COVID-19

Veterinary medical services have been considered an essential service by both the State of Virginia and the USDA and we are doing everything we can to continue to provide extraordinary service and care for you and your animals. AVS will continue to offer all services deemed necessary for the prevention and treatment of disease. We are committed to providing for our community. Appalachian veterinary Services is following ‘Safer at Home: Phase Three’ and implementing the following enhanced procedures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

• All doctors and support team staff are required to wear a face cover at all times while in the clinic and during appointments as recommended by the CDC.
• All small animal appointments will continue to be ‘contactless’ with curbside service and contactless pick-up of pet foods and medications; unfortunately, our clinic must remain closed to the public and we ask that clients remain in their vehicles while we take care of your pet.
• W​e encourage clients to utilize our capability to diagnose and prescribe medications remotely. For non-emergent appointments, rechecks, assessments of disease or question of severity these types of appointments can be managed via video-consultation. Please call our office at (540) 382-1100 for more information about the requirements and costs associated with video consultation appointments.

Before setting up an appointment, disclose any symptoms of illness you have or are currently experiencing prior to the appointment, including but not limited to: fever, dry cough, back-ache, loss of taste/smell, flu-like symptoms or a positive diagnosis of coronavirus. This will not prevent your animal from being seen, however you must have a non-symptomatic friend/family member meet with us and it will help our doctors and staff to better prepare with personal protective equipment.

We strongly encourage our clients to practice the following measures as a courtesy to our doctors and support staff.

• Stand six (6) feet away from each other at all times possible throughout your appointment.
• Use hand-sanitizer and wash your hands often.
• Do not shake hands.
• Utilize credit-card payments whenever possible and remain contactless throughout the appointment and payment.
• Effort should be made to have only one (1) person interacting with our doctors per appointment. This is to reduce the contact between multiple people which is a major contributing factor to the spread of the COVID-19 disease. Bystanders are strongly encouraged to keep as far away from the interaction as possible, as we will be interacting with many people throughout the day and it is just as important to keep yourself safe from our potential exposure.
• If you are of age 60 or older, you are considered to be in the ‘high risk’ group and are encouraged to find someone else to meet and interact with our doctors for appointments.

The team at Appalachian Veterinary Services is doing everything we possibly can to keep our clients and ourselves safe during this time due to the contagious nature of COVID-19. This is a difficult time for everyone and we are dedicated to providing the same quality veterinary care to our patients and community as we always have while maintaining a safe and healthy place to bring your animals. Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram for any policy changes that may occur over the next months.