Friendship Hospital For Animals - Brandywine Location

I brought my cat in yesterday for a hypoglycemic episode and every staff member I interacted with was absolutely wonderful. The intake staff were very friendly and immediately responsive to her needs. The vet tech was incredibly kind, thorough, and understanding. The vet, Dr. Danny Capasso, was beyond amazing. He was transparent and honest, explaining both the potential best and worst case scenarios in a clear and understandable way, and gave me multiple updates on her progress throughout the evening and night. He also was aware that I had financial restrictions and ensured that he took that into account at every stage to the best of his ability. I have been to a LOT of vets, internists, and animal hospitals and he is one of the best I’ve ever encountered.

I started taking my large, anxious, dog-reactive dog to Friendship a year and a half ago and have been very pleased with the care I have received, in particular from Dr. Goldberg and her team. The veterinary staff is kind, compassionate, knowledgeable, and genuinely invested in my dog and her wellbeing. We are in every couple of months for my pup and her various issues (GI, allergies, mast cell tumors, and more) and I always appreciate their attention to detail. They have a form that I fill out before the appointment to give some background on the issue my dog is experiencing, and their staff is always very prompt and thorough when helping with administrative requests (ex. Medical records, pharmacy needs, etc). When I send emails, they are responded to promptly and my concerns are always addressed quickly. They work remarkably well with my dog-reactive pup - I have never been made to feel bad or uncomfortable because of my dog’s reactivity, and they do their best to accommodate us whenever possible. I am typically offered the option to wait in the exam room until I pay so my pup doesn’t need to be around the other dogs in the waiting room, but I rarely need to take them up on that offer. Since they opened their second location, the waiting room is typically relatively calm and I have enough space to keep my reactive dog at a comfortable distance from other dogs. They have a small parking garage under the building with a few spots, but if you drive a very large vehicle, be prepared for a tight squeeze. Sometimes all the spots in their garage are full and I have to street park, but I never have trouble finding a spot within one or two blocks of the office. I just build in enough time to park and walk to the office before my appointment now. As far as cost, this is definitely the most expensive vet I have been to, but it is my first vet in DC proper, so I don’t find that surprising. I find the costs reasonable enough considering the location and the amount/quality of care and resources available to you here. I never have to wait long for an appointment. They have the capability to handle pretty much any health issue my dog could have in-house - they have specialists on staff. I have nothing but positive things to say about Friendship! Thank you to Dr. Goldberg and her team for all the care and support they have provided me and Rosa - we appreciate you immensely!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I cannot say enough good things about Friendship Animal Hospital in DC. My 13-year-old Staffy woke up with a suddenly lame back leg, and I was understandably worried. From the moment we arrived, the team listened carefully, treated us with kindness, and made my dog feel comfortable. They promptly diagnosed the issue and were able to treat her the very same day, which gave me so much peace of mind. The level of care didn’t stop there — they followed up afterward with both emails and phone calls to check on how she was doing, which truly speaks to how much they care about their patients. The entire staff, and especially Dr. Eringis, provided the best possible care for my dog. Compassionate, thorough, and professional from start to finish. I’m incredibly grateful and would highly recommend Friendship Animal Hospital to anyone looking for exceptional veterinary care. Thank you!

I would REALLY advise against Friendship Animal Hospital (the one on Wisconsin Ave in Tenleytown that’s also an ER hospital). We took our dog here for many years, and had good experiences. However it looks like they were acquired by some huge conglomerate and (likely) fired staff and doctors to increase revenues and lower costs and it has really impacted their ability to provide decent care. Our 15 year old dog had acute pancreatitis and wasn’t eating. They recommended we keep her there for treatment overnight. We brought a huge cooler of her favorite (low fat) foods and were told to come back in 24 hours while the staff worked on getting her to eat. When we returned we found the staff (the new shift that took over after we left) didn’t even know about the cooler, hadn’t tried to feed her, and hadn’t given her any pain medication despite the intake vet telling us that she was in extreme pain from the pancreatitis, and had basically just left her in a kennel for 24 hours and done nothing. The next vet then told us she would need a feeding tube or she would die, and there was no way we could care for her adequately at home. They prescribed her a medicine which we took home, and when I opened it they were HUGE bitter tasting tablets (our dog was 12 lbs) that there was no way I could’ve administered to her. Of course it’s available in smaller tabs, capsules and liquid formulations (which I found out myself and called into a compounding pharmacy) but a competent and fully staffed clinic would’ve realized this complication and recommended the medicine in a different form right from the start. We took her with us, I fed her baby food from a syringe and monitored her 24/7 for a week and she fully recovered and lived pain free for 2 more years. I don’t blame the vets or staff, who are now overworked because the goals of the conglomerate are to minimize personnel so they can maximize profits. I blame the corporate greed that is destroying all the brick and mortar service providers we rely on every day. Regardless I would not recommend taking your pets there anymore.

This is a hard one to write because as of today my cat is fully recovered despite the poor care she received at Friendship. It was going to be a two star review because her healing did progress as it should but after their negligence almost caused her to lose her paw, I feel the need to warn others about Friendship Surgical Specialists and Dr. Glassman. Four visits ended up with an unscheduled follow up visit including two trips to the emergency vet. Long waits and deprioritizing of her care in favor of procedures like surgery that make them more money, meaning at times she waited 8-10 hours in a cage there without food. They almost never answer the phone and take a business day to respond to emails. My cat is permanently traumatized and hides under the bed multiple times a week when she thinks we are taking her to the vet. The last straw was them applying a brace so tight that it acted as a tourniquet. Her paw was swelled to the size of my palm and had I not noticed sooner her paw could’ve been amputated. $1k and two trips to the emergency vet later to treat a skin infection as a result. She’s ok. But I was furious. The point is Friendship is owned by private equity. They care about money above all else and certainly above the animals in their care. They are hounding me about paying for the visit that almost caused her to lose her paw, which I truly can’t believe. Please avoid FSS if you can.