Choosing the Right Veterinary Care for You & Your Pet

​by Brad Deckard
Owner, Pets R Family Veterinary Hospital

Dr. Alysha Salapack, Dr. Katelyn Lanctot, Dr. Kathleen Deckard, Dr Kayla Hutton & Dr. Scarlet Motycka

​When it comes to your pet’s health, where you go for care can make all the difference. From mobile units and small clinics to full-service veterinary hospitals, each option offers a different level of support, expertise, and medical capability. Understanding these differences can help pet owners make informed decisions, especially when facing illness, injury, or long-term care needs.


At Pets R Family Veterinary Hospital, a family-owned, locally rooted practice, we’ve spent the last decade growing and evolving with the industry to meet the needs of our community and their pets. That growth has been intentional—from adding specialized staff to investing in advanced equipment—so we can provide the highest level of care when it matters most.


Let’s take a closer look at the differences between mobile vets, veterinary clinics, and full-service hospitals—and what they mean for your pet’s health.


Mobile Veterinary Units: Convenience with Limits
Mobile veterinarians provide a valuable service, especially for pets with anxiety, mobility issues, or owners with transportation challenges. They typically offer in-home wellness exams, vaccinations, minor illness care, and end-of-life services. This level of personalized, low-stress care can be ideal for routine visits or palliative support.


Mobile units are inherently limited in scope. Generally, they are unable to treat more serious or urgent conditions. Pets that need immediate diagnostics, surgery, or round-the-clock monitoring must be referred elsewhere, often delaying treatment. They also are unable to carry with them all the medications needed to treat serious conditions like snake bites, parvovirus, or severe episodes of pancreatitis.  Likewise, mobile units can only contain a limited resources of medical equipment, allowing only the basic medical procedures to be accomplished, especially from a surgical need.


Additionally, mobile practices typically operate solo or with a small team, which limits the availability of second opinions or collaborative case management between multiple Doctors. It also means that the availability of the veterinarian may be limited since they are solo, making them singular in their patient focus.


Veterinary Clinics: Basic Care, Lower Overhead
Small veterinary clinics are great for routine exams, vaccines, and minor issues, often offering lower costs due to lean staffing. However, they typically operate on a high-volume model with shorter appointments, limited doctor access, and fewer resources for complex or urgent care. With minimal staff, technicians often juggle multiple roles, limiting personalized attention. These clinics may need to refer more serious cases to larger hospitals with advanced diagnostics and surgical capabilities, making them less ideal for pets with significant medical needs.

​Full-Service Veterinary Hospitals: Resources, Teamwork, and Technology = Quality Veterinary Care

​Veterinary hospitals like Pets R Family are designed to handle everything from routine wellness to emergency and surgical care, all under one roof. With a multi-doctor team (example 8 Doctors at PRF), expansive support staff (22 Technicians at PRF), and on-site advanced diagnostics—including digital X-ray, dental radiography, in-house lab testing, CT imaging, surgical suites with advanced equipment, and hospitalization—our hospital provides a continuity of care that smaller practices simply cannot match.


When your pet is sick, time matters. Having diagnostics available on-site allows us to move from concern to diagnosis within hours, not days. If a surgical decision needs to be made, full scale veterinary hospitals have the equipment, staff, and expertise to act fast and safely. And because we have multiple experienced doctors collaborating daily, we can offer layered medical opinions, internal second looks, and a team approach to every complex case.


Yes, this level of care sometimes costs more. The technology, staff size, and training required to operate a hospital come with higher overhead to achieve the higher level of medicine. But what you receive in return is peace of mind, medical excellence, and a team that can support your pet through all stages of life—from wellness visits to intensive care.


As pet owners, we all wish the very best for our furry family members.  So when it comes to the very best medical care, just as we choose the best for our children, we also can choose the best for our pets.  Veterinary Hospitals will always represent the very best in quality medicine and trained medical support.  And it’s this choice that can make all the difference in the quality of life our pets are able to achieve.



Investing in What
Our Clients Need


Pets R Family isn’t just a veterinary hospital—it’s a family owned and operated business that has grown alongside our community. As demand has increased, we’ve added experienced doctors, licensed technicians, diagnostic tools, and specialty equipment to accommodate the needs of our pet community. We didn’t stop at the basics—we expanded because pets and their people need and deserve more. This means your pet’s care is not dependent on a single doctors availability or skillset. It means that if your pet needs to be medically monitored, medically boarded or urgently seen between scheduled appointments, there’s a team here ready to respond.  It means that when you call to get the help your pet needs, you have a team of customer service personnel (at PRF we have 7 on duty at all times) ready to answer the phone and get the best available option for you set up and ready.  It means that when your pet needs that additional medical work up, that clinics and mobile units would need to refer to a specialist, we are here to provide that medicine from our hospital.  It also means that when you need a Doctor that is local, with a vested interest in the people and pets of this community, you not only get one, you get eight of them at Pets R Family Veterinary Hospital.


At PRF, our goal is not to compete with lower-cost models—we respect the role that clinics and mobile vets play in the broader landscape. But when your pet needs more, when you and your pet require the very best, we’re here with the team, tools, and time to provide it.


The decision regarding where to take your pet for care is a personal one, shaped by your pet’s needs, your budget, and your values. But when choosing between convenience and capability, remember: resources matter. Whether it’s a second opinion, a same-day diagnostic scan, or a complex surgery that requires multiple team members working in unison—your pet deserves access to a team that can meet them where they are.


At Pets R Family, we’re not just providing veterinary care—we’re walking alongside your family with compassion, excellence, and a commitment to doing what’s right for your pet.