Wagnolia Veterinary Clinic

Wagnolia vet is an overpriced veterinary clinic, completely illiterate to dog behavior who concerns themselves with padding your bill with expensive sedatives and meal supplements than addressing the care of one’s pet. My dog is one of the sweetest, kindest and friendliest dogs in the world. He had the misfortune of being a puppy in the pandemic. Wagnolia from the beginning of his treatments, beginning at around 8 weeks old, chose to have a Covid policy where they removed your pet from your care by throwing a rope leash around their neck and dragging them inside the building. Think if a human doctor did that to a child, would that be acceptable? After visiting wagnolia for the 1 million vaccinations they require, my dog has clearly associated this vet office with this traumatic memory. We have continued going to this overpriced vet for three years. After a check up the other day, the vet, Dr. Joshi, conversed with me reasonably about his anxiety with the vet. When giving the exam, the vet and her assistant cornered my 25 lb dog on a metal table, restraining him from behind, and wondered why he may be nervous. She agreed that the time before, when meeting a vet who had not been seeing him during those traumatic visits, my dogs rapport was noted as good. I said that he clearly associated her with a traumatic experience and she agreed we should work to have him come more frequently to the vets office. My dogs nervous reaction was not violent, it was simply an indication that they were handling him incorrectly. Has she simply let me stand by the table, with her checking him, the exam would have been simple. Would you be calm if 3 7 foot tall men circled you on a metal table. She diagnosed him with an ear infection and told me I could pick up the medicines later that day. Not to my surprise, in true wagnolia fashion, I received an email from wagnolia a day later, asking me to add a $100 a month anxiety medicine, an expensive dental supplement, and the ear medicine (which I agreed to) to my dogs treatment. After my over $200 yearly checkup, and paying $40 for an ear test, which probably was never completed but just diagnosed for money, I was not surprised to see them increasing their payday. When I said I would not be giving him the anxiety medicine, because it is solely attached to the 1 time a year we have a vet visit, Emma, who is about the most inept customer care person I have encountered, suggested that if I couldn’t visit the vets office three times a week with my dog so he got used to the vet, I should consider finding a new veterinarian. This is simply unacceptable. Vets are supposed to be experts in pet care. If one can’t realize that you are the cause of trauma, and you want to sedate a dog so they can visit, you should have your vets license revoked. Also, if the dog has no violent reaction and was perfectly calm when you were not enclosing him on a metal table, maybe find a way to adapt. Don’t expect the animal to adapt to your incompetence. It’s a dog. Don’t take your pets to Wagnolia. I should have transferred to Duke Animal Hospital long ago like everyone recommended.

Do not, under any circumstances, accept medication from this clinic. For seven fairly common prescriptions, I was charged over $300 more than what those would cost at an online pharmacy like 1800 Pet Meds. In total, my initial (and only) visit for my dog cost over $1000 to treat minor ear and skin infections. Additionally, the vet tech who applied my dog's ear ointment and cleaned his ears (something my wife and I do weekly) was so bad at it she didn't even TRY to get q-tips into his ears. We don't even have to give him treats at this point. Lastly, I was charged $27.50 for being 16 minutes late to my first appointment. The policy is 15 minutes. My appointment for, again, minor skin and ear infections took nearly 2 hours. Go anywhere else.

Poor customer service, overpriced compared to other Vets in the vicinity. They seem more concerned with padding the bill than anything else. Your pet will receive good care but they will find any and everything to charge you with. My dog needed a wound cleaned and one, literally one, stitch and the bill was $1,000.

I had a really good experience here. I just adopted a new cat (Agatha) and I wanted to take her in for a wellness exam to see how she was doing. They noted that her ears were a little dirty so they did a cytology. The ear did come back positive for an ear infection, and the tech Genesis was really helpful in showing me exactly how to clean the ears out and administer the medication. My vet was Dr. Bhatt who was really kind and professional. She was able to look in Agatha's mouth and saw that she had some dental tartar and some resorptive lesions (uh-oh) and recommended a dental which we will be undergoing in December or January. The appointment was only about 30 minutes which was awesome. Everyone there was very much a cat person which I really like about a clinic :) Sometimes I feel like other clinics are more dog focused ;) In total, my bill was very low. The initial exam fee was $72, with the ear cytology, ear cleaning, and ear meds all equaling about $130. I have pet insurance through Figo so I submitted her claim same day because they could cover that ear infection. Here is a pic of my sweet girl in an exam room. Thank you to Dr. Bhatt, Paige, and Genesis for being so great!

Honestly, find a different vet. We've been taking our cat here for a couple years and I totally understood the changes made during the pandemic to keep the staff safe. At this point, though, I have never had a face to face conversation with the vet and they seem to do everything they can to not get on the phone. It's rare when someone answers the phone, so usually updates are done in voicemail form from the support staff relaying messages from the vet. This is ok for simple tasks like scheduling, but frustrating when I have questions that require nuance or clarification from the people providing the veterinarian services. The schedule is always booked completely a month in advance, so they're clearly doing a good job for a lot of people but I just don't see the value here.