About Dr. Wages

Dr. Page Wages attended undergraduate school at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. Afterwards, she attended North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

While in vet school, she worked with Care First Animal Hospital on weekends, holidays, and breaks. Approaching graduation, Dr. Wages interviewed with 50 practices throughout the United States prior to accepting a position with Care First Animal Hospital at Oberlin.

Dr. Wages is particularly passionate about Ultrasound, and she also has a strong interest in Surgery, Cardiology, Radiology especially using our Vimago HDVI , Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Shelter Medicine. Care First Animal Hospital donates over $250,000 in medical services to the SPCA of Wake County annually.

Because she enjoys mentoring future veterinarians, Dr. Wages opens the doors of Care First Animal Hospital at Oberlin once a month for spay/neuter day for Second Change Pet Adoptions . Dr. Wages teaches students comprehensive physical exam and surgical skills. Area volunteers trap Wake County feral cats, and one Sunday morning a month, Dr. Wages orchestrates a group of volunteers and veterinary school students, and together they spay and neuter a number of dogs and cats annually.

Dr. Wages is one of five children, and she has an enormous pet family of her own that includes:

• 2 pigs: Ellmer and Tilly-Pig
• 9 dogs: Smee, Terk, LittleFoot, Scuttle, Wobbles, Cubby, Zazoo, Nanook, and Ruthie
• 73 chickens (all named but not listed)
• 1 goose: Martha (AKA Mother Goose)
• 3 peacocks: Turtle, Mr. Blue, and Darling
• 4 ducks: Duckie, Fieval, Sister, and Chaos
• 3 goats: Roman, Jaq-Jaq, and Gus-Gus
• 2 cats: Arrchie and Mr. Cat

Obviously, her hobby is her Funny Farm where she enjoys spending time with her dogs, cleaning out the chicken houses, building new houses, designing new play areas and taking care of the yard. When not spending time outside with her animals, Dr. Wages enjoys reading, playing the harp, and crocheting blankets for her dogs. Very involved in community service, Dr. Wages enjoys veterinary mission work and spends seven months out of the year training students and others interested in missions. She leads four mission trips annually, working with the Native Americans and Christian Veterinary Mission. Her mission work involves working with the Cherokee in NC, Yup’ik in Alaska villages and the Navajo. To find our more about veterinary mission work, Dr. Page recommends the following sites:

• https://cvm.org/
• https://ncsucvmmissions.wordpress.com/ (student blog from mission trips)

Dr. Wages’ defining moment when she decided to become a veterinarian was not a straightforward one. As a child, she knew she would go into some field of medicine, and Florence Nightingale was her role model. She read all the Florence Nightingale books she could find. She kept an emergency kit in her bedroom, and would practice applying Band-Aids on her brothers and sisters. Her parents say she always had an affinity for animals and could be found in the petting zoo when she wasn’t working at her family amusement park. In undergraduate college, she focused on anatomy, biology and the physics of how everything worked together. The doctor’s library and conference room was where the veterinarians attended formal displays, one of which was a dog skeleton Dr. Wages puzzled together while a veterinary school student. It was when she started volunteering at a local veterinarian a few days a week and working with her research rats that she realized the field of Veterinary Medicine was for her. She applied to several veterinary schools and was accepted. She describes her acceptance as the beginning of the greatest adventure of her life. If anyone ever felt suited for their place in life, it was her, and she has such a peace about being with Care First Animal Hospital at Oberlin and doing what she is doing. She believes God built her to be a small animal veterinarian.

When asked about her standout veterinary memory, our team and the faces and the names of the individuals that go above and beyond the call of duty come to mind. How can she pick just one when she gives her all to each and every pet she sees? But, if she has to choose one, Boots, the cabinet shop dog, would be an interesting tale. He was a stray cat that moved into the carpenters’ hearts and they fed him, so he hung around. Now, the shop was also near an auto repair shop, so you can probably guess where this is going… One day, Boots fell into a drum of old grease and gas. The shop guys hurried him to Care First Animal Hospital at Oberlin. He was covered in a film of oil and gas, and he was washed thoroughly, but still sustained chemical burns on his skin. His little body went into shock from chemical burns, and he was severely hypoproteinemic. He was treated for shock and dressed in baby clothes and saline wraps which progressed to bag balms and oils to get his skin to stretch back out again. After a month of being treated, he was getting some good skin back, as all but his head had sloughed. He was released to return to his home at the cabinet shop. Now, the carpenter shop gentlemen loved Boots so much, they built him a cat door and made him an area where he would be safe. They convinced the auto repair guys to move their bins and seal them so there would not be a repeat problem. To thank us for saving Boots, the cabinet shop built new surgery cabinets for our surgery suite.

What else would Dr. Wages like for us to know about her? She asks about that feeling you get when you find yourself in the right place at the right time and there is peace in your heart. That’s how she feels about her position with Care First Animal Hospital at Oberlin. It is not a job, but rather who she is. She loves our clients as family. She loves our clients’ pets and treats them as she does her own. She thrives on daily challenges as well as the unpredictable schedule from emergencies, ultrasounds, surgeries and puppy appointments. She loves it all and is grateful to have been given the gifts of healing, both pets and human hearts. She believes in the human-animal bond and believes it to be a privilege to facilitate such loving relationships.

Dr. Wages is passionate about pets, people and God, and she loves to serve each. It is no wonder she was a finalist two years in a row for the Top 20 of America’s Favorite Veterinarian, a contest sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Association.