Puppy prescriptions and kitty care will soon be available to the Auburn community at a new facility on campus.
The College of Veterinary Medicine has begun construction on a two-phase project that will bring a small animal teaching hospital to Auburn. Currently, the small animal hospital is located at Hoerlein Hall on Wire Road.
"The basic part of the hospital was built in 1970," said Donna Angarano, associate dean of academic affairs for the college. "We're crowded in there, and new technology has changed a lot of things."
The small animal hospital provides care for dogs, cats, birds, rodents and other household pets. Plans for the new hospital include surgical suites, pharmacy and rehabilitation centers, as well as a high-tech imaging department. The entire project will cost $74 million and funding will come from bonds as well as private gifts.
"A big portion of it is coming from alumni and friends who want to support this hospital," said Bill Brawner, professor of radiology and building committee chair. "Our development group is working on that now."
Timothy Boosinger, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, said the new hospital will be a state-of-the-art building where students and members of the community will be able to bring their pets for treatment.
"We hope to dedicate the facility and be in it with full operation in 2014," Boosinger said.
The first phase of the project includes a new educational wing equipped with classrooms, conference rooms and auditoriums.
"We're actually out there right now; phase one is under construction," Boosinger said. "That's taking place right in front of Greene Hall."
The new hospital will be on the veterinary school grounds, and the old small animal hospital will be converted into office and laboratory space.
"It will be between the Overton auditorium and the new large animal hospital," Brawner said.
Construction of the hospital building is scheduled to begin February 2012 after the completion of the educational wing.
The motivation behind the new building comes from a planned increase of veterinary school students.
"We are going to increase our class size," Angarano said. "Beginning this fall, we'll be going from 95 students to 120 students."
Angarano said it is important to encourage growth within the vet school.
"There is a prediction for a shortage of veterinarians in the future," Angarano said. "So, there is a need to increase more opportunities for students to go to vet school."
There are currently 28 veterinary schools in the country.
"One of our priorities is to be leaders in veterinary medical education in the United States, if not the world," Boosinger said. "To do that, we need to have modern facilities in order to attract the best faculty and to support really outstanding programs."
As a teaching hospital, the facility will accept patients like a regular veterinary hospital does. Operation, equipment and supplies are not funded by the state, so the hospital relies on client fees for support. Students and community members can expect prices to be comparable to a private practice.
"It's a large hospital where veterinarian students learn," Brawner said. "But it is a working hospital in that we see patients referred from practicing veterinarians all over the state of Alabama and really from all over the Southeast."
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