Highland Road Animal Hospital — Local services in Baton Rouge

I'm writing this review as a client who's brought several of my personal dogs (and an occasional foster dog) to this clinic over more than a decade--this review is based on frequent interaction as a customer, sometimes multiple times per week, since 2011--not just a single visit.

This clinic is very invested in the well-being of my animals -- they get to know them as individuals with personalities, not just as "appointments." We've boarded here countless times because we trust the staff, even with a special-needs blind dog (who enjoyed spending time with them). My dogs have always LOVED walking into this place--it's not a "scary" place to them, even after sometimes having difficult procedures done for treatment. I appreciate that Dr. Bergeron engages thoughtfully with regular clients, as it feels like we're in an ongoing conversation over the lifetime of my animals, and he really cares about the experience of the animal with vet care being a positive one.

I've been in the back where they treat animals, and the compassion and professionalism extend seamlessly from the exam room into the back treatment area. The clinic doesn't "hide" anything--they bring me back to show me when they find something important. The facility is always immaculately clean. I am grateful that Dr. B partners without judgment with clients who want to explore safe, integrative options, where appropriate (with no "vet shaming" or bullying of those who might want to feed high-quality, non-kibble diets). His approach is to share what he knows and try to support good decisions, so we can talk about anything at all related to animal care.

Routine care is convenient -- it's easy to get an appointment within a day or two, usually with exactly 0 minutes in the waiting room. They minimize stress on the dog by getting us right into an exam room. They use Fear Free handling techniques, to make the visit a happy one for the animal. Most of the clinic staff are long-term, and the clinic seem to invest in staff development through Fear Free certifications, "registered vet tech" certification credentials, and more. One of their vets even started out there as a vet tech years ago. She left to go to vet school, but she liked working there so much that she came back, as a vet. She could have worked anywhere and chose to "come home." Some of the staff have been there for many years--they've seen our dogs come in young, eventually grow old, and cross the bridge. I know that Dr. B has high standards for his staff, so it's lovely to see so many of the same wonderful people working at the clinic, year after year. Every business owner knows that keeping really good, long-term employees means you're doing something right in creating a place where excellent employees are happy and thrive, so it's a compliment to Dr. B that many great employees have been with him for so long.

Is it the cheapest? No, that's not their market segment. It's definitely on the higher end of price for BR, but it is very convenient, and they seem to try to provide higher-end service that matches the price-point--extra little "fancy" touches like doing toe-nail trims and "pawdicures" after a minor surgery while the animal is "out" (so they come home from the procedure with beautiful nails, "just because"), effortless refills of meds, the same day, "social visits" to stop by for a treat -- they really try to create a nice experience for humans and animals, in a field known for...

If you told me this place hired their employees by asking for random volunteers walking around a shopping mall, I’d 1000% believe you.

HRAH SCREW-UPS: 1.) FEMALE DOG SPAY — We rescued an abandoned puppy and need to get her spayed. We paid over $100 for them to run bloodwork (spoiler: bloodwork that is now useless yet zero refunds given). I looked the receptionist dead in the face as I scheduled the spay surgery while standing in the HRAH to take place on Thurs June 30th, which they confirmed right then and there. Fast forward to the afternoon before the surgery, I call HRAH because the vet (Dr. O’Neill, I believe) did not provide any pre-care info or instructions regarding the surgery, and I wanted to be sure. The receptionist then informs me that NO APPOINTMENT IS SCHEDULED for tomorrow. WASTED my time and money. Thank god I called before taking off work to drive round trip 1.75 hrs to my “non-appointment”

2.) DOG BOARDING — We wanted to board two dogs for a long weekend (June 23-27). I called and the reception was again completely unhelpful and acting like my questions were such an encumbrance to their day. I called back to modify the reservation and reconfirm dates and they had it scheduled COMPLETELY WRONG, not even remotely close to the dates I told them 🫠🫠🫠 (once again, THANK GOD I CALLED) I corrected everything and fast forward to picking them up from boarding: I asked three different employees how everything went and got THREE DIFFERENT answers. Did they do Playcare with other dogs? “Yes, both did great at Playcare I think!”, “uhhh neither of them did Playcare..”, “um, pretty sure only one of them did”. Oh my god, just so unbelievably unorganized and unprofessional. Can’t get a straight answer or any helpful information and my dogs were under their care for 5 days.

I walked out of the clinic after paying a sturdy $400, as soon as my dogs urgently made it to the grass curb they both started peeing and pooping multiple mounds like they hadn’t been taken out at all in the last 24 hours. It was almost 1:00pm. I gave them 2 full bowls of water and watched them drink it all down in 2 minutes, like they haven’t had water all day in the Louisiana heat. I’ve boarded my dogs 10 times before at other places and I’ve never seen them act that way at pickup.

In summary, I do not recommend HRAH.

HMU if you have good vet recommendations in Baton Rouge metropolitan area because we are...

I recently moved to Baton Rouge about 4 months ago and decided to take my fur baby to the Highland Animal hospital because of its close location to my house and the reviews saying that it was a clean, professional facility.

To make a long story short, they killed my healthy, beautiful Great Dane/ Pit Bull mix puppy. I took her to their facility yesterday morning to get updated on her vaccinations and also to get spayed. I dropped Nala off at 7:49AM to get the procedure with an expectation that I would be picking her up after work later on that afternoon. By 1:17PM, I received a call that my baby had passed away. Of course I was hysterical, and I immediately rushed to their facility to make sure I had heard them correctly over the phone. When I asked them what happened and how could my perfectly healthy baby die from a very common surgery, all they told me was that the surgery went well and everything seemed fine....then as they were finalizing the last suture for her stitches, her heart rate dropped. They claimed that they performed CPR for 1+ hour before she passed away. I was completely furious and devastated. To make matters worse, I had JUST taken her to them almost 1.5-2 months ago for a check up and vaccinations and everything was FINE, so I was completely blindsided by all of it. Nobody in the facility would even LOOK at me as I asked questions and sobbed over the body of my precious fur baby. They were cold, informal and simply told me they’d have her ashes ready for me within a week.

Nothing will bring my sweet girl back to me, but I want to caution anyone who is considering taking their pet to this vet - LOOK ELSEWHERE IF YOU CAN! They are negligent and lack compassion at this animal hospital. Save yourself the devastation and heartache that I’m currently experiencing and go somewhere...