CVMA District Representative in our midst

West Ridge Animal Hospital is proud to announce that our newest veterinarian, Dr. Amanda Hensley, has accepted the position of District Representative for the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA). As members of the CVMA, our vets agree to uphold its mission of enhancing animal health and welfare, promoting the human/animal bond, protecting public health, advancing the well being of veterinarians, and fostering excellence in veterinary medicine through education, advocacy, and outreach.

Dr Hensley recently attended the Big Ideas Forum presented by the CVMA. The discussion focused on how best to foster positive relationships between veterinarians and shelter communities, an aspect of veterinary medicine definitely in need of attention right now.

Thank you Dr. Hensley for volunteering your time!

Welcome, Dr Hensley

As you know, West Ridge Animal Hospital strives to provide the highest quality of care and offers a comprehensive variety of treatment options for your pets. To this end, we recently welcomed a new veterinarian who specializes in the canine rehabilitation arena. Just what all does that entail, you ask? Canine rehabilitation:
• Improves recovery time post-surgically,
• Increases quality of life for arthritic and/or senior pets,
• Helps with weight loss,
• Conditions dogs for hunting season, agility, fly ball and other high paced activities,
• And offers an alternative treatment for dogs who are not good candidates for surgery.
If your pet will benefit from rehabilitation, you can expect to meet with Dr. Hensley who will perform an evaluation and provide a treatment plan which includes at-home instructions.


Dr. Hensley received her Bachelor’s Degree in Animal and Poultry Sciences from Virginia Tech in 2006 and her DVM from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in 2010. After veterinary school, Dr. Hensley joined a mixed animal practice in southeastern Wyoming. During this time, she also pursued advanced training in canine rehabilitation and became a certified canine rehabilitation therapist in 2011. Her special interest in canine rehabilitation brought her to West Ridge Animal Hospital in 2011 to further develop their rehabilitation program. She shares her home with her two dogs, Tucker and Murphy, and enjoys reading, hiking and traveling in her spare time.

We could not be happier to welcome Dr Hensley and her four-legged friends to our family!

A Letter from Drs Combs and Hubert

June 18, 2010
Dear Friend of West Ridge,
Rebecca and I would like to personally thank you for your loyalty to our hospital. West Ridge has served Greeley and Weld County for over 40 years. When we purchased the practice from Dr. Emmett in 2001 we took this responsibility to our community very seriously. We live in Greeley, our children attend the schools and many times you will see our family and the hospital family participating in events throughout the area. When we purchased Dr. Hemerson's practice and the new building in 2006 we made a commitment to his clients and Greeley that we would provide the highest level of care to the animals and the people of our area. As a family owned practice we are dedicated to our clients, our community and our hospital family. With owning a veterinary practice for the long term there will always be change and we wanted to make our loyal clients aware of some of these changes at our hospital.

Dr. Durbin's New Direction

Dr. Natalie Durbin will be leaving the practice at the end of June to join a practice in Longmont. The location and practice structure will allow her to spend the time with her family that she desires. Dr. Durbin has been with us at West Ridge for many years and has taken great care of our clients and pets. The entire West Ridge family wishes her well and will miss her. All the client and patient records will be maintained at the hospital and there will be continuity of care with prescription refills and follow up of chronic problems. In addition Drs Combs, Hubert and Ebner have made changes in their appointment scheduling to make themselves even more available to our clients on a daily basis for wellness and urgent care.

As a reminder we are available from 8AM to 9PM during the week, 8AM to 5PM Saturday and 9AM to 1PM on Sundays for routine appointments, urgent care, boarding, and prescription medicine and food pickups. We continue to expand our urgent care hours as the demand from our clients has increased. We strive to be of service to our clients and the animals of Weld County.

Dr. Singleton's Recovery and Return

Dr. Deb Singleton has been with us for 2 years and in March of this year had a rare and specific type of stroke that tends to affect younger people. It has primarily affected her balance center and a full recovery is predicted. She has been at home for several weeks now and continues with daily therapy sessions. She appreciates your thoughts and prayers and can't wait to return to work! She has started the process of re-acclimating to the hospital and participated in our weekend long team training session June 5th and 6th. We look forward to her return sometime at the end of June or early July.

An Old Friend Joins the West Ridge Team

Dr. Jody Engel has been filling in for Dr. Singleton during her recovery and we are so happy to announce that she will be joining the team on a more full time basis. Dr. Engel was a classmate of Dr. Ebner during veterinary school at CSU and has practiced in Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado. She has owned a practice in Evergreen and knows what it means to be dedicated to her clients and their pets. She, her husband and 2 children live just south of Greeley. Dr. Engel's special interests include acupuncture, dentistry and preventative/ wellness medicine. She has been providing wellness and urgent care for us in the evenings and some weekends and will be performing surgery and dentistry on Tuesday starting in July.

In addition to the doctor changes, we have just completed the hiring and training process of several new veterinary nurses and assistants to make your pets office visit or surgical/ inpatient visit more comfortable and easy for the both of you. Our commitment to team continuing education programs ensures that the level of care at West Ridge will always remain at the highest level for an accredited hospital. We thank you for your loyalty, your kind words and your patronage. We continue to grow and will always be here to provide the best of veterinary care.

Sincerely,

Dr. Colin Combs
Dr. Rebecca Hubert
And the Rest of the West Ridge Team

News about Dr. Deb Singleton

Your friends at West Ridge Animal Hospital would like to share the following statement with our valued clients concerning Dr. Singleton's medical leave:

In order to respect her privacy we had delayed in reporting the specifics of the medical condition that has caused Dr Singleton to take a leave. She wants to inform all of her clients and friends that she is doing better but experienced a rare and specific type of stroke more common in young people. It has primarily affected her balance system and a full recovery is predicted. She is back at home and working very hard at returning to work in the next several weeks. She appreciates your thoughts and prayers. The West Ridge team will support Dr Singleton in the return to her calling as a veterinarian.

In the interest of accommodating our clients’ needs and have appointments available, we would like to introduce Dr. Jody Engel. Dr. Engel has been assisting us in covering for our doctors in the past, but we are happy to announce that she will be joining the team on a more regular basis.

We wish Dr. Singleton a very speedy recovery, as we miss her very much!

A big welcome to Dr. Jody Engel!

Dr. Engel grew up in southern Wyoming and attended the University of Wyoming. She received her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine in 1998 from Colorado State University.

After a few years practicing mixed animal medicine in New Mexico and Nebraska, she moved to Evergreen, Colorado. There she owned and operated a companion animal hospital and luxury boarding & doggy day care.

Today Dr. Engel provides part-time and relief veterinary services in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming.

Dr. Engel gains her professional satisfaction in helping people and pets while having fun along the way.

Outside of work, Dr. Engel enjoys spending time with her family, landscaping, scuba diving, and learning to golf.

Dr. Engel has been assisting us in covering for our doctors in the past, but we are happy to announce that she will be joining the team on a more regular basis. Welcome!

Dr. Deb Singleton

We are pleased to announce one of our new Doctors:

Dr. Deb Singleton is a Colorado native.  She graduated from CSU with a degree in Veterinary Medicine in 1991.  Following an internship at the Denver Zoo, she practiced small animal medicine and soft tissue surgery for sixteen years in Englewood and Arvada.  She joined West Ridge Animal Hospital in 2008.  Special interests include working with exotics, pediatrics and senior animals.  She lives in Windsor with her daughter, sharing their home with their dog C.C., and cats Pumpkin and Smotes.  She volunteers at a Windsor elementary school and at the Medical Center of the Rockies in her free time.  Other pursuits include reading, skiing, and staff management.

Her schedule will be as follows:
- Wednesdays and Thursdays she will be seeing appointments and urgent care needs from 10 AM to 9 PM.
- Fridays will be her surgery day.
- She will also be available every other Saturday, and one Sunday each month.

Welcome, Dr. Singleton!

Sad News...

We are, sadly, losing two of our beloved doctors; Dr. Susan Plaza and Dr. Catherine Hageman. They both live in Fort Collins and have decided to find employment in their own town, so as not to have to commute anymore. (Who can blame them with gas the price it is?)

All of their cases will be seen by our current doctors, and all their medical history is here- our doctors are well versed in what is going on with each case.

While they can never be "replaced", we do have two new doctors joining our ranks to help us see all of our cherished patients. Stay tuned for future posts with biographies on our new team members!

With all this rearranging, we have also made some exciting Doctor schedule changes to better serve, you, our client:
- Starting in July, Dr. Rebecca Hubert will be seeing appointments and urgent care cases Monday and Tuesday evenings. Wednesdays will be her surgery days. She will be off on Thursdays and Fridays.
- Dr. Natalie Durbin will be available for Sunday appointments and urgent care needs one Sunday each month. She will continue to perform surgeries every Tuesday.

Welcome Aboard

It is with great pleasure that we introduce the newest member of the West Ridge Animal Hospital Veterinary team, Dr. Susan Plaza.

Dr Plaza graduated from Veterinary School in 1996. For the past ten years, she has divided her time between a private practice and the Animal Cancer Center. She is a mentor for the Student Hospice Program. Her interests include: oncology, internal medicine, and animal behavior. On her free time, she enjoys running, hiking, landscape photography, music, and travel. A goal of hers is to initiate puppy socialization and senior consultation here at West Ridge Animal Hospital.

Welcome Aboard Dr. Plaza!

Welcome Aboard

It is with great pleasure that we introduce the newest member of the West Ridge Animal Hospital Veterinary team, Dr. Catherine Hageman.

Originally from Wisconsin, Dr. Hageman practiced as a consulting engineer for several years before moving to Colorado in 1997 to make her career change to veterinary medicine. She has practiced at small animal hospitals in Arizona and Colorado. Dr. Hageman has special interests in dermatology and feline medicine, and is certified in veterinary acupuncture. Dr. Hageman is also an active member of the American Association of Feline Practitioners.

Welcome Aboard Dr. Hageman!

EE of the Month, June- Dr Ebner!

Congratulations, Dr Ebner!! You have earned the distinguished title of Employee of the Month for June of 2007.

All your extra hard work and extended hours did not go unnoticed. West Ridge greatly appreciates you!