Owner: Dr. Rod Hough
Location: Miami, Okla.
History: The Miami Animal Hospital (MAH) was founded in 1950 by Dr. Luther Smith and was later joined in 1963 by Dr. Wylie Hough, after graduation from the Oklahoma State University (OSU) College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Wylie Hough was later drafted into the Army, and after completing his service returned to Miami and bought the practice from Dr. Smith in 1970. Dr. Rod Hough joined his father at MAH after graduating from OSU vet school in 1995.
The practice has persevered through adversity and has played an important role in the history of veterinary medicine both in Oklahoma and on a national level. In the 1970’s, Dr. Wylie Hough was involved in the development of embryo transfer in cattle to get greater productivity out of purebred cows.
MAH moved to its current location in 2008 and the multipurpose facility now has almost 7,000 ft. of building space under roof.
Products & Services: In terms of staffing, “We’ve got five of us that are full-time and then we have another five part-time,” noted Dr. Rod.
Hough said the ‘part time’ work creates real-time, hands-on opportunities for college students at NEO A&M who demonstrate an interest in veterinary medicine to gain experience.
The MAH has numerous up to date diagnostic capabilities from ultrasound to endoscopy and blood analysis machines on site.
“We can run blood work to check out what internal organs are doing.” Hough added, “We can also run blood tests for pregnancy on cattle or goats.”
MAH has significant surgical capabilities. “We do everything from orthopedic surgery to procedures such as spaying and neutering, removing cancers and other foreign body intestinal abnormalities, and C-sections on cows.”
Another procedure available to MAH clients is K-laser therapy. Laser therapy can assist in reducing pain and wound healing times and help manage inflammation.
MAH also has an underwater treadmill for dogs that aids rehabilitation.
Dr. Rod elaborated, “You know we try to always use a lot of common sense. Where in this day and time, especially human medicine where you run every test in the book before you open your mouth, we try to look at the big picture and use some common sense. And while we have the ability to run the more sophisticated tests, we try to cut out all the excess to make it more affordable for a client because if it’s an animal you’re trying to make a living off of you need to keep it as affordable as possible. Or if it’s a pet, there’s other things pulling on your money too, so we try to keep things affordable by using as much common sense as we can and look at the big picture when we diagnose and do examinations.”
Again, as noted on their website, “Miami Animal Hospital remains a full-service mixed animal practice, standing by its motto to treat any animal, “unless it is covered in feathers or crawls on its belly.” So, if you have a sick chicken or a sniffly snake they can’t help you.
