FAQ
We have the answers you need.
FAQ
What will my vet visit be like?
Our hospital is a warm, welcoming, happy space for all. Our team loves helping animals and will offer both education and support. We aim to be collaborative and will always get your input. You’re our partner in pet care.
As for what care, it really depends on the nature of the visit, for instance if you have no concerns at all versus if your pet has been vomiting and needs treatment. We provide all these services under one roof.
Our hospital is certified Fear Free. We have extensive training in lessening fear, stress, and anxiety in pets. We promise to follow Fear Free guidelines for every pet.
What goes into an exam?
The full nose-to-tail physical examination is the most important part of any visit. At your pet’s first visit, the exam establishes an essential doctor/patient relationship and starts your pet on the path of best care.
During the exam, your vet puts all his or her expertise, knowledge, and skill to work for your unique fur baby by thoroughly assessing your pet’s eyes, ears, teeth, mouth, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, stomach, intestines, joints, spine, skin, paws, and more.
The best medicine is preventative medicine. We want to catch and treat any health issues early to prevent more extensive, expensive treatment in the future. The exam reveals so much vital information we can use to keep your pet healthy and happy through all stages of life.
Healthy pets under seven years of age generally need an exam once a year. Senior pets, those over seven years old, need an exam every six months—since health issues can develop very quickly in older pets.
If you have a specific concern about your fur baby, please call us at (919) 471-0308 or request a visit online. We’re here to help your pet live their best life.
How long is my visit going to take?
A vet visit is scheduled for 30 or 40 minutes, depending on your pet’s specific needs and any health concerns. You may be here a bit longer than that since we want to have plenty of time to take a medical history, examine your fur baby, offer comprehensive care, recommend any treatment, and chat with you about everything! We want you to have the best education to help make the best decisions for your unique fur baby.
Appointments with a Vet Assistant may only take 20 minutes: for a nail trim, a quick vaccination, an anal gland expression, and the like.
What is your cancellation policy?
We require 48 hours notice to cancel or reschedule any appointment. Proper notice allows us to fill your spot and help another fur baby.
Deposits help us secure our busy schedule. We require deposits only for surgery, grooming, boarding, and the very first visit. When you give us 48 hours notice to cancel or reschedule, your deposit can be held as a credit or fully refunded.
By respecting our cancellation policy, you will never surrender a deposit. We understand unexpected circumstances arise and use generous discretion if missing an appointment cannot be helped.
Your Eno team thanks you for respecting our time and all we do to help pets! Find all Eno policies right here.
Do you accept walk-ins?
No. We operate on a very tight schedule, helping so many pets. Please call us to book an appointment! This way, our team can thoroughly prepare for your pet’s visit and specific needs. We also keep a waitlist so we can call you to book a visit if and when a spot unexpectedly opens up.
We understand a pet problem can arise on the spot. For this reason, we keep a small number of “short-notice” visit spots open every day for sick pets, e.g., pets who are vomiting or having diarrhea. Please understand…#1. These spots fill up quickly and early in the day, #2. We cannot work your pet into our schedule if it’s the end of the day, and #3. We never use these spots for urgent or emergency situations.
We will do our best to see your pet on short notice if we possibly can, as long as the situation is not serious. When other pets are already booked in these short-notice spots, please understand those pets need our care too.
Call us if your pet needs anything. We will give you every option to help your pet. If the situation is not serious, we will book a visit and/or put you on our waitlist. Otherwise, the veterinarian will determine the best course of action.
If the situation is serious, we will triage your pet’s care and refer you to an urgent or emergency care hospital. These facilities have specially trained staff and operate after-hours. Please understand: We are not refusing to see your pet—we give you a referral when it’s the best care for your pet.
Do you treat emergencies?
No. We are not an emergency hospital.
We know emergencies are stressful. We will help pet parents in stressful situations in any way we can. If you think your pet is in an emergency situation, you can call us during business hours. We appreciate that you trust us to do the best thing for your pet.
Please know: In the event of an urgent matter or emergency, we can assess the situation, offer comfort and support, and triage your pet. We will not see your pet in an urgent or emergency situation because we are not an urgent care or emergency hospital.
We love your pet and are not refusing to see your pet—a referral is the best option for any pet in a serious situation.
Do you accept new patients?
Yes! We love welcoming pets and their people to our happy Eno family. We believe in helping as many pets as possible and work hard every day to do so.
When we book your first visit, we’ll create a profile of your pet and need your pet’s medical records or previous vet. We’re happy to reach out to obtain medical records. Vet pros do this all the time as a matter of professional courtesy.
For your first visit, we require a $50 deposit, applied fully to your invoice when we see you. You also get $40 off to as a thank you for trusting us to be your vet! We look forward to a life-long friendship with your fur baby.
Why do you always ask all these questions about my pet?
Because it’s best care! We really want to get to know your unique fur baby. We’re Fear Free pros who work hard to alleviate fear, anxiety, and stress at vet visits. Be sure to fill out our Fear Free Questionnaire for each pet.
If your pet is new to Eno, we must first establish the essential doctor/patient relationship and start care off on the right paw. The more we know about your pet—medical history, diet, behavior, lifestyle, favorite activities, likes and dislikes—the better.
Asking lots of questions helps us make the best recommendations to keep your pet healthy and happy for a good, long life.
When we ask the same questions at each vet visit, our team is investigating. We want to detect any changes, even small ones. Not all changes are bad. We simply want to identify and treat any potential issues as early as possible.
Feel free to tell us anything and everything about your pet! We’re listening.
What if my pet is nervous?
New places and faces are often scary for fur babies. If your pet is nervous, please let us know when you book your visit.
Our team will prepare to be extra calm, quiet, and gentle. We have lots of experience with nervous pets and many hours of Fear Free training to create happy visits. Our team uses proven methods of going slow and gaining trust, often over time, with anxious dogs and cats.
We encourage pet parents of nervous pets to schedule a time simply to come to the vet without any exam, treatment, or procedure. That way, we can give treats and praise in the parking lot or lobby while nothing happens to your pet. We’ve seen this technique work wonders as pets learn the vet can be a safe—even happy—place to go.
If your pet struggles with high anxiety or fear, your vet will prescribe our “chill protocol,” calming medications to give at home before each visit. Pre-visit medication makes visits so much easier for both you and your pet, plus it is safer for our team.
We’re always careful to stay aware of each pet’s mood during the visit.
What does "Fear Free" mean?
Fear Free is an official designation and special certification that denotes extensive training in preventing and alleviating fear, anxiety, and stress in pets. The Fear Free philosophy and its methods were developed by hundreds of experts in behavior, medicine, and handling.
Fear Free prioritizes both physical and emotional well-being. We reward, celebrate, and maximize positive experiences with high-value treats and praise. We go slowly and touch gently. We understand when less is best. We take “no” for an answer. We will not rush or force a pet to do something that escalates fear.
Fear Free involves compassion, collaboration, and nurturing; recognizing signs of fear and taking steps to stop its escalation; keeping an emotional health record; and determining needs versus wants. It often involves calming medication, a wonderful tool to support anxious pets in getting the care they need.
If your pet is fearful, we have ways to help. Ask our team for tips and advice.
What time should I arrive for a procedure, day admission, grooming, and boarding?
Great question! We schedule admission times for these services carefully in hopes we can avoid you having to wait while we manage a busy day helping so many pets. We appreciate your cooperation following our admission times.
Pets scheduled for surgery or dentistry (any anesthetic procedure) must be here between 7:45 and 8 o’clock. Please allow about 10 minutes for your vet assistant to go over medical history and the consent form.
Day admissions are scheduled just like regular visits, with an exact appointment time at 8, 8:10, or 8:20 a.m. Admission time will take about 10 minutes. Please arrive right at or just before your scheduled time!
Grooming pets are scheduled specifically for morning or afternoon spa days. Morning grooms should arrive at 8 a.m., and afternoon grooms at noon. Accommodations to arrive at other times can sometimes be arranged with the groomer; please tell us your needs!
Boarding pets who are up to date on boarding requirements can be checked in any time we’re open on the reservation day. We do respectfully ask you to arrive between 8:30 and 5:30 on weekdays, not during the break of 1 to 2 p.m., and before 12:30 p.m. on open Saturdays.
Boarding pets who need wellness checkups and/or vaccinations must be here by 4 p.m. because we need plenty of time to make sure your pet has no reaction and is perfectly safe and well before we close at 6 p.m.
Why does my pet have to stay all day?
We offer an option called day admission for a number of reasons. First, so we can see and help more pets! We balance an extremely busy schedule and must serve diverse needs: healthy pets, sick pets, and pets who need specific tests and treatments.
Once our visit calendar is totally booked, day admissions give us time—and allow us the flexibility—to work pets into our day.
Day admissions are also best for certain care, such as collecting sterile urine samples, taking radiographs, running in-house lab tests, and administering heartworm treatments.
Admitting a pet in the morning—and picking up before we close at 6 p.m.—can be the most convenient option for a pet parent’s tight schedule. We do all we can to find room to see the most pets in a day.
Pets scheduled for surgery or dentistry, which require full anesthesia, must also stay all day: most importantly, so your pet can wake up and recover while being closely monitored by a skilled vet assistant. We’ll call you with an update, plus a time for when your pet is ready to go home.
Does my pet really need a teeth cleaning?
Dental disease is extremely common in pets. It’s painful and can even lead to organ damage, as oral bacteria from plaque and tartar travel through your pet’s bloodstream to the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and other vital systems.
Regular teeth cleaning is the best protection against dental disease, and dentistry is one of our core services.
Why does my pet need parasite prevention?
Parasites can also be a serious health problem, even life-threatening. It only takes one bite from an infected mosquito to transfer heartworms to your fur baby.
The bottom line is that parasite prevention saves lives. We cannot stress enough the importance of year-round parasite prevention, especially in our neck of the woods, where exposure is high.
Prevention is much easier, healthier, and actually less expensive than treatment. For example, heartworm treatment in dogs is tough, often risky, and very costly. Sadly, there is no treatment for cats infected with heartworms.
We offer a variety of safe, effective products to protect your pet from heartworms, fleas, ticks, and intestinal parasites.
Do you offer grooming?
Your fur baby can have a customized grooming package: special shampoo or de-shedding treatment, a classic haircut or full shave, or add-on services like teeth brushing. Ear cleaning, anal gland expression, and nail trimming are always included. Check out our full spa menu for dogs and cats, including prices, right here.
Did you know? We’re one of the only spots in town that accepts cats for grooming! We welcome kitties, especially the very fluffy ones; they need spa days, too.
Grooming can be transformational. Learn all about Eno grooming, including our policies, and see beautiful before-and-after photos.
Do you have grooming requirements?
New pets who have never been here need a full physical exam:
#1. To establish a doctor/patient relationship, and
#2: We believe any pet in our care deserves to have been seen by a veterinarian for an annual exam, just in case any health issue arises. We want to be familiar with each and every fur baby we see, regardless of what we’re seeing them for.
Your new pet’s exam can be booked in advance or completed the same day as grooming (schedule permitting). Moving forward from there, your pet will need an annual exam to keep the doctor/patient relationship current.
Grooming dogs must be up to date on canine core vaccinations: rabies, distemper/parvo, and Bordetella. Grooming cats need to be current on feline core vaccinations: rabies and FVRCP.
We want pets to have fun, safe spa days! Our grooming policies help protect pets.
Do you have boarding?
Yes! Our hospital is designed with special boarding amenities for dogs and cats.
Our Dog Suite has rooms of various sizes and 16 spacious runs, plus a fenced-in backyard. The Cat Suite is private and full of natural light, with rooms with ledges for sunning or watching birdies plus cubbies for hiding and quiet time.
Boarding pets stay in these special areas and do not actively interact. We offer many enrichment perks to make your fur baby’s Enocation as fun and happy as possible!
We know it takes trust to board your fur baby and are honored to make Eno your pet’s home away from home.
We’re happy to give your pet love, play, and attention. If your pet needs peace and quiet, that’s OK too. We can make special accommodations and will always offer individualized care for each unique fur baby.
Learn all about Eno boarding, including pricing, and see photo galleries of happy boarding pets.
Do you have boarding requirements?
A new boarding pet needs a vet visit to establish a doctor/patient relationship. We believe any pet in our care deserves to have been seen by a vet just in case any health issue arises.
Boarding means pets are near each other in the same environment. For boarding dogs, we require these core vaccinations: rabies, distemper/parvo, Bordetella, and influenza. We also require an intestinal parasite screen, or fecal test, to make sure your pup is free from contagious intestinal parasites. For boarding cats, we require these core vaccinations: rabies and FVRCP.
