Woodinville Vet Makes Eastside House Calls

Hanna Ekström spends the better part of her working day in other people’s bathrooms. No, she’s not a plumber. She’s a veterinarian who makes house calls. The bathroom, she says, is often the best place in the house to examine pets because it is relatively small and enclosed.

Ekström owns and operates At Home Vet, which serves pets and their owners on the Eastside and North End, from Mill Creek to Bellevue and including Kirkland. She operates a small Woodinville veterinary clinic, and a feline-only boarding facility. But it is home care that she is passionate about, and that differentiates her practice from others; 80 to 90 percent of her business consists of house calls.

“In an ideal world, most pets are better being seen at home,” says Ekström, who has been practicing veterinary medicine for nearly 20 years. “You really can learn a lot about what’s going on with the pet,” by seeing its home environment, she adds. “It’s very personal.”

House calls work especially well for elderly pets, explains Ekström. “Also for elderly people,” she adds. Families with multiple pets can benefit from at home-care, as can those with unvaccinated or ill pets, as they can avoid contagion that the animals might be exposed to in a clinic.

According to Ekström, At Home Vet provides comprehensive well-pet care, including vaccinations, diagnosis and treatment of non-surgical conditions, laboratory diagnostics, minor injury care and behavioral consultations. “I love doing the entire spectrum of care,” says Ekström – from puppies to geriatric.

“This is a real clinic,” Ekström says of her mobile practice. “I carry pretty much everything a regular clinic would carry,” she adds. Because At Home Vet has no anesthesia or x-ray facilities, Ekström refers all surgeries and dental procedures to other practices in the area. “This is a great community to refer to,” she says.

Ekström worked as a “land locked” veterinarian for ten years before opening At Home Vet. At that point, after working in clinics and animal hospitals – and having three children – she wanted something that was more part-time, but still rewarding. A house call-based business seemed to fit the bill.

She opened her practice with just five customers; today, a staff of six serves “a couple thousand,” says Ekström. “We all do everything,” she says, adding that it is a challenge to be able to make it work financially. With travel time and time in the pets’ homes, she can only see four or five patients a day…and that’s a busy day.

Ekström is always looking for ways to keep costs down, and is hopeful that her new cat-boarding business will help subsidize the at home veterinary care so that more pets can benefit from it.

The advantages of Ekström’s approach is perhaps most evident when it comes to end-of-life care. “Every patient and every family is…individual,” she explains, adding that as a pet ages, it is sometimes helpful for her to see its living conditions first-hand.

She makes an effort to take into account what the owner can manage when making recommendations about end-of-life care. If it becomes evident that euthanasia is the best course of action, Ekström can provide the service in the pet’s home.

“The biggest benefit (of at home euthanasia) is that the pet is at home and not scared,” says Ekström.

Ekström knows she makes a difference to the people and pets she serves. “I love what I do,” she says, “I love everything about it. Every day is different. I’m so lucky.”