River Road Animal Hospital

Zephyr loves going to River Road Animal Hospital! He gets super excited to see the doctors and all of the Vet techs. I don't blame him either because they are always so happy to see him and he gets top notch service! I chose RR because Dr Travis also ownes great danes and I wanted a doctor who knew the needs of the breed. I keep going because of the wonderful service by Dr Travis, Dr Derby and the team. He absolutely loves it there and I appreciate the expert advise and time that is given to me at every single visit. Update: we have been seeing RRAH for three years now. We have added another dog and he also gets the best care. We have seen every doctor at this place and every one of them is friendly and knowledgeable about our boys and their needs. The staff is always nice and helpful and make it very easy to get the information you might need. 5+ stars from us.

River Road Animal Hospital is an amazing place. The vets and techs truly love and care for any and all animals. I do place my babies well being in their hands with total confidence. They do everything humanly possible for their clients. Recently we unexpectedly lost one of our puppies at an early 10 years old. She had a mass growing inside that rather quickly ended her life. It was devastating. But we know the mass was not detectable due to where it was. While we mourned our loss, never would we blame River Road. There were no symptoms. A normal senior dog check up could never find it. The people (not just "staff") at River Road mourned with us. They do indeed love their 4 legged clients. I think this beautiful Southport area's growth is exploding. My concern is not with the excellent quality of care we get, but with the long hours and endless days, are high quality organizations such as River Road going to burn out? I hope everyone treats the people in these businesses around here with kindness, as they are the best around! P.S. zephyr looks so adorable!!!

We were out of town on vacation when our dog had a diabetic emergency. They were able to fit us in quickly. Dr. Derby was a life saver. She was attentive and followed up regularly to make sure our dog was doing well. She made a very difficult time much more manageable.

If you’re thinking about taking your pets to River Road Animal Hospital, please reconsider. Back in May of 2023, our 10yr old cat Mykie suddenly became sick and was running a very high fever. We weren’t able to get into our regular vets office, so we called around and River Road was able to get us into an emergency appointment. We saw Dr. Calley Steelman. We needed to find out the cause of Mykie’s fever, so they were able to give him an ultrasound. They kept him there for a few hours to reduce his fever, and told us the doctor would call with his ultrasound results. When Dr. Steelman called, she told us that Mykie had a tumor in his lung, and that his lungs were so completely filled with fluid that he couldn’t breathe. This didn’t sound right to us considering Mykie wasn’t coughing. We asked if there was any possibility it could be something else, and she said no, it was most definitely cancer. We did not see the ultrasound results ourselves. Dr. Steelman told us that he didn’t have more than a few days left to live and that there was nothing we could do. She recommended we put him down right away, even before we could say goodbye. We informed her that we needed more time with him and she said fine, but it was selfish of us. Apparently the most she could do was give Mykie steroid shots to reduce the fever, and hopefully prolong his life for a few more days. We took him home and luckily we were able to see our regular vet at Southport Animal Hospital the next day. Our vet was surprised by Dr. Steelman’s diagnosis considering Mykie was still very lively and acting normal. She did her own ultrasound and also x-rays. She showed us the images and where the mass was located, but Mykie’s lungs were not full of fluid like Dr. Steelman said. Our vet told us that there was a possibility of the mass being cancer, but there was also a chance it could be some sort of infection instead. She recommended we try antibiotics along with oral steroids for two weeks to treat it as an infection, before we came to our final decision. We agreed and told Dr. Steelman that we were going to try the antibiotics. She called our regular vet unprofessional, said that we would be “torturing Mykie by shoving pills down his throat” and that we would “cause him to suffer during his last few days.” After two weeks on antibiotics Mykie went back to see his regular vet. She did another ultrasound and more x-rays. The mass was completely gone so the doctor determined it was some sort of infection. Mykie is completely healthy now and back to his normal self. If we had listened to Dr. Steelman At River Road, we wouldn’t have our sweet boy anymore. The fact that she wasn’t willing to do anything to help him, and was so quick to want to put him down is disgusting and completely unprofessional. I highly recommend you stay away from here or at least get a second opinion before listening to that doctor.

Dr Travis and her staff are the best people. They are all amazingly Caring, and have seen all of my pets (several through cancers and old age/ diabetes etc) for years. Love them!!