VCA Big Lake Animal Hospital - Wasilla, Alaska

North Star Border Collies

I brought a litter of six puppies here for a litter exam, and I was greatly impressed by the service and the friendliness of the staff. A couple of the techs carried the crate full of puppies in for me and then carried them back out once the exam was complete. Everyone was very welcoming, friendly, and cheerful, and they loved and took great care of our pups. Dr. Marion was encouraging and professional, and I appreciated her thorough and informative, yet non-invasive approach. As a breeder, it's nice to be treated as a reasonable person, instead of being viewed as a "non-professional" who doesn't know much of anything.
I was very happy with the service here and I think the puppies even enjoyed their visit!

Britt Congdon

Excellent care at VCA Big Lake! Our dog Auggie had a sudden mouth abscess and they fit her in quickly. She was in and out of surgery in one day! Reasonable costs and compassionate staff. Dr. Varman and her team were fantastic. Highly recommend!

Repent Hypocrites

I'm very disappointed, I took my 100 lb German Shepard at the beginning of the year got his 2end rabbies shot and a medical check up. At the time I ask the Veterinarian if there's anything I need to know about that breed or concerns she said No, now we are extremely sad he Died just Sunday at 4: am due to his stomach turned extremely painful if they would of been honest that can happen I would of paid the extra money ? to have two little incision and tie his stomach so that wouldn't happen, today I talked to the Lady's Co worker ( male ) another Veterinarian that works there he told me that I should of taken the responsibility to do the research then ask the questions wth ? I told him I'm not a Veterinarian I should of been informed about it since there are so called professionals, other clinics said they would of told me about it as i found out. We only had him for around 1 year I believe they purposely drop the ball. Already had thousands of dollars invested he was gonna be my service Dog, took him everywhere Home Depot, Lowe's etc everyone loved him and he loved people ❤️ they surger coat it and blames the owners, sucks this year will spend Christmas with out him ugh ? update now they won't give me paper work on my past dog's records or a Vaccine on one of my Dogs got all documentations they flaged me becouse i ask a question. We have spent thousands of dollars in the past 25 year's or more on different dog's, very shady Veterinarian ? to me understand why people have a negative reviews tords them, staff are nice.

Joshua L

My son’s Rottweiler, Brutus, had an eye issue. Turned out to be a scratch. But the staff was kind and amazing! We had to put him under for his check up. But he did great! And the total came out to far less than the original quote.

Christina White

Dr. Harding and his staff were extremely accommodating when my dog needed to be seen urgently. I was well informed about my options, the risks, and costs when it came to an emergency surgery. It is always upsetting when a pet gets sick unexpectedly, but the care and compassion my dog and I were shown at VCA Big Lake made a stressful situation less so. My dog received excellent care, and made a full recovery.

karin hendrickson

Dr. Harding and staff were amazing. I had an urgent situation with a rock eating dog. They got him in immediately, discussed options with me, and got right down to taking care of him (with lots of scratches and love). Thankfully everything turned out well, but it's great to have such excellent care available!

Tuigana Foley

Literally ALL of the support staff are absolutely wonderful. The vets themselves are knowledgeable but beholden to a compressed time schedule, as it is in the medical world.

Trigger warning for this review this is about pet death

That said, we had to put our dog down here. And the vet was not very nice about it. He had me move out of the way to do the heart check and said "Yeah. He's gone." And left the room. And the vet techs were very nice about it after and I made the comment "That vet doesn't know it takes them longer. Can you give us a minute? He's still reacting and listening." I'm a nurse of six years with ICU experience. They hear everything for at least 6 to 10 minutes afterwards, no matter what drug you've given them.

So, in the nicest way possible, it functions as a VCA facility. Everyone in there is very sweet. But you have to be prepared.

Jon Kotwicki

Very disappointed with VCA. I brought my dog there for an Xray to get a puppy count when she was pregnant to see how many puppies she would have. They said "at least four" and would not give more information than that. 2 weeks later my dog had 3 puppies and we were left wondering if there was a health issue or if the puppy count was wrong.
When we called them they said we should go to Tier 1 and pay for another xray, or they could do another Xray and it would cost more. They did admit they did not have a professional look at the initial xray, but could get one to check it again for an additional fee. It seems they only care about making an extra $400 for an xray despite not providing a proper diagnosis in the first place.

Update: Dr. Jed Harding spoke to us when we returned for another xray. The 2nd xray confirmed there were no more puppies in the mom. He said "what do you expect, I'm not a professional (in regards to reading xrays)". When I asked for an apology and how he would handle thing different in the future his response was that he did not care and to leave, and do not bring our dogs there again.
The lack of professionalism and integrity from this vet was very disheartening.