Photo By Cpl. Adam Korolev | Army Spc. Samantha Klagenberg checks the heart rate of a dog named Duncan under...... read more read more
Subscribe
MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, Hawaii - Pets are an extension of families, and for service members who travel to different duty stations, having reliable service readily available is important to maintain the welfare of the family.
The Marine Corps Base Hawaii Veterinary Treatment Facility, located next to the base tax center, provides affordable medical care for pets to active-duty service members, dependents, reservists and retirees, and is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We offer a wide range of medical and surgical services ranging from wellness exams, health certificates and sick call appointments to dental procedures with or without extractions,” said Army Capt. Francois Bates, Veterinary Corps officer for the MCB Hawaii VTF. “The clinic also provides low-level soft tissue surgeries.”
Staff for the VTF consists of civilian veterinarians, an administrative support staff, enlisted Army animal care specialists and a Veterinary Corps officer. The Veterinary Corps was created during the Civil War in order to treat cavalry units, but today, military veterinarians focus not only on privately owned animals, but military working dogs.
“The primary patients are military working dogs,” Bates said. “We work closely with the (Transportation Security Administration) to provide yearly health wellness exams for them. The reason we exist is the military working dog. In addition to the privately owned animal mission we serve, we serve the military community on Oahu.”
Although focus is directed toward military working dogs, the clinic is always ready to serve the military community by treating medical issues privately owned animals are enduring.
“(We) provide valuable and desirable service to the community (which) allows our staff to become more efficient and better able to service the military working dogs, and the added benefit is to provide the community a high-quality medical care for an affordable cost, Bates said.
The facility is limited in resources, according to Bates, and if there is a specific service that the facility cannot provide for your privately owned animal, there are a number of facilities that can.
“The Veterinary Corps has regional specialists (who) are on island are available for consultation that we can discuss cases with and get more feedback on,” Bates said. “We can outsource specific cases to other VTFs on the island.”
The MCB Hawaii VTF also works closely with civilian clinics, and are ready to refer service members to clinics that are qualified for specialized care.
“We have good relationships with the civilian veterinarian clinics on the island so we do a lot of referral work from our facility to theirs, whether it be prescriptions we don’t carry or services we don’t provide or potentially another diagnostics that might be necessary,” Bates said. “We are willingly able to work with the community and they seem to be happy with our relationship.”
For more information, call 257-3643 or go to http://
mccshawaii.com/veterinary.
| Date Taken: | 03.19.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 03.19.2015 22:08 |
| Story ID: | 157592 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 157 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, MCB Hawaii VTF offers treatment for base pets, by Cpl Adam Korolev, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT