Banner Elk Animal Hospital

10/16/2025

As you all know, the cost of veterinary visits, as well as all other types of healthcare, goods and services, has become crazy high the past few years. We feel your pain - remember, all of us are customers too. And it’s only going to get more expensive in the future. We have seen vet bills of $5000 - $10,000 from cases that needed to be referred, or major illnesses treated in cities like Charlotte, Atlanta or those in Florida. If you are comfortable with that, you’re good, but if being faced with costs like that would affect your decision on treatment or not, we strongly advise obtaining PET INSURANCE. Not for routine, primary care type procedures like we do at BEAH, but for potential serious medical occurrences that need surgery, specialists or critical care. BEFORE they ever occur - pet insurance companies don’t accept pre-existing conditions. We have recommendations on providers of plans with different deductibles and premiums. Our favorite is called TruPanion. Give us a call, we‘ll be happy to discuss them with you.

10/09/2025

Banner Elk Animal Hospital will be CLOSED on Thursday, October 9 as well as every other Thursday, probably through November. This means Oct. 23 for sure, and likely Nov. 6 and Nov. 20 as well as Nov 27 (Thanksgiving Day) due to medical needs of our entire staff. Don’t worry, we’ll all get through everything in time. 😃 This will cause minimal disruption to our normal weekly schedule, as we have only been open from 9 AM to 1 PM on Thursdays anyway, with no surgical procedures done on that day. We will be open 9AM-5 PM on Friday as usual and continue to be open on our regular schedule all other weekdays unless there is some type of emergency. Thank you for your patience (and your patients!)

06/11/2025

No sooner had we posted that we were back up and running in our renovated facility, then Dr. K had to undergo emergency surgery in Charlotte. We have been unable to see live patients for the past 3 weeks, although we have been able to refill existing prescriptions and dispense parasite preventatives and special diets. We will be easing back into seeing patients beginning on FRIDAY, JUNE 13. Surgery and dental procedures are tentatively scheduled to resume 1st week in July. Please be patient with us, and please BUY LOCAL whenever possible, as it is critically needed for this area to recover from last year‘s disaster. Thank you for your continued support, as it has been a very difficult past 9 months here.

05/18/2025

Back in full swing at the Animal Hospital now. The place looks pretty good, and we have added a second exam room. The only thing left needing to be done is improvements to the parking lot. That’s up to the building owner, not us. NOTE: Both exam rooms are small, get hot easily and our staff has to be able to move around quickly at times. So we are only able to have ONE owner and one pet (or 2 cats in a carrier) in the exam room at any one time. Some people don’t like this, so we’d like them to be fully informed before they come to us, so they can make a decision ahead of time whether to come or not.

03/10/2025

We have finally moved back into our permanent location at 56 High Country Square. We are open 9am-5pm weekdays, except Thursday open 9am-1pm. It will likely be a week before we can resume performing surgeries and most importantly, dental procedures, but we are close! Call us at 828-898-5120.

03/06/2025

We are scheduled to begin moving back into our permanent location tomorrow, Friday March 7 at around 11 am - 12 noon. Unfortunately this is not definite yet. This is all dependent on other services to be done in there before we move. If all goes according to plan, WE WILL NOT BE ANSWERING THE PHONE OR SEEING PATIENTS FROM FRIDAY AT 11 UNTIL MONDAY, MARCH 10. You may leave us a message if you want, and we’ll return your call once we are up and running again. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience. Check back here for further updates.

02/20/2025

We have seen quite a few new puppies and kittens over the past 2 weeks, which is often exciting, but in some cases it is not so much fun if they are unhealthy or even critically ill. Banner Elk AH does not recommend obtaining one from an unknown source, some examples of this being at a flea market, a Wal Mart parking lot, or anywhere where you cannot see where the animal had been living prior to you bringing it home. If you choose to go this route, it may be all good, but know that you run a serious risk of getting a very unhealthy baby. And there should be written records of previous healthcare/vet visits given to you along with your new pet. We do recommend going to your local animal shelter, Humane Society or individual breeder who gives you their name and address and allows you to inspect their facility as well as the mother or father of the puppy or kitten. And finally, take him or her to your vet (or us)for a checkup, SOON after bringing home.

12/19/2024

Avery/Watauga County Residents: This Sunday, December 22 from 1-4 pm, bring your dog (or other furry creature) to the Best Western in Banner Elk for PET PHOTO WITH SANTA! Sponsored by the Banner Elk Kiwanis Club, all proceeds go to help Avery County kids in need. Then bring your photo to us here at BEAH for 10% off any flea and tick product or internal parasite prevention. Support local business and local charitable organizations!

11/21/2024

Thank you to all of you who have brought your pets into our new/temporary facility since we reopened 3 weeks ago. We are a little less efficient while we are getting used to a new layout, equipment setup, phone/internet service and lighting, but at least we are up and running. As the holidays approach, we would like to inform you that one of the most common, if not THE most common, cause of illnesses in dogs and cats is OVERFEEDING, combined with not enough activity. Some (but by no means all) consequences of overfeeding are acute vomiting and diarrhea, acute pancreatitis (a serious and expensive condition) and obesity leading to extreme difficulty walking, especially in older pets. So now, and especially next week, is the time to monitor carefully how much goes down the ol’ GI tract, and keep him or her active, so as to avoid a trip to the Animal ER around Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day!

10/27/2024

OK, we are all set to reopen on Monday at 9 am! It will be an outpatient only clinic for the next 2 months. No surgery or dental procedures until we are back in our regular facility, but we can give vaccines, run laboratory diagnostics, treat illnesses and fill or write prescriptions. We will only be open until 4 pm during this time as well. Also, we have a new phone number, 828-783-9084. Or you may still call our long time 898-5120 number and it will be forwarded to the new number. We are looking forward to seeing everyone again!

10/25/2024

10/15/2024

Big news! Banner Elk Animal Hospital will be moving (temporarily) to the Banner Elk Caboose! Our target opening date will be Monday, Oct 28! Our services will be a bit limited, as we will not be doing any surgery or taking X-rays until we move back into our regular space. More info to come. We will have a need for a couple of folding tables as there will be no custom cabinets or shelves for storage.