My dog was at home chewing a rawhide when we noticed that she started to choke on it. We opened her mouth and could see the rawhide but when we tried to get out we couldn't because it was lodged so tightly in. Our dog was having a hard time breathing. My wife put her in the car and was rushing her to the vet who is only a few minutes away and is the closest animal hospital to us. I stayed behind with a much shaken up 7 year old and called the vet and explained what was happening and that they would be there soon. I thought that way they could be ready. I was told by the evening manager Sarah that they wouldn't see my dog because they didn't have any appointments left for the day. I told her that it was an emergency, my dog was having problems breathing and she told me again they wouldn't see her. She then tried to refer me to another VCA hospital 30 minutes away. I again told her that my dog was choking and was having a hard time breathing...thinking she must not understand this was an emergency. That my dog wouldn't make it the other VCA hospital that it was too far away. She told me she understood this but they still wouldn't see my dog. I was so upset I hung up the phone. I told this woman no less than 6 times my dog was choking and having a hard time breathing and she kept telling me they wouldn't see her. My wife decided to go there anyway and demand that they treat our dog. Luckily as she was getting her out of the car she coughed it up.

Aside from the obvious what concerns me is: How does someone who works at a vet turn away an animal in an obvious crisis? And yes this hospital is large with multiple vets and able to handle situations like this. Another concern is they told me to take her to another VCA hospital 30 minutes away when about 15 minutes from there was a pet emergency hospital. They know about this hospital because the vet used to be one of a few in our area that took turns working there at night before he sold out to VCA.

When we called back to speak with the vet we were told we couldn't speak with him. Sarah also told us that it was their protocol to send clients to the other VCA even in an emergency situation like ours. Not to send them to a non VCA emergency hospital. How is this right? We were also told had we just showed up they would have assessed our dog. Even though on the phone we were told they wouldn't treat her. So our response was so we shouldn't call you to give you a heads up we should just come in. The woman just laughed. I thank god that our dog was able to cough it up on her own because in the confusion created by Sarah at VCA our innocent dog could have died all because VCA is greedy and there staff obviously doesn't put animals lives first.