As businesses across the nation shifted to remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic, pet ownership skyrocketed among those who suddenly found themselves stuck at home and in need of extra companionship. This unique situation presented both great opportunities and new challenges for those in pet-related businesses.

The uncertainty of the pandemic translated into roaring success for one of these local businesses when Rene’ Holt, DVM of Rocket City Mobile Vet found herself in the perfect position to grow her practice.

Holt founded her mobile clinic in January 2018 and by the time the pandemic happened it was already a successful, growing business.

Dr. Rene Holt with one of her puppy patients

Although she always planned to build a brick and mortar facility, Holt said that along the way she had a calling to offer end of life services to pets in their own homes. According to Holt, “I believe that animals should leave this world at their happiest and calmest, which for them is home. I also knew that I would miss the rest of veterinary medicine so I established a full-service mobile veterinary hospital.”

Of the challenges faced by Dr. Holt, and by veterinarians in general, the greatest of these has been client expectations.

Holt noted that those in veterinary medicine are held to a different standard than the rest of the medical field, with pet owners expecting perfection at all times.

“If mistakes are made, social media becomes our downfall; the pandemic has made those expectations even worse.”

The demands of the pandemic led to booming business for the mobile clinic, resulting in the number of clients/patients seen increasing to the point where Holt had to add two associate veterinarians and a second mobile clinic to accommodate client needs. She stated that she took on between 1,500 and 2,000 new patients during the past year.

Despite the rapid influx of new patients during the pandemic, Holt noted that Rocket City Mobile Vet’s revenue has grown steadily since the start, showing revenue increases of approximately 35 to 40 percent annually.

The trend continued throughout 2020 and 2021. Although the business has been very successful throughout the pandemic, Holt attributes this more to a combination of time and word-of-mouth referrals.

Covid-19 has changed the way Holt’s practice operates, requiring her to rethink the way the clinic handled at-home care with clients. They stopped going into homes and immediately began wearing masks to protect themselves and others. Holt noted that “the pandemic did hurt the bond between veterinarians and their clients because we all had to distance ourselves but it does feel like we are slowly building those relationships back.”

Holt was aware early on of the danger presented by the Covid pandemic and took steps to ensure the safety of her staff, family, and at-risk clients. She stated that she was open with the vaccination discussion with her staff, encouraging vaccination as soon as it became available.

As a result, her company has a 97 percent vaccination rate.

Dental procedures are often common at Rocket City Mobile Vet

In addition, they wore gloves in the beginning, masks at all times, and did not enter client’s homes. Although they continued to offer end of life care to their patients, they did so only in outside settings and with masks.

Holt added “Once we were vaccinated and the transmission rate was lower, we started to enter homes again but still masked and that is where we stand currently with our protocols.”

Rocket City Mobile Vet is in the process of completing construction of a permanent sister location, Rocket City Veterinary Hospital, at 1229 Slaughter Rd. in Madison.

The mobile clinic will continue as before, and Holt plans to manage both by adding more veterinarians as needed to accommodate the new clients. Because clients are now used to seeing the associates in the mobile practice, Holt said that it won’t be a huge change for them when she is in the brick and mortar facility, although she still plans to do mobile as well.

On the topic of whether the business’s success during the pandemic encouraged the move, Holt responded “Not really. I’ve always known that I would own a brick and mortar business and I did miss that aspect when I went mobile almost four years ago. Having both will be the best of both worlds.”

Holt’s biggest takeaway from her experience as a veterinary health provider during the pandemic is that “we are all truly in this together and as long as we work together, we will continue to grow and be healthy. And always, kindness can go a LONG way in this world.”