Seaside Home Veterinary Care Starting Moncton Practice
SAINT JOHN – A business that brings at-home veterinary care to pets throughout Greater Saint John is setting up shop in Moncton.
Seaside Home Veterinary Care was founded in 2016 by Dr. Katie Bell. Bell says the plan was always to expand to another New Brunswick city.
It was the way for the business to grow, without becoming a stationary clinic, something many home-call vets eventually do when they build a strong client base.
“I didn’t want to follow that path because house-call medicine is what I’m passionate about and really care about. I’ve for a long time been thinking that my way of working around that and still having the opportunity to grow and provide more people with this kind of service would be to have this kind of service in other places,” says Bell.
“That’s been my long-term goal for a while and I feel like I have enough of a grasp of the best way to do this now that I’m ready to try to execute it somewhere else.”
RELATED: Entrepreneurial Vet Brings At-Home Care to Saint John Pets
Bell chose Moncton as Seaside’s first expansion because it has a 24/hour veterinary care facility in the city.
“Moncton is a great big city with lots of people that I think would benefit from this service, and we also have the added benefit of an emergency service nearby that has already agreed to see our emergencies and be our back-up for any help that we need in that way,” says Bell.
Right now, Seaside is looking to hire a veterinarian and a veterinary technician or assistant for the new Moncton practice, which will operate under the name Tidal Bore Veterinary Care. The ideal candidate is a veterinarian who wants to practice but doesn’t want to deal so much with the business side of things.
“What I really am dreaming of is giving a veterinarian the opportunity to do what we’re doing because I love it so much and I think that somebody would be really happy to get to spend their veterinary days practicing in this way,” says Bell.
“A lot of people are interested in this type of medicine that isn’t necessarily interested in being a business owner, so I’m hoping to take that stress and risk away from somebody and take care of all the business-related things and just provide a really great job opportunity for a veterinarian that’s interested.”
When the Moncton practice will be up and running depends on how soon they can secure the new team members, but Bell hopes to find them soon.
“My hope is maybe by the summer we will have something going but it depends on getting the word spread far and wide that we’re looking for an awesome vet to get things rolling down there,” she says.
Once Tidal Bore Veterinary Care is up and running, Bell says expanding to more New Brunswick cities is “on her radar.”
“My dream is that all kinds of people can practice in this way – both for the benefit of the veterinarian but also the benefit of the community,” she says. “There are so many animals that we see that probably wouldn’t be seen at all if they weren’t able to be seen in this way. The further and wider we can go, the better.”