For your pet...  We do our best.  Every day.

 

What this means is that we strive to equip ourselves to serve the needs of your pet better and better every day.  This means constant learning for all of our staff in order to gain the knowledge and wisdom to practice better Veterinary Medicine.  It means investing in equipment that allows us to do better job all the time.  It means never being satisfied with the status quo, but striving to stay atop the latest developments and techniques.

 

In many ways, we set the standard for Veterinary Medicine in  the four-states.

 

Our entire staff is required to attend Continuing Education on a regular basis.  Professional Staff must go back to school every year, while our lay staff is required to go back to school every two years at a minimum.  These minimum standards are routinely exceeded by our staff members.

Dr. Leavens is a long-time member of the Veterinary Information Network (www.vin.com) where consultation with the very best experts in veterinary medicine from around the country and the world is readily available and routinely used in making decisions for your pet's care.  

Pain Control:

It is a long disproven myth that it is good for animals to have pain because it limits their activity. We address pain control aggressively. Through science, we know that animals whose pain is treated aggressively recover quicker and do better than animals that are allowed to suffer. 

Main Street Pet Care treats pain with the best drugs and techniques available, including routine use of Continuous Rate Infusions (CRI’s) and epidural and other types of pain blocks. After hospitalization, we provide advanced pain medications whenever they are needed for the ongoing comfort of your pet.

Patient Safety:

We monitor our surgical patients very carefully.  We use the latest equipment and have personnel present to monitor the patient throughout anesthetic procedures and during recovery.  Our routine surgical monitoring includes measuring blood pressure, blood oxygen, carbon dioxide, and ECG parameters throughout the procedure.  All that is in addition to physically touching and monitoring patients during anesthesia. 

We use mechanical ventilators to breathe for our patients (especially important in larger dogs) as needed during anesthetic procedures.  In our surgery suite we have ready access to resuscitation equipment, including defibrillators, and any drugs that may be necessary.

We routinely perform anesthetic procedures on very elderly pets and high risk animals.  Our safety record is very good because we take the time to fully evaluate our patients and make minute to minute adjustments in their care.  

Patient Care:

Studies confirm that patients kept warm during and after surgical procedures do better under anesthesia and have better recovery rates after the procedures.  We use advanced heating techniques and devices that allow us to keep your pet warm during and after surgical procedures.

Main Street Pet Care does not believe in “white knuckling” it with minimal staffing.  We are very well staffed, which allows our doctors to focus on being doctors and our staff members to focus on doing their jobs to the best of their ability, whether it be nursing care or walking dogs or changing litter boxes. Patients are closely attended at all times within the hospital, and our staff is constantly cleaning cages and taking care of the personal needs of every animal within the facility.  

Over and over, our clients tell us our loving patient care sets us apart in the region.  

Diagnostics:

Main Street Pet Care has the only Direct Digital Radiography facility in the four-state area.  Our equipment sets the standard in the industry and includes both regular Direct Digital Radiography and Direct Dental Digital Radiography.  Digital Radiography allows us to obtain very high quality instant x-rays in order to help reach quick diagnoses for your pet.  

While we can run emergency (STAT) lab tests in house (including blood gas and electrolytes), we use nationally certified reference labs for all our routine lab work, providing you with reliable results.  For cultures we use human laboratory services that meet the exacting standards of the human health care industry.  

Unique Treatments:

Main Street Pet Care provides Stem Cell Therapy services by referral to the University of Minnesota.  While this may sound expensive, Minnesota provides better Stem Cell Therapy at a fraction of the cost that we would have to charge to do it in house.  While the therapy is initiated in Minnesota, we provide follow-up therapy here in Joplin through the coordination of the University of Minnesota.

Main Street Pet Care also provides several unique therapies for treating pet allergies.  We take itchy pets very seriously and offer several alternatives to steroid treatment that can be so hard on your pet.  If you pet is itchy, we encourage you to come consult with us.