There is no 24-hour animal hospital on the Outer Banks
✓ Every number and every hour below read off the practice’s own website — August 2026Not in Corolla, not in Nags Head, not on Hatteras. We read the websites of all ten veterinary practices within reach of these beaches — seven on the islands, three on the mainland — and every one of them closes at night. So if something happens to your dog at nine in the evening, the useful question isn’t “where’s the emergency vet” — it’s who is awake, and how far am I driving.
Here is the honest answer, night by night. It changes with the day of the week, which is the part nobody tells you.
Two numbers to try before you start the car
Only two practices on this coast publish an after-hours number you can actually ring. Both are worth trying first.
Roanoke Island Animal Clinic
107 Russell Twiford Road, Manteo
“We pride ourselves for being on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for emergency service. Please call our regular clinic number to receive instructions on how to reach the on-call doctor.”
Their words, on their own site. This is the only round-the-clock on-call service published by any vet on the Outer Banks. It is a doctor you reach by phone, not a lit-up hospital — but it is a real veterinarian, on this island, at 2am.
Coastal Animal Hospital
Milepost 5, 3616 N Croatan Hwy, Kitty Hawk — and their Buxton hospital shares the line
“In case your pet experiences an after-hours emergency, please call the on-call veterinary at (252) 261-3960.”
Read the sentence that follows it, though: “If your pet is not a current patient, requires an overnight observation, or we determine they require a level of specialty care that can be better provided elsewhere, we’ll refer you.” A visiting dog is not a current patient. Still worth the call — a vet on the phone who knows the area is worth something even when the answer is “drive north.”
Nobody else on this coast publishes a number to ring after closing. The other eight give you a list of Virginia hospitals at best, and nothing at all at worst.
How far you’re driving, by night
The nearest overnight hospitals are all off the island, and which one is open depends on the day. Drive times are approximate, and a summer Saturday on the Wright Memorial Bridge can add an hour to any of them.
| You’re calling on a | Closest hospital actually open overnight | Drive from Nags Head |
|---|---|---|
| Monday night | Bay Beach Emergency or VEST, Virginia Beach | ~2 hours |
| Tuesday night | Bay Beach Emergency or VEST, Virginia Beach | ~2 hours |
| Wednesday night | East Carolina Animal Emergency, Elizabeth City | ~1¼ hours |
| Thursday night | East Carolina Animal Emergency, Elizabeth City | ~1¼ hours |
| Friday night | East Carolina Animal Emergency, Elizabeth City | ~1¼ hours |
| Saturday night | East Carolina Animal Emergency, Elizabeth City | ~1¼ hours |
| Sunday night | East Carolina Animal Emergency, Elizabeth City | ~1¼ hours |
Monday and Tuesday are the bad nights. East Carolina Animal Emergency in Elizabeth City is the closest overnight ER to the Outer Banks — an hour and a quarter, most of it straight road. Their own site says it plainly: “Open Wednesday – Sunday 8 pm to 8 am” and “Closed Monday & Tuesday.” Those two nights your drive roughly doubles — Virginia Beach, over the bridge, on the toll road.
The one that’s always open
Bay Beach Veterinary Emergency Hospital
2476 Nimmo Parkway #101, Virginia Beach, VA — about 2 hours from Nags Head
Open 24/7/365, including holidays. It is the only hospital within reach of the Outer Banks that makes that claim and keeps it consistent everywhere on its own site. If you are ever unsure, this is the safe answer at any hour on any day.
There are two “Bay Beach” practices in Virginia Beach and only one is the emergency hospital. Bay Beach Veterinary Hospital on Virginia Beach Boulevard is an ordinary day practice, closed weekends, different phone number. The one you want at 2am is the Emergency Hospital on Nimmo Parkway, (757) 427-3214. Check the address before you drive.
Every after-hours option, and when it’s really open
Half the hospitals below turn up somewhere as a “24/7 ER.” Only one of them actually is. Here is what each publishes about itself.
| Where | Phone | Actually open | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Carolina Animal Emergency Elizabeth City, NC · ~1¼ hr |
252-580-2032 | Wed–Sun, 8pm–8am | Closed Monday and Tuesday, and closed every day between 8am and 8pm. Closest ER to the beach when it’s open. |
| Bay Beach Veterinary Emergency Hospital Virginia Beach, VA · ~2 hr |
757-427-3214 | 24/7/365 | The only always-open one. Don’t confuse it with Bay Beach Veterinary Hospital, a separate day practice. |
| VEST (Veterinary Emergency & Specialty of Tidewater) Virginia Beach, VA · ~2 hr |
757-841-8378 | 24 hours, Friday 7am → Wednesday 6pm | Shut from Wednesday evening until Friday morning — though local vets still list it as a “24/7 ER.” |
| Eastern Shore Animal Hospital & Urgent Care Grandy, NC · ~45 min |
252-453-8200 | Sat & Sun 8am–8pm; Fri 5:30–8pm | Urgent care, not overnight — they close at 8. Closed major holidays. The nearest thing to a weekend vet anywhere on this coast. |
| The COVE Suffolk, VA · ~2¼ hr |
757-935-9111 | Mon–Thu 7am–10pm; Fri 10am–10pm | Closed Saturday and Sunday, despite what their own homepage still says. See below. |
| BluePearl Town Center Virginia Beach, VA · ~2 hr |
757-499-5463 | Urgent care Mon–Sat 11am–9pm | Urgent care only, no overnight, closed Sunday. The Greenbrier location no longer exists — it merged into this one. |
Don’t drive on the number taped to the clinic door
This is the part we didn’t expect. When we read what the area’s own vets tell their clients to do after hours, a lot of it was out of date — and out of date in the direction that leaves you standing in a dark parking lot.
- Five of the practices below send after-hours clients to The COVE in Suffolk. The COVE’s homepage says it provides care “24 hours a day, every day of the year.” Two other pages on the same website list its hours as “Saturday – Sunday: Closed.” The hours pages are the operative ones.
- Four point you at VEST, and one of them labels it a “24/7 ER.” VEST’s own site says it runs “24 hours from Friday 7AM-Wednesday 6PM.” A Thursday-night arrival finds it shut.
- One sends you to BluePearl in Greenbrier. BluePearl’s own page says the Greenbrier and Town Center hospitals “have united” at Town Center — which does urgent care until 9pm and no overnight at all.
- Two publish a phone number for Bay Beach — two different numbers — and neither appears anywhere on Bay Beach’s own website. The number Bay Beach publishes is (757) 427-3214.
- And the one that would worry us most: the Nags Head practice at 101 E Dowitcher renamed itself in 2020, but its old website is still live, still carries the old name, and still tells you to call “Blue Pearl Veterinary Clinic in Greenbrier” after midnight. BluePearl’s Greenbrier hospital no longer exists. A search for “animal hospital Nags Head” can land you on that page instead of the current one.
None of this is anybody being careless. The emergency-vet map around Hampton Roads has shifted hard in the last couple of years — hospitals merged, one dropped overnight care, another cut its weekends — and websites haven’t caught up. It does mean the referral slip you get handed at six on a Friday is worth thirty seconds against this page before you commit to a two-hour drive.
Every vet on the Outer Banks
Ten practices — seven on the islands, three on the Currituck mainland that northern-beach visitors end up using anyway. They are not spread evenly. Three sit within a mile of each other in Kitty Hawk, two more in Nags Head, one covers the whole of Hatteras Island, and there is nothing at all in Kill Devil Hills — the largest town on the beach — or anywhere north of it.
Kitty Hawk — three practices, all within a mile
Coastal Animal Hospital
Milepost 5, 3616 N Croatan Hwy, Kitty Hawk
Mon–Fri 8am–6pm. Closed Saturday and Sunday.
One of the two practices on the beach with an after-hours on-call vet, at the same number. They also say they can see “certain veterinary emergencies during our regular hours for current patients” and ask that you call before you arrive.
Outer Banks Veterinary Hospital
3723 N Croatan Hwy, Unit I, Milepost 4.5, Kitty Hawk
Mon–Thu 8:30am–5:30pm. Their site publishes no Friday, Saturday or Sunday hours at all — the table simply stops at Thursday. Call before you count on the end of the week.
No after-hours service of their own; they publish a referral list instead, and they are unusually straight about why: “Our profession is undergoing a shortage in staffing, and because of this, many 24-hour facilities are having trouble staying open all the time.”
Martin’s Point Veterinary Hospital
6405 N Croatan Hwy, Kitty Hawk
Mon–Fri 8am–5:30pm. Saturday 8am–noon. One of only two Saturday-morning options on the beach.
No after-hours service; they refer out. Their referral page labels VEST a “24/7 ER” — it isn’t, mid-week — and gives a phone number for Bay Beach that Bay Beach doesn’t publish. Check both against the table above.
Nags Head
Sound Veterinary Hospital
101 E Dowitcher Street, Nags Head
Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 8am–6pm. Wednesday 8am–4pm. Closed Saturday and Sunday.
After hours they refer to VEST and The COVE. Both have gaps — check them above.
Searching for “Animal Hospital of Nags Head”? This is it — same building, same phone number. The practice was sold in January 2020 and renamed. The catch is that the old website is still live under the old name, with different hours on it (including a Saturday morning) and an emergency line that points at a Virginia hospital which has since merged away. We can’t tell you which set of Saturday hours is right; we can tell you the site carrying a 2026 copyright says closed. Call (252) 441-8611 before you drive down on a Saturday.
Gallery Row Animal Hospital
206 E Gallery Row, Nags Head
Mon–Fri 9am–5:30pm. No weekend hours and no after-hours arrangement published.
A quiet second option in Nags Head, and a useful one on a weekday when the practice down the road is full. It is not somewhere to plan an emergency around.
Manteo & Roanoke Island
Roanoke Island Animal Clinic
107 Russell Twiford Road, Manteo
Mon–Fri 8am–5:30pm. Saturday 8am–1pm, walk-ins only. On call 24/7.
On Saturdays: “Call first if you can but feel free to walk in and we will do everything we can to get your pet seen in a reasonable time.” Sundays are emergencies and boarding pickups only. If you keep one number from this page in your phone, make it this one.
Hatteras Island
Coastal Animal Hospital of Hatteras Island
47959 NC-12, Buxton — Milepost 62.5, just south of Conner’s
Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 8am–5:30pm. Closed Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. After hours their calls go to the Kitty Hawk on-call line, (252) 261-3960.
This is the only vet on Hatteras Island, and it sits near the south end of it. From Rodanthe that is the better part of an hour before you have even reached the bridge. Worth doing the arithmetic before you book a week down the island with an older dog.
You may also find Hatteras Island Animal Clinic in Avon listed in directories. It has no website and appears in none of the current local guides we checked. Treat Buxton as the island’s only bricks-and-mortar vet.
Ocracoke and Avon — the monthly clinic nobody mentions
Roanoke Island Animal Clinic’s satellite days
Ocracoke Community Center · Avon Volunteer Fire Department
(252) 473-3117 — appointments only
The Manteo vets drive down once a month and hold a clinic on each island. Ocracoke: the third Wednesday of every month, 9am to 1pm, at the community center. Avon: the fourth Wednesday, 9am to 1pm, at the volunteer fire department. In their words, “Since 1993 Dr Grossman and Dr Burkart have been providing veterinary service to Ocracoke and Hatteras Island pets.”
Thirty-three years of it, and it is on a page of their website that almost nothing else on the internet links to. It is not an emergency service — it is one morning a month, by appointment. But if you keep a place down here, or you are on a long stay with a dog who needs something routine looked at, it is the best-kept veterinary secret on this coast.
Just over the bridge — Point Harbor
First Flight Veterinary Hospital & Mobile Services
100 Pan Ridge Court, Point Harbor — the first exit off the Wright Memorial Bridge
Monday to Friday, 8am–5pm. No weekend hours published.
Geographically this is the closest practice to Duck and Southern Shores after the Kitty Hawk three, and it is the one most visitors have never heard of, because it sits on the mainland side of the bridge. Two things make it worth knowing: they run mobile and house-call services into Dare and Currituck — the only practice in reach that does — and they do end-of-life and hospice visits. If you are travelling with a dog who cannot easily be moved, that is a call worth making early rather than late.
They also do acupuncture, veterinary chiropractic and equine work, which is unusual out here. Their after-hours page is worded carefully — “if… one of the FFVH veterinarians is unavailable” — but they publish no after-hours number, so treat the referral list as the plan: The COVE, VEST, Bay Beach and East Carolina.
Mainland Currituck — where you go when the beach is shut
Eastern Shore Animal Hospital & Urgent Care
6421 Caratoke Hwy, Grandy — about 45 minutes from Nags Head, longer from Corolla
Mon–Fri 8am–5:30pm. Urgent care Friday 5:30–8pm and Saturday–Sunday 8am–8pm. Closed major holidays.
The most useful weekend address on this whole page. Not because it’s close — from Corolla you drive past the Kitty Hawk practices to reach it — but because it is open on a Saturday and they are not. It is urgent care, not an overnight hospital — they say themselves that some cases get sent on to “the nearest 24 hour emergency facility.” Their site states the weekend hours three slightly different ways, so call ahead on a Friday evening.
Moyock Animal Hospital
188 Caratoke Hwy, Moyock
Monday 8am–1pm and 2–7pm. Tue–Fri 8am–1pm and 2–5:30pm. Closed for lunch. No weekend hours published.
Only worth the drive if you are already heading north on 168. Their after-hours referral still points at BluePearl’s old Greenbrier hospital.
Where there is no vet at all
There is no veterinary practice in Corolla, Carova, Duck, Southern Shores or Kill Devil Hills. Every clinic on this coast sits in the Kitty Hawk–Nags Head–Manteo corridor, plus the one in Buxton. It is worth knowing which side of that line your rental is on.
- Corolla and Carova — the nearest vets are the three in Kitty Hawk, roughly 35 to 40 minutes down NC-12 through Duck and Southern Shores. Grandy is farther, not closer: to reach it you drive past those same Kitty Hawk practices, cross the Wright Memorial Bridge and head back north. Its only advantage is that it opens at weekends, when Kitty Hawk doesn’t. From the 4x4 beach, add the run down the sand and the stop to air back up. This is the longest gap on the Outer Banks and the one people underestimate.
- Duck and Southern Shores — Kitty Hawk is ten or fifteen minutes, and First Flight in Point Harbor is barely further, just over the bridge. The easiest gap on the list.
- Kill Devil Hills — the largest town on the beach and it has no veterinary practice at all, which surprised us. In practice it doesn’t matter much: Kitty Hawk is minutes north, Nags Head minutes south. Five clinics inside ten minutes of the Wright Brothers Memorial, none of them in town.
- Ocracoke — this is the serious one. The island had a mobile veterinarian from 2017 until April 2024, when she retired and left the island; her page is still up, which is a trap. Today the only veterinary presence on Ocracoke is the Manteo clinic’s monthly satellite day, the third Wednesday, by appointment. Any other day, the nearest vet is Buxton — which means the Hatteras ferry, which means the ferry’s schedule. If you are bringing a dog with a condition, think that one all the way through before you book the week.
Numbers that aren’t a vet but might be what you need
If he ate something
ASPCA Animal Poison Control — (888) 426-4435, “available 24/7, 365 days a year.” Their page says a consultation fee may apply and doesn’t name a figure.
Pet Poison Helpline — (855) 764-7661, also 24/7. They publish an $89 per-incident fee with follow-up calls included.
Either is a good first call while somebody else drives. They will tell you whether this is a two-hour drive or a wait-and-watch, and that is exactly the question you can’t answer at midnight on a phone screen.
An injured stray, or injured wildlife
Dare County Animal Services, after hours: 252-216-8860 (daytime 252-475-5620). Their published list of what that line is for includes a “seriously sick or injured stray animal (domestic or wild).” It is not for your own dog.
- Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills run their own animal control. Nags Head after hours goes through Dare Central Communications, 252-473-3444; Kill Devil Hills, 252-480-4047.
- Dare County publishes a second after-hours animal number, 888-876-5942, elsewhere on its own site. We couldn’t establish which is current. If 216-8860 doesn’t answer, that’s the backup.
- Currituck County doesn’t publish an after-hours animal line. Its 24-hour dispatch is 252-453-3633.
- For wildlife generally, the NC Wildlife Helpline is 866-318-2401 on weekdays; after hours it’s the Wildlife Enforcement line, 800-662-7137. Their advice usually starts with leaving the animal where it is.
- Inside Cape Hatteras National Seashore the Park Service points at 911 for emergencies and the Dare non-emergency line, 252-473-3444, for everything else. There is no pet-specific park number.
Things people assume are a vet, and aren’t
- The Outer Banks SPCA on Airport Road in Manteo runs the county shelter and does enormous good, but it employs no veterinarian and runs no public clinic. What it does offer is a spay/neuter voucher scheme for low-income owners and occasional low-cost rabies clinics. 252-475-5620.
- Feline Hope, based in Kitty Hawk, runs monthly low-cost spay/neuter and TNR clinics for cats with volunteer vets. Not a walk-in practice and not an emergency service, but the right call for a colony or a stray you have taken on.
- The vaccination clinic at Tractor Supply in Moyock runs Saturday afternoons, 4:30 to 6pm. Vaccines, microchips, nail trims — preventive only. Useful if you’ve driven down without a rabies certificate; no use at all if something is wrong.
Five minutes before you leave home
- Put Roanoke Island Animal Clinic, (252) 473-3117 in your contacts. It is the only 24/7 on-call vet on the Outer Banks.
- Put Bay Beach Emergency, (757) 427-3214 right underneath it. That one is open no matter what day it is.
- Staying on Hatteras or Ocracoke? Add Buxton, (252) 995-3960, look at the ferry schedule, and check whether your week contains a third or fourth Wednesday — that’s when the Manteo vets come down.
- Travelling with a dog who can’t easily be moved? Put First Flight, (252) 491-7474 in as well. They are the only practice out here that comes to you.
- Photograph his rabies certificate and his records. An unfamiliar hospital at 1am will ask for both, and the folder is at home.
- Know his weight. Every dose starts there, and “about fifty, maybe?” slows things down.
Worth adding: the beach itself causes a fair share of the trouble. Hot sand, cut pads on shell hash, and dogs that drink saltwater are the three that fill an OBX exam room in July. The beach page has more on all three.
What we couldn’t confirm
We would rather tell you the gap exists than fill it with a guess. On a page like this a wrong phone number at 2am is worse than no phone number.
- Outer Banks Veterinary Hospital’s Friday, Saturday and Sunday hours. Their published table runs Monday to Thursday and stops. We don’t know whether they’re closed or simply haven’t listed them.
- Whether Moyock Animal Hospital or First Flight open at weekends. Neither publishes Saturday or Sunday hours; neither says it is closed, either.
- Saturday at 101 E Dowitcher in Nags Head. Two live websites for the same practice, same phone, same address, one saying Saturday 8am–1pm and one saying closed. We’ve gone with the site carrying the 2026 copyright, but call.
- Which Dare County after-hours animal line is current — 252-216-8860 or 888-876-5942. Both appear on county-run pages today.
- A second, unlabelled number on Roanoke Island Animal Clinic’s site, (252) 423-0975. We don’t know what it rings. Use the main one.
- Whether The COVE holds patients overnight on a Friday. Their Friday line drops the “overnight care available” note that Monday to Thursday carries, and they don’t say why.
- Exact drive times. Ours are estimates from the road distance, and summer traffic on 158 and the Wright Memorial Bridge makes a mockery of all of them.
Know something we don’t — or work at one of these practices and see an error? hello@obxmaps.com. We’ll fix it the same day.
Questions people actually ask
- Is there a 24 hour emergency vet on the Outer Banks?
- No. There is no 24-hour animal hospital in any town from Corolla to Ocracoke. Roanoke Island Animal Clinic in Manteo publishes a 24/7 on-call service at (252) 473-3117 — a doctor you reach by phone, not a staffed hospital — and Coastal Animal Hospital in Kitty Hawk runs an after-hours on-call line at (252) 261-3960, mainly for its own clients. Beyond those two, the nearest overnight hospital is in Elizabeth City or Virginia Beach.
- What is the closest emergency vet to Nags Head?
- East Carolina Animal Emergency in Elizabeth City, roughly an hour and fifteen minutes away — but it is only open Wednesday through Sunday, and only from 8pm to 8am. On a Monday or Tuesday night the closest open hospital is Bay Beach Veterinary Emergency Hospital in Virginia Beach, about two hours, which is open 24/7/365.
- Is there a vet in Corolla?
- No. There is no veterinary practice in Corolla, Carova, Duck, Southern Shores or Kill Devil Hills. The closest to Corolla are the three practices in Kitty Hawk, roughly 35 to 40 minutes south. Grandy is farther, not closer — you drive past Kitty Hawk to reach it — but it is the one that opens at weekends.
- Is there a vet in Kill Devil Hills?
- No — which surprises people, because it is the largest town on the beach. There is no veterinary practice with a Kill Devil Hills address. In practice it matters little: three clinics sit in Kitty Hawk a few minutes north and two in Nags Head a few minutes south.
- Can a vet come to the house on the Outer Banks?
- First Flight Veterinary Hospital & Mobile Services in Point Harbor, (252) 491-7474, runs mobile and house-call services into Dare and Currituck counties, including end-of-life and hospice visits. It is the only practice within reach of these beaches that publishes a house-call service. It is not an emergency service — call during business hours, and call early rather than late.
- Is there a vet on Hatteras Island?
- One bricks-and-mortar practice: Coastal Animal Hospital of Hatteras Island in Buxton, (252) 995-3960, open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and closed Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. After hours its calls go to the Kitty Hawk on-call line, (252) 261-3960. On top of that, Roanoke Island Animal Clinic in Manteo holds a monthly clinic at the Avon Volunteer Fire Department on the fourth Wednesday of every month, 9am to 1pm, by appointment on (252) 473-3117.
- Is there a vet on Ocracoke?
- Not a permanent one. Ocracoke's mobile veterinarian retired and left the island in April 2024. What remains is a monthly satellite clinic run by Roanoke Island Animal Clinic at the Ocracoke Community Center on the third Wednesday of every month, 9am to 1pm, by appointment on (252) 473-3117. Any other day, the nearest vet is in Buxton — which means the Hatteras ferry and the ferry's schedule. Worth thinking through before you book a week with a dog that has a condition.
- Which Outer Banks vets are open on Saturday?
- Two, both mornings only: Roanoke Island Animal Clinic in Manteo takes walk-ins 8am to 1pm, and Martin's Point Veterinary Hospital in Kitty Hawk is open 8am to noon. On the mainland, Eastern Shore Animal Hospital & Urgent Care in Grandy runs urgent care 8am to 8pm on both Saturday and Sunday — the longest weekend hours anywhere in reach. Everywhere else on this coast publishes weekday hours only.
While you’re planning the rest of it
The beach rules, town by town
Leash lengths, seasonal hours and which towns close the sand to dogs in the middle of the day.
Read the rules →Where to stay
Which rental companies take dogs, which hotels do, and the picker that tells you which town fits your dog.
Find a place →Town by town
Corolla to Hatteras — the rules, the parking, the nearest vet, one town at a time.
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