Banfield Pet Hospital

This place does not care about your K9 family member!!! Our baby was always hacking and struggling for air. We took him several times and they just told us it’s because he’s old (average life expectancy for a dog of his breed and size was 5 more years). F&@king lies!!! It was because he had pericardial effusion. His life would have been saved if they had just taken a chest X-​ray when we first came to them about it! We were so trusting, foolishly. Now our baby is gone! He’s gone because these doctors didn’t even bother to investigate what was wrong.
Take your loved ones somewhere else!!!

My daughter took her cat to Banfield for car sickness medication as we were about to move her to Denver from Virginia. The vet wrote a prescription for 12 TIMES the suggested dosage. This error was discovered by my sister, who is a veterinarian. When we called to verify the correct dosage, we were told to «trust the vet» and only very reluctantly did the receptionist let my daughter speak with the vet. We ended up having to take her cat to an emergency clinic nearby and luckily, the cat survived. It was a frightening experience and the Banfield staff’s approach was CYA. They reluctantly covered the emergency visit. I will never go to a Banfield office again and I would suggest great caution to others who use their services.

I’m not really sure how ANYONE can review this vet with anything but 1 star. I’ll try to summarize my experience because it would be pages long. I’ve been taking my dog to this Banfield for probably 4 – 5 years. I typically took him in for just comprehensive and teeth cleaning. He’s a 13 year old 7 pound pomeranian who was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse about three years ago. He is on three medications and sees his cardiologist about once a year. I’ve managed to keep him from going into heart failure by ensuring he takes his meds and gets an EKG regularly.
So…I trusted Banfield and their vets to monitor my dog in between visits to his cardiologist. That clearly was too much to ask. I took my dog in for his comprehensive this summer. The vet (who did not typically work at this location) called me and told me that his kidney enzyme levels were high and asked me why he hadn’t had blood work done in 18 months. Um, excuse me. I brought him in religiously every 6 months. When I told her this, she was quiet and said that she would have to talk to the normal vet since they had not actually completed his blood work for 18 months, even though they told me they had during his visits. They never provided me with any good reason as to why his blood work was never completed. The only response i ever got was that «it was a mistake.» Issue #1
Issue #2: I called Banfield to have a 30 day supply of my dog’s heart meds faxed into the pharmacy to hold me over until his cardiologist appointment. They had no record of his meds, which I have REPEATEDLY given them on every single visit. They called the meds in; however, when I went in during his comprehensive, they once again had no record of his heart meds. Unreal! How do you monitor drug interactions or minimally monitor a patient if you have no record of their medications?!
Issue #3: A few years ago, I took my dog in to get his vaccinations. A few days after, he developed a pustule. I took him in and the vet told me that he had an allergic reaction to the Lyme vaccine. So… he takes my dog and says «I’ll be back». I had no clue what he was doing, until I heard my dog screaming in the back. So what the vet decided to do was drain the pustule without providing any anesthesia! They sent me home with antibiotics, which were in a pill form. Only problem was that the pills were like horse pills. When I called and asked if I could get liquid antibiotics because my dog can’t chew horse pills, the response I got was «I don’t see why not. All others dogs we see can chew them.» How is that relevant to me or my dog? Who gives a shi* if another dog can chew the pill? I’m telling you mine cannot. So they refused to give me a liquid form unless I paid for it again.
Issue 4: After issue #3, I was told not to get his lyme vaccine anymore. You would think this would be put in his records. Nope. Every single time I go in for his comprehensive, they go to administer his lyme and I have to tell them «no, he can’t get lyme.» The last time I went in, the vet assistant told me that she sees a note in his records saying «no vaccines». After I questioned her on what that meant, she went back to speak with the vet and came back and said «the vet said that he should no longer get ANY vaccines.» Really? Even his rabies. She just gave me a blank stare and said «I think so…» Why on earth would you have such a vague note in the record?
This practice is negligent and I have ever intention on reporting the veterinarians at this practice to the Board of Veterinary Medicine. This practice needs to be shut down. If these were human lives they were responsible for, they would have been shut down a long time ago.

The staff has always taken good care if my pets. I’ve had to walk in without an appointment a couple of times and they are always accommodating.

We have been taking our puppy here since we got her about 8 months ago. The staff is great! Everyone is very friendly and knowledgeable. Our puppy still loves going here and even gets excited when she sees the vet.

I am always incredibly impressed with this Banfield’s staff! My baby girl has been going here for over a year and has had excellent care. I trust the dr’s completely and am terribly sad to be moving away!

we are sorry to hear that Dr. Samuel Martinez is no longer at Banfield. He has a fantastic bedside manner, our dogs were always at ease in his care.

I brought my dog here between moving out of one house and waiting to move into the new house in a different state for an update on routine shots, a flea med recommendation, and yearly blood work, and to avoid an almost two hour drive to my preferred vet in southern MD.
I was bracing myself for high prices in a chain vet, but I walked away very satisfied and pleased with the entire visit.
The wait was not too long, even though I didn’t have an appointment, they cheerfully worked me in and kept me informed about the expected wait. During this time they were able to obtain my vet records from my two previous vets in different states and weigh my dog, and gush over her a bit. :-)
The vet i saw was Dr. Cory Bagnell. He was attentive, patient, personable, and quite helpful as we discussed my dog Dyna’s sensitive stomach, recent illness and recovery, and options on blood work, heartworm and flea meds. He and the tech were gentle, calm, and relaxed, and did the blood draw in my presence, which I appreciated. I felt my dog was treated gently and compassionately.
I ended up opting for the Optimum Wellness Plan to save a significant amount on her comprehensive blood work and booster shots today, and feel that I can easily transfer to another Banfield in my new location.
Frankly, I feel very enthusiastic about this vet and the overall experience here. (This visit was July 13, 2013.) They also called a few days later to check on Dyna, and how she was feeling after dealing with the booster immunizations. Super nice!

vets and nurses who pretend to be vets offer advice to maximize revenue
we went in with our 4 month old english bulldog and they wanted to give her shots that she already had because they wouldn’t recognize the breeders records
on top of that they gave us a quote for $ 1035 for a cherry eye surgery
we will be not be going back and are searching other vets in the area

We’ve been going to this location since we moved to the area five years ago and can’t say enough nice things about the staff. They’ve been with us thru the loss of two pets and the adoption of two more. They’re caring, compassionate and knowledgeable. I highly recommend!

I have been taking my 3 year old boxer mix to Banfield locations since I rescued her at 6 weeks old. Beginning in Reston and having to switch locations when I moved to Arlington, I have found the Banfield vets and staff to be competent, with one or two exceptions, but overall thorough and understanding of my typical line of questioning when it comes to my baby girl.
My most recent visit to this Banfield location was actually a result of another one being less than accommodating during an emergency — that being said, I couldn’t be happier that we found Dr. Birch. The Banfield on Jefferson Davis Hwy is the closest one to our new home, so when Fenway got sick last week I took her there and she was cared for by two different vets (over a two day span) and many aides of which I couldn’t remember a single name. I’m sure they felt the same way about me, that place is a mob scene! I have ignored it in the past, but this was an emergency and I was appreciative when they couldn’t perform my pup’s surgery due to a 4 hour doctor’s meeting that basically shut the location down for the afternoon.
Dr. Birch was more than accommodating when we rushed in with our dog — she knew her entire history as the other location had given her a heads up that we were coming… this was awesome and very comforting. She was very patient as we explained the situation in detail and was very thorough with her treatment plan. I felt more than comfortable trusting her to perform the surgery and she has been excellent with post-​op and follow up over the past week.
I will undoubtedly continue to take her to this location, and specifically to Dr. Birch, for all of Fenway’s future needs.

My dog hurt his ummm «unmentionables» while playing outside and we wanted to bring him to the vet to get checked out since he was in a lot of pain (understandably). Banfield was the only vet open at the time so we called and they asked if we had an appointment. When we told them no but told them what happened to the dog they told us to bring him in. When we got there it was about 5 minutes before closing and they still took him in. Checked him out gave him a prescription of strong doggy pain killers and antibiotics. They had us set up an appointment for a check up in a week make sure he is doing ok. Surprisingly it was a lot cheaper then I thought it would be for the check up and medication. The best part was the next day the vet called (even though they had no obligation to) just to see how my dog was doing!

We have been coming here for our dog for almost a year and have had no issues. I highly recommend the maintenance plan that includes the dental cleaning. It gives you coupons and discounts on everything in he Petsmart and vet related. They even see the dog for free and just make you pay for meds or actual tests.
Pretty easy to get an appt as well and all the vets and techs are great. No pet hotel here but others nearby.
Only downside is trying to get the wife or kids to walk through the Petsmart without buying some dumb toy every time.

My dog had some eye irritation. My vet couldn’t see us until later in the day so I took a chance and brought in my pup when Banfield opened at 9am. Turned out they had a cancellation and were able to get us in that morning. Dr. Martinez checked her eye for scratches, looked for debris, but found nothing. He gave us some eye ointment and he showed me how to apply it. After just one treatment, my pup’s eye is far less red and she seems much more comfortable.
I know I was fortunate to get in without an appointment and I appreciate how accommodating they were. They were very helpful, I was charged a very reasonable rate (especially compared to a emergency vet place) and my pup seems to be doing quite well.
No complaints here, I’m very pleased.

If this review were for the staff or Dr. Martinez, it would be 4 stars. Dr. Martinez is awesome and very knowledgeable and informative. Dr. Birch however, is HORRIBLE. We’ve been here numerous times for my puppy and enrolled in the wellness plan. My first visit was with Dr. Martinez and he assessed my pup and answered all our questions. After that, the next few times were with Dr. Birch and she literally says your dog is fine and then stares at you for several minutes so it’s on you to basically research what kind of questions to ask and what you should even be looking for. We took my dog in recently because she would be laying on the ground just relaxing and all of a sudden freak out and run around frantically. We suspected fleas or something in her ears because she would claw at them and when we took her to Dr. Birch she said her anal glands needed cleaning. Several visits later my dog still had the same issues. We went again and thankfully saw Dr. Martinez who actually thoroughly inspected my dog and yup, she had fleas. We didn’t even ask him to check for them. We just said can you please clean her anal glands because she’s being weird again. During that procedure, he saw the cause of the problem, she had fleas near her tail! I researched fleas after that and she definitely had them the several times I took her to Dr. Birch. A sign of fleas for all you dog newbies is «One way to check for fleas is to look for the „flea dirt“ — tiny black flecks floating in your dog’s fur. To distinguish flea dirt from regular old dirt, use a fine-​toothed comb to remove some of the black flecks from your dog’s coat. Put the flecks on a damp piece of white paper. After about a minute, if the flecks are flea dirt, the paper around the flecks will turn red.» This flea dirt was definitely on my dog. Dr. Birch is a «cat person» so maybe if you have a cat, she will inspect it but she definitely does not seem qualified to treat dogs. She doesn’t even seem to want to touch my dog. Dr. Martinez though is the one to request if you ever have to go to this Banfield location.

After a decade of taking my dogs to Banfield, I found out from a vet acquaintance that my dogs both had cancer –yes, he could tell just by petting them, it was that obvious. I brought them back to Banfield and didn’t say a word to see if they would come to the same conclusion. Result: gave me the hard sell on acupuncture for my dog’s arthritis, missed the melon-​sized tumor on her spleen. Adding insult to injury, the Wellness Plan wants me to pay $ 180 to cancel her plan, and is forcing us to pay the balance of our other dog’s yearly plan, even though he died. When I brought my dogs to the new vet, they rolled their eyes when I said I’d been taking them to Banfield. One vet called them McBanfield. Avoid. It seems cheaper but costs you more in the long run. They are truly incompetent.

Ok hospital but definitely has some downsides.
Cheaper than most but that being said, you tend to see a different vet each time and they all seem to be right out of veterinary school. Two vets admitted to me that it was in fact their first position out of school as a vet.
Banfield is also not equipped to handle emergencies like many other vets. If your pet needs any kind of surgery other than a routine spay/​neuter — they will send you elsewhere. This means if something terrible happens, the vet you must go to will not be one that your pet is familiar with and this will put additional stress on your pet who is already in a very stressful situation. Also, if you see a new vet every time, there is a higher chance for a misdiagnosis as the vet doesn’t know what your pet acts/​looks like when it’s not ill.
That all being said, this is a decent, cheap vet for routine vaccinations and check ups. Saves you money but definitely not the best option available.

Great docs here! The young gal doc was a sweetheart when our pup had a bum foot she even figured a way to save us money on his minor surgery! The staff was great too!

I adopted my 8 week old kitten from this Petsmart almost 2 years ago. Because he was a shelter cat, he had a lot of work that needed to be done. I decided to try out the Banfield within this Petsmart, since I wasn’t really sure of another place.
The staff is incredibly nice and when they heard of all of my cat’s problems, they suggested the Wellness Plan, which is $ 17 a month and covers vaccines, office visits, and a discount on medication.
This plan has saved me A LOT during the past 2 years and I highly recommend using it if you come here.
Besides the help with finances, the vet and vet techs are very gentle with my cat (who is absolutely petrified of the exam room) and spend a lot of time answering my questions.