Looking for a holistic vet in NoVA

[Alicia Bradley]

Originally Posted by CaliTerp07

Not to thread jack, but what happened? We've taken my dog there for years (and thanks to her habit of eating stuff she shouldn't, to the e-vet several times as well), and we've never had issues. Other than the price tag, I really like them.

They practically begged me to euthanize my rat, who is currently happily wandering around his cage playing with his foil cat ball. This struck me as more than a bit odd considering that they admitted their total lack of expertise with rats (for instance, they thought the porphyrin on his nose was blood). We took him to the Alexandria Animal Hospital at about 11 p.m. last Friday - his regular vet in Fairfax had long been closed for the day - after he had almost died from choking on a bit of pizza crust (never, ever again - I'm going to be very careful with treats for him from now on, since he's elderly and a bit sensitive, respiratorily) and was still acting very shaky and somewhat reluctant to go to the effort to breathe on his own.

They put him on oxygen overnight, but I think it might've done as much harm as good, since it was absolutely *freezing* in the clinic (he felt like a corpse when we picked him up the next morning and stayed that way for about the next 24 hours). They also had lights shining in the plexiglass 'cage' he was in all night - he was more exhausted than I've ever seen a rat when we picked him up the next day. Anyway, after we picked him up, we took him to his regular vet to see if he could squeeze him in. He was able to, and sort of apologized for the Alexandria Animal Hospital vet's insistence that we euthanize rattie.

I'm sure they're far better with cats and dogs, but if you have an after-hours emergency with an exotic species and you're in Alexandria, you'd almost be better off to Pender/Eastern Exotics in Fair Oaks (I wouldn't recommend them as a regular vet, though), unless you're in a situation where every second counts. Their prices are very, very high, too, as CaliTerp07 mentioned.

[CaliTerp07]

Yikes, scary! Glad Mr. Rattie is better today!!!

Yeah, I wouldn't take exotics there either (except of course in an emergency as you noted). They're strictly a dog/cat place.