Fear-free animal clinic top readers’ choice

Granbury Animal Clinic at 1319 Lipan Highway has treated pets for everything from snake bites to major surgeries for nearly 60 years — and that is a major reason they were the top choice of readers in this newspaper’s Best of Hood County contest last year.

Of course, the facilities and veterinarians on staff may also have a lot to do with that honor.

“We try to get people into the clinic because we’re able to provide better medicine and promote a better standard of care here at the clinic,” said Dr. Courtney Bailey, part-owner and one of five veterinarians on staff. “But if the owner is not able to bring the dog in for whatever reason, we will come out (to them).”

This nearly 10,00-square-foot facility on the outskirts of Granbury has it all: two surgery suites, multiple examination rooms and spacious boarding kennels for every size dog.

They also treat pocket pets such as “gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits,” Bailey said. “And we do see some birds and some reptiles, but not a whole lot.”

FEAR-FREE CLINIC

The facility is tough to beat.

“We have surgery suites,” Bailey said, and everything else a patient may need such as an in-house lab, ultrasound device and a radiology department for X-rays.

For serious cases, the clinic has an oxygen cage for dogs.

“Some of the clinics in town don’t have an oxygen cage,” Bailey said. “Dogs won’t hold a nasal cannula in their noses like humans do, so we have a cage that supplements oxygen to them.”

Also, fur babies will have nothing to fear in this clinic. The five resident doctors are certified fear-free veterinarians. 

“So if we know the animal is going to be a high anxiety patient to begin with,” Bailey said, “we encourage the owner to come and pick up medication prior to the appointment. 

“And that helps tremendously at the appointment time that they're just chill-pill happy,” she added.

Even the piped-in music inside the clinic is designed to soothe the animals’ nerves. 

When that doesn’t work, the clinic can give out the pheromone Adaptil in all its examination rooms “to help decrease stress,” according to Bailey.

In the worst cases, she said, “we can mildly sedate the animal to be able to get the job done in a fear-free way.”

One of the clinic’s strong suits is caring for emergency walk-ins. Snakebites are sure to arrive with the summer heat — and they have had three cases just in the past week, Bailey said. 

“So just like human medicine, we have an anti-venom that we give to the patient,” she said. “And it has to be given intravenously and … within 48 hours of the snakebite, and it decreases clinical signs, and it decreases mortality and morbidity.”

According to Bailey, the clinic sees on average 45-60 patients a day, Monday through Saturday, with three veterinarians on hand every single day.

“We do have an answering service after hours that (patients) can call,” she said, and they will be told how to call the nearest 24-hour pet hospital.

BOARDING FACILITIES

With vacation season underway, pet owners are always looking for places to board their babies. This clinic has that covered for both canines and felines.

“We have two large boarding facilities (one in the Lipan Highway location and another in the Pecan Plantation location),” she said.

Then there are the cat condos: “It's a group of cages that have plexiglass so the cats can see they're not like behind bars or anything. And you can open them and you can connect them (the rooms) so it makes like this giant indoor cat tower thing,” she said.

For the dogs the clinic has 10-foot by 5-foot rooms with raised cots and bedding.

“If (the animals) are from the same household we do try and accommodate for that,” she said. “And we have a large outdoor play yard for them that they can go out two to three times a day and play and run.”