Pet life in Little Rock area (North Little Rock, Cabot: houses, neighborhood, purchase) - Little Rock - Conway area - Arkansas (AR) -Pulaski, Faulkner, Grant, Lonoke, Perry, and Saline Counties - City-Data Forum

monomunky · 03-19-2011, 02:38 PM

We are currently looking for houses in the Cabot and Bryant areas and plan to move in the next few months from our home in Kentucky. I will be attending UALR Bowen in the Fall, and our Realtor has advised us that these areas will be rural enough for us but still close enough for a decent commute to school. (Thoughts? We are coming to town April 1 to check out the houses/area) Our major concern is that we have 4 dogs and 2 cats that are important members of our family. Four of them are special needs (one has congestive heart failure, grade 5 heart murmur,IBS, and a lost testicle; another has Schnauzer Comedone Syndrome, one was maliciously shot in the head with a shotgun after she was used as a bait dog for fights, and the other is starting to go blind) and it took me almost 3 years to find a good vet that I could trust and who cared enough to make my pack feel at ease. (she'd actually shake paws with my beagle,Charlie, at every visit!) Additionally, she would suggest cheaper alternatives (fish oil capsules instead of prescription pills,for example) and was open to holistic treatments. I am worried that I won't find such a wonderful vet in Little Rock (in fact, I half seriously told her to hang on to our records b/c I'd make the 6 hr. trip!) and would love some advice/recommendations for pet care so that I can begin phone interviewing. (yes, it's that serious.) I could also use some rec's for boarding, grooming, dog parks,places to get quality kibble, etc. Also, I am curious to know if there are 'Rabies Clinics" like we have; for a month you can go to any vet in the county and pay $5 for rabies vaccinations. With 6, that's a wonderful thing to participate in! I hope Little Rock area offers something similar. We are child-free, so we do a lot with our four-leggers and would love to live in a city that allows that. (I get a lot of crap where we live now because our 2 beagles and one basset hound live inside the house...apparently that's not normal?) Any suggestions would be greatly,greatly appreciated!

Kimballette · 03-19-2011, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monomunky

We are currently looking for houses in the Cabot and Bryant areas and plan to move in the next few months from our home in Kentucky. I will be attending UALR Bowen in the Fall, and our Realtor has advised us that these areas will be rural enough for us but still close enough for a decent commute to school. (Thoughts? We are coming to town April 1 to check out the houses/area) Our major concern is that we have 4 dogs and 2 cats that are important members of our family. Four of them are special needs (one has congestive heart failure, grade 5 heart murmur,IBS, and a lost testicle; another has Schnauzer Comedone Syndrome, one was maliciously shot in the head with a shotgun after she was used as a bait dog for fights, and the other is starting to go blind) and it took me almost 3 years to find a good vet that I could trust and who cared enough to make my pack feel at ease. (she'd actually shake paws with my beagle,Charlie, at every visit!) Additionally, she would suggest cheaper alternatives (fish oil capsules instead of prescription pills,for example) and was open to holistic treatments. I am worried that I won't find such a wonderful vet in Little Rock (in fact, I half seriously told her to hang on to our records b/c I'd make the 6 hr. trip!) and would love some advice/recommendations for pet care so that I can begin phone interviewing. (yes, it's that serious.) I could also use some rec's for boarding, grooming, dog parks,places to get quality kibble, etc. Also, I am curious to know if there are 'Rabies Clinics" like we have; for a month you can go to any vet in the county and pay $5 for rabies vaccinations. With 6, that's a wonderful thing to participate in! I hope Little Rock area offers something similar. We are child-free, so we do a lot with our four-leggers and would love to live in a city that allows that. (I get a lot of crap where we live now because our 2 beagles and one basset hound live inside the house...apparently that's not normal?) Any suggestions would be greatly,greatly appreciated!

Animals are beloved family members for me.

I can't help you with most of your questions, but you might want to look at the Best Friends website, as there are local chapters for networking. Special needs animals have strong advocates among members of Best Friends. Here's a link to the local Arkansas network. You might find people here with experience and useful local info: Connect in your community. Get Active. Save Lives! This Go Local is your place to connect with people and groups in Arkansas—to take action on behalf of animals. - Best Friends Network - Social Networking that saves lives You might also want to check out our Pets forum, and start a thread that includes "Little Rock" in the title and ask for local vet info, etc.

Best wishes!

Trevor123 · 03-23-2011, 01:03 PM

My computer is down so I'm on my phone. I'll do the best I can:

Looks like your focus is a good vet, I'm currently looking for a good vet as well after our last encounter went..sour.

Little Rock has a dog park and North Little Rock has another. I have nothing to judge them by, but they both seem okay. We take our kiddos out there every weekend.

We have similar vaccination services-at least that I know of in Bryant. They ran it like a drive thru service and you paid 5-10$ (i forgot) and they administer the shot w/o leaving your car. Bring a full tank of gas as the lines are long.

Shoot me a PM if you'd like and I'll do some research and make some phone calls for you. We're a young couple whose only plans of children are those who have paws. Proud daddy of a GSD, Chihuahua, and something resembling a pug, Shihtzu, and 4 other breeds.

Trevor123 · 03-23-2011, 01:10 PM

Side note: whatever you're feeding your dogs I'm positive you can get it here. What brand I'll check it out this weekend when we go for a food run this weekend.

Robert_J · 03-23-2011, 01:38 PM

Dr. Scott Toms - Congo Road Animal Clinic - I'm personal friends with Scott. He is a wonderful guy and a great vet.
Dr. Bob Hale - Briarwood Animal Hospital (http://www.briarwoodanimalhospital.net/our_Doctors.html - broken link) - Bob was our vet as well as our neighbor when we lived in Little Rock. I've even called him for 2nd opinions on our pets. I trust him completely with my furry friends.
Dr. Alex Beam - (practice is on Markham St.) - We used the groomer at Alex's office

I'd trust any of these guys to be my vet. Bob just happened to be the closest to my house. Outside of work, these guys are also close friends and consult with each other on difficult cases.

As for your dog with with sight problems, Dr. Brown is a veterinary ophthalmologist and is in Little Rock one or two days a week. He saved the life, the eye and then the sight of one of our cats. He is not cheap but he is one of the most skilled vet in his specialty I have ever dealt with.

Trevor123 · 03-23-2011, 03:24 PM

Thanks Robert, I'm not the OP, but I live in WLR and we're looking for a new vet.

monomunky · 03-23-2011, 07:54 PM

Thanks Trevor and Robert, you guys are awesome and I am printing out this thread. We are currently feeding Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice and can only get it in one store (a feed store) or online where we currently live. It's the best we can afford right now (a 3 star on dogfoodanalysis.com) and I don't want to switch everything in their lives all at once! I'm glad to hear that there is a discount rabies service...we have so many major issues that I like to go as cheaply as possible on the basics

I am excited for a dog park, I have never been to one before. My realtor laughs at us because my criteria for our house is "a big, fenced yard with trees, in a nice neighborhood where I can walk my pack, and somewhat close to a dog park and good vet." He was amused that we're basing our house purchase around 6 pets. We have a beagle,a beagle/dachshund, a beagle/basset, and a mini schnauzer. We want a GSD, a Neapolitan mastiff, and a dogue de Bordeaux one day

monomunky · 03-24-2011, 07:56 PM

ugh, just found out today that Cabot has a four pet limit. So Cabot is now off the list. I hate city ordinances; I also found out the the LR area also prohibits pit bulls. We don't have them, but I hate breed bans.

Trevor123 · 03-25-2011, 07:34 AM

I think LR has a 4 DOG limit, not a 4 PET limit. You should be able to confirm by visiting the city's humane society website. You could always move out of city limits...

I think pretty much all of central AR is snooty when it comes to pit bulls though.

I hope CD let's you put up links. I might have enough posts for it by now. You shouldn't have any issue whatsoever getting that exact brand of dog food: http://www.diamondpet.com/dealer_locator/ I found 25 within 30 miles of West Little Rock, Cabot, and Bryant.

You'll want to start a new thread about peoples' experiences at the dog park. Some real losers take their dogs there sometimes, so it's a crap-shoot of a good time, but our kiddos need the socialization.

monomunky · 03-25-2011, 09:27 PM

yeah, LR is fine, but Cabot is a 4 pet limit and the lady at the shelter said that it is strongly enforced. We called Bryant and the person at the HS there said that they have a 4 pet limit as well but that we could apply for a special permit for our additional pets. It's crazy to me; pets aren't bad (pitbulls included) but the people who raise them may be. Let's ban ignorant people instead of dogs! I don't know how well we'll do at dog parks; my girl who was a former fighter is still pretty unreliable around other dogs and is therefore not going there, and my sickly dog can't get too overexcited. We'll probably not visit often. I don't take the kids I nanny for to the city park because a lot of idiots and unsupervised kids are there, I imagine a dog park would be similar.

I'm so glad to see all those retailers! I'm *slow* I didn't think to check the website. that's awesome!