Full Circle Holistic Veterinary Care

The in home end-​of-​life care provided by Dr. Carrie Donahue and her assistant, Pat, of the Full Circle Holistic Veterinary Care clinic, located on Monroe St in Madison is invaluable at the most difficult time of parting with your pet. They provided the most ultimate compassion for our English bulldog, Birdie, and for us at this difficult time.

I can’t say enough great things about Dr Carrie and her staff at Full Circle Vet.
My 9 year old Pug’s Mast Cell Tumor Cancer returned with a vengeance a little over a year after a mass was removed with ‘good margins’. The surgery was done by my previous traditional vet in Chicago. I wish I would have known then what I know now about dogs and cancer. I would have taken my Pug to see Dr Carrie right after surgery.
Dr Carrie treats the body as a whole by offering nutritional recommendations, Chinese medicines, herbs, acupuncture, essential oils, etc… Healing and strengthening the immune system, blood flow, inflammation, pain relief, etc…
My dog had other health problems that were exacerbated by the cancer. In the end, we talked about her quality of life. She transitioned this world in a most peaceful and dignified way. The room was filled with so much love. I’m very grateful for Dr Carrie and a very special person who was also in the room with us.
I believe in using both holistic and traditional vet care. If you’re on the fence about holistic vet care, stop by Dr Carrie’s office. I highly recommend.

I just took my itchy pug in to see «Doctor Carrie» (Donohue) at Full Circle, after using another local vet for several years here in Madison. Without getting into why I decided to look into changing veterinarians, I just want to say that I was *very* (!) favorably impressed with Dr. Carrie’s knowledge and obvious consideration for animals. And I came out with all I needed to help put my dog on the road to better health!
While I first got great references about Dr. Carrie from friends, at first I was a little worried when I saw the word «holistic» on the website. I’m not really a devotee of holistic medicine and firmly believe that sometimes you have to resort to good old pharma to get the job done. But I took the plunge, and I’m so glad I did!
I was very happy to learn that Dr. Carrie uses both methods in her practice! She spent a lot of time listening to me and examining my dog and telling me what she thought would be the best course of action to clear up her itching, including the latest «miracle» drug a friend had told me about.
I ended up leaving with a topical spray for the skin infection, the new med to help with itching, some great advice about nutrition, as well as some more holistic preparations that I’ll try mostly because I got a good feeling for this vet… and didn’t feel she would knowingly sell snake oil. (And, even if it *is* snake oil, I still ended up paying *less* for this excellent, careful and caring service than I would have at my old vet for just a routine weighing and exam… and no actual treatment).
Dr. Carrie is aces… and I think my pug thinks so, too!
BONUS POINTS FOR FULL CIRCLE: Dr. Carrie puts a bath mat on her exam table, so paws don’t slide around so scarily. Very smart!!!

WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE HERE! Dr. Carrie Donahue did a great job with our pup! After getting terrible treatment at Spring Harbor Animal Hospital, we took him to Full Circle and they fixed our pup right up! She immediately identified the problem — a foreign body in his paw — and removed it. She gave us some stuff to treat it, and 2 days later is looks immensely better. He’ll be 100% in 1 – 2 days. What a relief! We’ve found our new vet!

We love Full Circle! We have an elderly spaniel mix with a host of chronic issues, and Dr. Carrie has been wonderful in helping to ensure that he is as happy and healthy as possible. The support staff is cheerful and knowledgeable, and the space itself is relaxing — with dog toys in the waiting room to entertain the pooches while you wait for your appointment! They call the day after appointments to make sure everything is going well, and our appointments have always been on time. Full Circle is a wonderful addition to Madison’s near-​east side.

So, bottom line is that Dr. Carrie is awesome. Most vets over-​prescribe all sorts of medicine — monthly flea/​tick, monthly heartworm, etc etc. As a result, I have learned to go to «holistic» vets, but let’s face it, some if them are a little TOO holistic for my tastes (I don’t think essential oils will cure cancer, for example). Dr. Carrie is the perfect blend — she knows her stuff and recommends the necessary vaccines/​medicines without over-​prescribing. She is a wealth of information and is friendly and warm. She is the best!

I cannot say enough good things about Dr. Carrie and her empathy towards our family and the difficult decision we faced. It is never easy when it is time to say goodbye to a trusted loving family member. Dr. Carrie did not make it easy; however, she made it easier.
There was a sense of peace surrounding Duke’s final moments. A sense of peace we would not have had in a sterile vet’s office.

After months of trying different pills to control his pain, we made the difficult choice to put our wonderful senior dog Stanley to sleep. We decided it might be more stressful to bring him into our regular vet, so we searched online and found Dr. Carrie and Full Circle. She would come to our home and help Stanley pass on. I was able to communicate with Dr. Carrie via email and she was informative and kind. She said we could cancel at the last minute if we needed to… everything was on our terms. When the day came, Dr. Carrie and her assistant came to our home and were compassionate and patient. They got to know Stanley and got right on the floor to give him a pet when they walked in the door. When we were ready, they gave us all the explanations and time that we needed with each step. Stanley had a truly peaceful death in the bed he laid in with us each night, in the arms of my husband and I. Our other pets were able to see what was going on, so hopefully that has made things less stressful for them.
After Dr. Carrie and her assistant left, we found they had left information on grieving your pet and a trinket that we have kept nearby ever since. A few days later, she checked in to see how we were doing and then delivered a paw print from Stanley in clay that we’ll keep forever.
I just can’t say enough about Dr. Carrie and Full Circle. We found her services to be very affordable, but after going through this (and having not-​so-​great experiences in the past when our beloved pets were euthanized), we would have paid anything to have the peace of mind and compassion we were given.