Falls Church Animal Hospital

My prized puggle has a health condition that the doctors here have been amazing monitoring. They seem to really understand her condition and offer her amazing care. Her appointments are never rushed and they always check to make sure any medications that they prescribe will not interact with her problem. Another vet in the area had previously given her an antibiotic that caused a seizure, so I was weary of choosing a new vet. I am so glad I found this place. They are also the only ones in the area who she allows to trim her nails. I could not be happier with her care here.

We recently adopted a cat and brought her in for her initial check up and shots. The doctor we spoke to was very accommodating and provided «no pressure» suggestions on other services that were offered. The tech that groomed our cat mentioned that she didn’t have any fleas but to be sure, he suggested that we bring her back for a flea bath anytime. We called in to make an appt for our cat a few days later. With our busy work schedules and assisting with a move (this was our fault) we completely forgot to take her in for the appt. We called back to reschedule and apologize but was greeted by Allie who seemed to take our appt rescheduling personal. Not only did the price change (no big deal), but she put us on hold only to come back and give us a «heads up and just so you know» that another charge to sedate the cat was a requirement bringing the total for a bath to 100.00+. This seemed a little odd since other hospitals did not mention sedation. Our cat is far from aggressive and showed no signs of this during her initial visit. We called a few other hospitals and they did not require sedation to give their cats a bath. Per Allie’s demeanor (after hanging up on us), we do not feel that we were treated fairly because we «missed» an appt. This isn’t a crime, however we know we should have remembered to call sooner but mistakes happen which we are owning up to. We won’t be returning to this office as we do not appreciate being treated like criminals for trying to reschedule an appt.

Dr Rogers was amazing tonight as we had to put our beloved dog of 12 years, Poncho, to sleep. He took time to learn about our family, give us advice for how to help our children through this process, and was so kind. He also informed us of everything to be expected and made this terrible visit a very amazing one. Thank you, Dr Rogers, we know Poncho was, and is, in good hands.

I recently took my 19 year old cat Suzi to the hospital. Dr Murphy attended on her and we had to make the sad decision to put her to sleep. Dr Murphy understood that she had been a member of our family for so many years and it was a very difficult time. She was understanding and sympathetic, gave us a lot of time with Suzi and did not rush us. We returned for Suzi’s remains and the staff was respectful and kind. Within a few days we received a beautiful card signed by the hospital staff. Clearly the hospital is staffed by people who genuinely love animals and understand pet parents.

I was very impressed with Dr. Villar, who treated my 17 year old cat Gerogia for an ear infection a few months ago. She explained the details of the infection, and also did a general health check of my cat. Unfortunately, Georiga has a few age related health issues that I was already aware of: a heart arrhythmia and kidney problems. Dr. Villar explained these issues to me in detail, just to make sure I was clear. Dr. Villar then took Georgia to another room to clean our her ear and apply a medicine. When she returned, Georgia was so stressed from having her ear cleaned that Dr. Villar recommended that I take her home immediately so as not to put too much pressure on her racing heart. Dr. Villar then explained that usually, she would require me to bring Georgia back to the office after a week to check the infection, but since Georgia has a heart problem, she said that it would be better for me to monitor Georgia’s ear at home rather than put her through the stress of returning to the Veterinarian’s office. Fortunately, Dr. Villar had done such a thorough job cleaning Georgia’s ear that the infection cleared up and we did not need to return! I really appreciated that Dr. Villar gave Georgia a thorough check up and diagnosis that factored in all her existing health issues, and respected my desire to make Georgia’s last few months comfortable rather than put her through unnecessary stress. Overall, I was very impressed with the quality of care offered at the Falls Church Animal Hospital and plan to return.

Dr. Rogers really seems to love and care about animals. The staff was courteous and professional.

I love this vet. They took such great care of our cat when she got hit by a car. Dr. McGrath is so kind and amazing. They really went the extra mile for us.

My first experience last year with FCAH was pretty decent. The doctor took time to talk to me about the benign cyst on the back of my dogs neck. Price was, after finding out what others are paying for visits elsewhere, reasonable enough. But yesterday, I felt completely rushed by the doctor. It seemed that the same cyst which was now an abscess had gotten majorly infected and was oozing everywhere in the vets office. Before he could explain much to me (which at the time I could understand), I still didn’t feel like I thoroughly got an understanding of what could be happening or what I should be doing. The entire staff is delightful, helpful, patient… But now I feel like I need to go get a second opinion, pay MORE MONEY for no reason when he could have taken more time with me yesterday instead of rushing me out. I am not happy with my experience at FCAH yesterday.

We love this place. Been coming since 2001. We are now on our 2^nd set of dogs after losing our last one in April. Dr Yam is awesome.

Decent care. About DOUBLE THE COST of other vets in the area. Last time I went was for some dog pink eye ointment. After the mandatory full body exam, total cost for exiting with one very small tube of ointment? $ 212. Same exact thing a few months later at another vet — total cost $ 47. Then I found the ointment (Pfizer manufactured) on e-​bay for $ 3.95.
Bottom line: they are good enough. But WAY over-​priced.

Great practice! Dr. Murphy is wonderful, very informative and takes the time to review and explain what’s going on with your «kids». The office staff and vet techs are also great and very friendly.

Our experience with the Falls Church Animal Hospital staff left much to be desired in terms of professional competency and customer service. Our purebred Burmese cat had some severe itching problems that were initially diagnosed as ‘nonspecific allergies’ by one of their vets, for which our cat was given a steroid shot which temporarily relieved the itching, but did nothing to cure the underlying, and still unidentified cause. After getting a prescription for an oral antibiotic for the cat, we were told that we would perhaps have to put our cat on a special diet and/​or medicate him for the allergy if the symptoms continued.
During a follow up visit, we saw a different vet at their practice who took skin scrapings and determined that the problem was that our cat’s skin was infested with Demodex (a skin parasite), the treatment for which was a multi-​month regimen of a powerful pesticide with a follow on option for a lime-​based dip. This diagnosis was accompanied by another round of antibiotics prescribed to control the staph infection our cat picked up from scratching his skin until he bled. We followed the prescribed treatment regimen and took our cat back in after the treatment period to have him checked.
On our third follow up visit, we ended up being seen by the first vet again who disagreed with the second vet’s diagnosis and prescribed additional antibiotics and gave our cat another steroid shot, which again did nothing to treat the underlying cause of our cat’s problem. We asked specifically that the vet administer another skin scraping test to see if the regimen of very expensive pesticide we were prescribed had done its job in clearing up the Demodex, but the vet did not conduct the test and sent us home with more antibiotics.
After picking up our cat’s records from Falls Church Animal Hospital, we will never use their services again. Though their front office staff is affable, their lack of staff coordination, the inability of their professionals to collaborate on a simple case, inattention to basic customer requests, and somewhat exorbitant fees are cause for customers to re-​think patronizing this establishment.
Given that we were recommended to this practice by our cat’s breeder for their reputation for handling issues unique to our breed of cat, we are sorely disappointed with our experience.

The doctor is great and the staffs are also very nice.
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Our regular vet’s estimate for the dentistry was way expensive.
so we had to search a hospital for our dog’s teeth cleaning.
I found this hospital on Unilocal,saw the reviews and gave a try!
I am so happy that I took my dog here.
I really liked that the doctor was very practical, honest and professional.
Some hospitals, they ask you unnecessary things, and it just seems like
they try to make more money.
Such as following check ups etc, even when you don’t need to…
But this hospital, it was reasonable and my experience here was very good.
And most importantly, my dog are so fine now and I am just happy!

We called in for a last minute appointment an hour or two in advance for our sick cat in March-​who we didn’t realize at the time was dieing. They took us after a 20 – 30 minute wait past our appointment time while our cat was having heart failure-​there wasn’t much they could do immediately there but give him something oxygen and meds to survive the drive to the ER vet-​it was expensive for what they could do (+$ 400!) but they were honest about his condition and odds and once we were seen service was excellent. Staff was very caring and vet even called The Hope Center ER vet to check in on our cat and emailed us condolences. FCAH also donated money in memorial to our cat to a veterinary school for study of treatment etc for juvenile left ventricular cardiomyopathy. Kudos!

Our 13 yo dog died in her sleep and we needed to have her cremated. And even though we’d never been there FC handled it for us.. When we got home, they called and offered a paw print presentIon at no cost. There fees were very reasonable and less than others we called. We’ll definitely use them as our local vet from now on.

Ridiculously overpriced.

We moved to this area a couple of months ago, and had to find a local vet for our dogs. We chose Falls Church Animal Hospital based on the reviews here at Unilocal.We saw Dr. Stephens, and I was COMPLETELY impressed!
We have a cantankerous old Mini Schnauzer who finds all people aggravating… it was the strangest thing to watch Sargie warm up instantly to Dr. Stephens. Sargie doesn’t even particularly like our children, and he’s had YEARS to warm up to those guys.
I really liked Dr. Stephens, too. He’s not pushy, or critical… and he’s a real natural with animals. I would DEFINITELY recommend this doctor to anyone moving to this area with pets. The office is nice, the reception area has an area for kids… and it’s easy to get in and out of (you can exit from the main road, or pull out of the back of the parking lot to have an easier turn back onto the main road). Definitely a five star vet’s office.

With the acquisition of a new pup into our little family, we had to get her checked out and carted her off to the FCAH. They found an infection the initial vet had missed (incubation period or something) and gave us medication that helped clear it up.
The doctors were very helpful, and the price was about what you might expect. Considering the excellent service and conscientious doctors at this clinic, I am very satisfied with both the treatment received and the amount we were charged.

It took a while to realize that we were dissatisfied with the care of our dog and that we were, in our opinion, being charged excessively for it.
For one, the vet we saw routinely pushed tests that to us seemed excessive – e.g., a complex thyroid panel offered by some lab in CA that costs $ 165. We got hit for two of those (in addition to a more basic test the previous vet, also at FCAH, had just done), just to determine and confirm the dosage of a very common drug for a very common condition (low thyroid). To top it off, the vet was uanble to explain the additional extra benefit of this test and the presumed additional analysis this out-​of-​state lab offered. So we ended up spending about $ 400 on thyroid tests in six months’ time, and I still don’t know why.
Another time, we were given a completely ineffective topical spray for an irriated patch on our dog’s skin; at the next visit, it was revealed we only received that because the other (better) spray was out of stock.
It was also frustrating that she did not have any solid suggetions for how to treat our dog’s arthritis, other than referring us to a non-​DVM pet physical therapist. Do we exercise him more (to strengthen the muscles) or do we exercise him less (to save wear on his joints)? These are basic questions that a DVM should be able to answer. Likewise, she seemed completely stumped by our question about the heavily advertised dental sprays, to which her answer was «I’m not really into products.» Guess what: Drugs are products, as are OTC remedies. And it’s a vet’s job to know if a commonly advertised veterinary product is effective and safe.
The final straw was when the vet pressured me into accepting a prescription for Rimadyl (even though our dog was and is not in any pain), which they insisted on filling there at the vet’s office – without mentioning that Rimadyl has been blamed for the deaths of otherwise healthy animals. (There is a Wall Street Journal article about this by Chris Adams.) No mention of this at all. Fortunately, our dog vomited the Rimadyl and didn’t ingest any. I called to ask if they would take back the remaining drug and refund the small amount paid – the least they could do, in my view. The person on the phone said she would check and call me back; she never did.
Not long after that, our dog (who’s doing just fine now, thanks) had a sudden incident that led us to pay $ 3000 for emergency MRIs at another facility. That was our choice, and it was worth it to us. But our FCAH vet (whom we had listed as the referring vet) never once called to find out how our dog was doing, ask any questions, or just express concern.
There are several vets at FCAH, and perhaps some of them may offer a higher level of care. To be fair, I thought wait times were reasonable, and the staff was generally pleasant (if sometimes a tad officious). I can only comment on our experience, and we were ultimately disappointed.

Finding a vet is like shopping for a Dentist. there are 35 in a 5mi radius of your home and hardly any research can be done to figure out who is the more reputable.
My experience at FCAH has been nothing but stellar. The receptionist were friendly, Dr. C, the techs, and Dr. Yam were awesome with Bijou and our dog-​fight-​in-​a-​dog-​park incident that brought us to the Vet earlier than anticipated for our little rescued Beeeej. They answered my questions and even made an exception and squeezed us in to answer any concerns about the wounds healing and activity level.
Prices were reasonable as far as I can tell and the dog statue at the door is still fake.