Magnolia Animal Hospital

"For the longest time, I had great experiences here. They took great care when spaying my sister's cat to do it safely and provide aftercare our previous vet did not provide for my own cat, Mikaylah. However, my experience greatly changed for the worse as of our last and final appt (final because Kayla is now being seen elsewhere. Her records were transferred, and this year's annual was scheduled at a different vet, a practice that will now be her new primary care provider and not Magnolia). Let me start by saying that I stayed in the room with Kayla for all appts, only to learn that she had been incorrectly marked as a grumpy cat in her paperwork (she isn’t - she only dislikes going to the vet about as much as any other cat and has never bitten the vet, to my knowledge). Kayla needed an x-ray to check if she had passed something she'd eaten and when the vet tech brought her back in so the vet could go over her results (she had passed it!) with me, I was informed that she had both been premptively muzzled and had her nails clipped ("for safety", I was told) without my permission or consent. Kayla's first set of x-rays were done initially at the emergency vet and her visit at Magnolia was a follow up (I was also dissatisfied that her primary care vet refused to work her in for initial treatment, causing me to have to shell out $900 for an appt with the e-vet, who to their credit, followed up with me via email after seeing her to check in on her recovery and expressed much more care and concern for her after one visit than the folks at Magnolia ever did), and the staff at the emergency vet did not need to do either (the e-vet joked that she didn't think Kayla liked them very much by the end, but said that she had done well throughout the process!), and they did not have the same familiarity or rapport built up with her as a patient. Furthermore, Magnolia messed up her nails when clipping them. They gave Kayla a hang nail, which I could not get her to let me file down, and tried to act as though they did me a favor by not charging me for the service, when they were the ones in the wrong, as they did not check in with me first to see if I even wanted them to trim her nails at all (I didn't- we have a groomer who does it for her before putting on her pretty, colored nail caps that look like nail polish! And for the record, I'm able to watch through a window as the groomer works with her, and she's never misbehaved at the groomer's, as the groomer actually knows how to put her at ease and safely handle and work with cats). More importantly, however, I would never have allowed her to be muzzled if asked beforehand if I was okay with it and the care team at Magnolia was presumptuous to assume my comfort level with such a thing. In fact, I would have greatly preferred to, instead, take her home and give her any recommended calming or sedating medication, if necessary, before returning for the same procedure, as I can only imagine how traumatic, scary, and confusing that experience must have been for her."

"Let me start by saying that we have been taking our animals to this vet for years and have never had any issues. Our family Doberman was diagnosed with arthritis this past summer. Her mobility slowly began to decline. She was seen later in the year for a yearly exam. No bloodwork was recommended and basically they just did heartworm and a vaccine and sent us on our way… she was almost 12 mind you. Last week, our Doberman got to the point where she would not eat, she would not walk, and she was extremely sluggish, completely out of the ordinary. She was seen by Dr. John this past Friday and we were told that she likely had some sort of infection and we were sent home with antibiotics. She declined so rapidly over the weekend that it got to the point where we were giving her baby food and water through a syringe. We made the decision to take her to the ER vet this past Sunday. After a night of hospitalization and numerous tests, x-rays and ultrasounds, we were told that whatever was going on, was definitely neurological and likely wobblers syndrome. Ultimately, as of yesterday, she had progressed to the point where she was using the bathroom on herself. Her prognosis was poor even if we were to move forward with any sort of treatment. We had to make the extremely hard decision to let her pass. I write this because I am heartbroken, and I am extremely disappointed in the lack of care that we received from Magnolia animal Hospital. Things were completely looked past, and I do feel as if our situation was completely looked over and brushed off. This syndrome is something that runs very commonly among Dobermans. Yes, as a pet owner maybe we should have gotten a second opinion but we trusted our vet. I’m also not going to question myself over something that could’ve been diagnosed and treated 6+ months ago. We will no longer be taking any of our animals, past present or future, to Magnolia animal Hospital."

"Dr John is the best! He is only vet there now at his practice and cannot take new clients. So those that were already customers, their pets have the best care. Dr John is a wonderful human being and a fabulous veterinarian. So glad I started going here decades ago. Best vet in Raleigh in my opinion."

"My cat's name was Buttaz. He was a beautiful and sweet 13yr old Orange Tabby who had been a patient at this vets office his entire life. Over the pass year he started to loose a lot of weight, he became increasingly constipated and his personality began to change. I mentioned this to them earlier this year and was told that this was just due to him being old but the weight loss had them thinking it was Hyperthyroidism. They did blood work and the blood work came back that he didn't have hyperthyroidism. Several months later he developed a lump on his right side next to his hind leg. I took him here and was told after physical examination that he had a Seroma and it was from blunt force trauma. They drained it with a big needle and told us to use warm compresses and prescribed pain meds for 5 days. He was an indoor cat and it just wasn't possible that it could be blunt force trauma. I was thinking that maybe a visitor may have hurt him but after investigating the matter. No one had harmed my cat and it wasn't blunt force trauma. The lump got bigger so I brought him back in about 3 weeks later. This time they took him in the back and lanced and drained the lump and also administered a steroid. When I got Buttaz home he was never the same. He could barely walk or hold his head up, he wouldn't eat and didn't use the litter box at all. He just got worse. By the next morning he was barely breathing so I rushed him to Magnolia where there turned us away and told us to go to an emergency animal hospital. That hurt my feelings because they were his vet for over a decade and they just turned him away after the procedure they did just 24 hours before. We ended up at Quails Corner Animal Hospital where we were informed that he was misdiagnosed and was showing signs that he had cancer. They said they were going to request his records and do blood work. I'm not even sure if they ever received those records from Magnolia. Buttaz's health rapidly continued to decline and he was in so much pain. After discussing all options with Quails Corner, the best option was putting my sweet boy down. I'm so heartbroken and confused right now. I don't understand how my cat is dead 24hrs after having a minor procedure at Magnolia Animal Hospital. So I called them on Friday Nov. 17th to let them know what occurred with Buttaz and hoping to get some kind of explanation. They did not answer so I left a detailed voicemail and requested a call back. Presently I have not received a call back from Magnolia offering condolences or an explanation of what went wrong or any communication regarding my cat at all. It feels extremely insensitive on their part and I'm so sorry that I ever brought my furbaby to Magnolia. All I could do was keep apologizing to my sweet boy and give him lots of kisses before we had to put him down. I thank God for Quails Corner, they helped me make the best decision for my cat in one of the most traumatic times of my life. I have to go pick up his ashes and paw print today, which I know will be so very hard. I'm currently still waiting for some kind of contact from Magnolia Animal Hospital. You would think, with my cat being a regular patient for 13 years and their moto being, "Where your pets are treated as if they were our own", that I would get some kind of explanation, condolences or something. But no, nothing!"

"Dr. Jon is truly the best. We’ve seen him for years with both of our dogs, and he has helped us with some really challenging issues with one of them. You can tell he loves every animal he sees and his staff works really hard to give high quality care at really reasonable prices. We recommend Dr. Jon to anyone!"