Contact:          Tania Banak, University Relations Specialist
608/263-6716, banakt@svm.vetmed.wisc.edu
Date issued:    November 16, 2007

MADISON – Dr. Jodi Matheson, who recently completed a veterinary radiology residency at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, has become the newest staff member to offer services at the school’s new UW Veterinary Care companion animal outreach referral specialty clinic in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

She will provide radiology services partly from Sun Prairie and partly on-site at the school’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.  The goal is to make services more accessible both for referring veterinarians and their clientele.

In addition to reading x-ray films for Urgent Care for Animals, whose facility the UW Veterinary Care service shares, Dr. Matheson is available for outpatient ultrasound procedures including baseline screenings, ultrasound-guided fine needle aspirates (a minimally-invasive procedure to help determine whether liver or spleen nodules are cancerous), pregnancy checks, and diagnostics of abdominal (liver, spleen, kidney, intestinal) or neck (thyroid, parathyroid) problems. 

“I’ll provide a diagnosis, then refer the patient back to their veterinarian for treatment if needed,” Dr. Matheson explains. 

Dr. Matheson earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Missouri at Columbia.  After completing an internship at Kansas State University, she came to Wisconsin’s School of Veterinary Medicine to complete her radiology residency.

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.”

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

Referring practices can call the VMTH to schedule an appointment in the UW Veterinary Care outreach clinic by calling 608-263-7600 or 800-386-8684.