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Review of Arlington Animal Clinic

Second update: Dr. Cole gave me a call to discuss ...

Second update: Dr. Cole gave me a call to discuss my concerns, which I really appreciated. She explained that they use the EKG as a baseline to be able to tell if an arrhythmia during surgery is preexistent or caused by the procedure. That made sense to me. She also told me that the EKG cost is $20, so I felt better that it wasn't added as a way to increase bills. I did not know that because the estimate and final receipt did not have costs broken down. It meant a lot to have this explained to me and brought back trust with the clinic.

I look forward to changing this to 5 stars once the communication is improved at the Clinic. I am not sure why I wasn't offered the chance to talk to vet when I had asked twice before about the EKG. I also ran into frustrations with communication (waiting outside in the sun for pickup only to just have a 10 minute phone call, being told one thing by the reception and another by a tech, etc.) around the socially distanced appointments, which I'd expect would be a little bit smoother this far into the pandemic restrictions.

I do really appreciate the new option for online vet visits for certain issues, like when my dog had an eye issue where photos were sufficient to diagnose.

Update from what would have previously been a 5 star review: I have concerns that Arlington Animal Clinic may be pushing unnecessary procedures. Within the last 6-10 months they instituted a new requirement of an EKG before all surgeries, no matter what. There was no option to decline this even for my one year old dog getting neutered. This is his second surgery here; his surgery in the fall went smooth and was before this requirement.

I asked about this new policy, and was told that they have found heart issues in 10 dogs under 2 which then required additional testing. I did not hear evidence that this actually prevented any adverse anesthesia outcomes though. Just like with people, the more you test, the more "problems" you find, problems that otherwise might not have been an issue for the animal. This is one reason why most cancer screenings don't start until a certain age, and why tests like full body MRIs are not recommended.

I want my dog to stay healthy and I do not want to subject him to more procedures and tests than are needed.

Routine EKGs are far beyond standard of care. Talking with friends, I have not heard of another local vet that does this. It isn't even a standard before all surgeries for people. If I had been presented with something about this being a new recommendation from a respected, major national vet society, I'd reconsider.

The main concern I have is that this overly cautious approach, with apparently no concerns about over testing, will spill over to all animal care here. This is a procedure I was easily able to research. What will happen if I need to take my dog in for an emergency? What kinds of way above and beyond, not really useful tests will be ordered?

I feel that I can't trust the judgement of this clinic anymore, and that makes me sad given the great care we have had here in the past. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to switch vets. In the end I paid for the EKG for the surgery, because it didn't seem like the right time to switch suddenly. I am still hopeful that this requirement will change or there will be some other indication that there is not a pattern of over testing here.