It’s the Five and Five, where nonprofit Washington Consumers’ Checkbook provides five top-rated local businesses and five tips for getting great service and prices. ARLnow readers can access all of Checkbook’s ratings of local veterinarians until Jan. 15 at Checkbook.org/ARLnow/vets.
The following veterinary practices are best bets for Arlingtonians, according to the Washington Consumers’ Checkbook.
These five received a top rating for quality (as reported by their customers in Checkbook’s surveys).
Arlington Animal Hospital
2301 Columbia Pike #G-1
Arlington, VA 22204
703-920-5300
Caring Hands Animal Hospital
2955 S Glebe Rd #C
Arlington, VA 22206
703-535-3100
Elpaw Veterinary Clinic
33 S Pickett St
Alexandria, VA 22304
703-751-3707
Northside Veterinary Clinic
4003 Langston Blvd
Arlington, VA 22207
703-525-7115
NOVA Cat Clinic
3838 Cathedral Ln
Arlington, VA 22203
703-525-1955
Checkbook’s Top Five Tips for Getting Great Vet Care for Less Scratch
- Size up veterinary practices. While you can’t assess all aspects of a veterinarian’s skills and expertise, you can judge many factors central to good medical care: Can you arrange to quickly get an appointment? Does the vet listen and communicate well? Spend enough time with you?
- Look for a vet who will provide thorough advice and comprehensive materials to help you avoid future office visits. For the health of your pet—and your wallet—the vet should offer advice on disease prevention, ways to spot health problems on your own, and taking care of sick pets.
- Shop for price. Checkbook’s undercover shoppers collected prices from local vets for six different procedures and found big price differences. To spay a seven-month-old, 25-pound dog, area practices charge fees ranging from $235 to $1,404.
- Don’t put much weight in American Animal Hospital Association accreditation. Veterinary hospitals can become accredited by the AAHA by meeting certain minimum standards. Interestingly, among the veterinary practices evaluated by Checkbook, AAHA accreditation seems to have little relationship to service quality.
- Think twice before buying pet insurance. Checkbook recently analyzed pet insurance policies and found that in most cases, even the best plans ended up costing more in premiums than they paid out over a pet’s lifetime.
Washington Consumers’ Checkbook magazine and Checkbook.org is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help consumers get the best service and lowest prices. We are supported by consumers and take no money from the service providers we evaluate.