UCDavis is traditionally a topped ranked school and was ranked #1 in 1997. Unfortunately, I think that was the last year that Davis was actually ranked by magazines. If it is US news you are talking about, you'll notice that it's not just that Davis isn't in the top 5 for 2003, it isn't ranked at all.
In 1998 they got a slap on the hand from the accred. committee because of their facilities not being up to date. So their accred. is limited at the moment, until this december when they are being reviewed. They have a new surgery facility, a new lab/onc. facility, a new lecture room, and have more lecture halls in the works.
Since US news doesn't rank schools that don't have full accred., they haven't ranked Davis in a while. Everyone at Davis is pretty confident that they will be restored to full accred. It just doesn't seem like an issue to them.
If you're planning on applying, i wouldn't let this make you hesitate. It appears that Cal. has flooded them with money to help them make new facilities. California prides itself on that vet school, and they don't want it to lose its accred. Also, it appears that California's recent budget crisis is not affecting the vet school in terms of updating things, so that is really good. (However, tuition is definitely being affected...in-state tuition has literally doubled in the last three years, it's up there with cornell and penn in cost for in-staters)
