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June 2025 www.surfacecreekveterinarycenter.com 970-856-4474
SCVC Pawprint
What the Vet Shortage Means for You Evolving Pet Care
Their phone number is (970) 525-0911 . If your pet has a serious injury and you can’t get through to us, take them there as soon as possible! During the day, when I have our top technicians and surgery nurses here, we can do just about any high-end, complicated procedure. But if your pet has been seriously injured in the middle of the night, I advise you to go straight to the emergency clinic. We understand it can be frustrating for our clients, but we want to focus on ensuring your pet gets the care they need as soon as possible. That hour you would spend bringing your pet into our clinic might be much better spent traveling to a fully staffed emergency clinic! Veterinary clinics need to accommodate the needs of a younger generation if we want to attract new doctors. Four out of every five vet school grads are female, and those young vets who want to be moms should be able to do so. Dr. Susie and I raised our kids in our clinic. We are happy to have Dr. Neil on our team, who is also a mother and often brings her young daughter to work. My long-term goal is to set up our center so it will run without me. I may still own it, but the place won’t close down if I have to be away for six months. If we achieve our goal of having other people and systems in place to care for our pet patients, our center will run for years to come!
Veterinary medicine is a great profession that attracts many good people. Increasingly, though, demographic changes are affecting the availability of care in many parts of the country. Many vets in our area have retired or closed their practices in recent years, and in some areas, pet parents are having difficulty securing care. The number of vets serving the 30-mile radius around our clinic has fallen to three from about seven or eight a decade ago. This pattern doesn’t reflect any decline in interest among young people in becoming veterinarians. Enrollment in vet schools has been rising by 2.7% a year or more in the past decade, and 13 additional colleges have applied for accreditation, setting the stage for a 40% increase in the number of schools. Instead, the changes spring from young veterinarians’ evolving preferences about where and how they work. In the past, longtime vets assumed a new generation of students would graduate, be eager to take over their practices, and continue caring for animals the same way the previous generation had been doing for decades. More young doctors, however, are looking for more regular schedules than the 70-hour weeks many worked in the past. A growing number of young vets are bypassing the opportunity to own their own practices to join multidoctor corporate practices in larger population centers that offer 40-hour work weeks. Corporate owners of these clinics can
lower their costs by negotiating high-volume discounts on products and supplies. Demand for veterinarian care is rising, too, as pet ownership increases in Delta County and nationwide. Some 66% of U.S. households now include pets, up 10% from 1988. That’s good for business, but it also requires us to change. We used to be able to set same-day appointments for any animal in need. But now, if your pet gets sick, we may not have a slot open. We might ask you to drop your pet off at the clinic so we can examine them in between other patients. We try to respond to after-hours emergencies, but we are not always able to do so. We may already be attending to another emergency, or we might not receive your phone message right away. The good news is that Animal ER of the Western Slope, located at 1660 North Avenue in Grand Junction, is open after-hours Monday-Friday, and 24 hours on Saturday and Sunday to assist your pet.
– Dr. Jeff
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Holly Vaden only joined our staff recently, but she feels right at home. Meet Holly, Our New Receptionist! Many of our clients are so friendly that “they feel like your neighbor next door,” she claims. Having lived in many locations around the country, Holly enjoys chatting with clients about the places they have lived. And she loves seeing their pets, especially the puppies. “It’s a wonderful clinic to work at. The people here are amazing,” Holly says. “I enjoy the camaraderie.” Medical Pro Stages Encore in Vet Care
If you’ve ever set up a hummingbird feeder in your yard or even seen one zoom through your garden, you know how independent they are. Hummingbirds usually fly solo and fiercely guard their feeding spots and potential mates from each other. However, a recent discovery challenges what we thought we knew about these tiny birds — some may be more social than we assumed. Are Hummingbirds Actually Solitary Animals? LITTLE BIRDS, BIG DISCOVERIES A SURPRISING DISCOVERY Ornithologist Gustavo Canas-Valle recently found multiple hummingbird nests grouped together in the same area in Ecuador’s High Andes. Researchers previously attributed this unique behavior, which had never been documented in hummingbirds, to the freezing temperatures at more than 12,000 feet. However, they’ve found several more groups of hummingbirds roosting and nesting together in the surrounding region, suggesting they choose to live together. Despite the observations, other scientists feel it’s too quick to label hummingbirds as social animals. Charles Brown, a University of Tulsa behavioral ecologist, argues that cohesive social groups work together to help each other, which they did not observe in this case. Canas-Valle admits that more research will determine whether the birds simply tolerate one another due to environmental conditions or actively cooperate as a group. However, his initial observations suggest group collaboration already exists, and he expects to find other hummingbird species engaged in the same activities. WHAT THIS MEANS FOR HUMMINGBIRD RESEARCH This discovery challenges long-held beliefs about hummingbird behavior. It remains to be seen whether hummingbird nesting habits are more flexible than we initially thought or if the behavior is unique to particular species or regions. Researchers now have a new avenue to explore, and future studies will hopefully shed additional light on whether hummingbird nesting is a survival strategy or a one-off quirk. Either way, findings like these are a reminder of how surprising nature can be.
Holly’s role with us is an encore after retiring from a successful 30-year career as a registered ultrasound technologist. As our receptionist,
her tasks include answering the phone to schedule patients, checking them in and out, preparing invoices and estimates, filling prescriptions, and handling “a little bit of everything” that needs doing.
Holly has a strong sense of adventure and a willingness to explore new places. She has worked in many locations, including six years as a locum
tenens, filling staffing gaps at various medical facilities. She has a master’s degree in bioethics and experience as a college professor in that field. She also spent time studying and living with a family in Peru to
perfect her Spanish.
A common theme throughout her life has been her appreciation for animals. “I have always loved animals and there was a time when I was a teenager that I thought being a veterinarian would be fantastic,” Holly says. Before retiring, she lived and worked in Arizona, caring for her elderly mother for several years until her death. She moved to nearby Eckert in 2023 to help a friend with a 23-acre farm after her husband had passed away. There, Holly enjoys caring for the farm’s many animals, including a horse, a goat, a ewe, six cats, and two dogs. Holly’s personal favorite is a cat named Whiskey. Named for the staggering gait he acquired in the womb when his mother contracted an infection, Whiskey is afflicted by cerebellar hypoplasia. “When he was a little guy, he’d stagger all over the place and fall over,” she says. “Now, he gets around pretty doggone good, holding his tail straight up in the air as a rudder for support.” Looking for something more to do last fall, Holly noticed our clinic’s ad for a receptionist, dropped off her resume, and the rest is history. We are glad she has chosen Surface Creek for her professional encore!
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THE BURRITO TECHNIQUE AND MORE
Give Your Pet Meds Without a Struggle
Bringing your pet home from the vet with a prescription is a relief for many pet owners. But there’s another hurdle: How can you get your pet to take the meds? The first rule for medicating your pet at home is to stay calm. If you’re anxious or impatient, the effort will likely go poorly. Here are two techniques that work well for furry friends of all kinds.
and deposit the pill as far back on their tongue as possible. Then, gently close their muzzle and stroke their throat. Mixing liquid medications with food also works well for most dogs. If your dog hesitates to eat the medicated food, try sitting on the floor behind your dog, positioning them facing forward, and squirting the liquid slowly from a syringe into the side of their mouth, allowing your pet to swallow between squirts.
UnNtiloFtiucrether then administer the medication. Hold their mouth closed and blow lightly on their nose to stimulate swallowing. Different pets respond differently to various techniques. If one approach doesn’t work, take a break and try a different one until you find the best approach for you and your pet! liquid into the side of your pet’s mouth and hold them in the towel until the medicine has gone down. Since cats are especially sensitive to taste, some medicine can be compounded into a treat or liquid flavored with chicken, fish, or another appealing flavor. For capsules or pills, ask your vet if they can be opened or crushed into a powder. If so, mix the powder with wet cat food or a puréed cat treat. If the meds must be whole, hide them in food or a Pill Pocket. If you use a pill popper, tilt your cat’s head gently toward the ceiling, press their lower lip and front teeth to open their mouth, Due to a staffing shortage, SCVC will be closed on Saturdays until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
USE CAMOUFLAGE For dogs, try hiding pills, capsules, or powdered meds in a small amount of canned dog food or a pill pocket. If your dog spits it out, move to plan B — a pill dispenser or popper. Pull back the plunger, secure the
THE BURRITO METHOD As always, cats pose different issues. To administer liquids, load
the dose into a syringe, sit behind your cat, and gently wrap them in a towel, face out, like a burrito. Then slowly squirt the
pill inside the flexible mouth of the device, hold your dog’s mouth open,
N ePwo lSi cCi eVs C
Clients Spreading the Word
• At the time of scheduling a
Caroline Gilliland Bob Bushta Lara Noel
dental or surgery appointment, a $250 deposit will be required. This deposit will be applied to the procedure bill. If you need to cancel the appointment, and you give us at least a 24-hour notice, the deposit will be refunded.
• Due to the increasing cost of
credit card processing, there is now a 3% service charge added to all clinic services and products. If paying with cash, check, or PIN debit, there is no charge.
We Reward Referrals!
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17800 HANSON RD. CEDAREDGE, CO 81413
1 inside this issue
How Changes in Veterinary Care Will Affect You
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A Fresh Look at a Familiar Bird
A Medical Professional’s New Leash on Life
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No Fuss, No Fight: Giving Your Pet Meds at Home
New SCVC Policies
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Hero Hound Saves Owner
LOYALTY RUNS DEEP Gt oi tSaa’svHe He reori cODwansehr NC aenwc eAl l aptpi ooni nPt mo leinc yt When you cancel with less than 24-hour notice, we now require a prepaid $50 deposit to reschedule. If you keep your rescheduled appointment, we will apply the deposit to your veterinary bill. If you miss your rescheduled appointment, the fee is nonrefundable.
The bonds we develop with our pets are unlike any other we experience. They depend on us for their every want and need, and we often give them whatever they ask for! We know they would do the same for us if the roles were reversed. As the years pass, that bond deepens, making us inseparable from our furry friends. Many of us have felt despair when we imagine life without our trusty dog, cat, or other pet. It turns out that some animals feel the same and will do everything in their power to protect their owner if tragedy occurs.
Gita remained by her owner’s side for some time before realizing nobody would hear him in the secluded woods. She jumped into action, heading toward a well-traveled street, where she
encountered a sheriff’s deputy. The deputy tried to get the dog in his vehicle to no avail, so he surveyed the surrounding area to find Gita’s owner.
The deputy could not locate the owner but still felt something was wrong, so he turned his attention back to Gita. The two locked eyes before Gita stood up and ran toward an unmarked side street. Gita led the deputy directly to her owner before any more harm could come to him. After the event, the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office posted “Hero Dog Saves Owner” and their account of the story on Facebook. Gita certainly proved her loyalty and bravery that day!
An 84-year-old man in Washington state woke up one morning to the sound of his glucose machine telling him his blood sugar was too low. As he headed toward the fridge, he noticed his 13-year-old dog, Gita, wanted to go outside. Shortly after being
let out, Gita took off toward the woods, and her owner followed in pursuit. After traveling 20–30 feet, the man turned around to head back home when dizziness
overcame him. He fell to the ground, broke his hip, and immediately started shouting for help.
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