Tail Talk with Dr. O’Hara

Finding Your Place: How One Vet Built Community Through Compassionate Care

• Dr. O’Hara • Episode 1

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Meet the Host: Dr. O’Hara of Abingdon Animal Medical Center

Ever wonder what drives someone to dedicate their life to caring for our furry companions? Dr. O'Hara takes us on a fascinating journey from his veterinary school days at Oregon State University to establishing Abingdon Animal Medical Center in the heart of Appalachia.

With warmth and candor, Dr. O'Hara reveals how five years of practice experience in Texas prepared him to become his own boss. His search for the perfect practice aligned beautifully with his desire to raise his family in the stunning landscapes of eastern Tennessee and southwest Virginia. What began as a chance visit to Abingdon while exploring other opportunities transformed into finding his perfect professional home—a testament to following both heart and instinct in career decisions.

Behind the state-of-the-art veterinary technology and comprehensive services lies Dr. O'Hara's simple but powerful philosophy: "I love the medicine, but I love the animals more than the medicine." This perspective shapes everything at Abingdon Animal Medical Center, from their approach to routine checkups to complex surgeries. When he's not being "Doc" at the clinic, Dr. O'Hara cherishes his role as "Papa" to his three young children, even coaching his nine-year-old son's baseball team. This balance between professional dedication and family life mirrors the values that drew him to Abingdon in the first place.

Whether you're a current client or simply curious about the human story behind veterinary medicine, this intimate conversation offers valuable insights into what makes truly exceptional pet care. Listen now, and then connect with Abingdon Animal Medical Center at 276-628-9655 or MyAbingdonvet.com to experience their unique blend of small-town warmth and cutting-edge care for yourself.

To learn more about Abingdon Animal Medical Center visit:
https://www.MyAbingdonVet.com
Abingdon Animal Medical Center
19586 Dennison Drive
Abingdon, VA 24211
276-628-9655

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Tail Talk with Dr O'Hara, where eastern Tennessee and southwest Virginia's favorite pets get the spotlight they deserve. He's the heart behind Abingdon Animal Medical Center, combining small-town charm with state-of-the-art veterinary care. Whether your furry friend purrs, barks or just steals your socks, this is the place for tips, tails and a whole lot of tail wagging.

Speaker 2:

Welcome everybody. I'm Skip Mauney, co-host slash producer, here in the studio with Dr O'Hara of Abington Animal Medical Center. Dr O'Hara, how's it going? It's going great. How are you doing, skip? Doing just fine, Excuse me, getting close to the weekend so I'm excited about that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's supposed to be a nice weekend.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and maybe we can get out of some of this rain we've had over the last week. It's been insane, insanely wet. Well, let's get right to it. Doc, over the years you've grown quite a remarkable following there in Abington. However, some of our listeners might not be familiar with your journey, so let's just take it from the top. Could you share a little background about your company and what you do?

Speaker 3:

Well, I graduated veterinary school in 2012 from Oregon State University, and then I went into practice right away, right after graduation, and I practiced in Texas one year in West Texas, and then I did four years in the Houston area and then in 2017, I acquired Abingdon Animal Medical Center, and so I've been doing that for about eight years here.

Speaker 2:

Wow, what part of West Texas.

Speaker 3:

Midland, Texas.

Speaker 2:

Midland, Friday Night Lights.

Speaker 3:

Yes, it is a different country out there. I'll tell you that for sure. They do care about high school football and rodeo, and that's what they care about.

Speaker 2:

And oil. I think that used to be the case. Midlands, odessa, very familiar with that. So what brought you to Abingdon, the virginia? Did you just by happenstance or how did you connect there?

Speaker 3:

well, it's honestly. We had our son at the time and I wanted to own a practice. I wanted to be my own boss at that point. I'd work for five years under the people and I gained a lot of experience and I was ready to kind of to do it on my own. And we visited this area and we loved it. We thought it was a great area to raise a family, and it really is. It's a really awesome area absolutely and so it.

Speaker 3:

Just it was a lot of happenstance, coincidence, everything in one. It was just meant to be. The practice was for sale when we were visiting this region and we loved the region, so we acquired the practice over the course of like six months. It took a while to acquire, but we did, and we've loved it here ever since.

Speaker 2:

Wow. So when you were visiting, you weren't there to look for a practice, you were just visiting.

Speaker 3:

Well, no, we came out here because the practice was on oh, oh, I see, I see.

Speaker 3:

So you knew it was it was on the market, but we checked out other ones near here too. And then we were originally going to check out a different practice, but we in tennessee, but this one was actually on the way, it was like a couple hours away. So we were like, why not check this one out while we're out there? And we loved this one in this area much more than the other one we visited. So we got kind of lucky that we were like, hey, check this out while we're out here. You know what I mean, so very good, very good.

Speaker 2:

Well, you're absolutely correct. It's beautiful to me, the most beautiful part of the country, most beautiful place I've ever lived, and a great, great place to raise a family. So can't blame you there Speaking of family when you're not taking care of your patients. What do you like to do for fun?

Speaker 3:

Oh well, I like to hang out with my children. I've got three kids, one nine, one about to be seven and one four and I just like to be Papa when I'm not being Doc.

Speaker 2:

Basically, you know what I mean, are they into any sports or anything?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, my son. He loves baseball so I help coach his team. He does a little travel team and I help coach with that and we have a lot of fun with that.

Speaker 2:

Oh, very good. How old is your son? He's nine, nine. Oh, that's awesome, man. Great, great time to be a dad and a kid and play baseball when you're nine, 10, 11 years old Fantastic. Well, we know that, doc, that marketing is key to just about any business's success. How do you market Abington Medical Center?

Speaker 3:

Well, I think the best marketing tool we probably have is word of mouth, I guess, of people who have had good experiences. You know we try and provide the best. Like we've talked about before, I treat every pet in there that comes in there like they're my own and then I hope the client has a great experience with that and patient has a great experience with that and it just kind of gets around, you know.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely no better advertising than word of mouth for sure, than word of mouth for sure. Well, you know you're a super busy guy and uh, uh, you know, and I know because we've had to reschedule a couple of times, but but you know you're dedicated to your work yeah I'm not doing that anymore oh, that's okay, that's all right. No, that's perfectly fine. Work comes first, um. But speaking of work, what? Just to get learn more about what? What drives you? Why are you doing this? Why be a vet?

Speaker 3:

Well, I love animals, I mean I just I mean that's probably the most, you know, important thing to drive, I think, to be a good veterinarian is that you really have to love animals. You know I love the medicine, but I love the animals more than the medicine. You know what I mean. I really do, and so that's what drives me. Good outcomes are the most important thing for me. I want good outcomes for the patient. It's not always possible, but I'll do anything I can to make sure there's a good outcome, from something simple as a skin infection to something more complicated that may need surgery.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so you, you do perform surgeries yeah. Yeah, what other services do you offer that maybe other folks don't necessarily?

Speaker 3:

Well, we're pretty technology up to date. We got ultrasound, we can do ultrasound. We can obviously take x-rays. We have a computed x-rays, which is really cool because we can take the shot and we can have the results back in seconds, literally it's on a computer screen and it's really useful, but we pretty much do it all.

Speaker 3:

I mean soft tissue surgery, spay, neuters, all that kind of stuff, dental procedures, dental health is one of the kind of things that's really need to get out there more of how important it is for the overall health of the patient. Canine and feline, cats and dogs.

Speaker 2:

I imagine that's pretty tough to clean a dog's teeth.

Speaker 3:

Well, yeah, they have to take a little nap for you, obviously, because they're not going to just sit there and be like aw. A lot of times they have a lot of buildup and stuff. You've got to scale it off and polish everything up, clean everything up, and a lot of times there's extractions that are needed too, because you know, the tooth is that bad.

Speaker 2:

So I've had personal experience with that Not not my teeth, but my dogs, yeah, and it is very, it's critical actually can cause a lot of other issues. So well, dr O'Hara, again I know you're busy, love it, appreciate you taking time out to introduce yourself to our listeners, and we'll catch you in the next episode where we'll dive into some frequently asked questions. Oh, that sounds great Skip.

Speaker 3:

Thank you All right man.

Speaker 2:

Have a great rest of the day. All right, you too. Thanks so much.

Speaker 1:

Thank you. Thanks for joining us on Tail Talk with Dr O'Hara. If your four-legged family member needs a checkup, a stylish groom or just a cozy place to stay, give us a call or text at 276-628-9655, or visit myabingdonvetcom to book your appointment. Abingdon Animal Medical Center a small town feel with state-of-the-art care and plenty of belly rubs.