About Us

About Us

Steeplechase Veterinary Hospital was founded by Dr. Tonya Amiri in January of 2007.  After working for many years in two large practices in the greater Atlanta area, Sprayberry and Roswell Animal Hospitals, she developed a clear sense of what she wanted for her clients and their pets, and the best ways to achieve that.

Her goal is to be the doctor for her client's pets that she would want for herself.  To be caring, to listen, to be pro-active in preventing disease, to increase healthy longevity, to get to the roots of illnesses and remove them, these are her goals.

The way she achieves these goals is through careful physical exams, extensive communication with clients, the prudent use of diagnostic aids, and constantly updating her knowledge base to include results from the newest medical research, and finding ways to include them in the care of her patients.  Some examples of how these things have developed in her practice are as follows:

Modern Vaccine Protocols

Our vaccine protocols follow the American Animal Hospital Association's (AAHA) recommendations.  We routinely provide only the core vaccines, with all others being optional and recommended on an as-needed basis. 

We use USDA approved 3-year vaccines for all our core canine vaccines.  This allows us to use a rotational schedule after the first year so that your dog doesn't get overburdened year after year with multiple vaccines at one time, which can not only decrease the effectiveness of the vaccines given, but can also increase the likeliness of an adverse vaccine reaction.

We use only non-adjuvanted vaccines for our feline patients. These are available only in one-year protocols, except for the upper respiratory vaccines, but are extremely safe, and the only vaccines recommended by the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) for use in cats.  They reduce the risk of vaccine-induced Fibrosarcoma, a very aggressive cancer, to zero. 

Nutritional Recommendations

Dr. Amiri is very proactive in helping her clients help their pets achieve an ideal body condition.  The reason for this is that animals that are overweight can have their lives shortened by an average of 2 years.  She does this through dietary management and recommendations geared to each pet's specific needs. 

She is also a proponent of high quality pet foods, that have met the highest standards and been evaluated by veterinarian nutritionists.  Even the prescription diets she carries have been chosen, not because they offer the lowest prices or give her free gifts, but because they provide the best quality ingredients  available in a medical diet, as well as some of the most advanced research in medical nutrition.  She spends as much time as needed helping clients understand their pet's nutritional needs and how best to meet them.

Yearly Bloodwork

While the very old and the sick obviously need to have their organ functions looked at more frequently, Dr. Amiri feels that these functions need to be checked on  a regular basis for all pets so diseases can be  proactively prevented from progressing into raging illnesses.  These regular checks also allow trends to be monitored over the years in order to really get an idea of where health issues are headed so any appropriate treatment can be started early enough to avoid a serious situation.  She has also incorporated a small panel of blood chemistries and a complete blood count into the testing that she does yearly to check for heartworms. 

If this sounds like veterinary treatment your pet deserves, why not request an appointment and find out first-hand?  Or maybe you would like more information.  In that case, please call or look around this web site – you can learn more about some of the services we offer and what to expect if you have an appointment with us, and you can meet our team.