Van Loon Animal Hospital

When treating a wound, I thought Hein had the brains to put a cone on my cat. 6 hours in his care, Lucy bit at the gash deep enough to reach her abdomen, yet Hein pretended it was a "mysterious condition."

The only mystery is how he has a vet license.

Pros: These guys act like they care about your pet and not just running up your vet bill with every little thing they can possibly do for your pet even if not needed. They are good about letting you know your options so that together you can choose a care route that will work for the resources you have available to you and what is best for your pet. Then they get down to business and get your animal taken care of. They provide good care and are honest. It is nice that they also do the wellness clinic at Petco, so depending on where you live you wouldn't have to drive as far and could also save the cost of an office visit for routine wellness care. Another pro is that when you call with questions or off hours regarding emergency care, they are willing to take the time to talk to you and guide you through care options. I have saved a couple of trips to the vet from the good advice given over the phone of things to try while also being educated about at what point to bring our animal in.

Cons: They are very busy and book up fast. They don't always sit there and oodle over your pet to butter you up like some vet places do (like the ones that charge you an arm and a leg for everything they possibly can even if it's not needed). They come in to look at and take care of the animal and their focus is doing their job and not necessarily sucking up to you (though they are nice and also professional- it's just that extra sucking up you don't get. These guys are more down-to-earth). So to me that's a pro, but some who prefer the extra doting might feel it's a con. One last con is that if you have insurance for your pet, they may need reminders to get paperwork in for claims because they are so busy. I think this may be the case with most places since having pet health insurance is not a common practice in this country.

We have both a dog and a cat and are satisfied with the care they get. We feel it is worth the 25 minute drive.

A wonderful caring team. One of the only hospitals that take emergency appointments during the day, night and weekends.

I took my puppy here for all her sets of puppy shots, and also for her spay. To do so I maxed out my bank account, maxed my CareCredit account, etc. Right then my other dog developed an eye condition, but I ran out of money. I thought maybe they would give me a bit of a break since hundreds of dollars was given to them from all those puppy shots and the spay. My family was also hard up at the time and I could not borrow from them. When I mentioned I no longer had money, their concern stopped. No money upfront, no care for the dog. Which seems to be the way of it for most vets. They were A+ as long as you had money to spend. I took my other dog, who was having the eye problem, to another vet, wrote out a check and hoped a friend would lend me the money to cover it. Fortunately, someone I knew did. And luckily, my dog's eye condition is not serious and it is a normal thing a dog of her breed is common to have as they get older. Very fortunate for Van Loon that the eye condition was not a bad one.