Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital

The new Oncology/Genetics Center

The Vet Med Teaching Hospital is a research facility and shares UC Davis' mission of public service to the State of California. The hospital offers a full range of services whether your creature is great or small, large or exotic, and they're essentially open 24hrs/day, 365 days a year [appointments during regular hours preferred]. As a teaching hospital, many procedures may be performed by veterinary students under the supervision of a licensed veterinarian. Oftentimes, a private practice vet will refer clients to the VMTH for a second opinion or more in-depth treatment. This is also the only place on campus where you can see llamas!

Ask Now is a free service from the Health Sciences Libraries of UC Davis. We can help you locate print and electronic information about human and animal health.

Small Animals

Patient entrance to VMTH (Small Animal side) Small animal services cover most domestic pets such as cats, dogs, rats, birds, etc. After hours visits start at $190 for general emergencies (dogs and cats) and for specialty services (exotics/birds, neurology, dentistry, ophthalmology, etc.) to walk in the door (exam fee only); dog spaying/neutering is $100 (except for giant breeds) and is done on Wednesday/Thursday with a Tuesday intake [August 2006]. If you bring in an exotic pet (i.e. not a cat or dog) it is general policy at the VMTH for the veterinarian to perform the physical exam in a separate treatment area without the owner present. Regardless of the policy, many exotic pet owners have been allowed to be present in the exam.

Micro-chipping is $45 plus an office visit as of 4/2011.

The center accepts injured wild birds and will rehabilitate them if that is possible.

The Veterinary Blood Bank exists within the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital and are always looking for canine blood donors. More information cab be found at: http://www.facebook.com/UCDavisVeterinaryBloodBank and http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vmth/small_animal/transfusion/default.cfm

Large Animals

Large animals services cover sea lions, tigers, bears and livestock. Field service is available for horses, but no other livestock. The VMTH operates a volunteer large animal rescue team composed of hospital faculty, staff and residents. Scenarios in which the LART may be called include air evacuation, overturned trailer extrications and trapped/stranded animals.

History

Sue from the Child Development Class of 1972 recollects:

When I was a Junior, the Vet Hospital was finished. It stood way out in the field with nothing around it. One of my friends organized a group of people who liked animals and we became the "Vet Maids". We were kind of like Candy Stripers, except we worked with animals. We made our own outfits and we even had official name tags that we pinned on. I still have mine.

Anyway, the first challenge was to get out there. It was a long ride. I remember riding by the cows and was really glad that I hadn't lived in Tercero.

We did many things as Vet Maids including: helping the Vets and students with physicals, walking the animals, and doing water therapy with the dogs. Our most frequent job was to give tours of the hospital. It was a lot of fun and the visitors were very impressed with the hospital. One of the biggest surprises for all of us was when we would go into the small animal wards. You never knew what you might find. The hospital took care of animals from the zoo in Sacramento, so you might see all different kinds of monkeys, birds, and other small animals ( along with the cats and dogs). I volunteered at the hospital at least twice a week for two years.

My experience has special meaning for me now because my daughter will soon be starting her last year of Vet School. That Vet Hospital which was way out in the "boonies" is now a huge complex of buildings.

2005-11-05 21:26:14   does field service mean they will come to you for vet needs? —MichelleAccurso

2005-11-06 09:25:49   I'm hardly the authority, but I'd assume Field Service means if you have a cow or horse which is sick that they can come and see it without having to —SteveDavison

2005-11-06 11:06:36   ha ha ha, i had to fix that link Steve, nice pocture, funny thing is my dog is about that size! —MichelleAccurso

2005-12-06 09:12:31   Yep, they have a Field Service. They're not very timely, though, as it took them almost an HOUR to drive across the street to the UC Davis Equestrian Center to help a horse with a broken leg... —StaceyGalbreath

2005-12-09 04:31:13   field service takes a while (especially if called on emergency) because they have to drive from their homes and the doctor and vet student have to meet up at the VMTH before heading over. They only see horses, no other livestock. —MegHobbs

2006-04-10 15:37:20   I can't thank the vet hospital enough. When my cat was very sick, they not only took excellent care of him and fixed the problem, but also worked with us to keep costs low and arrange payment (we were college students at the time). The doctor was willing to explore alternative arrangements to using expensive diagnostic tools (scans, extensive bloodwork, etc) in lieu of effective but less expensive options. I could not have been more impressed, and though those were some scary times in the waiting room, the vets made sure we knew what was going on, and made sure all of our questions were answered. They were also REALLY sweet to the animals. He was so comfortable with them, he let them insert a catheter without needed to be sedated...and if you have EVER tried to do something that uncomfortable to a cat before, you know that isn't easy. I can't say enough how wonderful they were. —AmandaCaudle

2006-08-21 12:03:13   i will never go here again. they have a horrible policy where they don't allow owners to be present for the exams; i found this out AT THE APPOINTMENT. the vet, dr. malka, is lacking in both demeanor and knowlege. he suggested ASTROTURF as guinea pig bedding! they then whisked my animals away to an unspecified location and left me sitting in a perfectly good exam room because it was a "teaching hospital." they left me in there ALONE, too, i might add. i asked several times to be present and was denied. they took them away knowing how uncomfortable i was about it. this was not some wonky procedure, this was a STANDARD PHYSICAL EXAM (when i asked them what they were going to do, because i was thrown by the astroturf suggestion, they refused to give me details).

• For clarification, she didn't just leave for no reason and start knocking on doors — after she waited in the room for a while for word of whether they resolved the couldn't-tell-the-pigs-apart problem, she called me for advice on her cell phone. I asked one of my co-workers who is a guinea pig enthusiast (and whose wife is a vet tech), and he was absolutely appauled by the situation and strongly recommended getting the guinea pigs out of the appointment immediately. I agreed and relayed the advice on to AnsateJones, and this is why she left the room to try to find out what was going on. —PenguiN42

2006-08-23 18:28:38   followup: i have talked with dr. hawkins, who runs the exotics division, and she said it was general policy. i am reverting the wiki. you can call her if you like, but she is so rude and dismissive she brought me to tears, and from what i can tell she does not give a damn about your experience at vmth or the misbehavior of the veterinarians. good luck if you ever have a problem here, but don't say i didn't warn you. —AnsateJones

2006-08-31 10:34:40   It's always unfortunate to hear about bad experiences at a hospital. Hopefully anyone who has such an experience is able to discuss it with the parties involved, since (in my experience) it usually comes down to an issue of miscommunication. A Note was added recently to the main section of this page about the exotics service's physical exam policy that seemed a bit too targeted; it was really more of a comment than general info (it focused on one service, named one person, did not provide background info on what a physical exam is, ...) — normally the top section of the page is for general information, and anyone who is interested in specific experiences can read the numerous comments, which cover that particular issue extensively. —DennisBallance

2007-01-24 22:15:05   I would like to comment that I understand that the person seeing Dr. Malka felt they were not well treated but I think this posting does a disservice to the Small Animal Clinic to leave the posting with countering that Dr. Malka treated me very well and respectfully during the recent visit with our family pet. I am not a member of the hospital nor had I ever met the Dr. before today. It is legitmate to complain about lack of communication during a visit but I wanted everyone to know I did not mind the exam occuring without my presence and the Dr. appeared to be very helpful and respectful in his discussions of the exam results. Thanks. —LynnePaulson

2007-05-29 21:59:52   I have had many visits to VetMed and while it is not the full service type place you might find in the private practice, I have had the best care of my pets imaginable. I am an experienced pet lover and have seen that my animals were in good care at the hospital. They are teaching and they don't necessarily all have great bedside manners. They also might scare you with the costs and suggest going somewhere cheaper. If you can swing it, just pay the money. It is well worth the price because your pet will come out well cared for and happy. My cat is never freaked out there; I hear that they keep the dogs and cats seperate which is sure to be a help, but also these are people who really, really LOVE animals. Like me, that doesn't mean they are very friendly to people, but see how they interact with your animal. Isn't that the client anyway? —DavisGirl

2007-08-19 22:23:11   Vet students, remember that you get a stipend each year. Use it! —atwong

2008-01-02 09:51:15   I used VMTH field services when I first got to Davis (from New England). Both of my horses had an allergic reaction and their eyes swelled shut. Dr. Sharon Spier and two students came out to treat my horses. I called in an "emergency" (I didn't make an appointment ahead of time) and they showed up in about an hour to an hour and a half (I though it seemed reasonable). They were wonderful. Very caring and informative! I also ended up taking one of my horses to the clinic because he had an indolent corneal ulcer. My only complaint was that to make an appointment with opthalmology, I had to wait at least 1-2 weeks! I met with Dr. Eaton one two occasions. He was very professional and informative. Overall, my experiences with UC Davis have been wonderful! Highly recommended! —jglovicz

2008-02-03 16:40:59   The stipend is not included as part of the vet student's tuition (by the way the student loans for the 4 years is way over $100,000.00 - close to $150k). The discount is just that - a discount. After the discounts have met a certain amount, you just don't get the discount anymore until the following year. I hope that more people will put positive things on here about their visits to the VMTH with their animals. It is a very busy place, but you do have all the experts in the field working together for you. —KatHa

2008-04-14 17:04:50   The bad comments probably come from emotional people. Just like the towing companies on here. Of course no one will put anything good...they tow your car. And theres nothing wrong with being emotional about it. I would be too. But sometimes its hard for any employee anywhere to get along or get through to an overly emotional person in a rational way. I've been there several times and had perfectly acceptable experiences. Go Chrissy! —patrick82

2008-12-11 09:01:49   So, honestly, this hospital is very knowledgable about cats and dogs. When my regular doctor at the cat clinic was having trouble diagnosing my kitty, I took him here, and they figured it out within a day. Turns out he had a rare skin disease, and guess what? The treatment has been working great ever since and my cat is doing just great. And that makes me very happy because he is my best friend. If you want your cat or dog to have the most current treatments and the best care, then I think this hospital is a wonderful resource! HOWEVER, I have a blue-tongued skink (lizard), and he hadn't been doing so well for about a month, but I had had him for 7 years, and he had always been healthy and happy. Anyways, I took him in, and told the doctor what was going on, as well as the fact that I felt he had an infection, and the doctor offered x-rays and bloodwork, which is extremely expensive. All the while, he was NOT sympathetic. The exotic animal vet Dr. Stockman is knowledgeable I'm sure, but I felt like he was only concerned about the money he could milk me for, and not my pet. He also made me feel like it was my fault my lizard was sick, when I have been caring for reptiles my entire life! I know how to handle reptiles. Plus, when I showed indecision about whether or not x-rays were necessary, he was not very sympathetic at all. He could hardly even offer me a prognosis, which makes me mad because at least I'd want to know if it would be worthwhile to spend the money on the poor thing at all. I just felt like overall he didn't care about how I felt about my sick lizard or about how my sick lizard felt either. I would have asked for another doctor were it not for the fact that he is the specialist for exotic animals. I don't recommend his services unless it's absolutely necessary. —Miller

2008-12-30 17:17:28   I previously left a comment about Dr. Stockman that I look back upon and I think that I was a little harsh. When we had done everything that could be done for my sick lizard, and he had to be put down, I feel like he was much more sympathetic than previously. The staff even sent me a little plaque with my lizard's feetprints and all the doctor and tech condolences on it. Looking back upon the experience, I WOULD recommend Dr. Stockman, even though I spoke a little harshly about him before. This hospital is the best option for getting your pet the best care, although it is expensive. —Miller

2009-07-14 13:33:40   Dr. Sinclair recently saw my ferret. She's extremely knowledgeable and the best ferret vet that I've met. I was a little hesitant to try a ferret vet here as this page says that exotics are usually examined in a different room, but she did everything in the exam room while I was present. At the end of the day, when my very old ferret needed to be euthanized, she respected my wishes to be present for that as well. About a week later, I received a nice little plaque with my ferret's pawprints, as well as a sympathy card. I've worked in the veterinary field in the past and I'm very impressed with the little extras that this hospital pays attention to, especially with the high volume of clients that they have — It would be easy to just render services and ring people up and call it a day. I'm very glad to have met Dr. Sinclair, and I highly recommend her as a ferret vet. —MichellePalmer

2009-12-11 10:49:22   A month and a half ago Dr. Sinclair saw my pet rat on an emergency notice. My poor girl's leg was swollen up. Dr. Sinclair was patient and extremely kind when she explained what was wrong with Psyche. She told me every possible outcome in detail (such as taking a biopsy after amputating the leg) and her chances of extending her life. Psyche was only taken from me to do the radiograph so that is understandable. The outcome for my little girl ended up being euthanasia. I wanted a camera to get some last minute photos but no one could get one to me so Dr. Sinclair offered use of the VMTH's client camera and took seven pictures of Psyche and some with her and me. I was very appreciative of this kind gesture. If you have a rodent I highly advice taking them to Dr. Sinclair. She owns rats herself and it is obvious she knows what she's doing. —KiA

2010-02-02 22:42:09   I am very disappointed in the VMTH. I assumed that attention to detail would be high here, but it is not. I brought my cat into emergency because he was blocked. Before they'd look at him they took my credit card, meanwhile my cat is crying out in pain. After awhile they took him away and I couldn't go with, but they said if he was stable they'd bring him right back. 45 minutes later the doctor comes to talk to me, and he was stable the whole time, but they left me alone there the whole time and didn't tell me what was going on. Then before they would treat him, they made me sign an estimate of $1500. If it hadn't been a Sunday, I could have had the same help, faster at Acorn for about $300. At discharge they gave me a lengthy summary full of information, which was great, but more than half of the time they referred to a cat named Domino. Well, I was told that he was there the same time as my cat Dante, and they were both orange tabys, and so they got the names confused when writing the report. I'm a scientist and the number one rule I teach my UNDERGRADS is that if you label a tube wrong, you can't go back the next day and be sure you know what sample is what, you have to throw out that data. They aren't dealing with samples, they are dealing with loved ones and at their level should not be making such serious mistakes. They also repeatedly gave me the wrong needles for SQ fluids and caused my poor cat a great deal of stress having to sit still with a needle in him for 25-30 minutes at a time. They couldn't understand that a 22 gauge needle wasn't going to work well, or that an 18 gauge needle with a 5 micron filter was going to help either. All I can say is, get copies of your animals records and look for inconsitancies. I also found out looking at the records that they placed his catheter incorrectly and it had to be removed prematurely or else risk damaging the bladder. The trade off was that it made him more likely to block again. Thankfully he didn't, but no thanks to the people on his case. Go to Woodland if you can for emergencies. —alannaaf

2010-04-29 17:56:10   Just took my cat in for a check up. It was her first visit to the vet and she was NOT happy about it. I barely waited five minutes before the vet assistant took us to a room. After answering a question or two, she went off to get the vet med student. He arrived very quickly and was receptive to all of my concerns (mainly that my cat does not like strange men!). He asked me a laundry list of questions and addressed any concerns I had with my cat's health at that time. When he examined my cat he was gentile, calm, and went as quickly as possible. After the initial exam, the assistant and med student left for a short period of time and came back with the doctor, Dr. Hahn. She was just as kind, clear, and calm as everyone else. While they did suggest getting her micro-chipped and buying heart worm medication, they offered to show me the prices of the different medication options and did not persist after I declined the micro-chip. I think the entire exam was an hour and a half at most. They checked her eyes, gave her a full exam, weighed her, and gave her two vaccinations. It cost me $116 for the exam AND the heart worm meds(don't let the $190 estimate for "after-hours visits" in the body paragraph of this page scare you!). They made this stressful first visit easy on my cat and on me! I highly recommend taking full advantage of having this great service in Davis. —MeganH

2010-05-30 18:01:27   This place and Dr. Barbero saved my dog's life. My 4 year old standard poodle had an internal stomach perforation (it wasn't looking good for him) - they were honest and upfront (50% that he'd even survive the surgery). Well, thank God he did. They took beautiful care of him. I was able to see him the next day and the intern who brought him in was so nice and sweet. The surgeon (Dr. Barbero) came out and talked to us about him and sat down with my Dad and I and explained exactly what had happened and answered every single question we had. They kept us informed literally every few hours and we were able to call anytime and get an update. When we brought Bode back to get his staples removed 10 days later, everyone there was excited to see him and remembered him by name =). They talked about what a great dog he was and how they really liked him. How can you even top that experience? We even got the bill, it was half of what we thought it would be, no markups on medications or supplies. Thank you! —ElizabethKelly

2010-07-28 08:08:28   Honestly, I had a pretty bad experience here with my rabbit. I was referred by my regular vet from San Francisco. We got there by 10 or 11 am. The med student took all of our info and then our rabbit. We were not allowed in the room for the exam. We waited for a few hours (yes HOURS) for them to let us know what was going on. I knew the issue was very serious, otherwise my regular vet would have treated her. We then waited for a specialist and x-rays and blood work.

2010-08-30 09:53:14   I'll get straight to the point: if your companion animal needs a dental extraction, only come here if you want the wrong teeth extracted. Yes, the WRONG TEETH. Even with an $800 CT scan and documentation from our regular vet. —AsmaMaryamMohseni

2010-09-19 13:32:43   I took a rabbit that I adopted here on an emergency. It turns out he had liver torsion and it already bled alot. We had to have him euthanized since his chances of survival in surgery was very low. Dr. Stockman was very nice and kept us updated on his condition before and did a necropsy on him. He also called us so we could come and see him before he was gone. I recommend him for rabbits because of the good care he gave my other rabbit before and the care he put into this one. —ElaineJeu

2011-03-29 14:01:48   I brought in my Brazilian Rainbow Boa to see the vet here. I really love my snakes and was terrified that my baby had a Respiratory infections from the stress of moving him from Santa Cruz to Davis. We saw both Dr. Guzman and Sokoloff and they were so kind and warm. My snake had a little bit of a wheeze and did not eat the last time I offered him food. They said that he seemed perfectly healthy to them but they could do blood work, a throat culture, and an ultrasound to see if there was something more serious.

2011-04-30 20:02:55   My bunnies had their yearly exam recently. Dr. Sinclair and another vet (whose name I cannot remember) were very good to my bunnies. Even my skittish boy was very calm while Dr. Sinclair handled him. I'll be back next year for their exam again. —ElaineJeu

2011-06-01 11:00:53   No idea who the doctor was that came to the front desk to pick up my lil' injured-via-cat blue jay chick was, but he had an excellent bedside manner. —Angel.York

2016-03-26 16:55:02   An extraordinary experience, far surpassing any expectation I had when I brought my sick cat Jennifer in for an oncology consult. I met with Dr. Fabrice Fosset and vet student Cassandra Shoup, who were so gentle and compassionate with my cat, and so very articulate and thorough in their examination and explanation and recommendations. Over a period of four hours, an extensive exam was performed, they looked at the x-rays and read the test results I brought with me from a local vet, they consulted with faculty clinician Dr. Steven Epstein, and a printout of the findings, recommendations, instructions, and the two medications were given to me. The private rooms are warm and quiet, very stress-free for the animal and human. The waiting rooms are wonderful - very large, quiet, with lots of magazines and coffee/tea/hot water available 24/7. The staff is very friendly and supportive. My cat was diagnosed with advanced malignant cancer, and our family chose no further tests or surgery. Their summarizing report is thorough and so very, very kind. "Thank you for entrusting us with Jennifer's care. We are so sorry that we did not have better news for you today. We hope that your remaining time with Jennifer is precious, and know that we are here for you if you have any questions in the future. Please feel free to contact us or bring her in; our hospital is open 24/7." I wish I had brought my cat here for all care - vaccinations, checkups, etc. Just recently UCD Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital was announced as #1 in the world. Well deserved. Thank you, Dr. Fosset, Ms. Shoup, and Dr. Epstein. —DLatt