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My first experience with U of M Vet Hospital was about seven years ago when my 12-year-old lab mix got sick. A local veterinarian ran tests and long story short, we were told to go home and "enjoy the time you have left with her." The estimate was a few months; if we were really lucky, we might get a year. 
Two days later I was at the U of M. More tests, followed by a diagnosis of pyometra, basically a very serious life threatening infection if not treated ASAP. She was in surgery the next day. She died four years later at the ripe old age of 16. Those were four of the best years I ever had with that sweet girl.  I would have never had them had I taken the advice from the first nimrod. 
Since that time we have seen doctors here for various reasons when our regular vet seems stumped, and we've always been satisfied.
All of this experience, immediate access to a variety of specialists and diagnostics doesn't come cheap of course. Their regular GP exam fee is $90.00. Emergency exam fee is $132, although they now have an urgent care clinic that is open until 2 pm and that's $90. 

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For anything serious or anything that your regular vet wouldn't normally do, go to the U. They are the finest physicians for your pet in the area and I'd guess most of the vets in town went through this school to get where they are. The vet area itself is fairly uninviting, the technicians are often students which is generally okay, the exam rooms are cold/uncomfortable, the process to park your car which requires a piece of paper from the admissions desk isn't that fantastic, and the price is generally more expensive than your normal vet, but the results are typically top notch. I was looking at pre-paying around $2200 for them to get a golf ball out of my dog's stomach and he ended up throwing up the golf ball in pre-op on some morphine (which saved me 2k).
So if it's surgery (other than the common stuff) or immune system issues, I will only go to the U despite the inconveniences.

.Freyja will be on antibiotics for 3 months in the hope that the infection will be Knocked out. She went through a surgery to remove a large growth,( like a cyst that had grown around an awn.) about a year ago. This spring the symptoms start to come back. She wasn't her usual playful self and she had obvious pain when touched in certain areas. I skipped my local vet and went right to the Uof M vet clinic. They were very very easy to deal with and listed to me when I suggested skipping all the preliminary tests that hd been done in the past. (for me it was to save money by not repeating) They found bacterial tracks said they could do surgery again (they didn't do the first) and try to find the source but couldn't be sure. We opted for the long term antibiotics and pain meds. So far so good, Freyja is getting back to her old self and we are praying this will knock it out of her.

A very good experience

This is our second experience with cancer in a Golden Retriever, and with the U of M Veterinary Center. Veterinary diagnosis and treatment WILL be expensive, no matter where you go. Since both of our dogs were so young (one was 7, one not quite 5 years old,) we went all out to get diagnoses, and it was very expensive. Our first dog had osteosarcoma, and we ended up amputating a leg and he lived a happy life until cancer returned a year later at age 7. Our latest Sweetheart was harder to diagnose. Her bloodwork was inconclusive - something was wrong, but there were several things that could account for it.
The veterinarians and vet students were compassionate and communicated well, and clearly gave us information and treatment options as they knew them at the time. The cancer moved quite quickly, and before the tests for the other disease considerations came back, she was already weak and needing another transfusion 3 days after the first one (the cancer was eating up her red blood cells.) At that point it was pretty clear that the most likely diagnosis was cancer. The internal medicine vet conferred with the pathologists, who were looking over her bone marrow samples, and agreed that it had to be cancer. So, sadly, we euthanized her that day, less than a month after her symptoms of lethargy and lack of appetite began.
Since the U is a research institution, they will do an autopsy without charge and share the full results with you. We want them to learn all they can about cancers in Goldens, so we consented, and the results came back as histiocytic sarcoma in her liver and spleen- probably the deadliest cancer in dogs as there is no treatment. It was added confirmation that we did the right thing.
Unless you live close to the St. Paul campus, you may not want to drive that far for "normal" veterinary care; we have a local vet for that. However, if we suspect something out of the ordinary, we'll never go anywhere else again! We tried the emergency vet in Eden Prairie and were unhappy with the care there.

I am pleased to say my dog is still with us, and doing well, 16 months after diagnosis, especially since he was given roughly a year to live. Dr. Stauhammer prescribed slightly different meds than our vet suggested, and I believe this has made all the difference.Dr. Stauthammer is extremely responsive to questions and concerns that I have emailed to him, even answering me once while he was abroad at a conference at which he was speaking!!!It was more expensive to take my dog to the U, but the results speak for themselves...

Surgery was successful, post-surgical medical care was clearly explained, all communications were clear and punctual. Success!

Our 7 year old male cat was not eating and was losing weight. We decided to take him to the U of M ER on a Friday night because he seemed to be deteriorating so fast, and we were afraid to wait until Saturday morning when our regular veterinary clinic would be open. They did some tests and admitted him to the ICU for rehydration. They had us take him home two days later with a feeding tube and said to bring him back the following day for an ultrasound of his abdomen. He was diagnosed with pancreatitis and was given a more permanent feeding tube for us to use to administer a liquid diet for him until he began eating on his own again and seemed to feel better. A few weeks went by and he still would not eat and was still acting sick, so an internal medicine specialist did another ultrasound and found a ureter coming from the kidney, which had been okay at the time of the first ultrasound, was now blocked by a stone. They said the only treatment available was to have surgery to unblock the ureter. We decided to have that done, even though we knew there was only a 50-50 chance the surgery would be successful. The surgery actually was successful, but there had been so much kidney damage prior to the surgery that his kidneys did not recover, and he went into congestive heart failure couple of days later. Since there was now no chance of his recovery, we put him to sleep. This was a very difficult time for us. Our whole lives revolved around our cat and his feedings, medications, and doctors' appointments.We decided to keep trying different treatments, such as the surgery, even though it was extremely expensive, because he was so young and we loved him so much. During the six weeks of his ordeal, the vets at the U were just fantastic. Every one of the students, interns and residents who cared for him treated him so well. He was a very sweet boy and everyone loved him. In addition, we were treated with compassion and respect as well. One particular doctor called me almost every single day to see how our cat was doing and how we were handling the complicated feeding and care he needed and to be sure we always had someone to talk to. It was a very sad summer, and we miss our cat every day. But it wouldn't have been possible to get through everything we had to do, and all the tough decisions we had to make without the kindness, skill and caring of all the staff at the U of M's veterinary medical center. After seeing first hand the skill of the vets at the U of M, we decided to take our 5 year old dog to their department of dermatology to have a skin problem, which caused almost constant itching, assessed. We saw the chief of the dermatology service who discovered our dog had a very rare and difficult to find mite living under his skin. Our dog has now been taking a medication to kill the mites, and is much, much better. He is expected to be just fine once all the mites are gone for good. Once again, I can't say enough good things about the vets in the clinic. The mite my dog was living with would most likely never have been diagnosed without them, and he would have gone on suffering the terrible itching and getting recurrent skin infections from the scratching. Now he rarely scratches and is back to his usual, happy self. I think the U of M Veterinary Medical Center is the best place a pet owner can go if he or she has pets with complex issues. My regular vet is a graduate of the U of M and is always happy to suggest a referral if he thinks it might help.

My description of the services performed tells the story. Overall, the day at the U/Minnesota went badly. Dr. Robles misdiagnosed my dog's problem, including refusing to following the referring veterinarian's instructions. On the one hand, my dog suffered for another 3 months. On the other hand, a supremely competent surgeon did the work. It sends shivers down my spine to think what might have happened if my dog had been operated on in Minnesota. I did complain to the Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. His response treated the matter as a customer relations problem, not a problem with care. More importantly, he sent a form letter which got my dog's name correctly in the first paragraph of the letter and another dog's name in the second paragraph. Apparently, this has happened more than once!

We received a call from the U of MN in August asking what was the problem on our answering machine. They also said oh, sorry we see this is a little late. By this point we had to have the cat put down as the attacks became worse and this was the recommendation as cat are difficult to change behavior when they decide to bite. Two weeks later I received a call from their fundraising group asking for a donation to honor the fabulous care our cat had received. The conversation came to a quick halt when I said no one called us and the cat attack was so severe we had to put the cat down.

In the past couple years my cat ended up w/ care at the U of M vet clinic twice. Once for cardiac issues and the second time for kidney issues. The U is a large place and for some people might take a little getting used to. It is well worth it. My first set of visits for cardiac care helped make up for botched services from another specialist in Eden Prairie. In this case we had a real cardiologist, who, with advice from other cardiologists determined that the Dr in Eden Prairie had made an incorrect diagnosis and had put our cat on a life threatening regimen of drugs. They pulled our cat off the drugs entirely and made the case that healthy living was the best thing for our cat. Indeed, there was no progression of heart issues. In the second set of visits we found out our cat had renal failure. We worked with a wonderful Dr and were able to stall the advance of the illness for an additional 11 months. In that 11 months we worked with a single specialist. That specialist could be contacted at any time via email. (big plus) Our Dr was caring and human. We were able thoroughly discuss all treatment options. Our final hours with our cat were at the U with this Dr and we will remember that goodbye as happening with the greatest dignity and sensitivity possble. Many people think the U veterinary is expensive. Well it can be. But you need to compare apples to apples. On initially visiting the U they will conduct some diagnosis services unavailable at a general practitioner. These tests are often expensive. In terms of long term care I found the U to be less expensive than our general practioner for drugs, supplies, bloodwork, etc. Some of these tests are not so expensive and yet are quite critical. One of those was blood pressure tests. Our cat's normal vet never conducted this test, crucial given his illnesses. Evidently they had the ability to do these tests but never bothered. Not everyone can afford extensive animal care. But, if you can, the U is not out there simply for profit. Some of the vet practices out there seem more interested in the bottom line than your companions health, possibly selling you things you really should not want and then neglecting to help you with truly important things. I will always return to the U whenever we have a critical illness in a companion animal.

Oustanding care! The vets are more concerned with the animal but still are courteous of the owner. They treat my dog with respect and also have dog and cat treats available and also leashes. The vets tech, students and doctors in the office are very kind, empathetic and give exceptional care. They are also kind and gentle to my dog during the exam.

My 6 month old pub was having bowel problems. We'd had her to our vet on a twice-a-month basis and the problem wasn't being resolved so we opted to go to the U of M Vet Clinic. We made the appointment and arrived at the appointed time. The front desk was backed up and slow to check people in. Once we were checked in it wasn't very long before we were greeted by a graduate student who took us to a room. She asked many questions and took diligent notes. She then left the room, telling us the doctor would be there shortly. We waited for what seemed like forever. In reality it was about 15 minutes. The doctor and the Grad Student came in together and we learned that the reason it had been so long was that the grad student was filling the doctor in on why we were there. The doctor examined the dog, asked her own questions and then put the puppy on a medication and a strict RX-based diet and said to come back in a month. I liked the vet because she was direct, to the point, and decisive. My family member who went with me did not care for the vet, saying she had "no social skills."

It was a very difficult time as we ended up letting our dog go.

They are always professional. They are very knowledgable. You get vet students along with doctors, as it is a teaching hospital. Everyone is very nice.

They are very knowledgeable, professional, and friendly. They are so wonderful and easy to work with. I also feel that they are very honest in dealing with you and your animals situation. It is expensive, but they make you aware of the cost ahead of time.

It was a very difficult time, but Dr. Cooper's kind and compassionate demeanor helped us so very much.

The care that I got was outstanding. They were willing to work with my usual vet which was nice. If need be I would use them again. The only issue I had was with their billing process, as they would not bill the trust as I had asked they billed me then I had to be reimbursed, but other than that it was great.

For each next step, I was given extensive information detailing all my options and their short and long-term benefits, as well as the cost. The vet was very understanding of my concerns regarding both cost and quality of life going forward and was able to help me make decisions. She also helped prepare my cat for a quick discharge, as she felt she would thrive better at home rather than in the ICU atmosphere. My cat continues to get healthier every day. This is the Mayo Clinic for pets. These guys are good!

Dr. LaFond is very knowledgeable and very professional. I told her that I did not want to put my dog through surgery at her age and I was wondering if she had alternative suggestions. She did a thorough examination of the dog, took x-rays, and called in a neurology specialist to see if the problem was neurological. She did tell me that surgery would probably have the best results, but she accepted my decision to try to find other ways of dealing with the problem. She told me about the Integrative Medicine department when I asked about acupuncture and she also gave me the name of a man who might be willing to make a brace for her leg. Although she is not the most cuddly vet with the dogs, she treated my dog with caring and compassion and I was impressed with her professionalism.

The wait was VERY LONG. The dog was in for a recurrent condition, but the Vet did not listen to what we had to say, and acted as though this was something new and strange.

The staff was outstanding! They seemed to care more than any other vet I have ever worked with and basically saved my cat's life. They are a bit pricey, but worth every dime. I would definitely recommend them, especially for complicated cases.

We found this clinic to be outstanding for care of our animals once they began to age, due to the availability and quality of their emergency care. The long wait periods (its a triage hospital), changing caregivers (except for long-term casework, such as cancer), and student involvement, and upper price tag are worth the return. (Most clinics have these drawbacks.) The students and vets are all top-notch. We refused the post-surgical chemo for the cancer our dog had. Their dietician worked with us as we chose to make her organic food in her final days. They had an acupuncturist who worked on her for several treatments, which did ease her pain. She lived 7 months longer than predicted. The other dog died unexpectedly in the emergency clinic from a burst tumor, but they allowed us to be by her the whole time and gave us a private room to stay with her in for several hours before we were ready to help her pass on. I will use this clinic again, especially for aging or special needs pets.