State Street Animal Hospital

State Street Animal Hospital is hosting "The Bark-arrific Saturday Ice Cream Social" from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 23, at the hospital, located at 7950 State Street Road, Batavia.

Just show up with your friendly K9 friend and join the State Street crew for this special event.

All dogs must be leashed to attend. Dog-safe ice cream will be served, and there will be ice cream for human companions as well.

While this social is specifically for dogs, they love your feline friends, too, and treats will be provided for owners to take home to their kitty comrades.

Parasols, gloves and hats, strictly optional. Wet Wipes probably aren't.

Heather Volpe and her granddaughter Myla, 18 months, visit with a calf during the open house for State Street Hospital this morning. The open house, which includes visits with animals, a tour of the facility and demonstrations of medical equipment, door prizes and ice cream, continues until 3 p.m.

Gary Zimmerman with Clacker.

We’re having an Open House! Join us on June 13th from 10 a.­m - 3 p.m. for a tour of the hospital and to meet our staff. We’ll have ice cream and will feature baby farm animals. Our vendors will be in attendance with information about their products and we will be highlighting some of our new services. Take a tour of the surgery suite, watch a live ultrasound, look at some interesting X­-Rays, and much more! We invite you to spend a fun day learning more about veterinary medicine and State Street Animal Hospital. Gift bags, door prizes and more! We look forward to seeing you there!

Keith Carlson and John Kemp, who already hold ownership stakes in Attica Veterinary Associates, have purchased the State Street Animal Hospital from Fran and Norm Woodworth, who were ready to slow down their workload.

Carlson (pictured (Kemp wasn't available)), said not much will change at State Street. It's a good facility with quality equipment and an excellent staff, so there simply isn't much the new owners need to change. All of the current employees are staying on and the new owners plan to hire a new technician and possibly a new vet. 

The new owners work full time in Attica and will manage State Street.

Kemp has been an owner in Attica since 1988 and Carlson joined the staff there 15 years ago, becoming one of the four owners 13 years ago.

"Owning a small animal hospital is something John and I always wanted to do and the right opportunity came along," Carlson said.

From Fran Woodworth, DVM:

Here at the State Street Animal Hospital we see poisonings in animals frequently. The most common is rat/mouse poison ingestion.

This week we had two potentially disastrous cases, and I wanted to get a warning out to all pet owners: BE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE BUYING!

Rat poisons do not all have the same toxic ingredient. They can cause bleeding, or brain swelling, or irreversible kidney failure, or seizures, or anemia. THE ONLY ONES THAT HAVE A DIRECT ANTIDOTE ARE THOSE THAT CAUSE BLEEDING!

The two dogs we saw this week both ate yummy green bricks (the most common packaging of most of the rat poisons) containing BROMETHALIN, the poison that causes cerebral edema, or brain swelling.

Luckily the owners saw them eat it, called us immediately, and were able to make the dogs vomit up just about all the material using hydrogen peroxide under our direction.

We then saw them in the hospital and gave them medication to bind up any remaining poison in their GI tracts. These steps saved the dogs' lives.

Our recommendation:

• It is safer to use traps rather than poison.
• If you feel you must use poison, be sure the POISONING information says the antidote is Vitamin K.
• Better than all the above, consider visiting our wonderful animal shelter, and adopting one of the cats that need homes. They are more effective than poisons or traps, and are great company besides!