Katerina Belales

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May 16, 2025, 12:33 PM

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Updated

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Mount Kisco's newest vet clinic is making sure it prioritizes the welfare of your pets.

Healing Paws Veterinary Center is the first new vet clinic in the town in 40 years. The independent facility is owned by Dr. Valerie Carril and Dr. Lindsey Thomas.

The two met while working at the same practice about 10 years ago. After going their separate ways, they reconnected a few years later and realized corporate takeovers shifted the focus of many practices. To change that, they opened Healing Paws, where they aim to individualize care and work closely with pet owners to tailor each pet's treatment plan.

"So much private equity and so much corporate buy-in into veterinary practice has changed the focus of it a lot," said Thomas. "The people who were above us and kind of the corporate leadership would discuss it based upon average invoice and revenue per day. Prior to that, my employers had always discussed the goal being practicing good medicine [and] practicing good surgery. I was praised if I did a really good job at a surgery or if clients were really happy with our interaction. Then, it became more and more praise if you brought in a lot of money per day. It just really shifted the focus, and I think we really wanted to go back to that focus on client relationship, practicing good medicine and the individualized attention that you give when you don't have corporate protocols or quotas to meet."

" You lose those relationships, those connections with the clients because being able to practice good medicine and having everything else fall into place really goes with getting to know them," Carril added. " You can't do that when you have those pressures. We want to have that time to build those relationships, and the only way you know what the pet needs is by knowing who they are [and] who the family is. They really are a part of that decision making. They come in, they can elude us and help us know their pet, even if we're just meeting them for the first time, and it really builds those connections."

Healing Paws Veterinary Center is located at 40 Radio Circle in Mount Kisco.