An animal hospital, a subsidiary of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Ankara University in the Turkish capital, boasts a track record of helping thousands of animals suffering from injuries and illnesses every year.
Opened in 1933 in a historic building, the animal hospital stands out among its peers across Turkey with its diverse services and staff.
Sprawling across an area of 8,000 square meters (80,000 square feet) in the capital’s Altındağ district, the hospital is a cultural heritage site and a beacon of hope for animals of all species with around-the-clock emergency services. It works on an appointment-only basis in branches that provide services in surgery, orthopedics, eye diseases, neurology, maternal health, internal medicine, reproductive health, cardiology, physical therapy and rehabilitation, behavioral science and vaccination. The hospital also stands out among other facilities thanks to its diverse surgery options.
Associate professor Oytun Okan Şenel, chief physician of the hospital, said their faculty and hospital were the oldest among universities in the capital. He said they recently switched to an online appointment system, similar to an appointment system for human patients run by the Health Ministry, to ease the burden on the staff. Şenel said that along with nonemergency patients, they served some 10,000 animals requiring emergency care every year.
“Animals’ health problems are not much different than humans and like human beings, they have a right to access quality health care,” he told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday.
Şenel said they had a staff of about 100 vets working in 13 different branches and they were serving in a diverse array of surgery and treatment rooms designed exclusively for different species, along with diagnosis centers and labs.
The hospital traces its roots to Ottoman-era veterinary medicine, which was concentrated in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Veterinary medical education was first formally launched in Istanbul in 1842 with the purpose of training military vets at a time of widespread use of horses in the military. The first veterinary medical clinics and classes were part of military schools before they were moved to their own campus in 1909, under the name of the “Military Veterinary School.” The school later received a civil status in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, and the animal hospital at the school was moved to Ankara in 1933.
