Animal Hospital North

09/09/2023

01/16/2023

We have positions open at all three of our hospitals, full time, part time, or even temporary to help with maternity coverage. Check out our website https://animalhospitalofchetek.com/employment-opportunities.pml for details.

12/21/2022

Due to impending weather we plan on closing our Rice Lake and Chetek hospitals at 330 pm. We will open on Thursday at 930 am and then close again at 330 pm on Thursday.

Hopefully we will be open normal hours on Friday, but this will be weather dependent. Saturday we will be closed for Christmas Eve.

07/23/2022

ALTOONA LOCATION: Join us for an open house Saturday August 13th from 10 am to 1 pm. Tour our new hospital, meet our doctors and staff, enjoy some food and win some prizes. Some of the rescues and shelters we work with will also be present. Including Little Red Barn Dog Rescue and Here to the Rescue feline rescue who will be offering a free microchip clinic for dogs and cats as well.

Healthy Pet Altoona: 1515 Mayer Road, Altoona, Wi Located right next the to the Bohn Shed and Canine Dorms.

01/30/2022

Hi all,
We have some major announcements to make. There will be a lot of information here, so I’ll try to be concise.

1. We are officially changing the name of the hospitals to Healthy Pet Animal Hospitals.
Healthy Pet Chetek (Formerly the Animal Hospital of Chetek)
Healthy Pet Rice Lake (Formerly the Animal Hospital North)
AND…
Healthy Pet Altoona (Formerly not in existence)

2. Healthy Pet Altoona will be open March 1st.
1515 Mayer Road, Altoona. We’re right next to the Bohn Shed and K9Dorms.
715-514-2323 (This phone will not be operational until February 21st)

3. We will Start Scheduling appointments for Altoona the last week of February. We are planning an open house as well, but the date has yet to be determined.

4. If you are a client that has been traveling from the Eau Claire area, and would like to start being seen in Altoona, all you need to do is call to schedule an appointment. We use a cloud-based server, meaning all 3 locations will have your records. Any Healthy Pet Program you signed up for, will be honored at all 3 locations.

5. There has been NO CHANGE in ownership. The name change is to unify the three hospitals. And honestly, no one has ever really liked Animal Hospital North being on the south end of Rice Lake.

6. All Hospitals will be open AND have a doctor on staff (barring illness) 5 days a week. Chetek will remain open every Saturday. Altoona will be open Every other Saturday. Unfortunately, Rice Lake will not have Saturday hours available yet.

7. NEW DOCTORS!!

Dr. Jill Armstrong will be working in both Chetek and Rice Lake starting on February 14th. Dr. Armstrong comes to us after owning the Northwestern Wisconsin Veterinary Services in Amery. She has years of small animal veterinary experience and will be a great fit with us.

Dr. Cori O’Brien will be our primary veterinarian in Altoona Starting March 1st. Dr. O’Brien has spent the last two years working in shelter/rescue medicine. She is excited to get back to working with families and seeing patients grow up. Of Course, she will still get plenty of rescue and shelter work here, as we will still be seeing dogs with Coco’s Heart Dog Rescue, The Little Red Barn Dog Rescue, Here to the Rescue, and Bob’s House for Dogs (just to name a few).

8. We are still hiring for Veterinary Technician and Experienced Veterinary assistants at all three Locations. Full and Part time positions available. 16-20/hr (depending on experience and skill level), 401k, full medical coverage, paid CE, 8 weeks paid maternity (after working 1000 hours), 5 PTO days to start.

That’s about everything. We look forward to seeing all of you soon and thank you all for supporting us.

01/24/2022

We're growing and we're hiring. Both the Animal Hospital of Chetek and the Animal Hospital North are in need of a certified veterinary technician or an experienced veterinary assistant. Technician students who will be graduating soon are welcome to apply. Full and part time positions available. 16-20/hr dependent on experience and skill level. 100% healthcare coverage. 401 K plan. Paid time off. 8 weeks Paid Maternity leave and much more. If interested please send a resume' and cover letter to [Email hidden] please put "position" in the subject line.

11/25/2021

Hi all,
I need to share some news and changes that we have been forced to make. None of which will make anyone happy.

Dr. Schuster has left our practice for a position out west. She may return in the summer, but for the time being we are down to two doctors.

This means that I will be rotating my Mondays between Rice Lake and Chetek, the hospital I am not at will not have a veterinarian, but will be open to pick up medications and perform nail trims, etc.

To mitigate the lost doctor time, we have shortened our lunch breaks to add a few more appointments during the day. Despite doing this, there is still going to be far more demand for services then we can keep up with.

In the last few months FIVE veterinarians have left or retired from Barron County. Their patients still require care, and we (all remaining veterinarians in the county), are doing what we can to accommodate them. Unfortunately, this means that critical cases are prioritized over minor problems like limping and kennel cough.

I am working tirelessly to bring in new veterinarians, but the task has proved daunting as no one has applied, no matter what benefits have been offered. The feedback I am getting is that no one is willing to be on call.

Because of this I am no longer requiring my veterinarians to be on call. I still will be, but obviously I cannot work 6 days a week, and then be on call every night of the year.

So effective immediately I will be on call from 5:30pm-9:00pm and weekends/Holidays from 8am-9:00pm. There will be times when I simply will not be available (my kid has a birthday party, I have a doctor’s appointment, etc).

Fortunately, the Eau Claire area has an emergency hospital, Allied Emergency Veterinary Services 715-529-5900 (please keep this number on hand). If you need immediate service, this is the number to call.

If you have a less critical question, and can tolerate being on-hold, then call 715-419-6285 to speak with our afterhours triage service.

After 9:00pm the triage service is still available and can help answer some questions, but they will not contact me. If they feel your case is critical, they will recommend you contact Allied Emergency Services in Eau Claire 715-529-5900.

Finally, I once again must stress, abusive language and rude behavior towards my staff will never be tolerated. Yelling, screaming and cursing will not get your pet help any faster, but it will lead to us no longer seeing them.

Kamran Khan, DVM

08/23/2021

Certified Veterinary Technician or Veterinary Assistant full or part time available - Chetek/Rice Lake. Our Veterinary technicians perform every task they are legally allowed to.

This is not a glorified dog walking position. You will draw blood, assist and monitor surgery, take digital radiographs, check in patients, and most of all, you will be respected and you will have fun.

Paid CE, 2% match IRA, ICHRA healthcare reimbursement, 10 days PTO to start, and more...

We work Monday - Friday from 7:30- 5:30, with one weekday off (likely Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday). Must work every third Saturday from 8am to 2pm.

If interested please send a resume and cover letter to [Email hidden], please put Veterinary Technician in the subject line.

Don't live near Chetek or Rice Lake...No Problem. We are seeking help for our new hospital in Altoona (Opening in December/January).

If you are a Veterinarian, Veterinary Technician, Veterinary Assistant, or Veterinary Receptionist interested in becoming part of our Altoona team, please send a resume and cover letter to [Email hidden], please place Altoona (and the position you are applying for) in the subject line.

07/19/2021

Hi all,

I wanted to share some important information with everyone. 12 million people adopted pets during COVID, and the effect is being felt nationwide. In larger cities, even as close as St. Paul, there is up to a 3 month wait on routine surgeries, and up to a 3 hour wait at emergency hospitals.

We too have been overwhelmed with appointments lately, and as such have not been able to get everyone in, even some sick patients in a timely manner. We are trying to figure out some ways to see more patients, but my staff is already overworked, so expanding hours is not an option.

One of things we have implemented in order to make sure we are seeing every patient we can is having new clients pre-pay for their exam. It is not ideal, but new-clients miss a high percentage of appointments. When some one does not show up for an appointment, it means a sick et may have been turned away when we otherwise could have seen them.

We have expanded this prepayment system to emergencies and to clients who have a history of missing appointments. Again, we know this is wildly unpopular, but this is something we have to do because other pets suffer when we do not.

Case in point, someone calls because their dog was hit by a car, they live an hour away, but their normal vet is not answering the phone. We tell them to come right away. While we are waiting another client calls because their dog was hit with porcupine quills. We tell the porcupine quilled dog that they have to go to Eau Claire, thus upsetting the client, and the pet has to suffer a little longer. The hit by a car dog never shows up, we call them and they tell us their vet called them back, so they went there...but it's too late for us to help the quilled dog. Situation like this occur almost daily. Which is why we have to have people prepay, when appointments are missed, we are not worried about our finances, we are upset because we were forced to turn away a pet we could have otherwise helped.

I realize the lack of availability has angered some people, but you are not helping your pet by becoming angry with our staff...I already went through that in a previous post, so I will not go into details on new hurtful messages.

Finally on emergencies, we are still seeing emergencies, but our on-hold times are now up to 30 minutes. There is no feasible way around this, especially on weekends. Many surrounding hospitals have dropped their after-hours call. Which means our emergency lines are going off non-stop (calls are coming from as far away as Baldwin, and Hayward). We're trying to help as many people as we can, but leaving angry voicemails about on-hold times (yes we get a few of these) will only result in us also dropping afterhours emergency services.

99% of our clients have been very understanding of the new situation we find ourselves in. And we are very thankful and grateful to have such a wonderful client base. In a few years there will be more veterinarians, and a lot of these problems will be corrected, for now, we will continue to do our best to help as many pets as we can.

Kamran Khan, DVM

05/03/2021

WE ARE BUSY, WE ARE EXPANDING, AND WE NEED HELP. WE ARE HIRING FOR MULTIPLE POSITIONS:

Certified Veterinary Technician full or part time available - Chetek/Rice Lake. Our Veterinary technicians perform every task they are legally allowed to. This is not a glorified dog walking position. You will draw blood, assist and monitor surgery, take digital radiographs, check in patients, and most of all, you will be respected and you will have fun. Paid CE, 2% match IRA, ICHRA healthcare reimbursement, 1 week PTO to start, and more... Must work every other Saturday from 8am to 12pm. If interested please send a resume and cover letter to [Email hidden], please put Veterinary Technician in the subject line.

Weekend kennel assistant in Chetek - help us take care of and play with our wonderful boarding dogs and cats.
Weekend Hours are Every other Friday 4:30pm-6:30pm, Saturday 6 pm - 8 pm, Sunday 8 am - 10 am, and Sunday 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm. Some Holiday hours will also be available (Holidays pay time and half). If you are interested please send a resume and cover letter to: [Email hidden], please put kennel assistant in the subject line.

Don't live near Chetek or Rice Lake...No Problem. We are seeking help for our new hospital in Altoona (Opening in November/December).

If you are a Veterinarian, Veterinary Technician, Veterinary Assistant, or Veterinary Receptionist interested in becoming part of our Altoona team, please send a resume and cover letter to [Email hidden], please place Altoona (and the position you are applying for) in the subject line. We hope to hire this staff by July and have them train in Chetek/Rice Lake for a few months to make sure the new hospital opens and runs smoothly on day one.

We expect several dozen applications with this many positions available, so please do not be discouraged if you do not receive an immediate response.