June 16, 2008

CHICAGO –- For most pets –- going to the vet isn’t exactly a walk in the park. But Gold Coast Animal Hospital is changing that, one innovative procedure at a time.

The mere mention of Gold Coast Animal Hospital gets golden retrievers Shade and Maka’s tails wagging.

“My male loves to get in the car -- my female doesn’t,” owner Mark O’Neil told Pet Pulse. “But if I say, ‘come on, we’re going to see Dr. Reece,’ both of them are in the car. They get really excited when we pull into the lot."

Shade and Maka’s aren’t alone.

Dr. Harold Reece, president and owner of Gold Coast Animal Hospital, compares the bustling facility, which employs five doctors and treats up to 55 patients a day, to an emergency room.

The parallel goes beyond just the bustling environment. Gold Coast performs procedures like chemotherapy and root canals –- things you might not expect to see at an animal hospital –- nearly every day.

"We have laser surgery which many hospitals don’t have,” Dr. Reece said. “We’ve got ultrasounds and endoscopes, which are more intense surgeries as a general practice goes than most."

Round out that list with scores of spays and neuters, fracture repairs and even a rehab swimming pool –- and you begin to see why the 23,000 square foot space is necessary.

For the city’s cats and canines –- Gold Coast provides one-stop medical shopping that relies on Doctor Reece’s dogged dedication.

When Doctor Reece says he lives at work, he really means it. An apartment sits on the top floor of the hospital, where Reece stays several nights a week, so he can keep an extra eye on the animals.

"If we keep the pets in the community healthy, then we are actually providing a major community service," Reece said. "The satisfaction you get from the appreciation from your clients is certainly a major, major plus."

When the time came for Shade to have cysts removed – O’neil knew just where to turn.

"I have total comfort,” O’Neil said. “I think like a lot of my friends who come here, we all wish he’d be our personal physician."

With Chicago’s shelters and pet owners looking to Reece to mend their animals’ medical maladies, he says he’s happy to keep playing Doctor Doolittle.

"I enjoy what I do,” Reece said. “Veterinary medicine has been very good to me and a long as my health is good and I still enjoy doing the things that I do -- I will keep doing those things."

He’s made some loyal patients in the process. O’Neil and his retrievers are moving to Virginia, but they’re already planning a trip back to their beloved hospital.

“The hardest thing about moving is that I’m going to miss him,” O’Neil said. “This place is the one thing I’m going to miss the most and I think it is going to be the hardest to recreate."

This is one animal hospital that’s worth its weight in gold.

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