Montclair Animal Hospital: Vernon Mark O DVM - PERMANENTLY CLOSED

Dec 2023

Our healthy, 1-yr old, fur baby (mixed lab) was unable to walk, loss of mobility in her hind legs after receiving care from Dr. Hunt at Dale City Animal Hospital. My husband and I have attempted to contact Dr. Hunt to no avail. We ultimately had to seek emergency care for our pet canine at a different veterinary hospital in the early morning hours on 12/29/2023 after a vet visit with Dr. Hunt on 12/28/2023. We were quite concerned that after our one year old pet dog's visit with Dr. Hunt that our pet dog began to suffer lameness/immobility, heavy panting, and yelping when touched where she received treatment (wellness/preventive, blood draw, shot, etc) administered by Dr. Hunt. Dr. Hunt reached out to us hours after the emergency (via voicemail message) after receiving the medical report from the veterinary hospital where we had to seek emergency care for our pet dog. Currently, we have not spoken directly with Dr. Hunt to explain our pet's complication(s) with walking/lameness, lack of a bowel movement, elevated temperature, and sensitivity/yelping when our pet dog is simply touched where Dr. Hunt administered an injection. Our inability to reach Dr. Hunt was not for a lack of trying. After receiving the voicemail message from Dr. Hunt, we contacted the Dale City Animal Hospital, was placed on a brief hold, and then told that Dr. Hunt would give us a call back. After several hours without a telephone call from Dr. Hunt, we telephoned the Dale City Animal Hospital again in an effort to speak with Dr. Hunt about our pet's complications after the treatment by her/Dr. Hunt. After another unsuccessful attempt to speak directly with Dr. Hunt, we were politely told by the receptionist/front desk (Jennifer) that Dr. Hunt is seeing other appointments and 'may give you a call today.' We never received a call back from Dr. Hunt. It is extremely concerning that a healthy pet (1 years old) experienced complications involving lameness/immobility, panting, trembling, an elevated temperature and the treating veterinarian lacked any urgency or care to speak directly with the pet's owner regarding the care of her patient (our family pet). Dr. Hunt appears to be pleasant and professional, but when our pet experienced complications that required our pet receiving emergency care at a Veterinary Hospital after receiving preventive, wellness care from her/Dr. Hunt, Dr. Hunt simply could not be reached. As we were told, she had appointments ... As far as the status of our pet dog, her health & mobility is improving. The staff at the Veterinary Hospital where our pet dog received emergency services provided an explanation, recommended care & prescribed medication for the pain to help with our pet's recovery. The communication alone was welcomed from the emergency staff. Dr. Hunt's silence is deafening. We are transferring the care of all of our pets from the Dale City Animal Hospital.

Jun 2022

I have been awake all night because my son and I SHOULD be dropping my Skeeter for surgery this morning. Here is why we are not. I have been going to Dale City Animal Hospital for many, many years. Well, they WERE an Independent Vet Practice during most of that time. They were bought out by Noah's Ark, a country wide Chain Vet Practice. (THEY ALSO NOW OWN GUNSTON ANIMAL HOSPITAL IN LORTON). Well, MY Vet, who I loved-- left. They hired a bunch of "young" vets (sometimes good...sometimes bad) who don't mind working for a chain as long as they make money. They did not "rename" the practice, perhaps they don't want folks to know they were "bought out". You get to "see" whoever is available. Kinna like a Kaiser for pets. Here is my experience with this Practice...... I brought Skeeter in for a urinary issue and saw Dr Coppage. $850.00 later I was told Skeeter had a bladder stone that was not blocking her urethra and she recommended a course of antibiotics. I asked her about surgery to remove the stone (it looked to me to be big and spikey) and was told by Dr Coppage that no one in the Dale City office liked to do surgery, so they do not do it at that location, and I would have to go to a vet they partner with in Manassas. (reallllly????) After the course of antibiotics, the issue with her urinating resolved, but then came back. I called and tried to find out how to book an appointment with the vet in Manassas who does THEIR surgeries, and the receptionist told me she would have the vet call me. I received a call from Dr Terry. After speaking with her, I was told that what Dr Coppage said was not correct, that she would do Skeeters surgery. Then she wanted Skeeter to come back in. $400.00 later, I was told that it looked to Dr Terry that there was a mass on Skeeter liver, and she wanted the radiologist to look at the x-ray and she would call me. She called several days later with the good news there was no mass on the liver and she would schedule Skeeters surgery when she could arrange a tech to assist. She then called me to say that May was all booked up and she could not do it until June 8th. I made THAT appointment and was told I had to bring Skeeter back in for a senior blood panel prior to surgery (6/2) $350.00. They called, texted and emailed me no less than 5 times to verify the appointment. *** Today**** (6/7) The day before Skeeters surgery appointment, I got a call from the Receptionist that Dr Terry was taking tomorrow off and Skeeters surgery has been cancelled. Now...what probably does not matter to anyone at this office, (but is my reality) is I am a retired senior citizen on a fixed income. I have already spent $1600.00 that I scrimped, saved, and did without to get. (I love my dog) I am handicapped now, and do not drive if I can help it. My son, who lives in Hartwood, VA, takes off work and comes up here to drive me to appointments. (which I do NOT have often) My son had arranged with his job to take off work so we could drop off and pick up Skeeter to have her surgery. When I asked the receptionist why Dr Terry would possibly need to take a date she has surgery scheduled off (with NO NOTICE), and if she thought (as I did) that that was extremely unprofessional, she said she couldn't say. So..we now have Dr. Coppage and Dr. Terry at this office who do not seem to know what they are doing. Now, let's bring up Dr. Odoms faux pas, which I had just let go and chalked up to I'm not really dealing with him. When I got Skeeters antibiotic, I saw the $60.00 price and asked if this was something I could get at Walmart for $4.00. The receptionist said she would check. She came back to the desk and stated Dr Odom said that Walmart did not sell that antibiotic in that dosage. I said ok and paid the money. When I left the office, I got home and checked the internet.... AND Walmart DOES sell that antibiotic, in that dosage. So I called my Walmart and found out, yes, they had it in stock and it was priced less than half what I paid. I guess no one thought I

Apr 2022

The one star is because unfortunately that's the lowest rating I can give. This is the first time that I have felt strongly enough to leave a review for a business and having to think about my experience I feel this is the only way that I can express My disappointment in this particular animal hospital. We are new to the area as we are a military family and just transferred here . we decided to look into this hospital for our pets because of the review that our new neighbor had given us. Sadly again the experience was not the best. I called last week to inquire about setting up an appointment for our two dogs to established a new veterinarian in the area when I called a young lady abruptly pick up the phone and said hold please I was on hold for over 10 minutes she came back on the phone said that they were extremely busy and short staffed and she would not be able to speak to me at the moment that she would take my number and call me back well three days later and still no phone call, I decided to give it another chance and called back a young lady answer the phone by the name of "Andrea " she answered the phone abruptly, I was trying to explain to her that I called a couple days ago and was told that someone would be getting back to me to set up appointments for our new pets first she cut me off in the middle of my Conversation to explain that they were short staffed and extremely busy I totally understand the situation then again I tried to explain to her what we were trying to do she began to over talk me , I tried to explain to her briefly that we were military we're new to the area we transferred we're trying to establish a new veterinarian but the whole conversation with her felt rushed she was very impatient wouldn't let me finish my sentence basically it sounded like I was being a nuisance for the questions that I was asking I asked if they offered a military discount she roughly said yes and depends on the services what the discount would be which I don't understand what that meant again the conversation with her was very short .she seemed impatient and basically sounded like she just wanted to finish the conversation I thanked her for her time and the information and I told her I would call back after speaking to my husband about making an appointment. As soon as I got off the phone I went to the hospitals website and to my astonishment I realize the individual that I was talking to was the hospitals clinical manager " Andrea" - I was shocked because again she was not very professional and her customer service skills were very lacking . I work in the human medical field (oncology) as an office administrator so I clearly understand the stress but again I believe Andrea needs to take a step back and work on her customer service skills and understand that The questions that are asked of them are because we did not work in the veterinary field and just need a little handholding