With a boost from state funds, Abington Equine Hospital to expand its Port Matilda facility
Abington Equine Hospital staff are passionate about caring for animals, and a new surgical facility will allow for centralized access to medical services.
Abington plans to expand its Port Matilda facility, located at 156 Abington Lane in Patton Township, with a 6,300-square-foot equine surgical hospital. A project that’s been in the works since 2016, it will be the first facility of its kind in the area and received a boost Thursday from a $370,000 state grant to support the construction.
Dr. Catherine Radtke, owner and equine veterinary surgeon, hopes the hospital will fill a void in regional animal care.
“Right now, if your horse needs a surgical procedure, you need to go an hour and a half south to Somerset to Brown Equine,” Radtke said. “They’re a lovely facility, but they’re a little too far away for some of our problems that our horses get. They can actually pass on the trailer, having to go that far.”
While the location is convenient, having a surgical facility in central Pennsylvania could be the difference between “life and death,” Radtke said.
With three veterinarians and three support staff members, Radtke hopes the expansion will also provide opportunities for employment.
“We’re relatively small right now, but we are growing rapidly, and we cannot wait to bring some of these more advanced things and surgical procedures to the area so that people don’t have to go as far and wide for the help,” she said. “It really is a passion.”
Founded in Clarks Summit, Abington expanded into Centre County in 2017. Offering ambulatory and clinic care out of an unheated barn, the new facility will allow Abington to provide colic surgery, arthroscopy and advanced medical procedures. Radtke expects to break ground on the project in the spring and hopes it will be functional in 2022.
On Thursday, Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, and state Rep. Rich Irvin, R-Spruce Creek, were on hand at the hospital to announce the grant.
“The equine industry is something that is a growing industry here, and it’s important that we have the medical facilities to take care of the large animals here in Centre County,” Irvin said during a Thursday press conference.
The grant was made possible by the Keystone Communities Program, a private-public partnership that supports local initiatives to foster local economic growth. In 2018, the Equine Center at Grange Park received funds from a state economic growth initiative to develop a year-round show and exhibition center in Centre Hall.
“This couples with that expressively and will provide that acute care,” Benninghoff said of the Abington expansion.
Corman and Benninghoff said that the hospital expansion reflects growth in Pennsylvania’s equine industry. They added that the additional facility could attract visitors to the area and reassure equestrians that animal care is close by while they are in Centre County.
“This could be a facility that will be one of the best, not only in central Pennsylvania but in Pennsylvania, maybe (on) the east coast at some point in time,” Corman said. “This is an important industry, so this is a natural growth of that industry.”
