‘Above and beyond’ the ‘paw’ of duty: Granbury Animal Clinic celebrates 60 years of service

An animal clinic that was once housed in a feed store is now celebrating 60 years of service in Hood County.

HISTORY

Granbury Animal Clinic — the oldest veterinary clinic in the county — was founded by Dr. Roger Nunnallee on May 9, 1963.

“In his first few months, (Nunnallee) practiced it out of what was then Bonds Feed Store, which is now Wagon Yard,” said Dr. Ronny Naylor, current veterinarian at Granbury Animal Clinic.

After practicing in the feed store for a few months, Nunnallee then built a small building at 1319 Lipan Highway — the clinic’s current location.

Nunnallee continued his solo practice until 1972, when he hired Dr. Gary Cooper. He hired Naylor in 1978.

"It was just the three of us there for several years until Dr. Nunnallee passed away, and then Dr. Cooper and I then hired Dr. David Imke,” Naylor said.

Cooper has since retired and Imke sold his part of the practice and moved to Montana — leaving two openings for Dr. Sally Everett, who joined the team in 2013, and Dr. Courtney Bailey, who joined in 2016.

EXPANSION

Naylor has now been a veterinarian at Granbury Animal Clinic for 45 years and has seen growth in both the practice and in Hood County.

"In 1980, we expanded from this first little building and in 1999, we built the present facility,” he explained. “In general practice we saw a lot of large animals, but now with the way the county's grown, not so much. About 90% of what we see is small animals, dogs, cats. We still see a lot of horses and cattle and other animals too, but most of them are small.”

In 2012, Granbury Animal Clinic also founded its second location in The Village by First National Bank in Pecan Plantation.

The full-service facility offers routine examinations and vaccinations, laboratory diagnostics and surgery, as well as dental cleanings. The doctors rotate between the two locations to ensure that all patients get the care they need.

"We have a satellite clinic where we can do vaccines, routine surgeries, bloodwork, and even hospitalizations, but that's been part of the expansion that they did right before I got here,” Everett said. “To have that second location has been really nice.”

The advancement of technology has also affected the clinic in a huge — and positive — way, especially regarding the equipment.

"We have a complete laboratory, we do all lab work as far as blood work and things like that, we have ultrasounds, we have EKG machines, we have radiology, and we do much more now than we ever used to,” he explained.

But the biggest change, Naylor said, has been the growth within Hood County.

"When I came here in ‘78, it was a two-lane highway between Granbury and Fort Worth,” he explained. “There were only two or three restaurants in town. There were 13 dairies in Hood County; we haven't had a dairy in Hood County now in probably 20 years, so that business has gradually faded away. The town has really exploded, and the county has grown the same way."

‘GREAT MENTORSHIP’

Bailey said her favorite part about practicing at Granbury Animal Clinic has been learning from her fellow veterinarians.

"The five of us combined have more than 65 years of experience, and so, you get a little bit of everything in great mentorship; we all have our niche,” she explained. “(Naylor), he's seen it all and done it all, but like, some of the best things that I learned from him are llamas and alpaca medicine. (Everett) likes the pigs, I don't mind working on chickens, Dr. (Elizabeth) Wooton works on horses, and Dr. (Cheyenne) Bone does acupuncture, so you have this dynamic (where) it seems like you can just do it all based on everybody's knowledge.”

FUNNY BUSINESS

Although they all have their specialties when it comes to animals, sometimes issues arise where they may have to assist with an animal that they’re not particularly fond of — like the time Everett had to tend to a chicken.

"One of my favorites — a lady calls, and she said her chicken has an impacted crop,” Bailey said. “I didn't have time to see it that day, so Dr. Everett saw it the next day and I told her ‘It'll be OK. Just flip it upside down and make it vomit.’ She got to wear chicken vomit all day.”

“She's the chicken lady, and I'll see the pigs,” Everett chimed in, laughing.

Naylor said there is one house call in particular that stands out the most to him — one that he will never ‘frog-et.’

“We used to do 24-hour emergency calls, and due to the time constraints, we don't do that anymore,” he explained. “But this was late one night when a lady called me. I can tell that she probably had several martinis by this time of the night, but she had this frog that she wanted me to take care of. I asked her what the problem was, ‘Was it a pet frog?’ and she said ‘No, it's just a toad from the backyard, but my dogs jumped on it and tore him open.’ She wanted me to come and see this frog and I tried to explain to her with an emergency fee and coming up here at midnight, it was not going to be inexpensive. I was just trying to nudge her along to let nature take its course — she wasn't gonna have any of that though, and I had to come and see the frog.

"She had the frog in a box, and he was on a bag of ice. Being a cold-blooded animal that can't regulate their temperature, this frog was pretty much just comatose from the cold. He was just completely anesthetized by the cold basically. The dog had just ripped the skin in the frog's groin area and so I took some tissue adhesive and glued the skin back on and got him off the ice where he could survive. Well, she comes back the next morning very upset because she had gotten a bill for this emergency call on this frog. After I reminded her and convinced her that I had tried to stop that whole thing from happening, she finally stormed out, but she wasn't happy; it was just too many martinis. The frog was OK, though.”

The team has also treated several exotic animals, like bears, lion cubs, lemurs, wallabies, and monkeys — although monkeys are quite difficult, Naylor said.

“They're too smart,” Naylor said. “They have some pretty good teeth, so you have to be careful with the monkeys, but there's always a little bit of variety.”

60 YEARS AND COUNTING

Naylor said it doesn’t seem like it’s been 45 years since he joined the Granbury Animal Clinic as a veterinarian.

“Time really does get away from you,” he said.

He said he’s been very fortunate with the Granbury community and the kindness that his clients have shown him throughout the years.

"It's been amazing,” he said. “It's a great place to live and raise kids, and a great place to practice medicine. People 99.9% of the time are always very great and appreciative, and it makes a big difference. We have a lot of country people, and it's just been amazing to me the way the practice has grown.”

‘ABOVE AND BEYOND’

On average, the team at Granbury Animal Clinic see anywhere from 30 to 45 clients daily. While the job can be challenging and stressful at times, the community makes the job worthwhile for Bailey and Everett.

"Granbury's a great place,” Everett added. “As it's grown, people are very compliant, generous, sweet, and thankful. It's been really rewarding to see the payoff. People are so nice. You feel like you've gone above and beyond to save their pet and maybe it doesn't always work out and they send you flowers; it can be really amazing."

"I don't feel like our hands are really ever tied that much. They love their animals, they care for their animals, and they let us do our job,” Bailey said, choking up. “They trust us, so that's rewarding — actually getting to do your job and help animals and help people; it's nice.”

For more information, visit granburyanimalclinic.com online or call 817-573-5553.