A new veterinary hospital has opened in Woolwich to make sure our four-legged friends receive special treatment when they need it.
The Laurelwood Veterinary Hospital, located just southwest of St. Jacobs on two and half acres of treed land, is a full-service veterinary hospital.
The hospital moved from Waterloo to Woolwich in February as its owner, Dr. Heather Carey, noticed that she needed more space, accessible parking and better access to the facility for her clients.
“It is funny but parking is a convenience for our clients. When they arrive with a sick animal they don’t want to spend five minutes looking for parking or park way down the road. We have made it easier for them and most people we find are willing to drive a little out of their way for the service we provide,” noted Carey.
She graduated in 1999 from the Ontario Veterinarian College and worked for Tavistock Veterinarians until she became partners with that organization when she purchased half of the Laurelwood operation.
The new facility offers 6,000 square feet, considerably more than the previous location’s 2,300.
“Being out in the country and close to St. Jacobs is a very good location for us,” said Carey. “We were looking for property for a long time in Waterloo and we couldn’t find any and we happened to find this location and with this kind of space we could expand into other facets for pets.”
The small animal veterinary hospital is able to perform surgery, medical care and management, radiography, dentistry and preventive medicine such as vaccination, geriatric, pediatric, nutrition and behavioural counselling.
The facility also provides in-clinic laboratory testing with an extensive range of anesthetic monitoring equipment, which increases the safety for their surgical patients.
“Taking care of our pets is an important job,” said Carey, adding annual examinations and vaccinations are the core elements of a good quality health care program.
Regular examinations of pets allow the doctors to quickly detect health issues that could potentially cause serious problems. There is an in-house pharmacy that enables the veterinarians to quickly select the appropriate medical therapy needed to treat any health problems that a pet may have.
The in-house radiology equipment enables the veterinarians to take and process X-rays on-site, ensuring that an injured pet is treated promptly.
The facility also offers small animal dentistry, including cleaning, scaling and extractions if needed.
Carey, who works alongside Drs. Alison Rideout and Kathleen Knight, said the hospital is always open to new clients and is willing to accommodate new animals. One veterinarian is always at the hospital during the hours of operation. The primary clients of the hospital are dogs and cats as other animals such as birds, reptiles and rabbits are very specialized.
Along with the medical services the hospital offers boarding and two full time groomers for both dogs and cats.
The groomers have a combined 20 years of experience and ensure each pet is groomed to the specifications of their owners. Although the groomers are not veterinarians, they are often able to detect some problems needing a veterinarian’s attention and we will notify owners of any such finds on the animals they groom.
Grooming is available throughout the day, evenings and on Saturdays.
When it comes to boarding dogs the facility has different size runs for medium and large breeds and all dogs are housed in large, bright, climate controlled room with heated floors. All cages and runs have built in food and water stations to optimize space. Dogs also receive daily exercise in a fenced in area.
For cats there are sound proof, climate controlled rooms and each cat is housed in cat condos with one side for a litter station and the adjoining area for food, water and sleeping.
The hospital held an open house on June 23, with more than 700 visitors taking tours of the facility; watching an agility dog show and getting up close and personal with spiders, snakes, reptiles and birds.
“It was a huge success and we had more people than we thought. There were times that I couldn’t even get in the front door with the amount of people that were here. We got a lot of really good feed back,” said Carey.
For more information about the veterinarian hospital visit www.laurelwoodvets.ca.
