Vista Veterinary Hospital Opens On East Main Street
Vista Veterinary Hospital officially opened its doors this week and is gearing up to take on new patients and make a name for itself in town.
The new hospital at 614B Main Street is owned by husband and wife duo Todd Seideman and Lauralyn Dyer, both veterinarians. They have been together for 11 years and are finally living out their dream of working together at their own hospital.
“This has been a five- to eight-year dream,” Dr. Seideman said. “We’d been working for other people and then we decided we really wanted our own [practice]. Then we looked at buying existing practices, and it wasn’t what we wanted, so we just decided ‘you know what? We’ll just build out brand-new.’ That’s kind of how we went about it.”
“I think, initially, this was sort of his vision,” Dr. Dyer said. “I was kind of scared of ownership but then as I got more experienced in the field I could definitely see the benefits and I got more excited about the idea.”
Both Dr. Dyer and Dr. Seideman studied at the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine at its St. Kitts campus, with Dr. Dyer starting her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine education just after Dr. Seideman finished his. After, the pair briefly moved to Florida before coming up to Massachusetts to be closer to family and to the ocean. They are currently living in Plymouth and hoping to make the move to Falmouth soon to be closer to their business, which ended up being based here almost completely by accident.
“We looked at a property [for a practice] that was for sale in Falmouth and that ended up not working out,” Dr. Dyer said. “But our bank had already done the business proposal and market analysis for the area, and it seemed like it would be a good area to be in, so we decided, ‘alright, maybe we should look in Falmouth.’ Over the past six months or so we’ve been coming here a lot and just enjoying our time here more and more.”
Dr. Dyer and Dr. Seideman have combined their skill sets and expertise in opening their hospital, which covers a broad spectrum when looked at together. But as individuals, their personal veterinary preferences are more refined.
“Medicine, to me, is my happy place,” Dr. Seideman said. “She loves surgery. I don’t like surgery. If she had to choose what she wanted to do, she’d do surgery. If I had to choose what I wanted to do, I’d do medicine, ultrasounds; those are the happy things that I like doing. So that venture really came together.”
In addition to having experience in various fields of veterinary medicine, including rehabilitation, long-term treatment, and emergency medicine, both veterinarians have a passion for teaching and mentoring. Dr. Dyer previously held a professorship at Mount Ida College’s veterinary tech program and Dr. Seideman has enjoyed various mentorships throughout his career, which has taken him everywhere from St. Kitts to Long Island to Cohasset. He previously worked at a clinic in Cohasset, which is where he met Vista’s current practice manager, Corinne Griffin.
“I’ve been lucky enough to work with some really good vets who have taught me some things and kind of led me into this—to say that we’re ready to open this—because there were times when we were like, ‘I don’t know if we’re ready yet,’” Dr. Seideman said. “Now we’re at the point where we have enough knowledge between the two of us and we’re at a good point in our life.”
Good things are coming together for the couple whose dreams are coming true, and they want to make sure that their good fortune is felt by their employees as well. In a time when veterinarians are inundated with new clients looking for care after the pandemic pet boom, Dr. Dyer explained that their field is in dire need of vet techs to meet the needs of the ever-expanding pet owner community, in order to keep their business running and their clientele happy. Dr. Dyer and Dr. Seideman are very serious about keeping their employees happy, well-informed, and well-paid.
“I think the culture in the hospital that we want to cultivate is really important to both of us,” Dr. Dyer said. “Having worked at multiple hospitals, you see different things that you’d like to either repeat or not repeat in your own experience. Having a positive work environment, treating our coworkers with the utmost respect, and paying them well—which is a huge problem in our field. Many technicians have to work two jobs just to make ends meet. It’s a very traditionally low-paying field and we want to be part of making that change.”
“This is not just our clinic; it’s their clinic as well,” Dr. Seideman said.
The name Vista also has a heartwarming story behind it: Vista was Dr. Dyer’s dog from when she was a child. She got her in 7th grade through a program with 4-H, a nonprofit youth organization that partnered with The Seeing Eye in New Jersey. As part of the program, Dr. Dyer’s family was given Vista and raised her for nine months as she grew out of her puppyhood and prepared for her targeted seeing eye dog training.
“Then came the time when I, unfortunately, had to return her to The Seeing Eye for the next phase of her life and it was horrible,” Dr. Dyer said. “I just cried continually. And one day, my mom and grandmother went out and they came back with her with a big red bow around her neck. It was the best day of my life probably to this day. She was all mine, because she failed her X-Ray series for hip dysplasia.”
Vista, who was a black Lab, is even on the logo for the hospital and is embroidered on the chest of the scrubs Dr. Dyer was wearing.
“She just felt part of me, she just fit,” Dr. Dyer said. “Like a piece of my heart… she’s been with me forever in my heart and when we started talking about our own place, she was the first thing that came to mind. And it also has a hopefulness about it, I think. Kind of like looking out onto the horizon”
As a whole, Vista Veterinary Hospital does have a hopefulness about it and is aiming to make a positive impact on the community through top-notch care for not just the animals, but their owners too.
“I think the biggest thing that separates us, besides doing ultrasounds and other higher-end stuff, is just how we go about treating people [and their pets],” Dr. Seideman said. “I sit on the floor with animals, I don’t use tables. You try and make it as fear-free as you can; that’s why we chose the colors that we did and the floors. Everything was systematically picked out to make it easier and more comfortable for the animals and people. I think that’s the one thing that makes us stand out: we’re both very thorough in what we do, we both love what we do, and I’m hoping that the way we treat people and interact with everyone is going to make us stand out.”
Vista is currently working on getting its general practice off the ground but has plenty of future plans and ideas, including a pet rehabilitation area in the back half of their clinic, urgent care services, as well as potentially opening up additional hospitals, which is Dr. Seideman’s dream.
“All we’re trying to do is fill a void and provide the best care that we can and that’s the most important thing to us, [as well as] giving back to the community when we can,” Dr. Seideman said.
Being veterinarians during a time where pet care is in high demand, both Dr. Dyer and Dr. Seideman understand the severity of the situation and are hoping to be at the forefront to alleviate some of the demand that other veterinary hospitals—which are few and far between to begin with—are experiencing.
“As veterinary professionals, we don’t like saying no to people,” Dr. Dyer said. “We didn’t get into this job to say ‘no, I can’t help you.’ And that’s the hardest thing. It’s heartbreaking having to do that and to make people understand that you have to say no for [the sake of] the patients you already have under your care. You have to give them the best care that you can, you can’t spread yourself too thin. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to alleviate some of that stress from clients as well as other hospitals in the area. If we can make things a little better for everybody out there by being another resource, I think that would be great.”