VCA Corporate Correspondence

To VCA Client Relations,

I am a client of over a decade. My dog Herb was admitted to VCA Emergency Animal Hospital & Referral Center in San Diego on March 11, 2026. He walked in, eating and alert. Forty-eight hours later, he was discharged for at-home euthanasia — with new internal bleeding, a painful abdomen, and dried vomit on his catheter line.

The attached letter details the specific failures that occurred during his stay, including a breakdown in records transfer between your ER and Internal Medicine departments, the failure of Dr. Daniel Cahn to contact Herb's primary care veterinarian, ignored dietary instructions, unsanitary catheter conditions, and a complete absence of urgency for a critically ill patient.

I have also filed a complaint with the California Veterinary Medical Board.

I expect a substantive response. The full complaint is attached.

Rebecca,

Thank you for your message.

On Friday (3/27), I received a call from Melissa Daniels at VCA Mission Valley. While I appreciated the opportunity to share my concerns, the call did not resolve them.

I want to clarify: is VCA Corporate conducting the investigation you described, or has this been handed off to VCA Mission Valley to address internally?

If the hospital that is the subject of my complaint is also responsible for investigating it, I would have serious concerns about the independence of that process.

Please let me know.

Rebecca,

Thank you for the clarification. I am requesting that my case be reviewed by VCA corporate and, separately, the regional leadership team, not VCA Mission Valley.

My call with Melissa Daniels on Friday made clear that the hospital is not equipped to objectively review its own conduct. To give just one example: when discussing the vet tech who failed to send Herb's complete medical records to Internal Medicine, I was told she had been "spoken to about this" — but also that "no one is at fault."

Those statements are contradictory. If no one is at fault, there is nothing to speak to anyone about. If there was something to address, then someone bears responsibility.

This was one of several concerns I raised. The hospital's response to this one illustrates why I do not have confidence in an internal review process.

I also want to understand VCA Corporate's role going forward. Your original message indicated that my case would be escalated to your leadership team for a formal review. Is corporate conducting or overseeing that review, or has this been handed off entirely to regional leadership? I want to understand who is accountable for ensuring this complaint is taken seriously.

Please confirm the review process and let me know the timeline and next steps.

Jennie,

Thank you for this update. I appreciate the thoroughness of the review and Dr. Reinert's involvement.

I am open to a call with Dr. Reinert to discuss the clinical findings. However, please provide the written summary of the case review — including the specific findings, action items already implemented, and those planned for the future — in advance of the call. I would also like the summary to address what informed the decision that Herb could not be helped. On March 13, Dr. Mazariegos told us that keeping Herb a third night would be a "hail mary." I want to understand what was and was not attempted, and what options, if any, were considered and declined. I want to be able to review these findings carefully before we discuss them, rather than processing them for the first time during a phone conversation.

I want to be transparent about where I stand. My conversation with Melissa last Friday did not increase my confidence that VCA is treating this with the seriousness it requires. I will share two examples, though they are not the only ones from that call.

Example 1. I was told that Dr. Cahn did not have Herb's records because of a file attachment issue when a tech attempted to upload them, and that "no one was at fault." A PDF failing to upload may explain why the records weren't in the system. It does not explain why Dr. Cahn, an internist taking over a critically ill patient, did not obtain those records through any other means, by asking the ER team that had them twelve hours earlier, by walking down the hall, or by calling Herb's primary care vet directly. Blaming a technical glitch while absolving every person who failed to catch it is not accountability. I communicated this to Melissa directly during our call.

Example 2. I was also told that the technician who responded to my concerns about dried vomit and feces on Herb's catheter line by saying "we are really slammed" and "we can only deal with what is in front of us", was "spoken to" about how to communicate with clients. That mischaracterizes the problem entirely. The issue was not what the tech said to me. The issue was that a severely thrombocytopenic patient had dried biological material on his IV catheter site and line, a sanitary and infection control failure. Reframing it as a communication issue is exactly the kind of response that tells me VCA is managing my complaint rather than addressing what happened to Herb. I communicated this to Melissa as well.

I raise these examples not to relitigate the conversation with Melissa, but so that Dr. Reinert's review is conducted with the understanding that surface-level explanations will not be acceptable.

Regarding the billing: as I communicated to Melissa, I am requesting a full reimbursement for Herb's hospitalization. Herb entered your facility walking, eating, and alert. He was discharged 48 hours later for at-home euthanasia with new internal bleeding, abdominal pain, and a body that was shutting down, conditions that developed while under your care. A partial adjustment does not reflect the reality of what happened.

Please let me know the timeline for when I can expect the written summary, and we can schedule the call from there.

Rebecca,

Forwarding my April 9 correspondence to Dr. Reinert and Ms. Martin, which has gone unanswered for two weeks.

Dr. Reinert's written review already acknowledged failures in records transfer, dietary compliance, catheter sanitation, and communication.

Please confirm who at the regional or corporate level will conduct the independent review I requested — not a referral back to hospital leadership.

Please provide a timeline and identify who is responsible for next steps.

Rebecca,

I'm writing to follow up on our correspondence, which appears to have gone quiet on the corporate side.

When I raised my complaint with VCA Corporate, I was explicit about one concern in particular: that the review of what happened during Herb's hospitalization not be delegated entirely to the hospital or regional level, the same level where the failures occurred. You acknowledged that concern at the time.

Since then, Dr. Reinert at the regional level became my sole point of contact. She has now closed her end of the correspondence, reiterating a partial reimbursement offer I have already declined. Corporate, both you and Jennie, went silent during that period.

I want to document clearly that my complaint to VCA Corporate has not been resolved. It was redirected. The independent corporate-level review I requested does not appear to have taken place, and the outcome I flagged concerns about, complaints being fully absorbed into regional handling, has exactly happened.

Please confirm the status of my complaint at the corporate level and whether an independent review has been conducted or is planned.