VCA River Road Animal Clinic

10/23/2026

Jump scare!! We're here for you and your pet's needs all spooky season long 👻

Find your local VCA Animal Hospital at https://vcahospitals.com/find-a-hospital

10/22/2026

Meet Toni. ✨ Technician Supervisor. Mentor. Lifelong learner. And the kind of colleague who makes everyone around her better. 🐾

Every day, Toni shows up to teach, inspire, and invest in the Associates around her — from dental wet labs to ultrasound training — because she knows what it feels like to have someone believe in you.

💙 We're so proud to have Toni on our team. Her dedication to mentorship is exactly what makes VCA a place where careers and people truly thrive.

Explore what a career at VCA could look like for you. 🌟

10/21/2026

Welcome back to - today we're learning about why our dogs roll around in things we'd rather them not 😅

Find your local VCA Animal Hospital at https://vcahospitals.com/find-a-hospital

10/20/2026

This National Veterinary Technician Week, we're celebrating the incredible Associates who make our hospitals thrive — like Karen, who began as a CSR and never stopped growing and like Joanne, who sought mentorship and support to obtain her VTNE.

At VCA, we're proud to champion our veterinary technicians every step of the way — offering mentorship, encouragement, and the resources to help you reach your full potential.

To every vet tech in our VCA family: thank you. What you do matters deeply — to our teams, to our patients, and to the pet owners who trust us with their most beloved companions.

🌟 Ready to grow your career with a team that believes in you? Explore open roles at VCA. https://www.vcacareers.com/global/en

10/16/2026

🎃 Costumes, PSL's and scented candles... oh my! Be on the lookout for these potential pet hazards this fall. 🍂

And if you need support from your veterinary team, we're just a call away! Find your local VCA Animal Hospital at https://vcahospitals.com/find-a-hospital

10/15/2026

We dare you to swipe through the puppies without saying "awww" 😍

Find your local VCA Animal Hospital at https://vcahospitals.com/find-a-hospital

10/14/2026

Every surgery starts long before the first incision. It starts with a veterinary technician who has spent years mastering their skills, anticipating needs, monitoring vitals, and showing up fully prepared for every patient who comes through the door.

Vet techs are the heart of every OR team, and their skill and dedication make a difference every single day. At some VCA specialty hospitals, we take surgical collaboration even further. Some of our teams include Certified Surgical Technologists (CSTs) — professionals who earned specialized degrees specifically to support surgeons in the OR.

The result? Less time under anesthesia. Better outcomes. And a team that truly works as one. 💙

Because every patient is somebody's pet — and they deserve nothing less than the best.

10/13/2026

Think you know your veterinary history? Let’s put it to the test. 🩺

As we celebrate our 40th anniversary, we’re looking back at the breakthroughs that have helped shape veterinary care over the past four decades.

Take the 40 Years of Breakthroughs in Veterinary Medicine quiz from Clinician's Brief and see how you score!

👉 Take the quiz - https://www.cliniciansbrief.com/article/quiz-40-years-breakthroughs-vet-med

10/13/2026

What trick do you want to teach your senior dog?! Remember to have their favorite treat on hand 🍬

Curious about more ways to care for your senior pet? Find your local VCA Animal Hospital at https://vcahospitals.com/find-a-hospital

10/12/2026

07/10/2026

We're happy to share that our phone and computer systems have been fully restored, and we are back to normal operations!

Our team is once again able to make and receive phone calls, access voicemail, and send and receive emails. If you attempted to contact us during the outage and were unable to reach us, we encourage you to give us a call or send us an email—we're here and ready to assist you.

We sincerely appreciate your patience, understanding, and support while we worked through this unexpected disruption. Thank you for your kindness, and we look forward to continuing to care for you and your pets!

07/09/2026

⚠️ Important Notice for Our Clients ⚠️

We are currently experiencing an outage affecting our phone and computer systems.

At this time, we are unable to make or receive phone calls, access voicemail, or send and receive emails. Our team is actively working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding while we work to restore our systems. We will provide an update as soon as services have been restored.

Thank you for your continued support.

09/03/2025

Welcome Dr. Caity Baxter who joined VCA River Road as an Emergency and Critical Care Veterinarian!

Dr. Baxter is a native of the Willamette Valley, Oregon, and graduated from Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2018. She has previously lived in Washington, California, and Maryland, but considers herself a proud Oregonian. Dr. Baxter moved back to Oregon in 2021. Though she began her career in small animal general practice, she is most passionate about urgent and emergency medicine, and is excited to provide exemplary care to patients at VCA River Road. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, gardening, knitting, listening to books, horseback riding, foraging, or hiking with her spouse and their dogs.

02/24/2025

Due to a temporary situation beyond our control, VCA River Road Animal Clinic Urgent Care will be closing today (Tuesday February 24), and tomorrow (Wednesday February 25) at 2pm instead of our regular 6pm closing time. We open at our normal time of 8am each of those days. We will resume our normal M-Sat 8am-6pm schedule on Wednesday February 26.

We apologize for any inconvenience! Please call early at 503-393-7462 to ensure that we can get your pet in for any needed care. If you need care after 2pm on these two days, you can call VCA Salem Animal Hospital, VCA Keizer Veterinary Hospital, or VCA Vitality Animal Hospital. If you need care after 6pm, please call Wilvet Salem, or Salem Veterinary Emergency Clinic.

Thank you!

02/14/2025

Due to the continued snow and temperature forecast, VCA River Road Animal Clinic Urgent Care will remain closed today, Friday February 14. All information points to changes later this afternoon that should ensure that our team is at work and ready to provide urgent care to pets at our regular opening time of 8am tomorrow, Saturday February 15.

Please stay safe out there!

02/14/2025

To ensure that our staff is not at risk, VCA River Road Animal Clinic Urgent Care will remain closed today, Thursday February 13, due to the snow and ice on our roads. We apologize for any inconvenience and hope to reopen tomorrow at our regular time.

11/05/2024

While a litter of kittens can have multiple "fathers," which can result in a diversity of coloring among the kittens, this patient either had some unique genetic distribution of the pigmentation cells during embryonic development, OR like many kids we've known, simply pays no attention to whether or not matching socks are put on for the day 😊. Just another example of the wonders of veterinary medicine that bring us interesting cases every day! At VCA River Road Animal Clinic, we see exclusively urgent care cases, but we always remember that "urgent" is defined by the pet owner/family. We are happy to see almost anything if you can't get a timely appointment with your regular veterinarian, or if you don't have a regular veterinarian. We're here for our patients, and for you!

11/01/2024

At VCA, we are proud to recognize Dia de los Mu***os and all that it means to so many of our team members. Taking the time to remember and celebrate the lives of those we’ve lost is not limited to our human family or friends. In the veterinary field, we deal with loss regularly as those pets we’ve known since they were puppies or kittens eventually reach a time when we have to close one chapter and help them move onto the next. While we grieve, mourn, and miss them forever, we have a lifetime of memories to reflect upon and this occasion, which is today (November 1), and tomorrow, is a great time to do so. Share a photo and your pet’s story with us here – those memories help us remember the reasons to love the other pets in our lives and the pets of our future even though we know that the journey will one day repeat this process for us.

10/29/2024

Hair loss with dogs and cats can occur for a variety of reasons, some very simply and some more complicated, but for the pet, dealing with whatever is causing it is no fun at all. This young kitten visited us almost two months ago and though we weren't able to pursue the diagnostics that may have identified the exact cause in this case, there are some statistical probabilities at times that can point to treatments that are safe and beneficial regardless. In this case, that treatment was the answer and our little friend is back wearing a full fur coat just in time for cooler weather. Our Urgent Care team is here six days and urgent comes in many shapes and sizes - there's nothing like a happy, cuddly kitten! Happy National Cat Day!

10/25/2024

One of the greatest aspects of Urgent Care work is the diversity of cases that we end up seeing - our team never knows what a day will bring. This particular case underscores the fact that we do have ticks in our area and the benefit of keeping your pet on a topical or oral parasiticide product that includes a label for protection against tick-borne diseases. The family of this guy believed that this was a growth of some type, when in fact it was the pesky little thing we placed in the specimen tube once removed.

Remember to check your dogs and cats over carefully - they aren't able to tell you when something is wrong, and they are usually very stoic, which makes it doubly hard to notice something wrong. We're here M-Sat 8a-6p for your Urgent Care needs, when your regular veterinarian can't get you in right away, or if you don't have a regular veterinarian!