Contact:          Tania Banak, University Relations Specialist
608/263-6716, banakt@svm.vetmed.wisc.edu
Date issued:    June 13, 2008

MADISON – In an effort to alleviate crowding and make services more convenient and accessible to referring veterinarians, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine’s cardiology service is the latest to branch out from Madison to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. 

Dr. Heidi Kellihan, one of only four board certified veterinary cardiologists in Wisconsin, will provide basic cardiology services at the school’s new UW Veterinary Care referral facility.

“I’ll be doing heart murmur checks, cardiac certification exams for breeding, or rechecks of stabilized cardiac patients in Sun Prairie,” she says. 

Cardiology joins ophthalmology and radiology, both of which have offered outreach services in Sun Prairie since Fall 2007.

Referring practices can call the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at 608-263-7600 or 1-800-386-8684 to schedule an appointment.  Cases will be scheduled at the Sun Prairie UW Veterinary Care outreach clinic on an as-needed basis. 

The Sun Prairie facility is located at 3120 Edmonton Drive, Suite 500 in Sun Prairie, Wis.  It shares the building with the existing and privately operated Urgent Care for Animals emergency clinic, which operates evenings and weekends.

Dr. Kellihan (formerly Kellum) earned her DVM degree from the University of Illinois, then went on to a small animal medicine and surgery internship at California Animal Hospital in Los Angeles.  She completed a cardiology residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and joined the school’s cardiology staff after attaining board certification.

Dr. Bill Gengler, director of the school’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH), says the outreach clinic is a new service model for the school. 

“There are more specialties today than there were when the school opened its doors in 1983,” he says.  “We hope that the outreach clinic model will reduce crowding in the VMTH and make it easier for our alumni and all veterinarians and their patients to take advantage of our expertise.”