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VCA Animal Hospitals will permanently close at least 17 urgent care practices in five states today, judging from announcements on each practice's website. Seven remaining urgent care locations are listed on their websites as open today and have no announcements about permanent closures.

The closures mark an apparent reversal of strategy for the company, which 2½ years ago announced its first urgent care center in Mar Vista, California, and plans to open in future locations.

Rumors about the closures have swirled on social media since at least December, prompting the VIN News Service to ask a company spokesperson if they were true.

The spokesperson did not directly answer questions about the closures, but she provided a written statement:

"VCA is continually evaluating ways to improve and enhance our hospitals that are both important for the business and in the best interest of our patients, Associates, and clients. We launched our Urgent Care offering to pet owners in 2022 and have made adjustments based on market conditions and client demand, similar to many other businesses. We have taken away learnings — specifically on patient care and client experience — to apply across our entire network. After a thorough evaluation, we recently made the decision to close some of our Urgent Care hospitals and maintain ones in select communities to continue to build a better experience for our patients, Associates, and clients."

Seven VCA urgent care centers are closing in Texas, three each in California, Colorado and Illinois, and two in Arizona. The VCA webpage for one other Texas urgent care — in Cedar Park — has a note that it is already closed. VIN News was unable to determine how many urgent care clinics VCA established before it began closures.

When it first opened its urgent care practices, VCA described them as catering to owners seeking care "focused on non-life-threatening issues that should be addressed same or next day." Clinics had virtual waiting rooms, posted waiting times online and "free teletriage" with veterinary technicians.

VCA was among a number of entities to open urgent care clinics in recent years. For example, Bond Vet, which launched in 2019, has 55 urgent care locations across the Northeast and Chicago; 4-year-old PetMedic has 15 urgent care clinics in 10 East Coast states and the District of Columbia; and UrgentVet opened its first clinic in 2015 and now is in 96 locations nationwide, according to company press releases and websites.

VCA operates more than 1,000 hospitals in the United States and Canada, according to its website. VCA is owned by Mars Inc., the largest owner of veterinary practices in the world.

This story has been corrected to show UrgentVet launched in 2015 not 2023 as originally reported.