Meeting the need: Susitna Animal Urgent Center celebrates ribbon cutting

Our furry, four-legged friends now have another option for veterinary urgent care in Palmer as the Susitna Animal Urgent Care celebrated its grand opening on July 11.

The new Urgent Care center was born out of a need for options to bridge the gap between primary care and emergency veterinary hospitals, helping local veterinarians manage overflow while reducing ER congestion.

Founded by Dr. Emily Clinton, Dr. Ciara Vollaro, and Dr. Paige Wallace, who have been practicing veterinary care in the Mat-Su Borough and Anchorage.

“We knew there was a lot of need, and all three of us had been doing relief work for the past few years, filling in at general practices that needed help. We could see that patients were calling, asking if they could get in, and we couldn’t get everyone in.,” explained Dr. Clinton. “We also know that that local ERs were just inundated, and that takes priority, but that also means that some animals that needed to be seen would have to wait. We knew there was a need for a place to handle those urgent cases.” She explained that much like humans who are in pain, have infections, or experience acute injuries that may not be life or death or require a trip to the emergency room, animals too need urgent care.

The hope is to also ease the burden on local vets, while also ensuring that pets receive the immediate attention they need.

The Susitna Animal Urgent Care has capabilities to offer a triage area to address any sort of trauma, treatment rooms, a laboratory to do in-house urinalysis and bloodwork for timely answers, x-ray, and ultrasound services.

On Saturday, the new facility celebrated a ribbon-cutting, with Mat-Su Borough Mayor Edna DeVries doing the honors, along with Palmer Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kelley Shoemake and Board of Directors member Bill Stoddard

“Congratulations on your new facility!” said Shoemake.

“We’re just excited for you. We know you’ve been dreaming and thinking and planning this for a long, long time,” said Mayor DeVries.

“It’s a great facility. I’ve been excited watching it being built. This is what Palmer needs,” said Stoddard, adding that he hopes to see the center filled and is a great success.

“It has been a dream for us for a few years now, and it’s finally coming to fruition,” said Dr. Vollaro before the ribbon-cutting.

“It’s been such a group effort, with all of amazing technicians and employees,” said Dr. Clinton, who took time to recognize the staff of the new facility. “We could not have done this without you.”

“This was definitely not a solo effort,” echoed Dr. Wallace, who thanked H5 Construction, the contractors and everyone else who has contributed the building. “We hope you never need us, but we’re here to help

Dr. Clinton and Dr. Vollaro met while studying veterinary medicine at Western University, and upon discovering their shared interest in emergency medicine, started the local chapter of the Student Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society. Dr. Clinton credits Dr. Vollaro with eventually luring her to Alaska.

Dr. Wallace grew up in Wasilla, and upon graduating from the University of Missouri, College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Wallace served 8 years in the Army and Army Reserves. She returned to the Last Frontier in 2018 and has been working as a relief emergency clinician, in Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley.

Many of Alaska’s primary care veterinarians frequently encounter fully booked schedules weeks in advance, leaving limited time and space to address urgent cases. This overwhelming demand places substantial strain on their teams and emergency hospitals, potentially compromising the quality of care provided for pets.

Currently, the Susitna Animal Urgent Care is providing urgent and emergency medical care, short-notice routine appointments, reproductive services, and surgical care for pets in the Mat-Su Valley. Care was taken in the construction to ensure enough space to for animals needing a gurney to be utilized as needed.

Another are the center will be focusing on is reproductive care, including breeding soundness exams, semen collection and shipping, artificial insemination, as well as C-section surgery to support breeding programs and reproductive health.

The veterinarians are highly skilled in emergency soft tissue surgery and wound management, and are able to offer urgent, emergent, and referral-based procedures, advanced soft tissue surgeries and select orthopedic procedures on a case-by-case basis.

While they do not currently offer overnight hospitalization services, Dr. Clinton says that they are able to provide critical stabilization for animals and coordinate transfer to a 24-hour facility if needed.

The Susitna Animal Urgent Care center is open M-F from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. It is located at 700 S. Trunk Road near the Mat-Su College. For more information, please call (907) 600-0838 or visit www.susitnavet.com