BLUEFIELD, W.Va. – A Mercer County native has returned home after obtaining her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree and is now treating pets, including the exotic kind.
Dr. Ashleigh Price, DVM, joined the team of veterinarians at Veterinary Associates in Bluefield in August, but Price says she found her love of helping animals at Veterinary Associates 6 years ago when she started working as a vet assistant under Dr. Joseph Blair.
Price left the area to attend Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee where she graduated in 2022.
After graduating she worked as a vet in an animal hospital in Summersville, South Carolina until a few months ago.
Throughout Price’s education she says she has learned from different types of mentors that practice treating both traditional pet and exotic wildlife.
She has had the opportunity to treat various types of reptiles, rabbits, ferrets, chickens, and even a peacock.
Since joining the team in Bluefield, she has started offering more services for the local non-traditional pets such as vaccines for ferrets, spay and neuter for rabbits, nail trims, wellness visits, triage/stabilization, and various surgical interventions.
Price emphasizes that she wants to provide the same level of care to exotic pets maybe some vets are not as comfortable in treating.
“That’s the main thing,” said Price. “I don’t want to turn anyone away. I want to be able to provide that service because those pets need the same care as our dogs and cats but there is a lack of that, and a lot of people don’t know that they can take those animals to the vet.”
At this time, Price is only seeing these types of pets by appointment only.
She hopes to expand the scope of this type of practice to provide more specialized care.
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