Calgary North Veterinary Hospital & Emergency Servic

I am very grateful for the 24 vet at 2 am when my dog was bleeding heavily from a wound.
I thought she was going to die in my bfs arms there was so much blood. They got her in immediately and managed to stop the flow. By this time it’s 3 am and no surgeon on til 830 am so they offered to hold my dog for the rest of the night til I could figure out if my regular vet can fit her in ASAP in the morning or if not their surgeon will take care of it.
Only slightly higher price than my regular veterinarian and they didn’t charge any emergency fees or crazy extras.
The vet and the techs were all very nice, professional, and I felt that I had everything explained to me.
given the choice of emergency 24 hr vets in the area this one is pretty decent overall.

If you have birds, go elsewhere. My avian vet recomends Western Veterinary if our regular clinic is closed.
We’ve taken our cockateil here twice for broken blood feathers.
The first time the vet tech took care of everything. The vet came in the room later looking confused and not like he had a clue of what was going on.
The second time they CLEARLY took advantage of us and the vet had NO IDEA what to do with a bird. This time cost double the first visit. The vet made us HOLD our cockateil while she worked on him (not good for your bond with your bird). We were charged $ 50 for her to put a little peroxide on a pad and wipe off his wing and she couldn’t for the life of her grip the feather to pull it. Horrible experiene for both us and the poor little guy. The first time we were given meds and he’d been given oxygen and the bill was much less. The second time we were charged more to do half the work for the vet. I’m not convinced either vet knew how to work with birds. I think they know we will pay because we don’t want our little guy to die.
I also had a friend who’s budgie died shortly after similar treatment. They had OD’d him on the medicine they gave him. They even told her IN THE CLINIC that they may have OD’d him (before he died).
If you have a bird, go FIRST to Calgary Avian and Exotics. But if it is an emergency and they are closed, go to Western Veterinary.

Expensive meds. My regular vet is an hour north of Calgary but they had a power outage on the Saturday of a long weekend so I was not able to get a refill on a rx for our cat. My vet faxed in a rx to CNET and when I picked up the meds it was 50% MORE than I usually pay. I expected that there would be a bit of an I crease but not 50%!

We were automatically forwarded to this 24h vet hospital when we phoned our own vet after hours. They were somewhat confused that we didn’t know who they were or where they were located. Once we got there and admitted our cat, the vet was fine, and we got our procedures and meds in due course. On checkout, the receptionist asked if we had the cat. We were like «uh…no, we hope you do!». The bill was presented and we were asked to pay without anyone showing us the bill, then when we got an itemized version, we actively had to ask the technician to explain what was what. When we explained that we hadn’t spoken to the vet yet after the procedures, they apologized and started to understand our dismay. It was probably a little pricey, but I understand that manning a clinic ²⁴⁄₇ with all that staff costs $$$. As I said, the emergency vet was fine, but it would seem the front line staff need to be better organized and more customer oriented.

This is the worst clinic in town. Definatly not about the animals or clients that n ring there loved ones there in a time of crisis. I brought my dog there and found out she had pyometra. Was told that they could do an operation but wanted the money for it first. As I didn’t have the 5000 on me I told them to do the operation and I would have the money by friday I even was going to leave money there. They told me they needed it all. And the only thing they wrre willing to do was kill her. They told me that her stomach was anout to explode so I did the hardest thing ever and let her go. if ever I have another pet this place will be the last place I would bring my pet. no to be kniw as yhe clinic of death!!!

Unfortunately for me we’ve had to have a couple more emergency visits into Calgary North since my last review.
My biggest issue as I described below the business aspect of the clinic. However, I must say the last couple trips are a bit more reasonable and to my expectation on that front. Yes, the last trips in were much less urgent and life threatening than the one I previously reviewed — and maybe that was the justification to truncate the billing for me and making so many financial assumptions. The last visits were much more of a discussion and negotiation.
The last two bills included anything consumable or time consuming but I think there were a few things they had every right to charge for but I didn’t see appear on my bill. All and all, the bad taste has lessened a bit. It’s expensive to walk in as an emergency on the off hours but they were even billing as a follow up visit because it was the same issue but didn’t charge for the emergency nature which was pleasing to my credit card.

BEWARE! Decide BEFORE you go in, just how much you are willing to spend on your animal. I brought my dog here because she was struggling to breath. They ran a couple of tests that were inconclusive, then recommended a couple more tests. They kept her for 3 days and at no point suggested it might be time to make a tough decision. The clinic vets finally diagnosed her with a terminal heart condition and the final bill including the emergency late night visit was $ 3200 with $ 300 per month in medication. We were told she only had months to live.
The vets also recommended we purchase their Medi-​Cal (Royal Cannin)‘very special high end ultra super awesome dog food’ (which by the way, is only sold through vet clinics, at an outrageous price and has meat-​meal listed as the first ingredient.) Anyone have any idea what kind of an animal meat-​meal is? Would you order that on a menu? I found it suspiciously vague stuff. Costco sells cans of Pedigree dog food that is so much less expensive and in bulk.
The clinic does not accept American Express. I was told maybe I should ask friends and family if I could borrow the money. Wow. The nerve!
They gave me no refills for the medication so every time I ran out, I had to phone the clinic and explain that my dog has a terminal illness but needs more medication. They urged me to bring my dog in for an $ 85 check up every month. I had to explain every time, that she is terminal and there was no way I was going to pay to bring her in for another consult.
They would refill the prescriptions with hesitation. Always a hassle.
When the time came for me to put our dog down, it was a Sunday. There doesn’t seem to be any vets that are open on Sundays besides the Calgary North Emerg. Clinic. I went back there because I had no choice. Any vets out there looking for a good gig on Sundays?
I made an appointment so they could get us into the special room in the back of the clinic (the room has a close by rear exit, so you don’t have to have everyone in the waiting room see you leave there a sobbing, sloppy mess). You also pay ahead of the procedure, in the same room with a portable credit card machine.
Again BEWARE! They try to up-​sell. I didn’t want any mementos, paw prints, hair clippings, ashes… Anything. The cost of euthanasia depends on the weight of the dog. Mine was a small weimaraner (22 lbs).
Cost of Euthanasia $ 126.08
Cost of Cremation $ 129.58
Total: $ 268.44
I refused a consult with the veterinarian which would have cost an additional $ 85.
I do have to say the staff was very thoughtful, kind, and sensitive when I had to put her down. They reassured me that it was the hardest but most unselfish thing I could do. They had lots of kleenex available for me and the vet even gave me a hug. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.
I post the amounts paid not because I am cheap, but because people need to know just how expensive an animal can be. Especially if they get sick. Pet stores don’t push this enough and vets don’t advertise their pricing.
After doing some research on the internet, I see other previous customers stating that this clinic pays their vets a commission. That would explain why he didn’t suggest we just put her down initially. Hmmm…

This Is The Worst Vet Clinic in Calgary. They are scam artists and care nothing for pets or pet owners.
I brough my cat in for an exam after I noticed some troubling signs. I called my now Former regular vet and being unable to get an appointment she reffered me to this clinic.
The vet walked in and looked at my Cat for 2 minutes. «- Bad news, he has a blocked bladder, he will need a procedure that will cost you 2,500 $ to 4,000 $ or we have to put him down tonight.» After being explained that more likely he will be on the high end I asked her to leave the room so I could have some time to think on it.
I love my Cat but 4,000 $ is more than I can afford; that being an estimate it could easily run higher.
Heart broken and almost certain I was going to see my best friend die the voice of reason spoke to me ‚ — «get a second estimate» I called another vet hospital and got a quote of 800 $ to 1,300 $. — I asked if we were talking about the same thing being skeptical of such a disparity in cost.
My cat is now @ The fish creek 24 hour pet clinic. Treated for less than 1,000 $ and the clinic staffed by saints.
Avoid theese greedy bastards at all cost, they see ATMs not pet owners.

Before you read my review, don’t get me wrong, I would spend every penny of my money if my dog needed it. I am pro-​preventitive health and always spend what it takes, however, this clinic seems to try and take advantage of people.
Without going into too many details, our dog needed to go in because he was showing some specific symptoms. After 3 hours, and being suggested to do blood-​work, and x-​rays, the bill finally came. Now, I know vet bills are never cheap, but there were items on the bill that were not agreed to, such as a urine analysis. They did extra x-​rays, and we left with a diagnosis of «rest him for a week, he’ll be fine». First off, we paid the 800+, even though the original quote was 550(ish), and weren’t informed of the extra charges until the very end.
Well, within a few weeks of no improvement, we took him to a different vet, to find out the original vet had missed the very clear diagnosis, and the bill would have been a fraction of what we had already paid, and only 1 x-​ray was needed, not to mention no need for blood work and other things.
They also tried to take advantage of us in 2009, and I have heard several other testimonies that they have racked up bills, mislead customers, and 2 other similar situations to ours.
Would never take my dog there again, unless it was an emergency.