Animal Emergency Clinic Of Champaign County

I brought my dog in who was very sick and not doing well. They ran a few tests and charged me about a thousand dollars to tell me my dog was old and was going into kidney failure. I am a medical professional, I asked if this could possibly be an infection and they said no the dog was just old and had about a month to live. I took the dog to my vet first thing monday morning and the first thing she said was the dog had a good chance of having a serious kidney infection and may respond to treatment. Isn’t that what I asked! After 5 days of antibiotic treatment the dog is brand new and back to normal. I can’t say enough about my vet, she is awesome and thorough. As for Animal Emergency clinic, they are boobery and nothing more. A monkey can start and IV and give fluids, I paid HUGE money for medical management of my dog. I do anesthesia for a living and if I performed this incompetently I would get my ass sued off for sure and I would deserve it. I guess vets have the luxury of never having to live under that ax, and they also have the luxury of making a whole lot more money than I do evidently by what they charged. Humans don’t even get charged this much for simple IV therapy! Totally ridiculous, take your dog, cat, parrot whatever to the U of I, they are expensive but your pet will be alive when you leave. This place is a joke to the highest magnitude!

Wonderful experience here. I had a scary emergency with my dog last weekend during Christmas at a relative’s house. She ended up needing surgery to remove her eye. The vet who was working was very informative as she explained my options, and the staff was great about communicating. They called to explain how the surgery went and let me know what time I could pick my dog up. Upon checkout, I received excellent discharge instructions. They also called within the week to check on her again. Very caring and thorough care during a stressful time!

I am so comforted to know that this facility is available when all other vets are closed. My kitty would most likely be dead without them, and they were very sensitive to my emotional upheaval.
They are very expensive, but they warn you of the baseline cost on the phone, and they do go through exactly how much each procedure and item is going to cost. We were essentially told, «It’s going to cost this much for these specific things; do you want to go ahead with it?» It wasn’t a possibility in our minds to say no, but we were given the option. They were truthful about the procedure being necessary without badgering or pushing us into consenting.
They also called us in the daytime, a few weeks later, to see how our cat was doing. I felt that this was an especially nice touch.

So caring, so patient, wonderful people and service! Trips to the emergency room for humans are expensive, so are ER trips for animals. But it is a BLESSING that they are there when you need them! The staff was nothing short of saintly when I brought my cat in unable to use his back legs and screaming in pain. I called ahead and they were ready and waiting. They diagnosed it quickly (saddle thrombus) and were VERY kind and caring when delivering the bad news to me. I had to make the decision to put my cat to sleep and it was VERY hard, this happened so suddenly and unexpectedly. But if I had not had access to the emergency clinic, my cat would have been in pain far longer than he needed to be and I would not have been able to live with that. I am so thankful to the vets and staff or the emergency clinic for helping me through this and for their wonderful demeanor during the whole ordeal.

I can’t find it in myself to say something bad about people who stay up all night just in case my pup gets hurt, so they can help him.
It was pretty expensive, but the vet tech warned me when I called before I came in that there would be an $ 80 emergency visit and I get it… they can’t ever know how many pets will come in overnight so it’s going to be expensive. I am glad I have pet insurance!
My emergency was on a saturday night, and our regular vet is VCA which is not open on sunday. If the emergency had been on sunday night, I might have waited until monday morning, but it wasn’t.
The staff were nice to my pup, and the place was clean (for a vet). It was super expensive, so you should know that before you go in, but if you need emergency care you need emergency care.

Why won’t Unilocal let me give zero stars???
The Animal Emergency Clinic of Champaign is a scam. They charge exorbitant fees and do a very poor job. They prey on people whose animals need after hours vet care and take advantage of pet owners who are already in a tough situation. I shudder to think of how many animals go untreated because the AEC is more concerned with taking advantage of owners than taking care of pets.
The first annoying thing is that they charge about $ 40 for an office exam and another $ 40 for an emergency fee. So it’s $ 80 just to walk in the door, without any actual medical treatment being rendered. Right there, a lot of people probably decide to risk it and wait for their regular vet to open. Then, after you’ve racked up $ 80 but before they do anything to actually treat your animal, they give you a written estimate of how much it will cost (bet on being charged the high end of the range they give you), so that you can leave without treatment if the prices are too high. I can understand why they do this, but I found it very crass the way the whole experience focuses on the money, not the animal.
I brought my dog in after she pulled out some stitches. Very minor stuff. The AEC charged me well over $ 200 to put in three staples!!! The original surgery itself wasn’t much more than that! The itemized charges were more than twice what I would expect to pay my regular vet for the same treatment. I’m already paying a $ 40 charge for the emergency nature of it, so to double the going rates of everything else is really taking advantage. But they knew they had me cornered, and they ran with it,
Most concerning is the fact that they did a terrible job on this very simple procedure. The wound was not aligned correctly when they closed it, so it’s now going to take longer to heal and will leave a bigger scar. Not a life or death problem by any means, but I expect top notch care (especially for what they charge), and my dog didn’t get it. The portion of the incision where they put in the staples is an absolute mess.
They also charged just shy of $ 25 to clean the wound (!), but gave us back a dog that was covered in blood. We asked about it and were told to just wipe her down with a damp cloth. Excuse me, but I just paid you more than $ 200 for five minutes of substandard treatment and you can’t even clean up after yourself???
This was not by any means my first experience at the AEC. In the past, they’ve done a very good job and charged reasonable fees. Until now, I’d been very happy with their services. Something here has changed drastically, and not for the better They were doing some renovations this time (the place was a construction zone — not very sanitary!), and I suspect that the charges we incurred weren’t for the purpose of treating the dog, but to help the AEC buy more construction supplies.
I will not take my animals back to the AEC if I can help it. The pricing at AEC is insulting, but is nothing compared to the issues I have with the quality of care (or lack thereof). I’ve heard some negative things about the after hours care at the vet school, but I’m going to give them a try if my animals need emergency care in the future.
I think anyone affiliated with the AEC should be ashamed of themselves. Overcharging and taking advantage of people in desperate situations is inexcusable. Sick animals unquestionably end up suffering because their well meaning owners cannot afford the fleecing being done by this clinic. I expect to pay more for emergency veterinary care than a regular visit to the vet, but the fees charged at AEC are ridiculous. It is clear that the priority at AEC is maximizing profit, and that when they look at an animal in need, all they see are dollar signs. They could care less about your pet.

I cannot say enough about the staff at this facility. My story begins with picking my cat up at the groomer’s. Upon getting her home, she was hurting and her back leg looked very bad. I took her to the clinic and the staff greeting us were kind and helpful. This happened about 2 years ago, so I don’t remember our doctor’s name, but she was so patient. I was a mess to find out our cat had a dislocated hip from the groomer. I was very emotional and the staff was very understanding. The doctor informed me about a heart murmur my cat had that I was unaware of. They were able to set her leg and send her home very quickly. We had to return to the clinic several times as the attempts being made to fix her leg prior to the eventual surgery were not working out. Each time we went back, they were very loving and compassionate. Have faith your pet is in good hands here.