THAT'S A GOOD DOGGO. Dr. Kara Nelson of Allied Emergency Vet Services examines a floofy boi named Max.

A new veterinary office is putting pets – and its employees – as top priority. “I’ve never wanted to own or open a clinic on my own, but wanting to offer an employee-owned emergency veterinary clinic option became a goal after working with and seeing so many unhappy, sad, discouraged veterinarians and technicians around me,” said Dr. Kara Nelsen, the founder of Allied Emergency Vet Services in Eau Claire. “We want to offer an employee-owned clinic so that people feel empowered and find emergency room medicine to be a career-length decision. Working long hours, overnight, and weekend, and holidays hours, are difficult for most people – and come with sacrifice – and we feel the employees deserve to have ownership in where they work ... when they work so hard.”

Nelsen is from the Twin Cities and graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine  in 2006. She also carries a master’s degree in public health. Nelsen has worked in veterinary medicine for 20 years.

“Loving animals, like many kids (and) people do, I have wanted to be a veterinarian since I could talk,” she said, “and my parents and family supported and encouraged my dream.”

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Loving animals, like many kids (and) people do, I have wanted to be a veterinarian since I could talk, and my parents and family supported and encouraged my dream.

DR. KARA NELSON

ALLIED EMERGENCY VET SERVICES

Opening the clinic will meet the need for an emergency-only pet clinic – something Eau Claire has been operating without for more than a decade. The business aims to be an extension of an animals’ primary care veterinarian, and is open overnight Monday-Thursday from 5pm to 8am and offers 24-hour care on weekends from 5pm Friday to 8am Monday. It is temporarily operating out of Westgate Animal Hospital at 2135 N. Clairemont Ave.

“We have a veterinarian always in the clinic,” Nelsen said, “with a team of technicians, to see cases that need or want to come in to emergency for care.” The clinic will perform diagnostics – including X-rays, blood work, urinalysis, fecal exams, and cytology – in addition to medical treatments, ICU hospitalization, oxygen therapy, blood and plasma transfusions, and emergency surgeries.

In the future, Allied Vet aims to expand to an urgent care facility in Hudson – also employee owned.

“We hope people understand that veterinary medicine, and veterinary clinics and staff are hurting right now with the expansive caseload we are all seeing,” Nelsen said. “A lot of people got new pets during COVID, and we’ve had an explosion of cases and day practice and ER needs in the past 1-1.5 years. … We want people to know that we are happy, ecstatic to be a part of this community and offer our services... in the area.”

Allied Emergency Vet Services • (715) 529-5900 • www.AlliedERvet.com