Background: friend cat owner has had bad experiences w/ Friendship Animal Hospital and at least one other in DC; we know a great vet in Great Falls, VA, but good grief! There has to be at least one high quality cat vet in Silver Spring – any recommendations?
“A Cat Practice”
http://www.yelp.com/biz/a-cat-practice-silver-spring
Capital Cat
http://www.capitalcat.com/
Cat Hospital
http://www.catdoc.com/
There are tons more if you just google washington dc veterinary cat.
Guin, I am not looking for the yellow pages listing, I am looking for recommendations from current patients. I want a personal referral, this person has been a bit burned by some bad diagnoses and very expensive mistakes.
I can’t speak for cats or long term service but my rescue dog went for heartworm treatment at Palisades in NW DC and I was very happy with them. They were great about walking me through the process from beginning to end and everyone was super courteous and helpful. The only reason I didn’t continue to use them is distance.
http://www.palisadesveterinaryclinic.com/site/view/129860_Home.pml
Not Silver Spring but closer than Great Falls.
Nope, trying to find a vet that is OUTSIDE the beltway. Driving into the district for anything that you might need at rush hour is kind of a bad idea.
Yelp has lots of personal reviews of vets.
They do, but I’m still hoping to start with a referral from a person that I think is likely to be more knowledgeable than average. My own vet is excellent, but I hear more and more stories of subpar care and sky-high prices, and this cat owner, being not as experienced, needs to benefit from all the information I can get her.
Well, Silver Spring is technically inside the beltway and Palisades is 8 miles from the heart, in an almost straight line, so I thought it might work. Not sure if you looked at the location but it’s just about as “NW” as you can get in DC and I survived to and from NoVA in rush hour traffic.
Finding something with personal references, in the most convenient location, knowledgeable and not outrageously priced won’t be easy. Why doesn’t your friend ask pet owners in their area?
a colleague of mine at my old job lived in VA but hauled her cats out to olney because she LOVED T&C:
Town and Country does have a great rep, thanks.
Actually, I got a couple of strong references for 2 others:
Fairland Animal Hospital
The Animal Place.
I get it that Silver Spring is nominally inside the beltway. But if you live around here, you know that the designation ‘Silver Spring’ is applied to nearly everything east of Connecticut Avenue and west of I-95, north of the beltway.
I don’t live there now, but I used to, and sending anyone to a vet inside the district from Silver Spring still strikes me as unhelpful, since traffic is likely to be pure misery at certain times, and the only reason (to me) to do business there is if it’s really close by – like less than 2 or 3 miles. Otherwise, why pay prices that are certain to include the astronomical cost of DC office space?
Anyway, thanks for all the helpful posts. I can never get over people who, when you post a question, want to tell you how what you are asking for is not what you should be looking for. (???) If I ask for a specific piece of information, and you can share, thanks so much! If you can’t, that’s ok too, just don’t tell me I’m wrong to be asking!!
Perhaps if you’d posted the home address, where this person works and the exact roads they use to get back and forth, you might have gotten more helpful responses. :lol:
No one has said what you’re looking for isn’t out there. You’re being overly dramatic about this. Seriously.
Take personal references with a grain of salt too. I know some wonderful vets who get burned by clients just as often as wonderful clients get burned by vets.
Are your friends limiting themselves to “cat vets” or a regular small animal practice?
What exactly were your friends previous issues?
One of her prior vets is notorious for overcharging a LOT.
Another admitted her now deceased cat and claimed that its condition was so serious that they needed to treat it immediately. Immediately turned out to be nearly 24 hours later, but the cat was in too bad a shape to be moved somewhere it could be treated sooner. To which I say, ‘Really?’ Sounded like an angle to keep a lucrative but very ill customer in da house.
While references aren’t perfect, they are really all we have. And I think it’s pretty clear that her prior vets weren’t as good as they should be.
It can irk me when someone says a vet is overcharging - there are acutal regulations and guidelines that clinics are subject to. Often the ones that charge more, are actually doing more diagnostics/better medicine for the patient. Now, this isnt always true…but compare this.
Spay at one clinic, $300
- Pre-Anes Blood work
- No pain medication
- No IV fluids
- Anesthetic induction, gas maintenance
- New grad technician monitoring anesthetic with stethescope as only means for monitor.
- Pain medication on recovery, put away in dog ward.
Spay at another clinic - $600
- Pre Anes Blood work
- Pre medication (pain medication pre-op)
- IV Fluids
- Anesthetic Induction, gas maintenance
- Qualified technician monitoring anesthetic, blood pressure, EKG, CO2, SpO2 and adjusting IV fluids/adding colloids etc. to maintain a balanced stable anesthesia.
- Pain medication on recovery, 24 hour care.
Either way, client sees “spay”. Clinic 2 in some clients mind is overcharging. To some clients, the extra precaution during anesthetic is impotant…to others money ismore important.
Now, if you are comparing actual SINGLE items (ie. dermaxx from one clinic being $80, and another being $150…well thats different).
Regarding the seriousness of the now deceased cats condition - what was the clinic doing, trying to stabilize the cat before surgery or something? If it was really that ill, why did the friends wait to long to bring the cat in? Sorry…not blaming them, just hard to recommend good clinics when you are unsure if its a problem with the CLINIC or the CLIENT.
squishthebunny, I am not here to conduct an examination of whether my friend has any business being dissatisfied with the pricing and care her cats received. I’m here for references. I don’t have exhaustive details of her situation, and even if I did, I don’t think it necessary to tear them apart in the inimitable CoTH manner.
The overcharging hospital is in a pricey neighborhood, and I think clients end up paying for that more than the care. Friend is a less experienced pet owner, and I think less experienced owners can kinda get taken advantage of in some cases.
Again, looking for information, not a disquisition on whether she has any business going elsewhere.
If your friend lives in the edge of silver spring towards 29, and is willing to go a bit farther, we’ve been really happy with Beltsville Veternary hospital. We don’t have cats, but started taking our dog there on the recommendation of our neighbor, who’s been using them for 20+ years
tarheelmd, thanks! Friend lives smack in the middle of downtown SS, right on 29. I will check the distance and add to my recs.
