to an office that actually examined her properly. So she had to be hospitalized at our expense for a kidney injury and pancreatitis. The only time anyone called to check on her was when we requested records to be sent to a new office. It was more of a "why" inquiry than a "how is your pup really doing" inquiry. I requested cancellation of the care club membership and was told we technically owed them money since the plan had just renewed, but they were going to do us a favor by cancelling a plan we had for 14 years and had barely used, free of charge. This was after they severely injured my pup, which cost us over $3,000 out of pocket. On top of everything, the negligence continued when Dr. Collins called to tell me to continue using prednisone that they had prescribed to treat the back that they had injured. Luckily, with her stomach issues and her inability to eat, we did not continue to use it. This was during the period that we were waiting on the lab results from the new vet. There was no way I was taking any more medical advice from Catoosa, and I am so glad that I got a second opinion because I truly feel she would not be here today. I will be reaching out to VCA headquarters and the veterinarian licensing board to file complaints. Hopefully, this will save someone from watching their animal suffer while "doctors" just push meds at them without properly exploring what is going on. It truly broke my heart because we TRUSTED them.