Grand Animal Hospital

We visited Grand Animal Hospital located in Pacific Beach a few weeks ago w/Lucy a Bull Mastiff. She has been there several times and has received good care in the past. We scheduled Lucy for a full Wellness Physical Exam as she was experiencing issues going to the bathroom at night inside the house. We wanted to get her checked out medically before we did any behavior training. We brought a urine sample w/us for Lucy’s appointment and asked if they would run some lab tests to see if she had any urinary tract issues that would cause her to have problems prompting her to go to the bathroom at night inside the house. Lucy received an exam from Dr. Mary Ceccolini which we noticed was very “Hands Off” and minimal at best. Dr. Ceccolini had not reviewed her file before the exam so we had to advise her of a few details regarding Lucy’s previous medical history. The doctor left the exam to go review Lucy’s file. Upon her return, she continued the physical exam at a distance. Dr. Ceccolini had seen Lucy in the past and was familiar w/her so we were taken aback from her lack of attention to detail during the exam. The staff did not communicate well w/one another, as the urine sample we brought in and relayed to the person who checked Lucy in for her exam was not relayed to the other staff members. After the exam, we were told we needed to gather a urine sample for labs and that Lucy’s issues seemed to be behavior and we should check out some professional trainers. The staff finally located the urine sample we provided at check in and we were told that lab tests would be conducted and we would be contacted w/the results. We were charged over nearly $400 for the visit and the labs which came back clear. A few days later, Lucy had blood in her urine so we took her to Governor Animal Clinic to another Veterinarian; Dr. Allen who conducted a detailed examination and noticed some swollen areas around Lucy’s ******. After some lab tests and another $400, Lucy had a Vaginal E Coli Infection that had been growing awhile and undetected by Dr. Ceccolini and Grand Animal Hospital. In addition, she had a Urinary Tract Infection which caused the blood in the urine. We are thankful that we took Lucy to another Vet and had her checked out before pursuing behavior training. She could have suffered quite a lot by missing that diagnosis. In addition, some folks may have not simply given the dog away instead of investing in additional training. We contacted Grand Animal Hospital and let them know that Lucy had a Vaginal Infection and that it was missed due to a poor and inadequate physical exam. The staff explained that they have low income family patients and can not afford to spend the time necessary on detailed exams. We explained that there would be several folks that would potentially just give the dog away with a false medical screening evaluation thinking the bathroom issues were a lot more complicated and due to behavior changes. It is just too sad to think that potentially some dogs are given up due to a lack of attention to detail during physical exams. The good news is that Lucy has recovered completely and she does not have any more bathroom issues. She is a Great Dog and we are happy she is well! Many Thanks to Governor Animal Clinic, Dr. Allen and the staff up in University City.

Have been going here for years and can't say enough good things about them.  Dr. Scoggin and her crew are the best.  Always very caring and professional.  I also think that compared to other vets, they are relatively reasonable.
The only downside is that they have become so popular that sometimes its hard to get an appointment right away.  They are still my first choice of vet in town.

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We took our cat Harley to Dr. Scoggin after we had already gone in for surgery at Veterinary Animal Hospital in Sorrento Valley because we had an accident after regular hours of our vet Dr. Scoggin. Of course we had to pay an outrageous amount to VAH which was very sad. When we took Harley into Dr. Scoggin she told us the surgery we had did save his life however all of his skin around the surgical area was dying and he would dye of infection if we did not remove it. Dr. Scoggin performed a surgery that was really just unbelievable because the area was so large. After several months of antibiotics and months of staples and weekly visits he finally survived and is living an amazing life. You would think that this would have cost $1000's It did not!! It was around $500 to $700 total for all of those visits and meds and staples and surgery. She did not rob us in our time of extreme sadness and duress. She is kind, incredibly smart and a talented surgeon. Her office is always extremely busy she is that good! We live in Carmel Valley and we travel to Pacific Beach for this Gem that is hiding.

Grand Animal Hospital provides excellent quality service for a competitive and reasonable price. I was terribly worried about having my twelve year old Baby go under general anesthesia, and they were very respectful of this, treated Baby thoughtfully, did not move too fast or move towards her head quickly, realizing that a blind cat will be very skittish with that sort of thing (she actually has a bit of peripheral vision, which makes things worse in that she can detect motion coming towards her, but in a hospital setting would not know the source.) I couldn't have been happier with the kindness and professionalism of the veterinarian, or with the outcome of Baby's dental cleaning. I have a house full of senior cats, and trust Grand Animal to treat them respectfully and well. They also collect food donations for the peer cats, and do other wonderful things for the community. So if you want to save money and still be assured that your animals will be treated well and competently, then I highly recommend this animal clinic. I was a veterinary technician for many years, so I hone in on things like responsiveness, cleanliness, competence, and customer service. I cannot recommend these people highly enough.

Dr. Scoggin at Grand Animal Hospital is all about what is best for your pet, not what is most profitable. A few years ago I was looking for a new vet and I decided to try Dr. Scoggin because there were so many reviews on the web saying that she really cared about pets, not just making money. Those reviews were dead on. With Dr. Scoggin, I know she’s thinking about my dogs, period. She is not going to do a blood panel or anesthetize the dog unless it’s really necessary. And she is great at diagnosis. If she says it’s a benign tumor, you can bet money the lab tests will confirm it’s a benign tumor, and if she doesn’t know what it is, she will find out. One of my dogs had a skin condition she hadn’t seen before and she called two dermatology specialists for advice.
Dr. Scoggin is very soft-spoken and has a really sweet personality, and you can see she really likes the pets. She asks about everything, what you feed, and how much exercise, how often for baths. Dr. Scoggin is only half the story at the Grand Animal Hospital. She has a huge staff of highly competent animal technicians. These are not just students or part-time workers. Most of them have been with her for many, many years. They have seen it all and can handle most problems on a walk in basis without your having to see Dr. Scoggin. At my previous vet when my poodle was fussing at her backside, the vet said he would have to do the initial anal gland check himself to be sure the glands were not impacted, so that would be $40, but, he said, after that a tech could do it so it would be only $25. At Grand Animal Hospital, anal gland expression is $14, period, whether Dr. Scoggin does it or one of the techs does it on a walk-in. All the techs are perfectly capable of detecting impacted glands and a gazillion other things. Plus they are warm, delightful people. My dogs like them and I like them.
Shots, anal glands, skin check, teeth cleaning, everything is less at Grand, and when it comes to surgery the difference is amazing. One of my dogs recently had three tumors removed and his teeth cleaned, and the total bill was $464. A year ago, one of my dogs had surgery for luxating patella, and the bill was $1600, about a $1000 less than I would have paid anywhere else. I would pay whatever I had to for my dogs’ well being, but it’s so good not to have to choose between their well being and going bankrupt.