Although they may be four-legged instead of two, the patients of Dr. William K. (Pete) Holt get the same kind of quality dental and medical care as his two-legged clients get from their HMO’s.

Perhaps better.

Holt, who purchased the 54-year old Kitsap Veterinary Hospital in 1972 and now runs the hospital with partner Dr. Denny Christman and associate Dr. Sarah Buck King, claims that each patient is treated not as a member of a human household but as a member of a family.

“We believe firmly that a pet is an integral part of the family, not a disposable item,” Holt said. “They’re family members and they’re treated as such.”

With that philosophy in mind, the 12-employee veterinary hospital treats a surprisingly large number of canine and feline family members. In the month of August alone, the 3,500 square foot facility saw more than seven hundred patients visit with the three doctors of veterinary medicine (DVMs) and more than two hundred more visits were logged by the hospital’s licensed veterinary technicians.

“Besides our regular staff, we’re a training site for senior year veterinary students from Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine,” explains Holt. “So, besides our own front office staff and back office or technical staff, we’ve often got extra staff taking part in daily exams and basic medical care to make sure that our client’s pets are being seen quickly and thoroughly.”

With the exception of the occasional ferret visit, the partners made a conscious decision to specialize in cat and dog care, referring equine and llama cases out to another Kitsap veterinarian, Dr. Robert (Bo) Weeks.

The doctors utilize other Kitsap County facilities and DVMs for specialty care on an as-needed basis, as well.

“Although we handle emergency care here at the hospital and do night-time monitoring of critical patients as we need to, we now refer after-hours emergency care to the Animal Emergency and Trauma Center in Poulsbo,” said Holt.

“We also bring in the services of specialists as they might be needed by a particular animal’s needs…maybe that’s an internist, cardiologist or an ophthalmologist.”

The hospital limits its marketing efforts to discounts and special promotions for their existing client base, letting word-of-mouth and drive-by exposure bring in new clients. The results of that strategy, Holt says, has been a slow, steady growth of their client/patient base over the last thirty years and he credits part of their success to a shift in how their clients tackle the health of their furred family members.

“Twenty years ago, you only saw pets who had been injured or hit by a car,” said Holt, “now people realize the importance of maintenance in keeping a pet healthy and extending their lifespan. Things like dental care, diet management, vaccines and flea and parasite care are part of an ongoing medical maintenance program which makes a big difference in the overall health of the pet.”

“For example,” Holt says, “we routinely see eighteen year old cats and even some of the larger breed dogs which typically have a shorter life span (of) maybe seven years or so are living to be twelve and thirteen years old.”

That increased awareness of care, Holt claims, may also go hand in hand with what he feels is Kitsap County’s relatively stable economy.

“I’m not sure that Kitsap County has seen much of an economic downturn in the last decade because of the stability of the military…I think that the military presence and the economy that it brings to the county has left us somewhat insulated. With that somewhat consistent influx of income coming in from Washington DC, I think that we’ve got a larger, more family-oriented, home-owning population here who see medical care of a pet as simply part of raising a family.”.