Vets Near Me > California > Santa Cruz > Animal Hospital of Soquel

Animal Hospital of Soquel

4.6
2651 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95062, USA

Best Pet Insurance in Santa Cruz, California 2026

Hours:

Monday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Tuesday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Wednesday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Thursday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Friday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Saturday: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Sunday: Closed

How to Save Money at Animal Hospital of Soquel

Schedule Regular Vet Visits

One of the best ways to save on vet bills is to prevent expensive health issues before they develop. By scheduling regular wellness checkups, your vet can detect health issues early, helping you to avoid costly treatments and surgeries down the road.

Price Shop for Pet Prescriptions

Oftentimes our fur babies are prescribed human drugs off-label. Your vet is apt to charge more for these medications than you would pay at your local pharmacy. In fact, big-box or chain pharmacies can offer steep discounts. So it’s best to price shop.

Pet Insurance

Most pet insurance providers will pay between 80% and 90% of the vet bill. You can even get coverage for routine care and things like vaccinations and dental cleanings. If you do the math, you’ll most likely find that pet insurance makes financial sense in the long run as well as gives you peace of mind.

How Do You Choose the Right Pet Insurance Provider?

Pet Insurance Review makes it incredibly easy for pet parents to select an insurance provider they feel good about. You can use our handy comparison tool to get the gist of what a company offers. We’ve also collected over 150,000 reviews of insurance companies from real pet parents like you to rank the top providers in the market. Here is the current ranking of each:

Top Pet Insurance Providers of 2026
Rating Provider Total Review
4.5 AKC 1,797
4.5 ASPCA 12,112
4.9 Embrace 19,793
4.9 Fetch 5,410
4.1 Figo 2,832
4.5 Hartville 179
4.9 Healthy Paws 11,080
4.8 Lemonade 822
4.6 ManyPets 2,413
4.7 MetLife 8,831
4.8 Nationwide 24,908
3.9 Pet Assure 15
4.3 PetPartners 121
4.9 Pets Best 8,950
4.8 Pumpkin 3,175
4.6 Spot 10,969
4.9 Trupanion 55,032
4.8 Prudent Pet 2,699
4.6 Adoro 8

Or, you can simply get a fast quote from multiple providers and go from there.

Thinking of insuring your pet?

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Getting to Know Your New Vet: Essential Questions to Ask

Choosing a new veterinarian is an important decision for any pet owner. You want to find someone who is competent, compassionate, and a good fit for you and your fur baby. To help you get the most out of your first appointment, here's a list of essential questions to ask your new vet:

Tell me about your experience with [pet type].

Different vets have different areas of specialization. Some are experts with cats, some dogs, some pocket pets, and some horses. Knowing that your vet has vast experience treating your specific type of pet can bring you peace of mind.

How do you handle emergencies?

You must know what to do in case of a pet medical emergency. Inquire what after-hours policy the clinic has, whether they have on-site emergency care available, and if they have a relationship with any nearby emergency animal hospitals.

How do you communicate with pet owners?

Good communication is key to building a trusting relationship with your vet. Ask how they prefer to communicate (phone calls, emails, online portal) and how often you can expect to hear from them.

Are there any breed-specific health concerns I should be aware of?

Some breeds are predisposed to certain health conditions. Knowing what to watch out for can help you catch problems early and get your pet the treatment they need.

Do you have any questions for me about my pet?

This is a great question to ask because the answer will show that the vet is interested in getting to know your pet as an individual and is willing to listen to your concerns.

Bonus question: Can I take a tour of your facility?

Getting a feel for the clinic's environment can help you and your pet feel more comfortable during your visits. Remember, you’re not just looking for a veterinarian, you’re looking for a partnership. Do not be afraid to ask these questions and any others you can think of. Any vet worth their salt will be happy to answer them. Because the more informed you are, the better equipped you'll be to make decisions about your pet's care! And that should be every vet’s top priority.

Reviews from Google

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Karen Ruhleder

A friend recommended me to a specific vet at AHS, Dr. Elizabeth Barton, who has since left AHS to open her own practice. I stayed with them for a while, but there was a lot of turnover in their veterinary staff, and now they don't even list their veterinarians on their website (I believe Dr. Craig Evans still owns the practice, but I don't know who else is there). I was overall happy with the veterinary care, but the staff are unprofessional. I have my cat's medication compounded at Lauden Pharmacy in Capitola. On two occasions, Lauden left multiple messages for them that they didn't return. The first time, it was because Lauden was calling about a refill. I asked why they didn't return their call and they said they no longer do refills over the phone. It turns out that this policy change was mentioned in one of their newsletters (I never got any newsletters from them), so they didn't see that it was their business to get back to the pharmacy. If you think this logic is crazy, yep. I switched to Chanticleer Veterinary Hospital, co-owned by Dr. Barton, because I wanted a practice where my cat could have a stable, long-term relationship with a veterinary team AND because I won't stay with a practice whose staff doesn't bother to return calls from a pharmacy. When I went back to ask the staff for Dr. Evans' email address so that I could contact him privately about some of my concerns, one of them actually went to the back to ask him for his email address while he was in surgery. Then she misspelled his name when writing it down for me, even after three tries. Glad I'm done with them.

Monique G

Our vet tech was so caring and described all of the options perfectly. I like that this veterinary practices open longer hours and has Saturday appointments. They also have quite a bit of testing equipment on site so many of the testing procedures can be done in office. They have a wide variety of specialist if they team up with as well.

Jessica Howard

Dr. Evans has been my vet since the late 1990's and I cannot recommend him enough. His down to earth, thoughtful approach to animal care is frankly unparalleled in our community. Animal Hospital of Soquel is always friendly, clean and helpful. Five stars across the board.

Michael Manzo

We switched to Animal Hospital of Soquel from a different local vet clinic. The reason we switched was that our prior vet clinic invested in some major office upgrades. No doubt the new facility was beautiful and had all of the latest veterinarian equipment. But I noticed that after those upgrades, each visit felt as if I were being engaged by salespeople versus animal medical personnel and the bill for routine checkups and shots for two dogs was... exciting. My son and I brought our 12-year-old lab to Animal Hospital of Soquel for a routine checkup. The staff was friendly and helpful, the veterinarian was compassionate and qualified, and the price was fair. The vet even advised us against vaccinations that we thought were needed, but are not for a dog of her age. Might seem insignificant, but having a vet advise against treatment that would cause no harm even if unnecessary was... refreshing. Like most pet owners, I tend to do what my vet recommends and I'm not thrilled if by the appearance that some vet offices appear as motivated by the number of line items they can add to an invoice as they are about caring for animals. My impression is that Animal Hospital of Soquel is ONLY interested in caring for animals.

John Hanley

We had a pleasure of meeting Dr. Martinez For the first time today. what a caring, compassionate And coupled with outstanding clinical expertise.. Granted, our dog was in for what could’ve been a simple ear infection but turned out to be a grooming issue. Many thanks to Dr. Martinez and.Alandra At the front desk for taking such good care of our older pooch. We look forward to having her as our permanent vet moving forward.

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