Business going strong at South-East Veterinary Hospital
Business owner says they’re as busy as they have ever been serving pet owners and producers
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This article was published 18/04/2021 (1525 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
While the global pandemic has wreaked havoc on so many local businesses in southeastern Manitoba, the people who run a local and long-running veterinary business say they are going strong, and as busy as they have ever been helping both pet owners and local producers to keep their animals healthy.
The South-East Veterinary Hospital is a full-service mixed animal veterinary practice that has been providing services for over 50 years in southeastern Manitoba and beyond.
Current South-East Veterinary Hospital owner Dr. Ronald Hamilton said although there are many vets and animal hospitals in Manitoba, he believes what sets his business apart from others is the work they do with large and small agricultural animals.
“We provide services for dairy, beef and sheep producers,” Hamilton said. “We look after cows, horses and chickens, as well as small animals like dogs and cats.
“It is becoming more rare to see these animal hospitals working with these large animals, as it is a little more work, so in that way our business is a little more unique and offers something a little more specialized, which sets us apart.”
Hamilton said that because they work with both large and small animals and offer after hours emergency services, it keeps employees at South East Veterinary Hospital busy at all times of the day and night, dealing with medical emergencies and other issues.
“Our after-hours emergency business is extremely busy,” Hamilton said. “It can be difficult to keep up at times with the amount of business we are seeing at all hours of the day, because currently we are the only veterinary hospital in this area that does after-hours work.”
Hamilton said that with working with large agricultural animals, the business has been able to engrain itself into the local agriculture community in the region over the years.
“We have a lot of customers who are dairy producers, and we work with chicken and turkey producers as well, so we have built up a relationship and a level of trust with many of these producers,” he said.
Hamilton added the business often sees its vets go right out into local fields to work with producer’s animals and livestock.
“We go to a lot of these producers on a regular basis, often once a week or every couple of weeks, or sometimes monthly with the smaller herds,” Hamilton said. “We make regular visits to farms to check on these animals, and we deal with emergency situations that come up as well.”
The last year has also been one of major growth and change for the veterinary clinic as they relocated to a 17,000 square foot facility on Highway 52 in Steinbach and opened a location in Niverville called the Niverville Animal Hospital.
“In the last year we built a small business in Niverville, as we saw that it was a great town that was expanding and growing quickly, and we saw there was a lot of dog and cat ownership in the community, so we saw the opportunity to provide services to that area and the surrounding areas,” Hamilton said.
“And we also moved into our new building here in Steinbach in August and that is a big change for us. We just knew we needed more space, and the old building was in need of renovations, so we had to either move or renovate the building, so we moved to this location when it became available.
Hamilton called the move to the new building a larger part of the business’s “long term plans.”
“Now we have a lot of room here and we have room for more expansion as we plan to be here for a long time. We don’t want a situation where we would have to move again. We want the business to continue to grow, so we bought a building we can expand should we need to.
“It’s about having a 10-to-20-year plan and not having to move again in a couple of years, and that helps give us even more stability here in this area.”
Hamilton said challenges coming from the pandemic have stemmed from trying to keep their employees and customers safe, while also trying to maintain their customer service standards.
“It’s been a real challenge with all the rules and trying to work with those rules and still provide services,” he said. “But on the other side of things with people being at home more, dog and cat ownership has gone way up so it’s been really busy.
“At times it has been hard to keep up with the customer service side of things and customers expect a lot. Everyone in this business is working to keep their customer service top-notch, while also having to change how we do business.
“Things are just different than in the past for us and for our clients, so we have all had to adjust to this. Over the past year during the pandemic, we have tried our best to adjust for the health and safety of our clientele and staff. It has been a struggle to say the least but for the most part everyone has been understanding and patient.”
And with producers and farmers being an essential service that puts food on Manitoba tables, Hamilton said they have been able to continue visiting producers and making calls to deal with the health of farm animals.
“Farmers are essential and producing all this food for all of us, so it’s been good for us, it’s been very busy,” he said.
Hamilton said the number one priority for South-East Veterinary Hospital since the pandemic first took hold has been making sure their employees and their customers stay safe.
He now hopes that with vaccines being administered in Canada, that things get back to normal in the not-to-distant future, while preparing for whatever comes their way.
“We want to be there when the customers and when the producers need us.”