I cannot speak for all the Vets at this hospital as I am sure that they all care for the animals that come through. However, how they run this facility is awful. They are not upfront about costs, AT ALL, and when you ask you get pushed around until you hit the front desk where they drop the bomb on cost. They then make you feel that it is YOUR fault for not asking what costs were. This is a VERY SHADY way of doing business.... this is not a hospital, its a business... a money grab. We went in for a surgery consult for our dogs hips. We already knew she would need surgery, just needed to know what was available. The consult alone was $200.00! A consult! Most consults for anything are free to maybe $50-60. No where on the website, or when you called were you notified of this cost. When you ask, again you just get a run around. Then we had to get her sedated to see if she was a candidate for one of the surgeries. Turned out she's not which is fine... so we were expecting the higher priced surgery anyway due to the state of her hip. However, even as they led her away for the sedation they never once stated what that would cost. Just took her. And perhaps shame on us as we assumed that a sedation wouldn't cost more than what our family vet charged us when she had her x-rays done. Again not the case. Total cost for the consult and sedation was $322. This is ridiculous. There is nothing you can do but stand in shock. For 10 minutes for the consult and the sedation... $322... I have no issue paying for services rendered, but $322 for nothing? This is NOT OK. This is not how you build solid and loyal clients. We were nothing short of livid. So, we reacted as most would when they feel they are being ripped off, and disputed the price. Especially since nothing was made clear about cost through out the entire visit (this is prior to, during and after). So they take you to this quiet little room off to the side so you cant make a scene, and have their rep speak to you, who by the way came off very condescending. Which makes only makes one react even more. After being told the whole spiel, " its your responsibility and you shouldn't have a pet if you cant afford it", condescending ... right? Yes, I believe so. Especially when we are already preparing to pay upwards of $7000 for a surgery. Had they been upfront about everything from the start, we wouldn't have had an issue and thus would not be writing this terrible review. I never write something like this unless it is warranted. I would not recommend this animal hospital to anyone. At least based on our experience. Not a trustworthy place of business. Sorry.

My experience in dealing with a beloved pet dying of cancer was just awful and it was in some ways made worse by some of the tactics the CARE Centre provided to me. I found that full options and costs were not made upfront to me in making my decision in providing the care for my beloved dog. I had decided to give my dog the best chance possible in fighting the cancer so I put him on chemo. However, they did not give me the option that I could have given him the pills at home. Instead they convenient left that option out and in doing so charged me $125 for just popping pills into his mouth every single time we went for his chemo. I later found out that I had the option of administering the pills via pill pockets thus I could have saved hundreds of dollars. Not to mention after about the third visit, Dr. Larson said to me that the staff upfront had been overcharging me for the chemo visits but no effort was done to reimburse me for the overcharges or giving me a credit. This was also coincidentally admitted only after we questioned the costs. This already was absolutely unacceptable practice to overcharge your clients and do nothing about it. Thirdly, my dog had to be given antibiotics to counteract the side effects of decreased white cell count due to the chemo medication. So the first couple rounds of antibiotics only cost me about $20 for two weeks; however, the third time the centre ran out of the usual antibiotics and a different type had to be given. Well, they never bothered to give me a heads up and tell me that it would cost me $120 for the same two week prescription!! Quite underhanded because I was already paying an arm and a leg for my dying dog the least they could have done was possibly provide a prescription for which I could have gone to the human pharmacy and get the same antibiotics for a fraction of the price. It is for these reasons I believe that the practices of some of the staff are motivated by the fact that pet owners will do anything and pay anything for the life of their pets. Thus, be inconsiderate of the financial stress that it puts upon the pet owners. However, I will say I got great care from Dr. Brian Skorobohach. He throughly explained the condition and what ultimately needed to be done to provide comfort care for my dog. Highly knowledgeable in what he does.

Our dog Henry is a regular at the CARE center as he has an ongoing eye condition and recently spinal issues that needed attention immediately. Dr. Brian Skorobohach is one of the kindest, most sincere Vets I have ever met. His level of care, concern and dedication to ensure that Henrys condition was under control and well managed is impeccable. He has a lovely bedside manner both with the animals as well as the owners. We thank him for his brilliance and for the care that he has given to our dog Henry over the years. More recently we had concerns with Henry as he had a bulging disk as well as a collapsed disk in his neck. Both areas needing attention surgically however, because of the location in his neck between C6 and C7, a very difficult and delicate plan of action was needed. Dr. Neil Connery was the Orthopaedic Surgeon looking after our dog as well as Dr. Diaz the Neurologist and they are both gems. There were numerous meetings that these 2 fine Doctors had over our dog to ensure that the proposed treatment was the best approach. I appreciated their kind bedside manner with Henry and thorough approach to diagnosing and helping me understand what the concerns were. Dr. Connerys follow-up after the surgeries was impressive. He called me everyday exactly when he said he would and took the time to answer my many questions that I had for him. I never felt rushed or that I was asking too many questions. He has wonderful life experiences which he would often share with me which I appreciated! Our dog has a long recovery ahead of him but I know that he had the best team of Surgeons in the city looking after him. The CARE center has been there for our animals 100%. The Nursing staff are wonderful. We would visit our dog multiple times in the day in the ICU and they were happy to allow us to come in whenever we called. They never made us feel like it was an imposition to come in. The Nurses are all loving and caring people, exactly the kind of people you want looking after your animal when you are not there to look after them yourself. I would recommend the CARE center to any of my friends and anyone out there who is looking for the best care in the city for their animal in an emergency situation.

A few hours ago our dog Maggie came home from the CARE Centre Calgary after having her hind left leg amputated. The amputation was necessitated by a peripheral nerve sheath tumor only 5 mm wide on her femoral nerve. Maggie started limping several months ago for no apparent reason. A vet first diagnosed the cause as a ligament tear, a reasonable first step. Subsequent tests showed that wasn't the cause and we and the veterinary profession were at a loss as to the source of the limp, other than a likely neurological problem. Then we met Dr. Diaz, the neurologist at the CARE Centre, who determined the problem was definitely neurological and recommended an MRI. As we know, human MRIs are expensive and animal MRIs even more so, but we trusted Dr. Diaz's advice and went ahead. Unfortunately the MRI found nothing abnormal. Suspecting a calibration change would detect an obviously tiny problem, Dr. Diaz redid the MRI for free as he seemed to feel bad for us, and Maggie, that we didn't obtain a result. In the meantime, suspecting a nerve sheath tumor, we were introduced to Dr. Larson, the CARE Centre's oncologist. She spent a remarkable 75 minutes with us, drawing diagrams and patiently answering our many questions. Who in Canada can imagine getting that kind of time with a doctor for humans? The re-calibrated MRI was done and this time the tumor was found, hiding in muscle under Maggie's abdomen. Dr. Diaz, Dr. Larson and now Dr. Connery, a surgeon at the CARE Centre, worked together on a plan of action. Again, who can imagine 3 human doctors having such a conference? Unfortunately the options were very limited. Excising the tumor meant cutting the nerve, and that meant the leg, which has been wasting away for months, would no longer function. The humane option was amputation. There was another way to go (leaving the leg and basically pinning the knee in one position) but Dr. Connery impressed us by saying it's not a humane way forward, it's harder on the animal, it's probably not going to work and it's much more expensive. He said that if we wanted that he would have no part of it. That fact alone does great damage to the theory that this pet hospital is all about making money. Within a week of the MRI confirmation Maggie underwent her surgery. We were kept well informed before and after the procedure and although we couldn't bring Mags home the first night after the operation we were encouraged to come and visit for as long as we liked. We did of course. Seeing her for the first time on 3 legs was traumatic, and knowing that would be the case we were kindly left alone with her for a little while to adjust. Then Dr. Connery came in and spent half an hour explaining everything he did, answering our questions and demonstrating what a decent, kind human being he is. Today Maggie was ready to come home. When I went to pick her up I was greeted by an obviously happy Dr. Larson, who told me that Maggie's morphology results were already in (we were told it would take 7 days - I think she rushed it) and that the chance of recurrence of the tumor is only 5%. I'm sure I was more pleased as I have 8 years of love invested in Maggie, but you wouldn't know it by looking into Dr. Larson's eyes. Due to work schedules only my wife met with Dr. Diaz and I haven't yet had the privilege, but she's had nothing but great things to say about him and I know that his tenacity and professional dedication saved Maggie's life. These three fine doctors are the faces we came to know at the CARE Centre, but it's obvious they couldn't have done their jobs so well without the support of equally dedicated staff working behind closed doors. To these people, to these dedicated veterinarians, we offer our deepest, most profound thanks. To those seeking advanced veterinary care they can trust, go to the CARE Centre in Calgary.

I had to bring my dog to the CARE Centre four times over a period of a few months. My experience was consistently excellent, as were all personnel that I interacted with - Front Desk Staff, Technicians, and Dr. Jose Diaz. I felt that I was well informed at all times, and was even assisted by Dr. Diaz when I asked to take photos of the white board (where he made helpful notes and diagrams to explain things) and audio of his explanations which I could email home and to my wife, both for our own records, and also so that I didn't have to give a poor, second hand summary of any conversations. We were never pushed into any unnecessary tests, meds, nor did we incur unanticipated costs. In fact, on the last visit, Dr. Diaz and I agreed not to proceed with a second follow-up confirmatory spinal tap test, as he doesn't like to do unnecessary testing just for the sake of testing, particularly if the test is intrusive. And it would have been no cost to me anyway - CARE had already provided an MRI (my decision) and spinal tap during the prior visit, but due to a steroid prescription, there was potential for false negatives. Dr. Diaz and CARE offered to do a second spinal tap at a later date at no charge to me. Everyone is professional, compassionate, friendly and respectful. Each of my four visits were positive experiences, and I would choose this facility if needed, even though it is a 3 hour drive one way from my home.