I’m considering switching vets. After being told that a dental cleaning would cost $400, and then finding out my friends only pay $250, I’m starting to feel like I’m being ripped off.
http://www.vcahospitals.com/annandale
Has anyone ever gone to Annandale Animal Hospital? They are closer to my house than Alexandria Animal Hospital, and they also have evening and Saturday hours so I wouldn’t have to miss work. So, I’m thinking of switching to them, but I’d like to know what they are like before jumping into them.
I guess if no one has ever been there, I’ll take Lemonjello to them when his vaccinations come due in October and see how it goes.
In the meantime, I’ll be attempting to brush Oranjello’s teeth. When Oranjello was trying to bite the toothbrush and lick the toothpaste off of it, Lemonjello was all interested, so I let him look at the toothbrush, but he shied away. So I guess it’s good that it’s Oranjello with the bad teeth and not Lemonjello.
May 27, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I’ve never gone there but I’m curious about it. I found that the vets in NoVa in general were pretty pricey. When I was looking at getting Lenny neutered I called all over the place and all of them wanted like $300 to do it! I wound up going to an animal hospital in Purcellville that came highly recommended by the House Rabbit Society and had the lowest price – $95 or so.
We take our kitties to College Park Animal hospital since they seem decent and not terribly expensive. I have no idea off the top of my head what they wanted to charge for a cleaning but $200 seems to jump out at me. I might have a quote somewhere…
May 27, 2009 at 5:15 pm
You’ve reminded me – I need to find Keety’s health (or lack thereof) paperwork. I think she might be due for some shots. I’m not sure how long they last for. A couple years? Keeping her up to date does seem to keep the sniffles from getting super bad.
Good luck!
May 28, 2009 at 3:56 am
And BTW, after having looked at Oranjello’s teeth tonight, he doesn’t need a cleaning. Toonces’ teeth were much worse than that before they suggested a cleaning. I should scan the before and after pics.
May 28, 2009 at 3:58 am
Did you get the brush and toothpaste from the vet or at a pet store?
May 28, 2009 at 11:09 am
I got it from the vet. It’s the tiniest tube of toothpaste ever. It’s almost like a sample. But they charged me $5 for it.
June 30, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Yes I have used Annandale Animal Hospital for 30 years. I love them. All the dr. are great but I mostly us Dr Zehmer. Both Dr Zehmer and Dr. Whitter are retiring but Dr. B. is good too. I would highly recommend them. The prices are going up a little since they were bought out by VCA but still good. I can positively recommend them.
June 30, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Thanks, Robyn! I’m glad that you commented to let me know your experience. Next time I go to the vet, I’m going to start using them!
September 20, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I do not recommend College Park Animal Hospital. They may be less expensive than other area hospitals, but my cat’s congestive heart failure was missed by two vets and College Park Animal Hospital, as a result of which he went without treatment and suffered. All hospitals make mistakes, but a) decent people are honest and accept responsibility and b) missing congestive heart failure on an X-ray is a very gross error, which you expect good vets not to make. When confronted about this error, the owner and head vet of College Park Animal hospital (Thomas McMichael DVM) stated that congestive heart failure cannot be seen on an X-ray, which is absurd: open any Vet Care 101 textbook and it will state that X-ray is the primary tool in diagnosing this disease. In any case, three other vets saw the congestive heart failure on the very X-ray taken at College Park AH. The head vet then became defensive and nasty to me and my whole family and stopped allowing us to volunteer with rescued dogs caged at the facility 24/7 with no outside runs. We were the only source of their walks and socialization at the time. Very very bad experience!
October 23, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Hi,
I disagree with the last post, Natalie Kramer. (I’ve seen her posting this same story all over wordpress. Sounds like a disgruntled customer to me.)
CPAH is a great place! Very caring and they use the lateast technologies. You’ll be pleased with your experience there. Only bad spot: their parking lot is too small, but that certianly doesn’t have anything to do with the clinical care.
October 25, 2009 at 11:54 am
Andrea, why would you call me a disgruntled customer? My cat’s heart condition was missed by two College Park vets. I have thorough documentation of this fact, which I’d be happy to provide to you if you wish. Would you not be distressed if your pet went without treatment for a diagnosable and treatable condition and suffered as a result? Which part of my account do you doubt? If a tragic mistake occurred at a veterinary hospital, telling people not to listen to the account of this mistake is wrong. A tragic mistake did occur in the treatment of my cat, and the College Park staff were less then honest or professional about it. And yes, it is distressing!
November 3, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Andrea, an update: I received a letter this past weekend from the veterinary board, stating that the College Park Animal Hospital vet, who missed my cat’s Congestive Heart Failure on an X-ray, was issued a formal letter of censure. Such an action on the part of the board is a matter of public record. The board letter to me also stated that prior to accepting the censure, this CPAH veterinarian “participated in classes offered at a regional conference as a means of improving his ability to read readiographs and ultrasounds.”
If you are a client of CPAH, and for the sake of all the patients of this hospital, I hope that your pets will now benefit from safer veterinary practices than the ones that my cat was subjected to, with tragic consequences. Oh, you are welcome!
October 25, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Andrea,
I’ve read some of Natalie Kramer’s posts also. She backs up her case with what seems to be expert testimony that someone’s negligence resulted in the death of her pet. Your post challenged none of the facts she has presented. What you did do by labeling her a disgruntled customer was marginalize her arguments, but more sadly her grief over losing a pet she loved. Let me share something with you. Someone who suffers as the result of a hospital’s negligence and decides to take legal action is not a disgruntled patient. Likewise, someone who joins Mother’s Against Drunk Driving because they lost a loved one to a drunk driver’s negligence is not a disgruntled parent. People who stand up for what they feel is right should be commended. Please be more respectful of others misfortunes and grief. May God bless your soul.
October 26, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Yes, let’s please stop calling people who have had very bad experiences at a veterinary clinic “disgruntled.” People DO have tragedies occur and to simply call them a name and tell other people to ignore their experiences is not only irresponsible it’s highly questionable. If someone posted that they got food poisoning at a restaurant would you say, oh, ignore them, they’re just disgruntled. It doesn’t mean every single person gets food poisoning there but it DID happen to at least one person so maybe others can be aware of it, that’s all. To think that everybody who ever sets foot in a vet clinic gets the best service and highest quality care ALL the time is just ridiculous. No business has a 100% track record, so stop putting other people down who had a very bad experience and thank God that it wasn’t YOU and your pet — because it very well could have been.
October 26, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Andrea: The use of the word “disgruntled” makes it sound as though Natlie has no basis in her statement and claim. She HAS basis! A horrible experience and a DEAD pet! If your pet died would you be disgruntled? I do not think so. You would be grieving and upset. If proper protocols were not followed you would wonder how on Earth is this allowed to happen. If YOU personally think this is a great place by all means keep going there. But when your pet dies so not say you were not warned!
October 26, 2009 at 10:43 pm
To use the word disgruntled is rather insulting when standing up for obvious negligent or misdiagnosis resulting in fatality.
When someone says “I am sorry for your loss”, please don’t be sorry, I have mourned and lost many pets in my lifetime.
Be angry that my pet did not receive the dignity & compassion deserved at the end of her life and be angry that this behavior is tolerated.
It can happen & DOES, to anyone–even you.
October 26, 2009 at 11:54 pm
“Disgruntled”? Are you kidding?? Some vets are ignorant and incompetent and should be out of business.
October 27, 2009 at 6:46 pm
To the original poster:
I have no experience with Annandale, but you mentioned Alexandria AH. I use Alexandria, and I must tell you after I had a truly HORRIBLE experience with a vet in Maryland (Kindness Animal Hospital, in case you were wondering) who overdosed my cat on insulin, I started driving all the way back to Alexandria from Wheaton MD to take my pets there.
Please don’t make decisions about dentals and other vet care on price alone. Just because one dental is cheaper doesn’t mean you are getting the same thing. For example, Alexandria AH is very expensive, but they use LICENSED VET TECHS (very important — did you realize most places just call people “vet techs” who have no formal training and sometimes no experience either??? — that was the case at Kindness at the time). This is very important. Also, they use pulse oximeter monitoring, have dental xray equipment, etc.
You have to take quality into account, not just price!
As for Natalie’s experience with College Park — as someone whose cat was nearly killed and who was rendered SEVERELY brain damaged by a careless vet, I can tell you that you need to take it seriously when someone posts a quality complaint about a vet, not just shrug them off. Why in the world are these people here refuting her? Do they NOT care about their pets? If you do care about your pets, why would you take them to someone who claims they can’t see heart failure on an xray?
That is dangerously incompetent. Just freakin google hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or enlarged heart or heart failure in pets, you will see that it is primarily dianosed VIA XRAY. Any vet who claims otherwise is not someone I would ever take my pets to.
After my most beloved cat friend was given a huge overdose at his vets I started researching vet medicine — this is why I am telling you there is a LOT of malpractice out there, and all vets are NOT created equal.
Price is just one element, and it’s not the most important one if you love your pet.
If you are trying to compare dentals at Annandale (or anywhere else) with a dental somewhere else and the prices are different be aware that the LEVEL OF CARE may also be different. Do they both use LICENSED techs? Do they both use pulse oximeter monitoring? What anesthesia protocol do they use? (Some dental vets around here use propofol, the drug that killed Michael Jackson, and I have heard of deaths associated with that drug used by dental vets locally). For example, Alexandria uses isoflourane which is less dangerous than propofol. (Frankly, I tried to get them to use sevoflourane which is even safer, but they don’t have it. Iso still is one of the safer ones).
See? I’ve been doing my homework. I’d recommend asking lots of detailed questions like this before making a choice. Don’t make it on price alone.
I have decided that for me, Alexandria is my selected place in the area. That doesn’t mean they are perfect, but I know they do several things that give me more peace of mind.
Good luck, and listen to people who tell you about bad things that happen at the vets! It’s true!
October 27, 2009 at 6:57 pm
PS — Jackie Suarez is my vet there at Alexandria. I always specifically request her on her dental days. She puts up with me grilling her about the anesthesia protocol, and she knows how nervous I am ever since what happened to my cat somewhere else (that NEVER would have happened at Alexandria because they use trained, licensed techs and have vets supervising them all the time) and Dr. Suarez calls me immediately when she is done with my cats. In fact, once she called me in the middle of a dental to ask me what I wanted her to do. Also, because they have the xray equipment, they can see the roots and this helps them know whether a tooth has to go or not. My cats have a dental condition called “resorptive lesions” and she’s had to remove several teeth as a result of that. No problems.
Most people who complain about their prices do not realize what they are getting there, and I get scared about people dumping a good vet just because of price. They DO have some features — licensed techs which cost more — that most hospitals do not have.
Again this is not a guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong, but in my very educated opinion, they are the best hospital in the Washington area. The licensed technician thing is a BIG deal to me because most of the hospitals in the area don’t have them, and sometimes they let untrained idiots “induce anesthesia” or control the anesthesia machine, which is very dangerous, because if it’s turned up too high or the person doesn’t know what to look for . . . . . big issue.
October 27, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Stefani, thank you for your knowledge, which I know is valuable to many people. On the subject of dentals: if your pets are regularly given raw bones, with meat and cartilage on them, they may never need a dental. I have one dog, who is seven, who has been given raw bones from about the age of two, and to this day she hasn’t had a dental and doesn’t need one, according to a vet I trust. Some pets might still require dentals, but far fewer than if they are fed pet food only. Just an aside.
October 27, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Dry cat food helps too. In 17 years, one of my cats only needed a dental, twice, the other only once.
November 4, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Chriggy, this may sound like a very radical idea, and it did sound radical to me when I first heard it, but dry food is actually considered by many not to be a good food option for cats, in particular if you feed dry only. The reason for that is that, well, it’s dry. Cats are believed to have evolved in the desert, so they do not naturally have a strong thirst drive. They are designed to get their water from their food, not from a separate source. That is why I switched my cats to raw chicken. This is a controversial view and may certainly be startling to many pet owners, but it is something to think about for those concerned about their pets’ diet and health. One site I believe is unbiased and informative is http://www.catinfo.org by Dr. Lisa Pierson, a well-known specialist in cat nutrition (specifically cat but she is a practicing veterinarian for the other species as well). I have no affiliation with Dr. Pierson, but I have consulted her over the phone once, when one of my cats had a serious bladder condition, possibly related to dry food. He has been healthy since the switch away from the dry and in favor of raw food. Best of health to you and your cats. Natalie
November 9, 2009 at 1:24 am
Natalie, I am quite skeptical of the view that cat food is bad, considering one of my cats just recently passed away at the ripe old age of 17. The other is 17 and still going. So much for unhealthy.
And I was actually corrected by my wife. One of them had a dental once, the other one never had one. At one of his recent pet visits, the vet said he had extremely clean teeth for a cat his age.
They both had an exclusive dry food diet(except for occasional treats) for pretty much their whole lives.
November 10, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Chriggy, I am a statistician by training and can tell you that your two cats, no matter how special to you, are not statistically significant for the purposes of drawing inferences about the benefits of a particular diet. They have done well with cat food, and that’s great. But suggesting that their diet is healthy in absolute terms would be similar to my saying that since I have two uncles, who were heavy drinkers and smokers and lived to be 94, it means that heavy drinking and smoking are healthful habits. Many, millions perhaps, cats do just fine on a diet of cat food, but many don’t. There is research suggesting that the advent of pet foods is correlated with a higher incidence of cancer, diabetes and other illnesses in pets (both dogs and cats). The view that many commercial pet foods are not optimal for our pets is fairly prevalent. I am not trying to push it on anyone, but for those with an interest in the topic, the discussion might provide some food for thought, pun intended:)
November 11, 2009 at 2:29 am
Natalie, let me get into more specifics as to why I’m skeptical. Your first post related to giving dogs raw meat on the bone.
Dogs are not cats, and their teeth are quite different. Dogs have molars, which are meant for chewing and grinding. Cats don’t. Their teeth are meant for cutting and slicing. They don’t “chew” per say, so while meat on a bone may be beneficial for a dog, it would not have the same effect for a cat. More like slice and swallow. Their jaws can’t move side to side.
While studies have shown that dry food does not clean the teeth by “scraping”, some(but not all) studies have also shown that dry food may create tartar(most likely due to reduced moisture). Feel free to do your own research.
Now on to nutrition and the need for water from the diet. The claim is that a “wild” cat in its natural habitat would eat a certain diet. The cats we have today are not “wild” cats. Humans have been domesticating and breeding cats for specific traits for over 7000 years, so the cats we have today can hardly be compared to their wild ancestors from the desert. The domestic house cat is also the only cat species that hunts purely for “fun” and often has no intention of eating it’s prey. Cats have evolved.
As a statistician, you would know that we can only make inferences based on the data we have, and an incomplete or biased data set would skew the results. It would be very interesting to see a study comparing the life expectancy of a modern house cat eating only it’s natural diet(mice, birds, etc …) vs. a cat on a raw diet(i.e chicken, beef…), vs a cat on commercial wet food vs. a cat on commercial dry food.
As you mentioned, millions of cats do well on dry food, and many millions probably don’t. Without the numbers I can’t be swayed one way or the other and listen to the advice of my vet. Every cat and breed is unique.
More food for thought
November 11, 2009 at 2:32 am
Sentence above should read “…dry food may create less tartar…”.
November 11, 2009 at 11:43 am
Chriggy, thanks for your thoughts. Actually the problems cited with dry foods that I have seen in either studies or articles written by biologists and (some) veterinarians are not only with the water content; they are mainly with the carb content, which can affect the pancreas negatively, from what I understand. I don’t claim to understand the exact mechanism; I am just looking at what those that I tend to trust are telling us. The effect on the pancreas is blamed for diabetes and other pancreatic disorders. The poor quality of proteins in some (cheaper) dry foods and also chemicals, preservatives, etc. are also blamed for certain cancers, but that’s true of many (also cheap) wet foods as well. I have lost one cat, Crocus, to a pancreatic cancer at the age of eleven, even though my one cat is, of course, by no means a sufficient sample. However, larger samples seem to bear out this suspicion. What I will do is try to find some studies and/or articles. I believe I have seen some controlled studies when I was doing my digging some months ago, but it has been awhile and I need to look them up again. I’ll let you know. Natalie