Austin Pets Alive! held a grand opening for its new hospital on Saturday, April 12. APA!'s existing hospital is in its 75-year-old facility.

"It's so much easier to operate in a place where you don't have to fight against the building to do the work," CEO Dr. Ellen Jefferson said. "Everybody on our staff, our volunteers and our fosters are doing everything they can to save lives, and fighting a building at the same time is no fun."

Austin Pets Alive! sees thousands of pets a year, including many who are extremely sick and critical.

"We're doing the specialized surgeries — anything from emergency surgeries like diaphragmatic hernias and bladder stone removals to things that will cost money somewhere at a private clinic that owners can't afford," Medical Director Dr. Alexis Bardziniski said.

The animal shelter manages to help those pets using just a few rooms.

"What we have now is a very cramped space. It's old, so it's hard to keep clean. The air quality isn't good. There isn't light coming into the building," Bardziniski said.

"Right now, we have an X-ray room where when we're not doing X-rays; we also do exams, vaccines and treatments," she added.

The new facility off U.S. 290 and Brodie Lane will help the organization increase its capacity. The facility will house all of the medical programs, including surgeries. It also has space for fosters to come and get vaccines and treatments, as well as an ICU.

Bardzinski said that on any given day, staff perform 10 to 40 surgeries and see 20 to 40 patients.

"We have so much space where we can utilize it more efficiently and not have one room for everything," Bardziniski said. "We've got multiple windows with light. The air is nice."

Bardziniski said separate rooms for the staff to work in will make the process more efficient and easier to clean.

"The surgery room is much bigger than what we currently have, and we have places to organize," Bardzinski said. "We don't have to go outside the room to find something. We've got the sink in here. We've never had a sink in our surgery room before."

More space means they can separate dogs and cats and also isolate animals to better prevent the spread of diseases.

The new complex will help them meet their growing operations. In the past three years, APA! has experienced a 20 percent annual increase in animal intake.

"The animals that are coming to us from the Austin Animal Center are going to have a better place to land, and they'll be a better experience for our fosters, volunteers and staff," Jefferson said. "That is going to be felt pretty quickly, immediately, as soon as we move in and start saving lives here."

The hospital isn't open to the public and only serves animals in the shelter's care. The APA! Cesar Chavez location is still the main adoption center.

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