The story below is from our March/April 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Photos By Aaron Spicer
The multi-million dollar project will create Roanoke’s first campus-style veterinary facility, a move that will allow the practice to expand services and better meet the needs of the community.
Dr. Courtney Wiegard has played a crucial role in Vinton Veterinary Hospital’s success over the years, and now, she and Alyce Dantzler, the practice’s general manager, are heading up the hospital’s long-awaited expansion and renovation project.
After graduating from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine in 2005, Wiegard started working as an associate veterinarian at Vinton Vet alongside Dr. Jesse Webster, the practice’s founder. Upon his retirement, she became the hospital’s Managing DVM and was recently promoted to Chief Medical Director for Vinton Vet, Pet Vet and Botetourt Veterinary Hospital.
Taking on the multi-million dollar remodel has been a goal of Wiegard’s for so long and seeing the project finally come to fruition has been overwhelming for her in the best of ways. “Just ask Alyce,” says Wiegard. “I am completely emotional about this as it has been a dream for years to create. I will be a mess when we finally cut the ribbon and open the doors.”
While the pandemic brought many businesses to a halt, the opposite happened at VVH. Wiegard says that the adoption of pandemic pets and the increase in staffing necessary to care for their exponentially growing client base had their building bursting at its seams. “We have made space from every nook and cranny, turning offices and supply closets into exam rooms, an animal boarding space into a state-of-the-art laboratory, but we still need[ed] more space! … We just couldn’t put one more person in the existing space and we were completely landlocked and could not expand our current building.”
After some creative thinking, the Vinton Vet team decided to transform an adjacent structure they were already renting into a brand-new care area.
“We are creating a Vinton Veterinary Campus: A dedicated Vinton Veterinary Wellness and Urgent Care Center (in the current Vinton Vet building) and a dedicated Vinton Veterinary Specialty Services Center (in the brand-new renovated space).” The campus-style facility will be the first of its kind in Roanoke.
The purpose of the expansion goes beyond just caring for Vinton Vet’s current clientele. With the help of Pet Vet, Vinton’s sister site, and Botetourt Veterinary Hospital, Wiegard, Dantzler and the rest of the VVH team are aiming to provide top-notch care to all of our area’s pets through collaboration. “We hope to have all of these hospitals work together to provide the best veterinary care to the region due to different specialties each is able to offer,” says Dantzler. “Vinton will certainly head this up with new surgical, dental and endoscopic suites.”
Ground broke on the new Specialty Services Center last October. The new space is home to designated dental and endoscopy suites as well as a large surgical suite outfitted with cutting-edge equipment. Four exam rooms have been constructed with one doubling as a chemotherapy room. All exotic animal visits will also take place in this building, and the hospital is investing in specialized surgical equipment for these pets to ensure their procedures are as successful as possible.
The Center will also house the practice’s “comfort room,” a space that will be used for all euthanasia procedures. It will have its own entrance and exit so that families can have privacy when saying goodbye to their cherished pets.
Once the expansion is complete, the existing Vinton Vet building will undergo a massive facelift. The lobby will be revamped to include separate dog and cat waiting areas. With dentistry and endoscopy having been moved into the Specialty Services Center, the current treatment and ICU areas will double in size. The kennel is also going to be updated and a state-of-the-art isolation ward will be created inside the main building as well.
Since the project’s conception, creating an environment that will be calming and comforting to both pets and their human counterparts has remained at the forefront of each decision made, right down to the tiniest of design details. Textured, non-slip flooring will be used throughout to ensure pets can walk comfortably and exam rooms will be more spacious than before so veterinarians can easily examine furry friends where they feel most secure, even if that means sitting on the floor with them.
Paints were also carefully selected to help pets and their families feel at ease during their visits. “All of the colors we have chosen are on the fear-free palette and address specific needs that match the purpose of the room,” explains Dantzler. “For example, there will be a lot of blue and soft beige which are fear free to animals. In our comfort room (euthanasia room), we are using a purple color which is soothing for grief.”
But Vinton Vet isn’t stopping at just expanding and renovating their facilities – they’re also working to increase their community engagement and education efforts. Dantzler says that while all members of the VVH team live out the practice’s core values of compassion, dedication and trustworthiness each day when serving clients and their pets, they’re excited to find new ways to “show that [they] are committed to the community and are interested in the well-being” of the people and animals they interact with outside of the hospital as well.
Team members chat with children and teens about different career options in the veterinary field through a partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia. While VVH has been providing veterinary care for the animals at the Science Museum of Western Virginia for quite some time, they built upon this partnership last year by working to educate the public about exotic pet ownership and best care practices.
Be sure to follow Vinton Veterinary Hospital on Facebook to stay up to date on all expansion and renovation news.
The story above is from our March/April 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
