Business Monday: West Hawai‘i Animal Urgent Care treating pets one emergency at a time

Last week, a neighborhood dog attacked Alysa Lavoie’s miniature pinscher chihuahua mix Lilikoi, causing 12 puncture wounds that needed immediate medical attention. But when Lavoie called her veterinarian, she was told it would take more than a week to get an appointment.

The situation could have turned out badly had Lavoie not remembered learning about the opening of the West Hawaiʻi Animal Urgent Care in Kona.

Lavoie was able to get Lilikoi treated the same day at the facility founded by Maria Jose in December 2024.

“She probably wouldn’t have made it without the antibiotics and the pain medication,” Lavoie said.

In the first year plus of opening the urgent care, Jose has treated cats, dogs, chickens, guinea pigs and rabbits with a wide variety of ailments and injuries.

“We had a cat that ate a bunch of thread that needed intestinal surgery because the thread was cutting through its intestines,” Jose said.

She also has treated many bite wounds.

However, her most memorable case so far was with her first patient, a dog with a bone that was caught around its lower jaw and couldn’t come off.

“We ended up having to run next door to Home Depot to buy a Dremel tool to cut it off,” Jose said.

While there are veterinary hospitals on the Big Island that have emergency services, Jose said her clinic is strictly for urgent care. She typically sees about nine animals per day.

“I always wanted to do urgent care for animals,” said Jose, who has been practicing veterinary medicine for 27 years. “A lot of people don’t have a regular vet and it’s hard to get an animal seen in an emergency.”

Recently, she treated Girlie, a 3-year-old lab mix for a urinary tract infection after her owner tried for a month to get an appointment with the dog’s regular vet.

Jose, a Big Island native, grew up around animals with her father being a rancher in Pa‘auilo. She graduated from University of Hawai‘i at Hilo in 1994 and went on to get her doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1998 at Oregon State University.

She spent one year practicing in Santa Rosa, Calif., before moving home to the Big Island in 1999.

After working with her sister at Ali‘i Veterinary Hospital, Jose decided she wanted to go out on her own.

To get her clinic off the ground, Jose said she “raided” her retirement, spending $100,000 on equipment, refurbished cages and a space in North Kona’s Koloko Industrial Park above Home Depot. Jose’s husband built cabinets for storage.

While it was a lot of money to take out, Jose said she doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon. The funding also allowed her to build and create the clinic she wanted without cutting corners.

Jose has help at the urgent care facility from her stepdaughter Luna Sharfin and Sharfin’s friend Kaiki Gunderson-Cook, who worked with Jose at Vet Associates years ago and is also a nurse with hospice.

They both help when Jose needs them, doing everything from answering phones to running blood work to assisting with surgeries.

“They both love the animals just as much as I do,” Jose said. “Besides them, I rely heavily on my husband Johnny to help me with the day-to-day of the hospital.” 

Jose’s 1,500-square-foot facility has an exam room, a soundproof room with cages to treat animals, and another room that eventually will house an X-ray machine.

Jose prioritized securing an ultrasound machine because it tends to be the tool needed most often in emergency situations.

Until she can obtain her own X-ray machine, Jose said she’s been able to get X-rays for animals under her care at other local vet clinics – Ali‘i Veterinary Hospital, Kona Veterinary Service and Keauhou Veterinary Hospital.

On Wednesday morning, Jose had one patient at the clinic, a neglected Maltese that she helped rescue.

When the pup was brought in, its fur was heavily matted in fecal matter. Her front right leg was infected down to the bone, which Jose will have to amputate.

“It’s hard to say what would have happened to her,” Jose said. “Her owner did not have a regular veterinarian, so it was really difficult for her to find care.”

The dog is now on medications for parasites and started on antibiotics. Despite her trauma, the Maltese is sweet and was happy to receive affection from Jose.

The next step will be to find the dog a new home, with the help of Aloha ‘Īlio Dog Rescue.

“She waived all her fees and was able to help this animal,” said Daylynn Kyles, president and founder of Aloha ‘Īlio Dog Rescue.

Kyles has worked with Jose to perform spay and neuter procedures for the dogs in the rescue’s care.

Kyles said she is happy Jose has opened a practice dedicated to emergency care because it’s difficult to get immediate animal care on the Big Island because the vets are stretched thin.

The urgent care, located at 73-5619 Kauhola St. Unit 108, within Hale Ku’i Plaza in Kona, is for same-day appointments only. Jose’s clinic is open on the weekends, Friday through Monday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and can be reached at 808-895-8676.

Jose intentionally set those hours knowing it’s the hardest time for pet owners to get veterinary care for their animals, with most vets open Mondays through Fridays with a few practices being partially open on Saturdays.

“I also scheduled the hours to be open a little later in the evening so that people coming home from work and discovering that their pet is sick have a little bit of time to give me a call before we close,” Jose said.