Pocahontas County pet owners and farmers have complained for years about the lack of local veterinarians. For the past several years, Greenbrier Veterinary Hospital has provided services at its Marlinton office one day per week. That service has been a godsend for those needing routine animal care on a Thursdays-only schedule. But the county still had great need for more veterinary services.
Frankford Veterinary Hospital (FVH) just made a major commitment to Pocahontas County that will go a long way to meet that need. FVH opened a veterinary clinic in Marlinton that will operate on Mondays and Wednesdays, meaning that veterinary services are available here now three days a week.
FVH founder Dr. Julie Gibson said expanding the practice to Marlinton was a logical move.
“We had a lot of clients from Pocahontas County who came down to our Frankford office,” she said. “So, we just thought it was kind of a natural extension of our regular business to come up here and better serve them.”
FVH provides “house calls” to farms where animals need care. Gibson was surprised by the high volume of farm calls she received at the new location.
“We’ve been very pleased with how busy we’ve been,” she said. “We’ve been here just six weeks and most of our days are fairly booked. So, I certainly think there was a need for more veterinary care up in this area. And we’ve been doing a lot of farm calls, too, after our office hours – so that seems to be a need. We didn’t realize we were going to be that busy.”
Although the new clinic is an important expansion of veterinary services in Pocahontas County, the area is still completely lacking a facility where advanced procedures, such as surgery, can be performed. FVH’s Marlinton clinic, like Greenbrier Veterinary’s, is not equipped for surgery or X-rays.
“We’re considered a secondary care facility, so we don’t do X-rays or surgeries at this office,” said Gibson. “Those are things we have to take down to our other office. We can do some minor blood work, but most of the major blood work goes down there also.”
Three doctors currently work for FVH: Gibson, Dr. Lillie Sledge and Dr. Angie Clark. Gibson will be in-house in Marlinton on Mondays and Clark will be here on Wednesdays.
Gibson said the new clinic had received a warm reception from the local community
“They’ve been wonderful,” she said. “Everybody’s been very excited about us being here and it just makes us feel very welcome.”
FVH’s Marlinton clinic is located in the Humane Society building, directly south of the Hanover Building on Second Avenue. Clinic hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.
