Reprinted from the Tennessean Contact Jill Cecil Wiersma at 790-7207 or jwiersma@tennessean.com.
THOMPSON'S STATION - The copper trotting horse weathervane isn't just an obvious symbol atop the new Tennessee Equine Hospital expansion. It's a nod to the state's long love of horses, said Monty McInturff of Franklin.
"Tennessee was once the center of the thoroughbred racing industry," the veterinarian said, mentioning once popular racing at Maryland Farms and Belle Meade Plantation. "In the late 1800s, the horse racing industry moved to Kentucky." But the state still tops Kentucky with its horse population and is just behind California, Texas and Florida.
Which is why McInturff and his colleagues at the hospital decided to build a 25,000-square-foot state-of-the-art addition to the downtown Thompson's Station hospital that will include MRI equipment, surgery facilities, examination and recovery rooms and a pharmacy.
The
new facility, on track to open Sept. 1, also will have housing for veterinary students and interns who will be gaining experience. Some of the reproductive facility services will be moved to the main, full-service hospital from its current location about a mile away, McInturff said.
"Middle Tennessee doesn't have a facility like this," he said. "Nashville has some of the nicest horses in the state, and Williamson County has the nicest horses in the state, but right now, everyone is having to ship their horses away."
The closest such full-service facilities are in Lexington, Ky., Birmingham, Ala., and Knoxville at the University of Tennessee, McInturff said. At more than three hours away, that's too long a trip for a sick or injured horse, said Matthew Nimmo, the hospital's surgeon. Colic is a common emergency surgery situation he used as an example. "It's better for the horse to be treated as soon as possible," he said. "The longer the colic sets in, the worse it gets." Joint wounds are also common and can quickly turn into a dangerous infection, Nimmo said. "Horses have to be able to walk around on four legs. They can't walk on three," he said.
The facility is adding a half-ton jib crane, and with a system of hoists, an injured horse can be carried into observation areas for bone scans with a gamma camera. MRI capabilities also are being added in the coming year, McInturff said. The hospital's surgical facilities include a large window, which allows the horse's owners to view the procedures being performed, McInturff said. "You'll be able to come and watch your horse's surgery being performed," he said, adding that they already have about seven surgeries scheduled.
For all its services, from dentistry on up, McInturff said he's especially pleased that the hospital is also growing as a teaching facility. It works with university veterinary programs to offer internships for graduates and two-week externships for juniors and seniors. "They come here to work and to learn," he said. "We've got two students lined up to work here throughout the rest of the year." Nimmo, who earned his veterinary degree from Oklahoma State University, said the teaching programs at the hospital will be more hands-on than many other opportunities students have to chose from. "They'll be more involved in the cases here than they would other places," he said.
McInturff, who earned his degree from Auburn University and joined the practice in 1991, said it's been a dream in the making for the past 10 years. He thanked town officials for their support in making it possible, particularly by expanding a sewer line to which the hospital can connect. "We'll be attracting business from a wide area and hope that will have a positive economic impact on the town," he said.
"We hope this will be a real centerpiece for Thompson's Station. When the sewer was approved, we were able to make this dream come true."
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