The new Steamtown Veterinary Center is expected to provide peace of mind for pet owners in Northeast Pennsylvania and beyond.
The facility — which opened Saturday at 32 Line St. in Dunmore — offers 24/7 emergency care in Lackawanna County for the first time since Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center in South Abington Twp. closed in the spring of 2024, driven by staffing shortages.
Archbald resident Tara Rotell regularly encounters crisis situations as the owner of five dogs and recounted a harrowing 40-minute drive to Stroudsburg — the closest available emergency clinic — on Christmas morning after Harley, a sheprador mix, suffered a cut on her ear.
“Ears don’t stop bleeding and our house was full of blood,” she said. “Holding a dog’s ear for nearly 40 minutes is nearly impossible as she wanted to continuously shake her head, but we made it. There are honestly no words to describe the relief my husband and I have that we have an emergency vet hospital within 10 minutes from us.”
Prior to Steamtown Veterinary, Northeast Veterinary Referral Hospital in Plains Twp. was the only veterinary clinic in Northeast Pennsylvania offering 24/7 emergency care, with the next-nearest around-the-clock clinics located in Stroudsburg and the Lehigh Valley.
Nichole Danova — who worked in veterinary medicine for 35 years — opened Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center in 2009 on the campus of Johnson College before relocating the clinic to South Abington Twp. in the spring of 2010. Initially open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, offering services that included neurology, MRI, cardiology, surgery, acupuncture, internal medicine and a mobile clinic, it ceased 24/7 emergency care services in late 2021 and the clinic’s hospital operations ceased running 24 hours in 2023.
Archbald resident Tara Rotell had to take Harley, a sheprador mix, on a roughly 40-minute drive to Stroudsburg for treatment of a cut ear that occurred on Christmas morning (Courtesy Tara Rotell)
Show Caption
1 of 1
Archbald resident Tara Rotell had to take Harley, a sheprador mix, on a roughly 40-minute drive to Stroudsburg for treatment of a cut ear that occurred on Christmas morning (Courtesy Tara Rotell)
Dr. Jessica Sheruda-Ryan and her husband, Dr. Adam Ryan, launched Steamtown Veterinary to fill a void in the region.
“We grew up in Lackawanna County, and we both ended up being veterinarians,” Sheruda-Ryan said. “When I moved back to the area and bought a house, I worked at another ER, and unfortunately we were sending clients down to my husband’s clinic (Animal Care Center) in Danville just for affordable care. We were hoping to keep that local and saw an opportunity to try to provide more affordable local care — that was always our goal. ER medicine is expensive. We’re trying to be that middleman for people who can’t afford to see the specialists.”
Steamtown Veterinary — which employs about 43 people — experienced an immediate strong demand for services as the staff treated 80 animals in the first 24 hours.
“We never thought we would be that busy,” Sheruda-Ryan said. “The volume was really unexpected. I think the community’s really excited.”
She added the owners of several local veterinary practices expressed a desire to collaborate and offered support.
“They’re super excited about creating a long-lasting partnership where there’s great communication and affordability for owners, so they aren’t fretting about where they’re sending their patients,” Sheruda-Ryan said. “So many local vets toured the facility or donated food or a gift card. Another local vet clinic gave us some old exam tables we can utilize for a procedure.”
While emergency care remains expensive, Sheruda-Ryan feels Steamtown Veterinary has a sustainable business model.
“Since we’re privately owned, we don’t have all the levels of supervision you’re paying for in terms of a hospital manager, and that type of thing, which keeps prices a little bit more affordable,” she said. “My husband is continuing his full-time job at his clinic and he’s working full time here every weekend. I’m working seven days a week on overnights.
“We’re focusing on communicating with the client and making everything transparent. Our focus has always been trying to provide an alternative option for owners. We’re not boarded, we’re not specialists, so you’re not paying specialist prices, but we’re still willing to try to do certain care. I think of it as old-school medicine. Twenty years ago, you didn’t go anywhere else. Your vet tried it or it didn’t work. For the owners that can’t afford a specialist, we’re willing to take on some of those more complex cases. We don’t have all the bells and whistles like a CT or MRI but I would say we’re fairly advanced for a local ER.”
Sheruda-Ryan stressed time is of the essence when pets are experiencing distress and that the facility will expedite treatment of the most serious ailments.
“Trauma and respiratory cases take priority in terms of having minimal wait times of being seen,” she said. “That can make a huge difference in a pet’s life or the prognosis and outcome for that pet. We’re trying to help ease urgent care cases. We realize most general practices are booked out for several weeks. Our urgent care side won’t get started for another month or so, until we kind of work out the kinks of the system and get our team all working together where we can start branching out, but we hope to offer it at least two days a week.”
While the facility currently accommodates dogs and cats, the owners have experience treating farm animals and have already received requests from the community regarding exotic pets.
“I grew up on a farm, and (my husband’s) been dating me since we were in high school, so he basically grew up on a farm, too,” Sheruda-Ryan said. “We’re seasoned with lambs, pigs, sheep and goats, but we have very limited exotic handling. We hope we’ll be able to expand upon that as our staff becomes more trained. Some of the local exotic rescuers have reached out in terms of training our staff for handling exotics. It’s very difficult to offer exotic service if your staff is not capable of adequately restraining them or handling them.”
Carol Riegel Motsko of Maine, New York, visited the new clinic Saturday when none of the veterinarians in Broome County were open for emergency care and she faced a multiple-hour wait time at emergency centers in New York when her 1½-year-old golden retriever, Rylee, woke up and had trouble walking.
“I needed to find emergency care, and thankfully my daughter had just found out through Facebook that Steamtown was opening,” she said. “They said bring her right down, and the doctors were very professional and compassionate. They were very organized for it being their first day open. They got us into a room pretty quickly, and quickly assessed what was wrong, which was the onset of Lyme disease. We were very impressed and pleased with the care.”