Animal Emergency Medical Center

My roommate at the times dog and her sons dog got into a fight while everyone was away, i came home to a bloody mess.
My experience was that the doctor stormed out and said I wasn’t paying attention because I had to take a call from the dogs owner during her explanation, right before taking the call I stated that I had to take the call as it was my roommate (the dog owner) and she was in another country and i wanted to find out if he dog had any medical issues they should know about since they had asked me.
The dog ended up being okay, and yeah, obviously its rude in normal circumstances to take a call when someones talking to you but, this call was necessary to provide the doctor with the information they were asking from me. It was a stressful situation, made more stressful by the doctor’s behavior.

I strongly recommend avoiding this place and I wish I had seen the reviews prior to bringing my dog here. It is insanely expensive and when in an emergency situation, you will do anything and everything to save your friend. The doctor minimized any discussion of risks while maximizing prices. In the end, my dog died from drugs after surgery (at least this is what I was told). They cut my bill in half to $ 4000 after apologizing for what happened, but I just wish I had gone somewhere else.
My sweet dog Nala had just had her 9^th birthday and she started breathing heavy and could barely stand up one morning. We rushed her to this hospital as our vet was not open yet. They immediately ran a credit card for $ 1000.00 to verify we could pay (no actual charge on the card yet). They believed she had a ruptured spleen due to cancer and explained that surgery might buy her another year of life. We agreed to it and we then received an estimate for $ 8000.00, which we signed. Again, the credit card was checked to hold that amount. The surgery went well according to the doctor, but when we went down to check on her 5 hours later, we were told we could not see her yet. We waited for about 40 minutes in their waiting room and was finally told we could see her. There in the middle of the floor was my beautiful girl, panting like crazy with a pulse of 200. I could not believe it. I said that I didn’t think this looked good and was told she was «fine», that she would be «better in the morning». She was having «anxiety issues». But she could not focus on me and was obviously not in good shape.
At 8 PM that night we received a call asking if we wanted CPR to be performed on her (it is an extra charge). I was devastated. I said, Yes, YES, Please! They revived her but 1 hour later they again called and said they thought it was time for us to let her go.
The doctor did called later saying that they had given Nala anti anxiety drugs and she had not responded well to them. She felt bad she had not been more honest with me when I was there to visit. I so wish I had been called as I believe what she needed was me. She woke up in a strange place and I wasn’t there. Of course she was going to have a ton of anxiety. But when I got the final lab results, some of the numbers looked like she had simply bled to death (17%PCV 2.2 TS (1 hour prior to death)).
I write this just to say I wish I had done more research and gone to a different hospital. Spending the amount we did, having a lot of hope for more time and then having her die, 9 hours after surgery was heart breaking.
Do yourself and your pet a favor, find a different hospital.

24 hour care for emergencies. Caring staff. Treated Buddy the Maltipoo efficiently and for a very fair price. Responding to other reviews they only handle emergencies so you can’t make an appointment. Thank you for saving my dog!

I am really shocked at the level of negative reviews here. I thought it only fair to share my experiences with this clinic. 8 years ago my Chihuahua slipped in the rain and herniated a disk in his back. I brought him here and they were very tender with him and patiemt with my own tears. They weren’t able at the time to address the problem more than keeping him pain free and calm before referring me to neurosurgeon. 8 years later and he is on the go. Last night, in a heroic attempt to see who rang our doorbell, Sammy leaped off the couch and created a soft tissue damage in his back leg. After a few hours it became evident he was in a bit of pain. We returned to this location and were shown the same professionalism and concern as before. Sammy already looks better and they did an amazing job following up throughout the morning and afternoon thus far. All the best to you all.

DO NOT GO HERE. They killed my daughters cat because they mis diagnosed her and did a surgery she didn’t need, then days later when she was already in critical condition they did a proper exam and found what was really wrong with her, and did ANOTHER surgery, which she didn’t make it thru. We ended up with a $ 6000 bill and my daughter is Heartbroken. Her cat was only 5 and had no prior sickness. This was such neglect and should Never of happened if they had took the time and did a proper exam in the first place. This place is all about the money and not proper care. These people should be sued and held accountable.

Called to ask them a question and Jennifer was rude and gave attitude over the phone. I’ve never been to this clinic, but that was enough to deter me from ever stepping foot in that place.

My cats regular vet was not open yet and my cat that I already knew had cancer was not doing well. He was crashing. The staff at AERC were very compassionate and caring during this hard time. Dr. Kotelko took the time to explain what was happening and what was to be expected after a pet is euthanized. I was able to stay with him for no additional charge. I also had the option of taking his remains with me or to have him cremated. Yes, it can be expensive but they will give you an estimate up front and they will work with what you can pay. I believe they also accept Care Credit which is a great payment plan. I’d definitely take my pet here if need be again.

Not a fan. We took our sick puppy here to receive care. The initial estimate was very high, but we were stuck because this was the only place open 24 hours… our normal vet wasn’t open.
The vet gave us an estimate of more than $ 3000 with a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance of surviving. We went home and (tearfully) discussed the situation and came to the difficult decision that it would be better to let the puppy go than to have him spend the next few days in pain and all alone in a little box.
The next day we went back to discuss our decision with the vet. The vet seemed to have forgotten the initial ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ prognosis and «encouraged» us to continue the treatment. She insisted that she would keep us informed of the progress… or lack of progress. After being convinced to continue treatment, we never received any phone calls or updates.
Once our wallet was emptied of the initial $ 3000+ we got the ONE and ONLY call from one of the assistants saying we should really consider putting our puppy down. There were no updates and seemingly no real concern (based on the lack of communication) for the well-​being of our puppy. Even our primary vet (who wasn’t open during that time) called us to see how the puppy was doing. All we got from this place was a massive bill and a broken heart.
I’m sad my puppy spent his last few days there. Needless to say, we won’t be returning.
I understand that treating sick animals isn’t a guarantee, but like others who have posted reviews, I felt like they were more interested in our money than treating our pet.

The front desk is very slow. I took my dog here when he got neutered when he got his cone off and he ended up worse then he came in. I ended up going to my vet the next day to get him treated correctly. Waste of 300 bucks and the front desk needs some new management. Only reason im giving it a 2 star is because I hate giving 1 stars to businesses

I would like to thank the staff and Dr Jonnie Quantz for the amazing affection and care they gave to our dog Cabo. He was a patient here for a couple of years after having his first visit where Dr. Quantz discovered he had a very serious illness.
They took care of him as if he was their own dog and gave him life saving treatments. Dr Quantz took time to always call and check in with him and also always made sure we knew what was going on and about all of his medications. Being a patient there for over 2 years we saw all sides of this business and were always so pleased with the care our Cabo received. They helped us so much with everything from diet recommendations to finding other doctors who could cater to his many needs.
After the recent passing of Cabo I just wanted to give a big thank you to the entire team at Animal Emergency Medical Center for helping him live a longer and more healthy life. He will never be forgotten just like all of your efforts and care.

I wish i can give them zero star!
Warning! Don’t come here unless you have money and you want someone who only cares about the money to take not care of your animal!
They always have hidden fees! Keep going up! Lie to me saying i put the wrong phone number so they couldn’t contact me! I took pic of my form n i put the right number! They lie saying they talked to my bf to proceed the surgery when he never even put his phone number!
Lied to us saying they couldn’t do the procedure they were supposed to do n asking us to pay over 3000 n additional 3000 or up for the surgery! When my poor kitty didn’t needed the surgery! I told them iam taking my baby to different clinic!
Doctor ignores you n keep sending other ppl for medical bills that keeps goes up n doesn’t even explain anything!
I have right to know what is going on with my cat!
I just took my cat to affordable clinic n the doctor was confused why she had him like this making it worse! I am going to look for a lawyer pretty soon if anything happens to my cat!
So just heads up!
Doctor will ignored you and lies to you for the money
Bills will keep going up with stupid hidden fees
They don’t care about your animal, only money!
Worst experienced ever!

I wish the exotic animal specialist was here more than a couple days or could come in when needed. I wouldn’t depend on the other emergency vets to handle anything. I see a lot of others have said the same. I won’t be back here…

It is pricey and I thought Dr Seo was great. The rest of the staff, especially front desk is not great. Often times no one is at the desk and their attitudes could be more helpful, efficient and empathetic.

I came in the other night because my dog had a really bad ear infection (frenchie problems) and my BF and I didn’t have time to take him during the week. Poor guy kept shaking his head and scratching at his ears :(
Anyways, I was a little reluctant to come here because of the horrible rating, but said f it since all vets should know how to properly clean ears and prescribe medication.
Decent for a ²⁴⁄₇ pet hospital. You honestly can’t expect 5 stars, top of the line customer service at a place like this. (Not talking about the actual care provided by the vets).
We walked in and no one was sitting at the front desk. After a few «hellos» someone finally walked through the door. Right away, the front desk hell told us the fee would be a minimum of $ 85 PLUS whatever other services were needed. I don’t understand why people (in other reviews) get so offended by the upfront notice of charges… I actually really appreciated the heads up. We waited about 30 mins after doing paperwork for someone to get us into a room. Yes, it was kind of a long wait, but I had already expected it cus it wasn’t an emergency.
Once we got into a room, a vet technician came in to take notes and ask questions about our dog.
Then we waited another 30 minutes before the actual vet came in. She examined him and said that someone would come in shortly to take him to the back to clean his ears and do some sort of test to see what kind of infection it was.
Then a vet tech came in again and showed us what our bill would look like. Came out to be around ~200 for the exam, medication, ear cleaning, and ear exam. Yes, it’s a little expensive, but keep in mind that it’s an emergency pet hospital. They even asked if I approved of the charges — thank you for showing met this!
After waiting another 15 minutes, another two dogs came in for an emergency so they had us hand over our dog and told us to come back in an hour or two because the vet had to attend to the emergencies. I was ok with this.
Exactly an hour later, I received a call and we picked up our dog. We met with the vet tech again and she explained how to administer the medication.
TL;DR ?
Service: 3.5÷5 stars. Pretty decent for an emergency ²⁴⁄₇ hospital
Care: ⁴⁄₅ stars
Price: ⁴⁄₅

Highly incompetent people! My dog was acting strange and limping badly on both of her back legs so I automatically took her to the nearest animal emergency, unfortunately, this one. There’s was no one in the lobby! No receptionist, nothing! The sign said open. I called around and heard people laughing and talking in one of the back rooms but after a couple of minutes of waiting I ended up leaving and taking her to another one down the street. Some «URGENCY» care. Never will I EVER come here again.

Wonderful post op care for a very scary situation. Bear twisted his stomach on Sunday and I had to transfer him here for a few extra days of healing. The love and compassion that the staff had was wondering derfu.

Initially, I took my dog to another vet earlier in the day but around 3AM he began breathing rapidly, so I panicked and took him to the closest 24 hour clinic which just happened to be this one. The lady working at the front desk (I’m guessing the vet assistant) was very kind and she took my dog to be oxygenated right away. She told me that he was breathing a lot better inside of the incubator and that the doctor would meet with me and my mom shortly.
When we first met Dr. Alexis Kotelko, she was very kind and seemed very concerned and knowledgable about my dog’s condition and welfare. She stated what could be wrong and what treatments he might need, and then told us that she would be back with an estimate. The vet assistant brought us our estimated which came out to 2250.10−2894.53 for 24 – 48 hospitalization!!! At the bottom it said miscellaneous medical service with an estimate of 171.82−257.73, so we asked what it was and their response was very vague which made us feel uneasy. We declined the estimated treatments and asked if we could just keep him oxygenated until 9AM which was only 4 hours considering it was already 5AM.
After we declined, Dr. Kotelko stormed in with a bad attitude and made it sound like my dog was going to die if we didn’t accept and pay for all the treatments that they felt were necessary. She said that the incubator is going to help him breath but he’s in terrible condition and is only getting worse. Her tone was very rude and her attitude was horrible. She was nice to begin with but now I feel like that was all fake. When we said we only wanted him oxygenated until the morning, she said alright and stormed out of the room. It definitely made us feel nervous and worried to leave our baby with them after that encounter.
Lastly, we ended up paying $ 218.35 to keep him oxygenated for a little under 5 hours. They said the minimum charge was 218.35 for 6 hours and at most $ 392.34 if the time exceeded 6 hours. The $ 218.35 had $ 85.91 of Miscellaneous medical service included, which they said would only be necessary if he fell in critical condition. He didn’t end up needing these «miscellaneous medical services» and I feel like the $ 85.91 should have been a refundable deposit in case of an emergency.
When we got him back, he was dehydrated, weak, and scared. I don’t think they even thought to feed him some water. AND on our way out, another doctor stopped us and said that we still needed to pay more. She said we only paid a deposit and that we owed more. She was a bit rude and I almost felt like I was about to argue with her. We told her that we paid in full the $ 218.35, so she went to the back to check and turns out she had been misinformed and sent us on our way.
I’m extremely disappointed, irritated, and angry with this place. We will not be coming here again. He is now at a much better emergency clinic.

We used to not think a lot of the care we’d get here, but the last few times have been VERY good. We’ve had nothing but competent, caring help.
Our swissy had a hip surgery at another hospital and her staples popped open twice. The second time was after hours. We brought her in and they put a couple stitches in there and no problem since.
With the staff they have there now we actually prefer them to any of the local regular vets. Too bad they don’t take regular appointments, if they did, we’d be customers.
*I’d give 5 stars, but being very aware of Unilocal’s «issues» I know it’ll just probably get filtered out and I want to be sure people see my review because the staff really is so much better than before.

I feel for the people who have left bad reviews here because their pet did not survive. Thankfully, I was one of the lucky ones, but that is not the only reason for the 5 stars. Recently, I accidentally left one of the gates to my parrotlet’s cage open in the morning after changing his water. I was in a hurry to get out of the house and on the road to work, and I just forgot to close it. Because of my carelessness, he got out during the day and was lost when my wife got home. At the time, the weather was warm so we kept his cage out in the courtyard. I pulled up and noticed one of the neighborhood cats playing with something. Sure enough, it was my bird and thankfully I managed to scare the cat away before it killed him.
My parrotlet was in bad shape and I couldn’t just leave him like that. We took him to Animal Emergency Medical Center and they took him right in. After a few minutes, we were told that he was stable and that they recommended he stay the night so they could observe him and get him on antibiotics. Dr. Fording was very straightforward and told us that he could still die over the next few days from the bacteria in the cat’s saliva. We kept him there one more night and picked him up 2 days later. The nurse showed me how to give him his medication and gave us detailed instructions from the exotics veterinarian (Dr. Murata). I followed the instructions and thankfully our little birdie pulled through and is doing well (a slight limp but otherwise ok). I felt the fee we were charged was fair, and the communication and followup was excellent. Thank you Animal Emergency Medical Center for saving our bird’s life.
Update: his limp has healed and he’s as good as new

First off, I am sorry to hear the negative experiences with other reviewers. I hope all the bad staff are no longer working here.
Our cat Cat Mommy was mauled by our dog. She was in very bad shape; blood in the lungs, a broken rib and broken pallet and jaw. We live in Long Beach and had to take her to Long Beach Animal Emergency which is Animal Emergency Medical Center’s sister facility. Because Long Beach Animal Emergency is only open nights, we had to transport her here the next morning.
All the staff were very kind and thorough and answered all our questions throughout her week stay. Dr. Hickey was mostly involved with Cat Mommy’s care and she couldn’t have had a better vet! I have never received this good kind of treatment or professionalism at my own doctor’s office. It did cost a pretty penny (we have now nicknamed her the 10,000 dollar cat), but she’s our responsibility and someone you love is well worth it! This was a very close call for our poor kitty and we are so grateful to have her with us. Thank you to all staff that aided in the care for Cat Mommy in her time of need!