Blue Ridge Veternary Associates

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I have used them for 12 years. They do a pretty good job. They are really good if you leave your dog overnight kind of thing. They used to be really good at trying not to leverage you for big bucks to  do all sorts of things that aren't necessary. I think they are kind of changing. I feel like that. Somethings get overbooked and I question them and they become unbooked. It's just turning more into a business I think over the years. They are really good in terms of responsiveness, their day cares, and vet services to stay over are pretty good during company hours, day or night. I would say the medical care is getting kind of pushy, like regular doctors offices. They push issues and procedures that maybe don't necessarily make sense.  I thought they did okay. They saw her, they kind of went through the particulars. I kind of cut down what they were thinking of doing. The other thing too and all that is that I think is unfortunate is that they try to get you to buy (like my dog is over 100 pounds) the largest heart worm medicine that's rated for 100 and so they try to get you to buy smaller increments in addition, so the heart worm pill rating is equal to the actual weigh of the dog. For years I have tried looking up aid for that and it looks like above the 100 tablet is good, nothing else seems to make a difference. They argue with me every time. They say "Well, you need a 100 and a 50 or whatever", They say "Why else would they make this size?" I said "Well why did they bother making the 100's? I can take two 50's instead of the 100." It's like a little scam. This last time the doctor told me "Well this area for heart worms I think is much lower risk." So my question was if it's a much lower risk why is everyone pushing the extra pill? It's another 50 to 100 bucks or whatever for the extra packet. They can always take enough to where it don't matter but why take it if it costs. The medicine side is starting to push their luck with expensive things. It is unfortunate that we feel a little concerned every time we go in there, I don't feel it's a honest practice.

I didn't care much for the wait.

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I like that they hold extended hours for pet owners, they have regular veterinary hours up til eleven at nights which I think is outstanding and they are a twenty four hours veterinarian hospital which why we choose them as our vet because the hospital service are with the vet that's doing the regular service for my dog.

Friendly staff, their very good with explaining what's going on, Their very good about explaining what's gonna be needed  and what the steps are that they gonna have to go through to take care of the pet.

A few years ago, when I just moved to this area, I would take my cats to this nearby clinic for their routine examinations and vaccinations. Most of the time, their front desk area was crowded and chaotic, with people picking up and leaving dogs to be kenneled or groomed (not exactly an ideal environment for sick or stressed cats).  But I did appreciate that the technicians would draw blood in the examination room, where I could observe and comfort my cats.

One day in 2011, I brought in one of my older cats who always had been very healthy.  I could tell something was wrong; he wasn't eating quite as well and his energy level was down.  This time, the staff took him into the back  room to draw blood.  They returned him to the examining room, soon followed by Dr. Campbell.  I told her that he seemed to be ill, and she responded, "Well, he's old, he's failing."  I was surprised at this non-diagnosis and asked if she wasn't going to examine him.  Oh, she replied, "I already examined him in the back" while they were drawing blood.  (You cannot properly examine a cat while he is having blood drawn!)  Her curt and dismissive remark was the only diagnosis she offered.  The next day she called with his blood test results and seemed surprised that they indicated nothing unusual!

Just four days later, I asked another veterinarian at an entirely different practice to examine him.  She gave him the usual professional examination, palpating his abdomen, etc.  She IMMEDIATELY said she needed to do an ultrasound examination of his bladder, as she could feel a mass.  He had a serious tumor and this was the reason for his illness.

It is patently obvious that Dr. Campbell did not perform a proper, thorough examination.  Yet that was the service I was paying her to perform!  For that reason, Blue Ridge Veterinary Associates deserves a grade of F.

I later returned to Blue Ridge to obtain copies of my cats' medical records of their visits there (needless to say, we never used that practice again).  I was astonished to see that a prominent part of the records was a notation of the "time" we allegedly arrived for each appointment.  I live five minutes away, and never had any occasion to be late.  But the long delays at the front counter, waiting for the long line of customers, were counted as "late" arrivals in the records!  I have since asked several veterinarians, and not one has heard of making this part of a pet's actual medical record!  (What happens, I wonder, to clients who actually do arrive late?  Are the pets punished for their "bad" owners? )

Interestingly, I had a more recent encounter with Blue Ridge in 2015.  While working with an animal charity, I had to take a semi-feral cat to be neutered.  The charity had an account with Blue Ridge and I was instructed to take the cat there.  This was against my better judgment, but my colleagues suggested that it was worth seeing if Blue Ridge may have changed since my previous experiences.  I brought the cat in the usual cage "trap" covered with a towel that is used to transport a feral cat.  I made sure to leave my telephone numbers, and all day long I expected a telephone call to tell me that his surgery had been completed and to let me know his condition and the results of his examination.  I never heard from them. 

Finally, in the evening we went to pick him up.  The technician came out and said "Oh, I'm not sure I can find your trap [in which I had brought him that morning].  Can you just carry him out to the car?"  Remember, this was a feral cat, after dark, and we were expected to carry him across a busy parking lot with moving cars!  Fortunately, she eventually she found the trap.

Then I asked some questions about his post-surgery care.  I noticed she wasn't giving us any Buprenex or any other drug to deal with post-operative pain.   "No, he doesn't need that" was her reply. This is just unacceptable -- pain relief is now standard humane practice after veterinary surgery. 

This recent experience only confirmed my earlier observations about Blue Ridge Veterinary Associates.  They are a throwback to an earlier era, when pets were little more than unfeeling farm animals, not valued members of the family.  Neither my beloved pets -- nor the deserving animals I foster -- will ever visit them again.

Everybody around my area use them. They also have a 24/7 emergency department so they are very good. They are excellent.

Everything is good. Rebel is living. It was a positive experience. The only thing that wasn't positive was that they kept wanting to keep Rebel until he would eat. My nephew is a vet in Florida and he kept saying, "Don't worry. Rebel will eat when he wants to. It doesn't matter if it's five days with him not eating." So, I think everything was good. You could go over there any time and you could sit with the dog. They tried to make a separate room when it was available and we just would sit there with Rebel and I'd try to give him a little chicken or something like that. So, everything was good. The only thing was even when we went over on Saturday - we went over Saturday afternoon and Saturday night, they still didn't want to release him and then my nephew from Florida said, "It doesn't matter if he doesn't eat. Let them take him home." He was still on intravenous medicines and everything. There was one woman there and she took quite a bit of time helping me setting up and giving the medicines. Some you had to mix it with water and shoot it in his mouth or do all this stuff, and even with the food for a while because he wasn't taking food. So, they didn't want to release him yet. But my nephew said, "Release him. Let them take him home and let them deal with it." But they were good. That woman took quite a long time with me to make sure I'd know how to handle Rebel. They left the catheter on. She said, "If any time during the night it gets too much just bring him back." In the morning because everything was okay they took the catheter off. So, I had a very good experience. The cost was $3600. We took him Monday night and right away, just to see him and the things that they were going to do right then was $1600. I didn't find out till we came home that Rebel had gotten into the basket. When we got home we found out that he had thrown up. I started seeing all this fiber. I was looking around going, "What is this fiber?" and then I realized it was the basket. By that time because they didn't know what caused it they had done an ultrasound on him. Because it was at the middle of the night we paid extra charges for the ultrasound. But he was dying. So you had to let all this happen. The overnight fee normally is about $90. And then there's different fees because he was taking intravenous medicines and things like that. So, it was $3600. At first they thought maybe it was cancer because he was bleeding from his rear end. It was awful. With the ultrasound they decided there was no cancer. I guess, it was a reasonable fee because he was there from Monday till we got him about 11 O' clock Saturday night and they had him on intravenous all the time and everything. It was a lot of money. I guess, it's reasonable for all that they did. A couple of years ago we were away in April. My husband and I were in Alabama. My sister got sick. So the rescue had to take her to the hospital. So she was home alone with Rebel. So rescue took Rebel over to Blue Ridge veterinarian. We had never used them. When we went the next day to pick Rebel up and asked them, "How much is it going to cost?" They said, "Oh, nothing. It was an emergency." Our neighbor had three bull dogs. A couple of years ago they attacked Rebel. They had him in his mouth and they were going to tear him apart. It was awful. We got Reby away. We took him to the hospital in Leesburg, which is a little further away. I didn't really know where Blue Ridge was and everything. They did good service and that was a more modern place. But, they made us give a credit card before they did anything. Now, over at Blue Ridge they didn't ask for any kind of payment. When we were leaving that night, leaving Reby over, I asked if they wanted credit card or something. They said, "No. We'll get it later." They didn't take payment until we took Reby home. So they never asked for payment. I was shocked because this other place before they had even looked at him we had to give them a credit card. The rooms where you sit and things like that weren't as fancy. But, they have a lot of people work there and everybody seem to just really care. They're more country. The staff was very caring and knowledgeable. The waiting room is fine. They're 24x7. They're there all the time. They really were trying to save his life and they did.

I have been using them for six months.  I like them much better.  They are open 24/7 so that it works with my schedule.  My dog had an infected ear and we were able to get in quickly.  They are just very available.  They are very friendly, very easy to talk to and gives you a lot of good information.

After I had waited for 30 min. the vet tech took the puppy's temp with a dirty thermometer out of her pocket.  Once the doctor arrived in the room, he was clearly in a bad mood.  He did not listen to her heart or lungs, just felt her rib cage and quickly looked in her mouth.  He then gave her two shots and told me she needed to be dewormed.  Even though he had no reason to think she had worms.  He did not ask me any questions, was not concerned with her at all and was only in the room 6 minutes.  The vet tech went to get a "new puppy packet" but apparently those are on back order and she would get me one later.
I then waited to check out for 20 minutes because they were waiting for my chart.  I will never go back.....

For veterinary services, we deal with Blue Ridge Veterinary personnel. They did a great job. I felt good knowing it is no longer in pain. We just started with these for the past year and a half when our old vet moved. They have great service, very good customer service and very compassionate. They have excellent hours, they are open till 11 o'clock at night, regular time. It is very expensive. They are more expensive than every where else but you have to face the things they have to offer with their price. It is expensive.

I had some emergency surgery done on my cat and they were wonderful. They were very personable and understanding.

im a bath. This is the second time now that I have picked him up from boarding with poop and quot;cakedand quot; to his back-end. I also find that the staff isn't very friendly or helpful. They are only interested in taking your money.

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Recently, we have noticed that not all the care is great. There are good vets there but there are also some awful, rough vets, who have no idea about rats. Prices ranged from 171- 45 dollars for a doctors appointment and antibiotics for the same treatment. Also, our pet had a huge infestation, they continually failed to notice, although I said he still has scabs around his neck. We separated the two rats and thought that they were fighting. Turned out at the other vets down the road, it was a massive infestation. My two kids have gone to college and these will probably be the last rats we have, and we hope to get some cats, but I don't think we will go back there. It is too uneven a service. It used to be awesome, maybe it has got too big.

I really appreciate that they have very extensive hours; they open early and stay open late so I don't have to worry about getting stuck at work. They genuinely seem to care about my dog. They're very open to questions and suggestions; the staff is extremely nice and friendly.

Blue ridge vets are very kind, patient and take the time to explain all options for treatment. Unfortunately for the first time in 37 years we are petless. But our last cat, Sheba lived to be 23 years old and we owe a lot to blue ridge for her longevity.

We used Blue Ridge Animal Hospital last about a month ago. They take very good care of your animals. We've had two different dogs that we've used with them. We unfortunately had to use them to euthanize the old guy, he died on us a couple years ago because he had cancer. They were very concerned about that and very helpful. This one has been there for her shots and an urinary infection and a couple doses of tick born infections. I don't have a total comparison for price but I'm not disappointed by the pricing, so it's reasonable, perfect. I never had any problem getting an appointment quickly if I needed one, the wait time is excellent.

We use Blue Ridge Animal Hospital. We used them on Monday. We spent around $300. They are fantastic, they are always good. They are extremely knowledgable. We have been using them for eight years. I think the prices are reasonable. They have expertise in any problem you have. They are unsurpassed. It's a good idea to ask which vet is most comfortable with dog issues or live stock.

We recently moved to this area and brought our dog in for flea and tick treatment as this wasn't a problem where we used to live. Our dog has had an ongoing ear infection for a very long time. Our old vet would give us antibiotics and a rinse solution but we were never able to get on top of the infection. The vet at Blue Ridge swabbed the ear to determine what type of bacteria was causing the infection. We started her on antibiotics and a proprietary solution developed by Blue Ridge. After the first week the vet phoned to see how her ears were doing. Then after the culture results came back, she called again to add antibiotics based on the results. She then called again to see how our dog's ears were doing. Her ears are now completely infection free and they have never looked better. We were amazed that after only a few weeks, Blue Ridge could get rid of her ear infections that our dog had been living for so long.

Terrible experience. All about the money, the money, the money. Rude unprofessional staff at desk. Insisted on Bordatella update that day for grooming, even though injection would not even take effect for 7 more days, which made it useless. Charged $70 addtl. for injection, including a and quot;vet visitand quot;, even though dogs were already there for grooming. Have heard numerous feedback complaints from others who have used their service.

They just have good technicians. They are thorough. They have multiple types of animal services. They even do avian with a bird, so it is rare to find an avian doctor. We kind of live in an agricultural community, so I think they are well respected. Their office is 24 hours. They are a little bit expensive. I would continue to use them in the future.

I love the fact that they are open 24 hours, so if I do have an emergency and just take my animal late, they have someone of their staff all times. We have a geriatric dog, and the groomer himself is truly great and very good handling up him. He gives special attention and takes his time, and I don't feel like he is just trying to get through off dogs. It is one-on-one care of the animal. I would continue to use them in the future.

My dog was 14 years old. The people were very kind and gentle with me. They are always available. We had to go once in a middle of the night. They are just very good. They do a good job. The price is fairly average for this area. They wouldn't have been in the business, if they would have been very high.