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YSU To Host Hartman Family Foundation Pet Clinic

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Youngstown State University's Pre-Veterinary Society will host The Marjorie Hartman Family Foundation Pet Clinic on campus.

The clinic will offer free and low-cost vaccines, exams and other treatments performed by licensed veterinarians. It will be open from 10 a.M. To 2 p.M. Sunday at the Stambaugh Stadium Gymnasium or until vaccines run out.

The event will provide pet owners with access to affordable veterinary care while giving students from YSU, MCCTC Animal Science and the Kent State Vet Tech program hands-on experience in animal handling.

All pets must be on a short leash or in a carrier. To ensure the safety of all attendees, there will be a limit of two pets per person, and vaccines will be available to the first 250 pets.

Students who want to volunteer can register HERE.

For more information, email petclinic.Ysu@gmail.Com.

Sploot Veterinary Care Opens First Colorado Springs Clinic, With Plans To Debut A Second Location In May

A Denver-based veterinary care clinic debuted its first location in Colorado Springs this week, with plans well underway to open a second local clinic in May.

Sploot Veterinary Care, billed as a "one-stop shop" for expansive, comprehensive primary and urgent pet care, opened its doors Tuesday at 5687 Barnes Road, Suite 100, in the Powers Pointe shopping center on the city's east side.

Sploot Veterinary Care is now open at 5687 Barnes Road, Suite 100, in Colorado Springs.

Courtesy of Sploot Veterinary Care

Sploot, founded in Denver in December 2021 by co-CEOs Gil Bolotin and Yoav Mordowicz, is now operating 14 clinics throughout Colorado and in Illinois, including 10 Denver locations and three in Chicago, where Sploot expanded in September 2023.

The company will open another Colorado Springs clinic at 1286 Interquest Parkway, Suite 160, in the InterQuest Marketplace on the city's north side, in May. Officials plan a grand opening to celebrate both clinics next month. Sploot also plans to open two more clinics this year in Denver and in the Chicago suburbs, according to its website.

"We are very excited to be in Colorado Springs," Mordowicz said, adding that the company envisions eventually opening more clinics in El Paso County. "No doubt we are growing pretty quickly, but we are still a local business."

The clinic is designed to provide an exceptional veterinary experience focused on "elevated" levels of care, aiming to bridge the gaps between general practice, emergency and specialty care, said Sploot Regional Medical Director Dr. Jessica Apted. 

Pets can receive wellness and preventive care, urgent and emergency care, vaccinations, parasite prevention, dental care and surgical procedures like spaying, neutering and others at Sploot.

"There are a lot of general practices, and there are emergency rooms and specialty clinics, but there is a true gap there for urgent care," Apted said. "There are places that claim to be (pet) urgent cares, but they end up serving as the middleman for the ER. We wanted to make sure we had same-day availability for our clients and that we could provide an elevated level of triage, so more urgent (patients) can be seen."

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Most people call their general practice veterinarian when urgent incidents happen, like when a dog has been injured in a dogfight or hit by a car, or a cat swallows a toy string or has a uterine infection, for example. 

Sploot Veterinary Care provides expansive primary and urgent care at its clinics, which are open year-round and provide urgent care and sick visits, emergency care, wellness and preventive care, vaccinations, surgeries and dental care.

Courtesy of Sploot Veterinary Care

"A lot of times, they don't have adequate time, staff or equipment to treat those ailments, so they refer you to the ER," Apted said. "At the ER, it will be four to five times the cost to treat as it would be for a general practitioner to treat it themselves. ... We can take care of these things, and with our unique scheduling processes, we can get patients in (for care) on the same day." 

Sploot also differentiates itself from other veterinary services because it operates as a network, allowing for more collaboration between doctors, nurses and other staff, she said. Their clinics are stocked with higher-level equipment like surgical tools and lasers, and they can provide follow-up care, a service most veterinary emergency rooms don't.

"So we also get that ability to build relationships as we have more urgent care visits," Apted said. "We can treat sprains, we do vaccinations, we can do dental work. That is missing from the emergency room experience."

Sploot's staff is also Fear-Free certified, a program that teaches veterinary professionals how to reduce fear, anxiety and stress in pets. 

The company offers a membership called SplootPack to help pet owners save on veterinary care. For an annual fee, members receive three free exams, discounts on veterinary services, credits they can put toward major procedures or prescriptions, and free teletriage services, including after hours.

Sploot is open from 8 a.M. To 8 p.M. Year-round.

New Veterinary Clinic In Durango Provides Low-cost Care To Pets That Need It Most

Thursday, Apr 3, 2025 5:00 AM Updated Friday, Apr. 4, 2025 5:12 PM

Denkai Animal Sanctuary posts up at 1401 Main Ave.

Lisa Bane with Denkai Animal Sanctuary community veterinary clinic gives Luna a shot on Tuesday as her owner Shawn Aravena and Savannah Neely, a vet tech with the clinic, hold the dog. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

When pet owners face tough financial times, their animals struggle too. Floss Blackburn, who has worked in animal care and rescue for over 20 years, is continuing her mission of providing accessible treatments with a new community veterinary clinic in Durango.

A resident of Southwest Colorado, Blackburn opened Denkai Animal Sanctuary – a nonprofit rescue and community veterinary clinic – in Weld County in 2004. She moved to Montezuma County eight years ago, and this year, she was finally able to establish her clinic in Durango. Denkai also runs a 40-acre sanctuary in Hesperus for equines, farm animals and dogs.

The clinic has served over 30,000 animals since Blackburn first founded it.

Denkai, located at 1401 Main Ave. Next to Walk in Chiropractic in Durango, provides comprehensive veterinary services such as spaying and neutering, vaccines, urinalysis, blood work, routine checkups, surgical procedures, diagnostic imaging such as X-rays, and dental care three days a week, she said.

Some of the available vaccines include rabies, temper combo vaccines for canines also known as DHPP or DAPP – which protect against distemper, adenovirus, parainfluenza and parvovirus – and FVRCP vaccines for felines, which protect against feline viral rhinotracheitis, feline calicivirus and feline panleukopenia, according to PetMD.

Some vaccines are offered for free, depending on available grant funding, while others are offered for about half the market price found at other clinics. Blackburn said the base cost for pet vaccines is usually about $50, but Denkai offers rabies vaccines and heartworm tests for about $15.

Denkai aims not to undercut other veterinary clinics in Durango, she said. Rather, it seeks to provide affordable services to those most in need.

"We're really trying to (help) the individuals who could not otherwise afford services and really need them," she said.

The newly opened Denkai Animal Sanctuary and community veterinary clinic at 1401 Main Ave. Next to Walk in Chiropractic in Durango provides comprehensive veterinary services such as spaying and neutering, vaccines, urinalysis, blood work, routine checkups, surgical procedures, diagnostic imaging such as X-rays, and dental care. The nonprofit accepts donations, said Floss Blackburn, founder. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

She said various programs offer the sanctuary and veterinary clinic discounted prices on supplies, and individual donors often contribute towels, cleaning supplies and other operational goods.

On the sanctuary side, Denkai has collaborated with the Denver-based nonprofit Humane Colorado, whose mission is to reduce pet homelessness and animal suffering. She said Denkai has helped transport pets from Montezuma County to Alamosa and Denver, and Denkai has received animals from rescue services across the United States.

She said it helps animal rescue efforts on tribal reservations and accepts pets from kill shelters where the animals would be euthanized or otherwise be unable to receive the care they need.

Lisa Bane with Denkai Animal Sanctuary's community veterinary clinic straightens out her operating room on Tuesday at the clinic. Denkai operates with a small skeleton crew, including a primary veterinarian, a driver and volunteers, in addition to Floss Blackburn, founder. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

"The goal is to help rescue, rehabilitate and re-home domestic animals in need," she said. "(We) also provide our veterinary services at affordable costs so that people can receive those services so pets don't go without and we can reduce the amount of unnecessary disease in our pet population."

The sanctuary in Hesperus typically houses about 20 animals at a time but has cared for as many as 100 animals simultaneously, Blackburn said. The sanctuary includes litters of puppies, adult dogs awaiting rehoming, and farm animals such as horses and pigs.

Denkai still maintains veterinary operations in Montezuma County, holding clinics in Cortez once a month where it sees an average of 45 clients per day. But she is still working to spread the word about Denkai in Durango.

Floss Blackburn, left, founder and president of Denkai Animal Sanctuary, engages with Luna, who belongs to Shawn and Jacky Aravena, while Savannah Neely, a vet tech, checks her computer during an office visit. The veterinary clinic provides typical veterinary care, and an animal sanctuary in Hesperus houses farm animals and temporarily takes in dogs awaiting rehoming. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

She said she is looking for veterinarians who can donate their time and skills to Denkai.

"We rely on public contributions, fundraisers, grants, corporate support in order to operate," she said. "So any kind of support is very much appreciated. Volunteer help is very much appreciated. We've kind of run on a skeleton crew. … It's small, but everybody here cares and they work hard."

Blackburn's crew mainly consists of herself, a primary veterinarian and volunteers, she said. Denkai also has a dedicated transport van and driver, according to a news release.

cburney@durangoherald.Com

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