Major expansion at veterinary hospital in Colorado's high country helps fill a gap in emergency pet care

CBS News

4 hours ago

Silverthorne Veterinary Hospital has reopened with eight times the space it once had, in part, as an effort to fill a gap in pet support often seen in Colorado mountain communities.
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"It allows us to expand not only the amount of surgical procedures that we can do in a single day, the amount of patients that we can see in a single day, but it also allows us to expand our emergency services," owner and veterinarian Justin Milizio said. "Our first hospital just had ground floor, just hospital stuff. It was 1,000 square feet. ... This is 8,200 square feet.
That's not to mention the an additional 4,500 square feet upstairs. Milizio said that's designed for built-in employee housing, with eight bedrooms total split between three apartments. Staying fully staffed will help them reach their eventual goal: 24/7 pet emergency medical response.
"This hospital is really designed to expand hours and expand the capability, the machinery, the equipment, the staff that's needed to house animals so people don't have to go all the way down to Denver as much for emergency situations," Milizio said.
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Summit County Resident Susan Burkey says she's counted on Silverthorne Veterinary Hospital with several of her dogs she trains over the years, and while she's had to make the trip to other veterinary hospitals in the past, she's hopeful this bigger version of SVH will limit those trips in the future.
"It would be really great because then you don't have to go into Denver, Vail or anywhere else."
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She said she's also eager for expanded hours.
"You can come on the evenings, weekends and I know they're, you know, eventually, hopefully going to do 24/7 care."
"All these emergency situations and some of them aren't necessarily too critical of emergencies, have always just been shunted down to Denver," Milizio said. "Sometimes the weather's bad and you can't make it down to Denver. Sometimes your car breaks down and you can't make it down to Denver. It is definitely a challenging part of pet ownership in this county, in this community."