VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital

I am very impressed by the excellent and knowledgable doctors and very caring and courteous staff. Our little dog received excellent care at a level better than many hospitals provide to people (and I am a doctor)! Would highly recommend this place.

This place is great! First of all it does not smell like a pet hospital at all. It is very nice and the staff is friendly. Dr. Scott is excellent. Me and my mother brought our cat in because she was ill. Unfortunately we had to put her down, but Dr. Scott was very patient, kind, and compassionate, and honest with us. I wish actual MDs were more like her. I would for sure come back here in the future with my next animal.

To update the situation the lady told my father on the phone that she would charge us for the normal care hours rather then the late night charges in which we were charged after never being told! Then they fought for those charges back out of no where with our bank over 80 $ and attempted to go to a third party! My father called and asked them why after telling him they were going to give him the normal wage they end up trying to get the money back through the bank! The manager or whatever lady he spoke to on the phone gave him the rate back and told him to never bring my dog back! I luckily wasn’t able to talk to her because I would tell her in what world did you ever think I was planning on bringing my dog back to your vet! You guys are more caring for money then health and should be ashamed to call yourself a a helpful health clinic. You’re more of a corporation then you are vet hospital!
Lastly I would like to say I will be bringing my dog back, but just to poop on your lawn because she has become quite found of it!
To all people considering going to this veteran office unless you like being fooled into spending up surds amount of money on things that are not even needed, I highly recommend you go somewhere else!
And lastly if you need a place for your dog to go poop they have a great lawn that For once positively highly recommend going for!

Despite the knowledgable and courteous staff, the outrageous pricing should steer any noninsured pet owner away from this animal hospital. I knew that their prices were inflated above most other animal hospitals but never dreamed that fairly standardized services (x-​rays, urine tests, blood tests) were more than double what I would be charged at other reputable animal hospitals.

Came here despite the negative reviews in hopes that I would have better luck, wow was I wrong. First off, I called to ask how much an ultrasound was, not the cost of the appointment itself; I was charged over 5x what they said. They had given me the price for the appointment and not the actual ultrasound like I had asked. When I mentioned this, the employee couldn’t care less and essential made it seem like it was my fault for the misunderstanding; um, no. Second, aside from the the actual vet who was very caring and polite, all the front desk employees seemed uncaring and generally like they didn’t want to be there.
Will not be coming back here ever again. I’m better off looking for a different hospital with better staff and reasonable prices.

I took my six pound Yorkie, Bella to have her patella operated on. They did a fantastic job doing a very intricate operation. Bella’s operation remains stable to this day. I never expect surgeons to be warm and fuzzy personally. I want the Dr. who has his eyeballs and his hands on hundreds of pets.
They are not cheap because they are expert pet surgeons, and my precious Bella deserves the best that I can give her, always.

I’m not going to lie… the place is expensive and, like any hospital (animal or human), you need to find a doctor that you feel confident in. For us, it’s Dr. Proenca. She and her tech, Donald, are excellent. We’re adults and our fur baby is a hamster. It’s tough to find someone who understands how much we love our hamm. I really felt like they respected how much we love our hamster and they were SO good with her. I never thought I’d see our little hamster that comfortable with a vet. They even taught us some training tricks to get her more hand-​held friendly. Oh, and they have a HUGE free parking garage. Her check-​up was more thorough than you see for most humans.
The bad news is that Hammy was diagnosed with parasites. Obviously, the extra visits will cost a bit. But the fact that Dr. Proenca took so much time and care to fill me in on Christmas Eve as to how to best care for the situation was just amazing. Most people would be bitter about being at work near a holiday. You can tell that she loves being there for animals and their human families. Fingers crossed that her next visit puts her in the all clear.
Note: For Dr. Proenca and Donald, I would give 5+ stars. The only reason I give 4 stars is because we’ve only interacted with this VCA location a few times and it is a little pricey.

Our little kitten, Chewy, got sick, of course around 10:30PM on a Sunday night and we called VCA WLA to get some over the phone advice. They were as helpful as they could be, but recommended we take him in just to be on the safe side. I really appreciated the advice, especially since they were busy that night and still made it a point to check Chewy out within less than 5 minuets of arrival. The Dr. took a quick look at Chewy for us, and laid out all of our options. The safety of Chewy of course comes first, but my boyfriend and I are both young professionals and we really don’t have money to spare on exorbitant vet bills. I really appreciated the honesty of Dr. Faust (spelling might be wrong) and how he laid out and explained clearly all of our options, he genuinely seemed to care about our pet and the financial burden it would have been to pay for the late night exam fees.
As for the facility: it was beautiful! Nicer and cleaner than some hospitals/​Dr. offices I’ve been in, seemed to be all new. If we lived closer, I would for sure switch to them as our regular vet, and we like our current vet a lot! The staff at the entry level was super nice and helpful too and parking was no problem.

Come here if you want a vet who doesn’t care about your animal and if you want to spend thousands of dollars on treatments without them telling you why and if it will help.
I brought my poor cat in because she was acting off and wasn’t feeling well. The vet was making guesses at what could be wrong and every time I’d ask how much for what she was recommending she would reply «at least $ 3,000». So why don’t you just put a sign up that says if you bring your pet in for an emergency, we won’t know what we are doing but we are going to charge you as much as a car costs and without any real diagnosis or without your pet surviving.
Let them give my cat some fluids and then took her home. $ 400 for an exam and cold and rude vet.

We paid a visit to this VCA hospital after taking advantage of the «Free Initial Exam» promo offered on Unilocal.
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— You really can’t judge a book by its cover. The conservative, muted appearance of the Sepulveda VCA Hospital houses a well-​lit, squeaky-​clean interior. The whole hospital looks as though it’s either been recently renovated or just extremely well-​maintained. Even the restroom that I stopped to use was exceptionally clean! The quality of the facilities made us that much more inclined to trust the VCA with our pal Ace right off the bat.
— Parking here is both free and plentiful! There’s a multi-​tier structure that’s attached to the hospital itself, and finding a space shouldn’t be much of a challenge.
We had a 12 PM appointment arranged for Ace, and only ended up waiting about 5 – 10 minutes before he was seen by a veterinarian. There were plenty of TVs in the waiting room, and lots of available seating, as well (so you can keep your distance from others’ pets if needed!). Free dog snacks are also provided if your canine companion keeps fidgeting in his/​her new & unfamiliar surroundings.
— Sure, his name may have been dangerously close to «Rabies» in terms of pronunciation, but Dr. Rabe took great care of our dog. It didn’t take us long to realize that the good Doctor was both a genuine dog person and a genuine people person. He was clearly thoroughly familiar with what he was doing, and gave Ace a complete exam that covered all of the major bullet points. Although Acey had initially been trying to hide between our legs after entering the examination room, Dr. Rabe was quick to win both ourselves and Ace over with his friendly, easygoing personality. (Basically, the only fault that I could find with Dr. Rabe would be that he’s a Broncos fan!!!)
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Since we rescued Ace after he was abandoned at a high-​kill shelter (hooray!), we had absolutely no information with regards to his age, weight, or health history. Dr. Rabe provided us with an educated estimate on his age (by examining the fella’s teeth), and informed us that Ace’s weight was just about on-​target. As for our dog’s immunization history, since we didn’t have any history to go off of, we decided (per Dr. Rabe’s recommendation) to set Ace up with his rabies/​distemper vaccines ($ 25 each). The shots were administered in a separate room, and the process took maybe thirty seconds at most.
I was amazed at how quick, efficient, and easy our first visit to this hospital was. Of course, it’s a lot easier to ooh and ahh over everything when it’s all free. I’m definitely going to explore other veterinary options in the future, but it’s good to know that we’ve got the VCA as a reliable resource down the road.

My review is super long cause I took my dog to this place everyday for 6 weeks before my dog passed away and almost every vet at this place saw my dog.
Ok here we go, I had a 16 years old dog who I took her to this place on August 10^th for the first time to meet Dr. Summit cause my dog previous vet got suspicious that my dog might have brain tumor. Apparently Dr. Summit is the best neurologist in town (not in my opinion). I took my dog Jessica to her and she diagnosed her with brain tumor. However, she didn’t recommend ANYTHING. She told me don’t bother with MRI cause your dog is old and she didn’t even offer me any other solution.
So I trusted her and as she said let’s wait and see. My dog was ok, she was just circling around, but she was ok otherwise. On October 11^th my dog became paralyzed while she was eating her food. I took her to emergency to this place at 5 am and the vet sucked. She told me probably something stuck between her paws while I took her for walk that day. I’m not even sure she was a vet. She was a very young girl who even couldn’t communicate with me properly and it was obvious she had no experience what so ever. She done nothing and charged me $ 250 for doing nothing.
I took my dog to many vets in LA to figure out what’s wrong with her and after few days we found out that she became paralyzed because of her neurological issue.
I took my dog here to another neurologist, I don’t remember her name but I think her name was Dr. Thai or something like that. She wasn’t good. She told me what I could see with my eyes but again no other solution.
I was so desperate for help, I started searching and even reading about brain tumor. While I was reading articles about brain tumor in dogs I came across Dr. John Crithin, who is an Oncologist at this place. I took my dog to him, he was a nice guy and very straightforward. He recommended to put my dog on Prednisone which was great, cause after only two days using it my dog’s front legs started working again, but she still couldn’t use her back legs. He spent more than an hour to explain other possible solutions. Also every time I called him to ask a question about my dog he always called me back within 24 hours and he took his time on the phone to explain everything to me.
My dog started developing some deep injuries cause she was dragging herself on the floor, so I had to take her to a surgeon for checking her injuries and make sure she won’t get infections. That was when Dr. Crithin referred me to Dr. Kevin Haynes who is a Surgeon. So every other day I had to take my dog to him to change her bandages and check her injuries.
Dr. Haynes is great however he told me many times that I had to put my dog down. At the time I was so mad at him every time he told me that. But he was right, I was so afraid to lose my dog that I couldn’t see how much pain she was going through.
Anyway, since I was mad at Dr. Haynes for keep telling me to put my dog down, I took my dog to Dr. Stephen Moffit, he’s one of the nicest people I ever met. And he was really great, my dog hated most of the vets but she loved Dr. Moffit.
In the last two weeks of her life my dog started having problem in her left eye cause of her brain tumor, so I had to take her to Ophthalmologist. I never met Dr. Marchione myself but he was really good, he gave four different drops to my dog to use daily and after a few days her eye got much better.
Since my dog was paralyzed I wanted to help her to walk again so I bought her a wheelchair. People in rehabilitation center on the first floor were really nice. Nancy, Carson, Andrew and the other lady that I can’t remember her name, they helped me with my dog’s wheelchair and putting it together and helping my dog to walk on it. Sadly, she didn’t live long to use her wheelchair.
On November 22, 2015 I had to put my dog down after trying everything. Nothing worked on her. I even tried Chemotherapy but she started having so much pain, so I had to let her free.
A day before I took my dog to put her down, I spoke to Dr. Moffit on the phone and he was very helpful.
When I took my dog there Dr. Haynes was the vet who put my dog down. He and his assistant that day I think her name was Janet, they were so helpful and kind. It was the most painful thing to do since I had my dog for 16 years and I grew up with her but it was her time and Dr. Haynes and his assistant were very nice.
The good thing about this place is that they take care of everything. They arranged everything from sending my dog to the after care center till giving me back her ashes.
Yes, it’s a pricy place compare to many other places. I spent $ 4-​$ 5k in 6 weeks for my dog but she absolutely worth it.
I hope no one experience what I experienced, losing a pet is hard, especially brain tumor is the worst one but if you’re in that situation, Dr. Crithin (oncologist), Dr. Haynes (surgeon) and Dr. Moffit (vet) are the people to go to.
Not recommending neurologist at this place at all

Let me first start with a quick background on me and my dog… I’m a first time pet owner so I have NO IDEA what I’m doing. And I’m aware that for pet professionals this is «just a job» to them, but for us as patients/​customers/​clients we are talking about our pets who are like children to us.
I went to other vets and hospitals and ultimately found VCA to be the most professional, clean and friendly place and even though it is significantly more expensive than other places, I want only the best for my furry baby.
That being said, I’m very torn on this place. I like my doctors but don’t feel that there is any attention given before or after for my dog’s well being. Our general vet was amazing. She sat on the floor so she can get acquainted with my dog which I loved and she did give me her email after and had one of her staff call that evening. Great start. But as the week went on, she claimed she never got my emails and I learned the hard way that she didn’t work on Fridays so I was forced to seek help from the doctors on call when my dog got very sick (this translates into more $$$ when you don’t have an appointment or your vet isn’t around FYI). So then it was decided that my dog needed a procedure which I was fine to do. The problems occurred when no one contacted me with pre-​surgery instructions (I had to email the doctor directly to ask), the original estimate they gave me wound up being almost $ 500 more than what I was quoted and they gave me no post-​op instructions for when I took my dog home. I just assumed that they treat their patients like human patients and normally humans get some sort of standard form or email outlining what needs to be done before and after surgery.
My dog had her surgery 3 days ago and no one has called to see how she is doing… it’s disappointing but I just remind myself that to them it’s «just a job.» Past locations called often to check on her… perhaps I was spoiled there.
Also of note, before the surgery when my dog got sicker, my vet called in a prescription and told me the pharmacy would call when it was ready. When I didn’t hear from them after two days, I called and they said it had been ready for two days. This was infuriating because my dog was violently ill during that time when it could have been avoided with a simple phone call.
It was pointed out to me that VCA is a teaching hospital which might explain all the oversights but if I’m going to pay more money (especially when I’m quoted much less on estimates, etc) then I guess I expect a certain level of service which I am not receiving. Hopefully it will turn around because I think we need to go back for follow up appointments — please note that I have to use the word «think» because no one has contacted me to tell me either way what the next steps are.

I haven’t been to this clinic, but I’m writing this review for the sole purpose of my experience with Dr Moffit, who works at this clinic. I met him while he was covering a shift an my local VCA clinic and took my cat in an emergency visit.
Dr Moffit could tell I was rather nervous and was wonderful at making me feel very much at ease. He took time to explain all the options I had, and to make sure all my questions were answered before I left.
Thanks Dr Moffit and good luck!

The place is very clean, smells good, no pet odors and the staff specially Brenda is very kind, friendly and took care of all our needs.
Very expensive but it’s worth it!!! I Highly recommend this pet hospital.

Apparently this place it hit or miss depending on when you go or who you get. In my case, I think it was a hit. Dr Taylor could not have been nicer and treated my cat Bowie with TLC. She has a UTI and they did an X-​ray to make sure it wasn’t anything more since the first round of antibiotics didn’t do much.
So okay, it was late and there was a long wait. So what? I’d rather go above and beyond what may be necessary to take care of my pet. At least i found out she doesn’t have stones.
I still prefer my closer vet because she has a history there. But I would go back in an emergency for sure.

Thank you Doctor Scott for taking care of Suga my chocolate lab! Entire staff here was very professional, knowledgable and dealt with my emergency immediately. I knew the costs would be high, but, I wanted the best care at that time of night so I decided to come again to the VCA hospital.
If you are on a budget then this is the wrong hospital„ however, if you want the best medical care for your pet I don’t think you can go wrong by going to this place.

So thankful for this place and so happy I came here!
My sweet baby boy has been having a tummy ache for the past four days.
I just moved across town so I was thinking maybe he was stressed but I was so worried last night so my man suggested we bring him here.
We were with the doctor after five minutes of checking in! She was so nice and informative and explained everything to us including the costs.
Our visit was a little less than $ 200 for the appointment, 2 prescriptions and lab work.

This review is long but worth reading to the very end.
I had been going to VCA West LA for 10 years until David Bruyette, the Medical Director, suddenly cut off all care to my sick and injured dog despite the fact that she had been under the care of 4 specialists at this hospital and had been a patient for 6 years.
The problem started when my dog continued to vomit over a period of months and Dr. Bruyette (an internal medicine doctor) repeatedly dismissed my complaints.
After an ultrasound and hormone/​blood tests came back normal, Bruyette told me they had examined her whole body except for her brain and that as an «extremely talented» (his words) diagnostician, he would know if something was wrong.
He finally did an endoscopy under general anesthesia which established that my dog had inflammatory bowel disease which requires aggressive treatment including steroids. When he discontinued the steroids and she vomited, I asked how to address this. His response was, «That’s the IBD.»
For days following the endoscopy my dog moaned in pain. I contacted Dr. Bruyette who dismissed me and told me that if she was eating, she was not in pain.
As a result, I had to go back to the hospital to see another internal medicine doctor (Yoshimoto) who suggested my dog had another condition. He referred me to a surgeon (Mueller) who thought that my dog had disc disease and arthritis.
An MRI and x-​rays were recommended.
My dog who was in pain was strapped to a table, put under general anesthesia and inexplicably kept for 7 hours.
A tech then told me that my dog’s temperature had dropped and that her body needed to be warmed in order to be released.
Dr. Yoshimoto had told me that he would be in the room with my dog but I later learned that he was not and that he did not perform blood tests which determine whether an animal is healthy enough to undergo general anesthesia.
The MRI and x-​rays did not confirm the surgeon’s diagnoses.
Bruyette then referred me to a neurologist (Sammut) which yielded nothing.
I was shuffled between doctors, no one took responsibility and all failed to properly diagnose my dog.
I then asked Bruyette to arrange for his specialists to communicate. He did so by writing that he did not think that my dog was in pain and copying his staff on condescending emails.
Subsequently, I identified a source of pain in my dog and upon notifying Dr. Mueller, she wrote that my dog needed an x-​Ray. I returned to VCA only to be charged for another exam and told that my dog did not need an X-​ray. SEVERE illiopsoas (groin) PAIN, the importance of physical therapy and pain relievers were documented.
Because, after subjecting my dog to 12 visits to the hospital and numerous tests (totaling over $ 7000), I was told that my dog’s condition had advanced to a point which required PT, I wrote to Bruyette and expressed my disappointment.
In response, Bruyette sent me an email saying that nothing was SEVERE, I was the ONE worried about my dog (EXACTLY the problem) and that if she was responding (to what?) he wouldn’t take her to PT.
Bruyette then informed me that he would be cutting off ALL of my dog’s medical care.
A manager told me that if the owner complains it is Bruyette’s policy to deny care to a patient in the midst of receiving treatment despite the ethical principles of the AVMA. In fact, she casually told me that if I came in with my dog in an emergency, all they would do is stabilize the dog and transfer «it.»
The level of callousness was appalling.
They see no conflict in charging an exorbitant amount of money to provide medical services to a «member of your family» only to treat «it» as a disposable piece of property when it suits them.
Bruyette instructed his staff not to answer any questions and these doctors REFUSED TO REFILL A PAIN MEDICATION while I searched for other doctors.
Since my dog went to this hospital for general practitioner care, he knew that she had nowhere else to go. She was in immediate need of 2 specialists as well as a physical therapist. He showed no concern or compassion. He merely wrote, «There are a thousand vets in the area including a specialty hospital next door.»
While searching for doctors, I discovered disturbing things about VCA WLA including videos, one of which was created by Dr. Bruyette, in which doctors joke about the death of patients and mock their owners, and Dr. Bruyette jokes «interns are stupid» and «KILL MY PATIENTS» abuse alcohol, and «sleep it off in the GRIEF ROOM.»
I would go to any one of the thousand vets as suggested.
UPDATE: My dog did not have illipsoas. She did have two other conditions. One is a muscular skeletal condition diagnosed upon initial exam by 3 separate doctors. The other is a TWO INCH MASS which four specialists FAILED TO DIAGNOSE in my 10 pound dog over a period of 7 months. My poor dog had to have her chest sliced open. See her picture in the photo section.

Our basset hound Duke is a poorly built rescue animal, and over the last few years, we’ve shelled out some serious dough to keep him in reasonable shape. The most expensive thing he’s had done is surgery on both of his hind knees, to fix his luxating patella. This was almost three years ago, when we first adopted him, and not only was the surgery expensive, it was also a giant pain in the ass. So when he started limping recently and our regular vet told us he needed surgery again, we were pretty fucking devastated.
Our vet referred us to VCA West L.A. Animal Hospital, where we could find someone to attend to his orthopedic needs. I made an appointment with Dr. Cabrera and took Duke in for a consultation. (I was able to book an appointment for the day I called, which was nice.)
I’d never been to an animal hospital like this before. It felt like a hospital for humans, huge and pristine, with free, easy garage parking, a lobby of a waiting area, and a big staff. I checked in and waited for my turn on a comfortable cushioned seat among other owners and their beautiful dogs, who I hope were all there for routine things. The desk staff was friendly, and when our turn was up, we were led through at least two glass doors before getting to our examination room, which was, of course, clean and spacious, with giant windows looking out onto the street.
A technician/​nurse took down some preliminary information, and before long, Dr. Cabrera came to look at our little hobble goblin. With another doctor and the technician assisting, she got Duke up on the table and gave him a thorough examination, which he seemed to enjoy – it was like three pairs of hands were massaging him (I think two actually were, while Dr. Cabrera conducted a gentle exam). When she was done, she gave me some wonderful, wonderful news. Duke didn’t need surgery. The pain was apparently in a pulled muscle, rather than from his knees, which were under control.
I’d been mentally preparing myself for an expensive, difficult veterinary journey, so I said yes to some expensive X-​rays, etc. just to check out his hip, where the muscle seemed to be bothering him. I even started looking at the lovely dog portrait photography on the walls, and asked how much they cost, and where I could buy one. When I mentioned this to my husband, he pointed out that I didn’t have to spend all the money I’d mentally put aside for Duke’s surgery.
I’m obviously so happy with the result of this visit (which, now that I think of it, would have been unnecessary if I’d okayed X-​rays from our usual vet) that I can’t help but love this hospital, but really, the place was great, and Dr. Cabrera was warm and professional and Duke loved her. They were also good about submitting his claim to our insurance, which – added bonus – actually ponied up for once. When we got the check, we congratulated Duke on presenting a new health issue, as additional knee problems wouldn’t have been covered (pre-​existing condition!). I’d highly recommend VCA West L.A. for your veterinary needs. Happiness and health to you and all your pets.

I brought one of my hawks in to see Dr. Marchione for a white spot on the surface of his eye that had developed relatively suddenly. The hospital was clean, well staffed and the doctor was actually able to see me early (I had arrived well ahead of my set appointment time).
There aren’t really any vets that are both extreme avian specialists and also extreme eye specialists so I was at the VCA because Dr. Marchione is one of the latter. He did a thorough examination of both my hawks eyes and was able to explain the white spot to me (calcium deposits) as well as give me more information about Ace’s life-​long eye problems (at least in that particular eye). Though Ace acts as if he has very poor vision in both eyes, Dr. Marchione was not able to see anything about his left eye that would result in limited vision.
The doctor was polite, professional and had a good attitude. I appreciated the technology they had at the ready to do the specialized eye exam and felt confident with the information he gave me about the spot I had come in to find out about. The basic visit was $ 160, but as a non-​profit wildlife educator, they were able to give me a slight discount, which I much appreciated.
Overall I was very happy with my visit and will consider making the long drive again to have Dr. Marchione tell me about my owls that have bad eyes too.