Rusty Ridge Animal Center - Veterinary Hospital & Luxury Pet Lodging/Daycare - Minooka, Illinois

Sara B.

I can't express enough how grateful we are for Rusty Ridge. We've been trusting Dr. Joe with our corgi, Summer, since she was a puppy, when he was only doing traveling vet care. Now, his care has expanded into the incredible Rusty Ridge team. We wouldn't even think of taking our girl anywhere else. The staff is consistently friendly, professional, and so easy to work with. We trust them completely, and they never disappoint. Summer is an anxious girl and they’re so great with her. We live far now and still drive an hour and a half just because we know she's in the best hands possible. If you're looking for a veterinary clinic that truly cares, you've found it. ❤️

Rebecca S.

Dr. Joe and his entire team are amazing. Everyone is wonderful about answering questions and giving us options. They are incredibly knowledgeable and that eases our minds. We love that Rusty Ridge Animal Center offers new technologies and innovative care for our furbabies! As a human medical professional, I love seeing Dr. Joe bring advanced care to veterinary medicine. We know what we are getting with Rusty Ridge being independently and family owned! They treat us like family!
Whether your furbaby has a routine check up or a medical procedure, the staff calls the next day to check on their patients. How amazing is that? It gives us an opportunity to discuss any questions or address any concerns.
We appreciate the compassionate care our pets receive every time we go there. We won't be going anywhere else!
Thanks Dr. Joe and team!

Patricia J.

From the moment we walked in the door on our first visit we knew Scout had found her Happy Place. The smiles and warm greetings from every Staff member was a great feeling. Dr. Joe made us feel comfortable like old friends. So glad we made the decision to come to Rusty Ridge.

Livi M.

Refusal to Compensate

This review does not reflect the service I received from the workers at the front desk or the care my dogs received from the boarding staff. It is a reflection of the company’s refusal to right a wrong. My husband and I started boarding our dogs here during the holidays, so we’re able to have them close by while visiting family. The facility let us know that we needed to provide a negative fecal test before the dogs arrived, so we had it done at our amazing vet who sent the results over directly and confirmed with the Rusty Ridge staff that they were received and everything was set. We also called the Rusty Ridge staff ourselves to confirm the results were received and we were okay to bring the dogs in. Unfortunately once we got there on Christmas Eve morning we were told that the in-house fecal test our vet did wasn’t enough, and we now had to pay them $75 per dog to do a full lab fecal test. I told them this wasn’t specified in my prior communications with them, and that they already confirmed they had everything they needed. They told me the vet was requiring it due to the large amount of boarders they had for the holiday. I understood they wanted to take the extra precautions and didn’t argue allowing a lab test being performed on one of our dogs. I had remembered that the other had thankfully been lab tested last spring. But when I asked if we could receive a discount for the test, due to the fact that we had now wasted money on the in-house test done by our vet, I was met with a flat out no. I wasn’t demanding anything for free, I’d have been thankful for any percentage off to make up for the wasted money from the first test. We were already spending about $200 on the boarding, and the holidays tend to drain your bank account on their own. They wouldn’t budge. What was I going to do? We were 2 hours from home, and our only alternative was to lose the $100 deposit and miss Christmas with our family. It honestly felt like a bait and switch.

In summary, I understand them wanting to be cautious, but their actions left us trapped and cost us money at a time when expenses are already high. Please be understanding that if you do not properly communicate your rules to your customers, you are responsible for any resulting expenses once it is too late for them to make other arrangements.

Abigail L.

We switched to Rusty Ridge when we moved to a new town and got a new puppy, and it was one of the best choices we’ve ever made. I’ve had nothing but awesome experiences every time we’ve been back. The vet techs are exceptional— they are always lively and eager to answer questions or even just calm your nerves. Our puppy got a CT yesterday, and this morning they called just to see how she’s doing. I’ve never had a vet office care enough to do that before.

Dr. Joe treats my girl like she’s his own. He uses disarming body language when he examines her, takes note of every little detail during exams, asks me thorough questions, and shows genuine concern and emotion towards both her and me. He isn’t one of those vets that sees you as just something to check off his list. His passion for his job made me trust him 100% upon our very first visit.

We’re going to be coming back for a very, very long time. I can’t wait for our girl’s buddies Stephanie and Dr. Joe to see her grow up.

Billie J. S.

We were referred to Rusty Ridge at one of the worst times in our lives - our 15 yr old kitty Gracie had a low temp, low heart rate & distended stomach. By the time we got her to Rusty Ridge, her organs were shutting down. One of the worst things we have been thru but the staff was so gracious, kind & caring. They kept us informed, explained our options and all but held our hands as our baby passed. Honestly, I can't recall anyone's name but bless you & thank you all for your professionalism & love you gave to a 1st time patient who came thru your doors already crying. We are so thankful we were referred to you!

Diana S.

We took our sick cat there in on a Monday because our regular vet is closed on Mondays. We heard good things and thought they could help him. He wasn’t acting right, very lethargic. We told them we thought he ate something since last week he threw up a piece of foam mat. They did an X-ray and said they didn’t see anything. (Later told us they won’t be able to see the foam mat thru an X-ray and would need barium tests) he got way worse over night brought him back in the morning so they could do barium tests. So we left him there and they ran the test and called saying yeah he had a foreign body and we had to let them know asap if we were going to to do it since they were closing. We said yes and a couple hours later they called and said we could pick him up. My husband picked him up and he was lifeless. They said he would wake up more at home.They went over his meds and what we needed to do when we got HOME ect. He died less then two hours after we brought him home. When we called the next day they said they told us we had to take him to a 24hr vet to be monitored. They NEVER verbally told us that. They typed it on our receipt in 10 font at the top under their address. Never offered to call the 24 hour vet so they would know what was going on with him or even suggested where the closest vet was. We would never taken him there if we would of known they couldn’t keep him. Why would I pay thousands of dollars to two vets? They are all about money, they talked more about our bill then our cat. When talking to them after they never answered any of our questions and deflected acting like it was our fault because we didn’t take him to another vet for continued monitoring. I’ve worked in the ag/vet industry and was so naive thinking vets would look out for your pet and I was so wrong. I 100% believe if I would of taken him somewhere else he would be alive today. After talking to some people who work at a huge vet office in the city they said for the price we paid we should of drove an hour to their clinic and it still probably would of been cheaper. How is that? So ridiculous. They should of never taken our cat and sent us away to a vet that could of actually of helped him. Our Loki deserved better. (This did happen a few months ago. I didn’t want to write a overly emotional review that would of not been very helpful to pet owners.)

Anytime you bring a concern to an industry it must be nice to hide behind a #hashtag

Gianna D.

Absolutely fantastic experience here today. Called on a Friday and the team member on the phone was very kind and accommodating, they were able to offer me an appointment day-of or the following day! My cat was seen by Dr. Joe and the tech that checked us in, and both were incredibly kind. I've never seen my pet so comfortable at the vet, before coming here. Can't recommend Rusty Ridge enough!!!! go team!!!