14 Apr Our 2 year anniversary, a year of COVID and more

Let us start by celebrating being open 2 years!! We opened our doors on March 27th 2019! (Yes, we are a bit late with this announcement…)

Now back to the reality of the past year. And it has been a year… For so many of you, as well as for ourselves, this past year has brought dramatic change to our lives from small to large. What has been clear is that this is most likely a year that will define our world for this generation and possibly longer. When we look back at this past year, we need to realize that with the bad, there was also plenty we have to be thankful for. Thankful that we have such wonderful clients. Thankful that our clinic has not only survived but that we found ways to thrive under extreme pressure. Thankful that we have been able to stay open throughout all this. But we also have to realize that this is by no means all due to our own efforts and we have to again be thankful for a certain amount of good fortune.

Humbled. We have been humbled by the amount of clients that have appreciated our services and took the time to give us a 5-star review on Google. You have no idea how much that means to us, and much more so in this time when we didn’t get to see you face to face. While good for business, it is really good for our souls to know what we do is appreciated. While we are feeling humbled, we also know we can do better. Know that we will always strive to build on what we have and we will always make sure we do not think too highly of ourselves to accept we always need to learn from our mistakes and improve.

We look forward to providing more services to our clients, as well as introduce a new model to our business. As things begin to open up, we hope that we can provide a variety of options. Right now we will maintain curbside appointments, but we do see this change in the not so distant future. And when that time will come, it will be limited.

Our vision is that clients will have an option. We do see the pandemic will most likely still have a few ups and downs, and that we will probably have some level of preventive measures in place for the long term – years at this point. We will continue to offer curbside to anyone that wishes, but we will also create a small incentive to continue to do curbside. It is by far the safest way to do our job, but it turns out most pets are actually doing unexpectedly well once they walk through our doors leaving you outside wondering what is going on with them. When the time comes, and we are not quite sure when that will be, for those that do wish to come in, we will request that (1) everyone continue to wear a mask. (2) There will also be a minimal cleaning charge added. Rooms will need a different level of cleaning between clients, which will require more time and supplies to be able to maintain a safe environment for all. (3) We will also ask that each pet or pets have only one of their humans come in. Our exam rooms are small and there is no way to keep social distance in there. (The exception, as it has been our policy so far, will be end of life care.) (4) Another change will be that your pet will be brought to our treatment area for any procedures. This will limit the time we spend in the exam room, and the number of people that would need to come in and out of the exam. Again, once we move to this stage, we will only be able to have a limited number of “in-person” appointments.

As for more services – we are reaching a good level of demand for the services provided by Dr Jennifer Lorenz and we look forward to continuing to have her at our clinic on a regular basis. Dr Lorenz is our acupuncture, laser therapy, and spinal manipulation specialist. We have also been working with Dr. Bates for Internal Medicine consults. We also started the process of being able to do some orthopedic surgeries in September of last year. It was disheartening to find out that parts we needed to be able to perform such surgeries were not available for more than 6 months. We are happy to announce that we have finally solved those issues and we have an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Bergh, that would be able to come to our clinic to perform these procedures at a substantial savings compared to the specialty hospitals.

As we move into the second half of 2021, we will start searching for a second doctor so that we can expand our hours a little, and at the same time continue to be able to provide a good level of service to all our clients. For now we are still able to announce that Dr Maggie Hodge will be working here one day a week starting next week. Thursdays will be her day here! Dr Maggie has owned her very successful practice until recently, and is now looking to get away from the business of it and just do what she loves – provide top quality care for all your pets.

There is a good chance we will no longer accept new clients as we are reaching capacity. We have to be mindful of our existing clients and we need to make sure we can provide good and timely services for all of you. This is a good time to remind everyone that we have a referral program. We will always accept new clients that are referred to us by an existing client. And there is a bonus – a $10 account credit to the person doing the referring! (Note that a new client appointment would still be about 1-2 weeks out, so be mindful if you are referring us to someone who may need more immediate attention.)

We do also kindly request that you make appointments as far out in advance as possible. Appointments get booked up a week or two in advance so we do ask for your understanding, especially if your request is for a routine annual exam or vaccinations.

We will make further announcements on social media as to when we expect to accept a limited number of clients in the clinic shortly. And of course, in any decision we make we will have to also look at the guidance provided by the Milwaukee and Wisconsin Health Departments as well as the CDC. We are also holding our fingers crossed that we might actually have an event or two later this summer or fall because we would just love to see all of you and your fur babies outside of our clinic!