Coronavirus Update

Due to the recent increase in coronavirus cases in NC and Dare County as well as our normal increases in summer traffic, we are temporarily restricting our lobby to one client at a time. The front door will remain locked throughout the day. When you arrive for an appointment, please give our office a call at 252.715.1407 and we will call you when it is your pet’s turn to be seen. Please also give our receptionist the type and color of vehicle that you are driving.

We apologize for any inconvenience but feel that this is necessary given the increases in our office’s traffic. With our small office lobby, it would be difficult to maintain a safe distance during busy times.

Our normal business hours will remain unchanged. If you are picking up medications, please follow the same procedure or pay over the phone and we can bring your pet’s medications to your car.

Thanks again for your patience and we look forward to serving your pet’s medical needs in the safest manner possible.

Sincerely,

Dr. Taylor and Staff

COVID-19 Hospital Policy Changes

In response to help slow the spread of COVID 19, our office has made a few changes which will be implemented starting on Monday, March 23, 2020, and will continue until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience but feel this is important to help keep our staff and community safe.

  • We will be restricting the hospital to the lobby only for clients except in certain situations such as a pet euthanasia. Even during those events, we will likely restrict the number of clients who will be allowed into the working areas of the hospital. We can also consider curbside pickup* for your pets except in cases where a pet is aggressive. ALL cats need to be brought in a carrier that is in good working condition and all dogs need to be on a leash. When you make your appointment, please expect a staff member to meet you in the lobby and we will take your pet into our treatment area, then bring your pet back. This is to help minimize exposure from us and from our clients. For sick pets, Dr. Taylor or our staff will get a history beforehand.

  • We will also offer curbside drop off for medications, heartworm preventatives, and flea/tick preventatives for established clients in good standing at our hospital. You can pay via the phone. Please make sure you call ahead of time for this.

  • As our restroom requires clients to walk through our treatment area, we will restrict its use to staff. Until we run out, we do have hand sanitizer available for client use. Please use the restroom BEFORE you leave your house for your appointment.

  • Our front receptionist window will have a dividing glass to minimize aerosolized exposure between our staff and our clients. You will be able to see through this section and there will be a gap for you to pass things back and forth with the receptionist. We will also likely be wearing gloves and a face mask for our client interactions.

  • Although at this time we do not foresee changing office hours, that may occur in the future. Please keep in touch with our Facebook page as all postings will occur there. Please make sure to call our office ahead of time before coming into the clinic.

  • Effective immediately and until further notice, written prescriptions will be sent via fax, even to online and outside of area pharmacies. Please note that some prescriptions require a hard copy that you will have to pick up at our office.

***While we will do our best to maintain control of all pets when outside of the hospital, please realize that we cannot always prevent a pet from escaping from their leash or carrier. Please ensure that your pet’s lease is adequately adjusted as well as that your carrier is in good working order.

Grain-free, exotic dog food linked to heart disease

Grain free food for dogs? It's not always the best idea and it may end up being a very bad one. This is still new but may turn out to be very significant.

Dr. Jay

Non-Local Pharmacy Drugs Policy Notice

I have resisted enacting this policy for a while but, unfortunately, the time has come. We will no longer fax prescriptions to outside pharmacies. Any prescription from a pharmacy that is not local must be picked up at our hospital, effective immediately. We will have a 1 business day (24 hours) turnover for this from this point forward so please give yourself plenty of time if you have a prescription/heartworm/flea/tick medication that needs to be filled by an outside pharmacy.

Why??? Because we have had SEVERAL instances of internet pharmacies telling our clients that we refused the prescription when we either:

a) did not receive a request or have sufficient time to fulfill the request. We have even had them actively call our clients within 30 minutes of our office receiving the faxed prescription request!

or

b) the prescription was faxed to and received by outside pharmacy and..... (our internet fax service tells us when a fax is successful so we know if it was received)

We will continue to work with our local pharmacies for any medication because, as I've mentioned, we have not had any problems here on the Outer Banks.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause but I feel that we must make this change. I cannot accept this level of disservice to our hospital or clientele any longer.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jay Taylor

COMMITTED TO QUALITY CARE AND COMPASSIONATE, PROFESSIONAL SERVICE.