Refinery Road Veterinary Clinic expands paw print for customers

Oct. 5—Refinery Road Veterinary Clinic (RRVC) recently expanded into a new building to better allow the staff to treat their animal visitors.

"Next door, you'll see our old building, and it was our everything building," said Samuel Leach, D.V.M., one of the veterinarians. "Now this is just small animals: dogs and cats and pets and such."

While the new building is a useful addition, the old building is still going to be used by the practice.

"We are still using and are going to expand the other building for grooming," said Leach. "And we're still using it for boarding our large animals."

RRVC is considered a mixed practice due to them being able to treat a wide variety of animals.

"We don't really have specialties here... we do just about everything you bring to us, basically," said Leach. "Cows; we're not specialists in horses, but we work on horses, dogs and cats of course, pocket pets, llamas, alpacas, pigs, sheep and goats."

"Pretty much any food animal or companion animal," added Cassie Whisenant, the office manager of RRVC. "We don't do snakes and reptiles and things like that, but pretty much all other animals we could do."

Even outside of treating animals directly, RRVC also aids many in the community just by providing information.

"We have a lot of phone calls just to help, and that's part of what we do," said Leach. "We just provide answers to the community."

This past Thursday, the clinic hosted an open house to allow people in the community to come and see the new facilities.

"It's just kind of an event to get the community to come in and then tour the clinic and see behind the scenes and see the whole facility after it's been built," said Whisenant. "It's a special occasion; it's nice."

RRVC was founded in 1952 across from the sale barn. Then in the 1960's, the practice moved into what is now considered the old building. In 2016, RRVC purchased the St. Jo Cactus Clinic and continue to operate both clinics.

"We're now helping our clients' grandkids; we've had the grandfather and the father and now we've got the grandkids and their kids," said Leach. "We are a community clinic; all of us live in the community and are active in the various communities around... It's truly a county business, and that's who we're here to help."

RRVC provides a variety of services, including surgical procedures, diagnostics, physical examinations and vaccinations. Appointments are highly recommended due to how busy the clinic can be. Patients are seen in order of emergencies, appointments then walk-is. In the event of an emergency, RRVC also offers after-hours care for current clients.

To make an appointment or to get emergency help, call (940) 665-4478. The office is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday, and from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday. The clinic is closed on Sunday.