Blue Ridge Vet is absolutely the best! We have been using them for years and trust them completely! Very knowledgeable and friendly staff and the veterinarians are fantastic! Dr. Filchner has cared for our dogs all 11 years so far! From vaccines to stitches to a very scary case of pneumonia (when that deadly virus was going around a few years ago), Dr Jody is awesome as well! I would never go anywhere else with Buddy & Mindy. I can't say enough good things about Blue Ridge Vet!!
Ozzy loved going to the vet. All the staff was always amazing, accomodating, and caring. Ozzy was always beyond thrilled to go which made us happy. We miss him dearly. His life was short but so sweet. Would absolutely recommend Dr. Carol and staff to care for your pets.
I am considering filing a complaint with the PA Veterinary Board. They operated on the wrong area of my cat. I am trying to keep this brief enough so it will fit in the allotted review space.
On September 29, 2025, I took my cat into the vet to get a lump removed and biopsied. Once they got to the reception area, they looked up my cat’s record and asked if she was in for “a spay and a lump removal.” I had to quickly tell them that she was already spayed. They have papers taped up around the office saying that they are getting used to a new system, but I am not sure how long these papers have been up. At no point did they ask me to reconfirm where the lump was so they knew where to operate.
I received a call that afternoon from Dr. Carol Filchner, which is a different vet than the vet who had done the initial office sample (Dr. Benjamin Shelly), although I have seen her in past visits. She said that my cat was still under anesthesia and that (paraphrasing) “I think I found where the lump was. I opened her up and saw that it was just fat cells and closed her right back up.” I asked if it was in the area where I noticed the lump and the vet said yes.
When I got home with my cat, I noticed as soon as I let her out of the carrier that they did not operate on the correct area. I called them immediately and they called me back asking if I could come in the next morning to show them where the lump was that they were supposed to operate on.
The next morning (September 30), I brought my cat in and showed them where they should have operated. Dr. Filchner said that they saw the lump but chose not to operate on it for some reason. She also tried to tell me that they were “surprised I even found the lump” in the first place for them to operate on it. I did not appreciate being gaslit into thinking that the lump was hard to find. It seems like they were trying to make it seem like the lump was hard to find as the reason why they operated on the wrong area. Once again, if they weren’t sure, they had several opportunities to verify the location (at drop-off, over the phone during surgery, and having accurate notes in general). The vet also said that Dr. Shelly left vague notes as to where the lump was.
One theme I noticed in these follow-up visits was them admitting fault, but not being willing to do much about it. They also spoke with an air of nonchalance about the whole situation. To be fair, they said they would give me free follow-up visits and would cover the cost of the surgery if it was found that the correct lump needed surgery....but...
After the next follow-up visit (October 14), they did another sample in the office of the correct lump, which produced fat cells. They told me that another surgery was not necessary. I want to believe them, but I also think there is an aspect here that they did not want to give me a free surgery. During this visit, they also acknowledged that they should have asked me when I dropped my cat off where the correct lump was to operate.
Before the visit ended, I asked them if I could get something back for the cost of the surgery. They said that they are fine with monitoring the lump for free but “would have to see” about any further refunds on the surgery. It took a couple follow-ups to hear back from them, but I finally got a voicemail on October 29 from the vet saying they had already given me “a discount since [they] did not charge a surgery fee for that surgery,” but are willing to give me a $100 credit on my account.
I am writing this review, because I do not want this situation to happen to anyone else’s pets. My cat essentially went through surgery (traumatic for anyone) for nothing, had to heal from a wound in an area she should not have a wound (plus, nothing was removed), and may need another surgery in the future to operate on the correct area if it is found to be cancerous.
