Small Door Veterinary - Navy Yard

We've recently moved back to DC and the Navy Yard neighborhood and needed a new vet for one of our two cats. He'd previously needed teeth extracted and I could just tell (as moms do!) that his were bothering him again. Every staff member I met with over the course of his two appointments were kind and compassionate and my boy - the more timid of my two - warmed right up to these strangers. He received excellent care, I was constantly communicated with throughout his procedure, and then received thorough information on how to take care of him post-op at home. Highly recommend Small Door - quality care and a quality staff equals a happy (or as much as a grumpy one can be) cat.

Small Doors is the perfect fit for me and my dog. I have been a dog parent for as long as I can remember so I have been through the struggles of trying to make a timely appointment to leaving feeling rushed and unheard. Not at Small Doors, the appointment process is seem less and the doctor and the techs make sure all your questions are answered. I didn’t feel rushed and my dog enjoyed the treats and playing with the techs. The office is clean and inviting, I will never go back to the traditional vets office again. Hats off to Small Doors!

My experience here was the classic situation every pet parent dreads. The vet clinic that is more worried about money than your pet. Every single time I brought my dog here, I would have a good conversation with the vet about my dog. We'd talk about keeping an eye on a certain thing, knowing that we may need to do something about it down the road long term. Then in the weeks after the visit, without fail, I would get hounded with follow-up emails and calls asking when I wanted to schedule a 5k surgery for the thing I literally JUST had a conversation with the vet about. The same thing the vet had told me we didn't need to do anything about near-term, instead that we just needed to keep an eye on long term. While the individual people that work here are very nice, the structure of this CORPORATE vet office is designed to produce maximum profits. I have since left in search of a vet clinic where it feels like the vet and I will be on the same team to offer my dog the best care, instead of a place where I feel taken advantage of as a client. And I can essentially guarantee that the vague, buzzword-filled response that SmallDoor will post after this review will be done by a person at their corporate headquarters, extremely far away from this specific clinic location. Sounding like it was written by an AI bot. And therein lies the problem.

I would like to start off by saying the staff and facilities are great. They are very timely with medications and care. However, they charge far too much for procedures. I have shopped around the DC area and all the vets I spoke offered much better prices. My biggest problem with Smalldoor is they try and push unnecessary (and costly) procedures on you. One example was I got a poorly written email after some bloodwork suggesting my dog may have cancer (she doesn’t) and suggested a very taxing procedure for my older dog. They feel like they are a big company trying to squeeze every penny they can from you. I don’t trust them.

The staff was reassuring and super supportive when having our new puppy wellness visit! With our boy being 9 weeks old we really wanted his first vet experience with us to be positive and we were beyond pleased.