Creston Veterinary Clinic on Townline Street builds insulated, safer large-animal facility

Creston Veterinary Clinic staff, clients and cattle will be much warmer this winter as a new, fully insulated facility for working with large animals has been built.

“Ultimately, the whole plan was to have a safe facility – both for livestock and people – that’s more efficient, environmentally-controlled and that would hopefully allow us to provide better service to clients,” said Dr. Tim Nelson, one of the veterinarians at the clinic.

On July 1, the old facility was torn down and completely rebuilt.

The new, $250,000-plus facility is 65 by 80 feet and completely enclosed. It has been paid for by the clinic.

The facility features custom-made gates by Langhoff Log & Lumber in Marion, a chute, tilt table, alleyways, pens, spray foam insulation, LED lights and bathroom with a shower.

“We should actually be able to hold 40 or 50 cows and still flow fairly easily, in terms of penning them, working them and reloading them,” Nelson said. “The problem with our old facility was it had only one alleyway to get in and out.”

One of the other veterinarians, Dr. Carl Schuler, said the main perk of the facility will be the ability to work on cattle indoors when there’s bad weather or freezing temperatures.

“Every once in a while, we do C-sections on heifers, and a lot of those occur in February,” Schuler said. “Last winter, I did two of them in one night in 10-degree temperatures. I’ve grown accustomed to that because I’ve done it for 23 years, so I’m not going to know what to do with a building that’s warm to operate on cows.”

Schuler said the warm environment will be better for the livestock, too. Before, during calving season, a client would have to put their newborn calf in a trailer or truck and ride home in 10-degree weather. Now, the clinic has a pen to keep the mother and calf overnight, which also helps the two bond.

“Anytime you have to interrupt the calving process, you increase the risk of that heifer not wanting to claim her calf,” Schuler said. “After you deliver the calf, if you can put them in the pen immediately and leave them alone, everything seems to work better.”

Another benefit of an insulated facility is it’s safer. The old facility wasn’t as safe because snow could come in and freeze, and then people or cattle would slip on the ice.

The new building will also be cleaner, have better lighting and will be easier to sort cattle. Now, the veterinarians will be able to sort cattle in different ways, such as pregnant versus not pregnant or steers versus heifers.

“I think our clients will appreciate coming here now,” Nelson said. “Before, they brought (livestock) in, but it wasn’t always pleasant for them either. We’re excited about it, and I think they’ll be excited about it, too.”