A new animal hospital has opened in Sarnia's north end in order to offer additional dental procedures and surgeries.
Northern Oak Animal Hospital Practice Manager Talia Richardson said construction at the 3,500-square-foot, state of the art facility began about a year ago. She said the Lakeshore Road site used to be an RBC branch but was "gutted entirely" to house the new clinic.
"It doesn't feel like a hospital," she said. "The whole point is to make people and their pets feel comfortable in the clinic."
Richardson said the full-service location is an extension of the Forest Veterinary Clinic and Birch Lane Veterinary Clinic.
"We have outgrown our space," Richardson said. "We needed more capability to do more surgeries -- a larger surgery suite, and the capability of doing dentals at two locations. There was no room at Birch Lane to do any of the dentals so we have built an entire dental suite in this new clinic, so we should be able to have dentals multiple days a week versus being limited to two days at Forest a week."
Richardson said they have about 35 staff in total, but about six to 10 employees will work out of Northern Oak.
A grand opening and open house is scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 22 from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m.
On-site tours will be offered, along with a pet photo shoot, and an opportunity to win prizes such as a year-supply of pet food.
The new vet clinic will operate Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Richardson said beginning in August, the site will operate on Saturdays as well for urgent care.
Richardson said while the animal hospital will not be offering after hours emergency care at this time, it's "not off the table indefinitely."
"[It's] not feasible for us at this time. There is an after-hours clinic coming soon to Sarnia, separately from us, that we are very excited about and will direct our clients to utilize that local service when we are closed," said Richardson.
Northern Oak Animal Hospital, beside Sunripe Freshmarket, officially opened its doors on Monday, June 10 specializing in care for cats, dogs, and pocket pets.
They can be reached at (226) 776-1777.