Vet clinic expands in county

There's a new veterinary clinic in Plains with a new name, but she's no stranger to faces of Sanders County - human or animal. Dr. Abby Ingram of Thompson Falls Veterinary Clinic has decided to expand her services to Plains, buying the practice of Dr. Alan Marley, who recently retired.

The official purchase date was Sept. 3, but Ingram and her staff have been filling in at the site of the Lynch Creek Animal Clinic for two or three days a week. Now, under the name Wild Horse Veterinary Clinic, it will be open Tuesdays and Thursdays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., although she hopes to expand her business hours soon. The telephone number will be the same - 826-3235 - but with a new email - [email protected].

Ingram purchased Thompson Falls Veterinary Clinic from Mindi Wilson nearly 10 years ago. She plans to enlarge the Thompson Falls clinic and might be seeing more of her present clients at Plains during construction. "I expanded because Dr. Marley was planning to retire. I thought it would be better for me to buy the clinic to keep clients in a family rather than the possibility of a corporation purchasing the clinic and turning it into a revolving wheel of clinicians with a cookie cutter approach to medicine," said the 46-year-old Ingram, who's been a licensed veterinarian since graduating from the University of Tennessee, College of Veterinary Medicine in 2007. Prior to Thompson Falls, she practiced at Pruyn Veterinary Hospital in Missoula.

Thompson Falls Veterinary Clinic has patients from Plains, Superior, St. Regis, Missoula, and even as far away as Stevensville. The opening of her clinic in Plains will make it more convenient for her clients coming from the east side and from beyond Sanders County.

Born in Alabama, but raised in Texas and Tennessee, Ingram grew up doing long distance racing of Arabian horses. "As a kid, I idolized the race vets and wanted to be like them," she said. Ingram said that as a child she was always happiest when with her horses, hanging out with them and sometimes even singing to them. She didn't initially pursue a vocation in the veterinary field, majoring in anthropology, eventually getting a master's in Medical Anthropology in college. However, later she started to questioned what she wanted to do with her life and subsequently applied to the veterinary school in Tennessee. "So, I didn't exactly get into veterinary medicine for the sake of the animals, it was more the sake of the people who love them," said Ingram.

Ingram will be splitting her time between Thompson Falls and Plains. At Plains, she will also have a receptionist and one or two veterinary assistants/technicians, as well as her newest veterinarian, Kelsey Rehm. The Plains clinic is about 2,500 square feet with a large reception area, two exam rooms, a surgery room, a lab, and several kennel and storage rooms. Ingram plans to upgrade the X-ray and ultrasound equipment and will add more in-house laboratory equipment.

Ingram's clinics provide small and large animal services, medicine and surgery. Seventy percent of the animal patients are dogs and about 20% are cats. She said that the after hours emergencies will continue to be seen at Thompson Falls. While some farm and large animals might be seen in Plains, she said the services and hospitalizations for those types of animals would be done at Thompson Falls because that clinic is already set up to handle those kinds of animals.