Harmony Hill Animal Hospital

06/20/2025

📢There's a heat weave moving through our area this weekend and next week. Please be careful and take precautions with yourself and your pets! 🌡🔥

A lovely bonus for our area is our stellar humidity. This makes it harder to keep temps down by sweating and/or panting, and shade is less effective at keeping us cool. It also means temperatures don't drop overnight as much.

What you can do you for your pets:

☀️Limit their time outside, try to take them out at cooler times of day and limit activity.

☀️Keep them inside in a temperature controlled environment

☀️Avoid walking on hot asphalt, walk on grass or trails when possible

☀️Always allow free access to fresh water

☀️DO NOT LEAVE THEM IN CARS, even for short periods of time. It is illegal in Loudoun county to leave them in a car unattended, not to mention extremely dangerous!

Here's is some more information from Loudoun County Animal Services on hot weather and pets: https://www.loudoun.gov/3996/Taking-Care-of-Animals-in-Summer-Weather

06/19/2025

Every man, woman, and child deserves freedom and has the right to pursue their happiness.

We support you. All of you. All of us.

in 1865, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, over 250,000 enslaved people in Texas finally received word that they were free. That day, now known as Juneteenth, marks a delayed but powerful declaration of Black liberation.

But emancipation wasn’t the finish line. It was the foundation.

In the face of uncertainty and chaos, newly freed Black people built schools, churches, businesses, and cultural traditions. They created mutual aid societies, elected officials, and established neighborhoods rooted in care and resistance. They chose community over chaos.

Juneteenth isn’t just a day of remembrance. It’s a celebration of how Black communities turned emancipation into empowerment and how that legacy continues today.

As we honor this day, may we reflect, rest, and recommit to building communities of progress where freedom is more than a word. It’s a practice.

06/19/2025

Hello! We will be closed June 27th, July 1st, and July 4th. Now is a great time to get any medications, prescriptions, or other requests to us now! Especially for any pets that have trouble with fireworks on the 4th. 🎆

Please keep a close eye on your critters around and during the 4th. Here's more information on July 4th Safety. https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/petcare/july-4-safety

06/12/2025

⚠️ WARNING: HARMFUL ALGAE BLOOM IN PROGRESS
A blue-green algae bloom has been identified at Burke Lake.
• Avoid contact with the water. This includes swimming, wading, and letting pets enter the lake.
• Keep pets away from the shoreline and do not allow them to drink from the lake.
• Individuals with respiratory sensitivities should avoid prolonged exposure near the water.
Avoid contact with the water until further notice. Blue-green algae can produce harmful toxins that pose serious health risks to people and animals.
Fairfax County Park Authority is monitoring the situation and coordinating with state and local health officials.

Please check Parks Alert webpage for updates before visiting: https://bit.ly/3x7CrP7

Additional information can be found on the Virginia Department of Health website: https://bit.ly/45Z3oUi

05/30/2025

We will be closed Tuesday June 3rd. We'll keep an eye on our emails/texts, thank you for your understanding! 🫶

04/29/2025

Our apologies for duplicate reminders or conversations as we work through the kinks of switching to our new system! Thank you. ☺️

04/22/2025

04/21/2025

It’s Veterinary Receptionist Week! 🥳

We appreciate and simply cannot do without our CSRs year-round, but this week we take extra time to acknowledge them and the amazing job they do here every single day.

Veterinary receptionists are held to a different standard, they are not only expected to answer the phones and direct calls, collect information, and contact clients about pet care. They also must be knowledgeable about vaccine protocols, lab work testing, medical conditions, nutrition, medical emergencies, and some are even cross trained at an assistant level. 💪

They are expected to attend continuing education courses (CE), just like other credentialed veterinary staff as part of our AAHA certification. They are certified in RECOVER CPR training and have even gone out of their way for additional certifications that aren’t required, all to help themselves be the best at their job.

Sierra is now a NAVC and VRCE certified veterinary receptionist! 🎉

So, when you call us up, and need help, you’re probably already talking the perfect person for that. And if they don’t know the answer? Well, they will find it for you. They are information seekers and WILL get that answer for you even if it means stalking an LVT or Dr. Werden for half the day (sometimes they literally must chase them down, and they will). 🏃‍♀️

A lot of the time, they’re expected to handle clients at some of the most emotional moments experienced in veterinary medicine. Compassion and empathy are their strengths, alongside of critical multitasking and communication.

They are the comforting voice on the phone when reassurance is needed. They are the face of the clinic, the warm welcome you receive when walking through the door, and the hug you need during a last goodbye. ❤️‍🩹

They juggle all the things, and then some. Often having to pivot from one to another with grace and many, many post it notes and to do lists. So please help me in thanking our amazing CSR team this week, and every week and remember to treat them with the respect they have earned and deserve. We would be lost without them. 🤩💜

04/18/2025

📢 Exciting News! We are thrilled to announce that our pet portal/app will be switching over to Otto!

With Otto, we are continuing our commitment to providing exceptional care for your furry friends! This post outlines everything you can expect from our new update.

Otto will be live on April 28th. 🥳 Texting will still be to our normal clinic number, so no big changes for you.

Otto will be accessible from their app BUT you can also just use a browser if you don't want to worry about downloading another app!

Our website will also be updated with a new widget that allows an easy way to request medications, records, and answer questions. :)

I'll be posting more information next Friday so stay tuned.

04/06/2025

Hi, guys! You may have noticed that we have a made a few updates to the page and it's generated some discussion. I do love a good debate and discussion-- it can lead to a lot of personal growth, hopefully of everyone involved.

Here are my thoughts on the matter:

Dr Werden here. We are in the business of helping people, their pets, and families. I can say without any doubt that the actions of the current administration directly antagonize that mission. I will not stand silent while Meals on Wheels is being shut down, our National Parks are being destroyed, people like us who believe a person has a right to define their own identity and that who you love is a personal matter are being attacked, legal citizens who have every right to be here are being illegally deported, and the organizations critical to protecting the health of people and animals the world over are being obliterated while life saving updates about public health threats like the bird flu and measles are being censored and sequestered while a quack is somehow in charge of public health for this country and actively pedaling snake oil.

We are here to save lives and help others, plain and simple. The current administration is hurting everyone who matters to us, everyone but the billionaires and the sycophants.

Be well. I wish everyone peace and love and protection in their personal pursuit of happiness.

04/05/2025

This is a big deal. It's recommended that we stop feeding the birds right now to help limit bird-to-bird contact and reduce transmission. It's also recommended that free roaming cats not be allowed out to limit their exposure. We recognize this is not always possible, but let's do what we can.

4/8/25 update: This fox's rabies testing has now come back negative (along with multiple other tests) and brain tissue samples have again confirmed HPAI suggesting that HPAI is the primary cause of the clinical signs this fox was exhibiting.

This past Monday, we admitted an adult female Red Fox from Hamilton, Virginia and she tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).

This animal was lateral on intake and not responding to handling. She was also exhibiting tremors and nystagmus, a rhythmic, involuntary eye movement that is often seen with brain trauma or disease. Given these severe neurological signs without any indication of trauma, our top differentials were rabies, distemper, and HPAI. As all of these diseases have a very poor prognosis, humane euthanasia was elected and testing was performed for rabies and HPAI. While rabies testing is still pending, the HPAI testing came back positive.

This is the first report of an HPAI positive mammal in our state (though most other states have seen many mammalian positives, especially in dairy cows and free-roaming domestic cats). With cases on the rise at our hospital, and foxes having been found positive in multiple nearby states, this case did not come as a surprise. This positive was of course reported to the proper authorities and those that came into contact with the fox are actively monitoring for HPAI signs, which include fever, body aches, and irritated eyes in humans.

Please help us minimize the risk of this virus by keeping a respectful distance from wildlife. Most cats are infected by hunting wild prey or ingesting raw meat or milk, so please do not allow pets to free roam and do not feed raw milk or meat products. Keep yourself safe by avoiding these products as well. Please read the press release from DWR (linked in the comments) to learn more about this virus and how to stay safe.

This virus is still considered low risk to humans and there is no need to be concerned as long as you are staying up to date on the outbreak through reliable sources and taking proper precautions around wildlife and susceptible domestics.

03/14/2025

Last week, for the first time in our 5+ years of being open, we turned the lights off, closed the clinic doors and ran off to Vegas. That’s right. We skipped town and went to Sin City for a week. The irony is that we flew across the country for a veterinary conference, not for a true, relaxing vacation. We spent 4 days learning, soaking up information, checking out the best, newest equipment, and we reserved a couple days to just take care of ourselves.

Our clinic maintains a high standard of care thanks to the exceptional individuals that choose to come to work here every day. Each team member cares for every animal as if they were tending to their own pet. We share the joys and the heartache of our client families. We do not hesitate but instead rise to meet our challenges. We are not too proud to admit to and learn from our mistakes, and we are constantly striving simply to do better.

One of our biggest challenges, however, is taking care of ourselves. Most of us are terrible at saying no. We stay too late. We see an overwhelming number of patients every day. We don’t take lunch breaks, usually surviving on random snacks throughout the day. We are probably dehydrated and need to drink more water, but coffee reigns supreme, followed closely by tea. We’re tired. We don’t have the time or energy to go home and absorb information from CE courses. We’re exhausted.

While we didn’t exactly kick back on those extra days in Las Vegas, we did find time to do fun and exciting things. We hope you enjoy a few photos of our adventures and our incredible team enjoying some quality time together.