By Mario Carr EBS CONTRIBUTOR
The Lone Peak Veterinary Hospital plans to build an expanded facility, including an animal shelter and staff housing. This project is being led by Big Sky’s sole veterinarian for the past seven years, Dr. Stephanie Desmarais—nicknamed “Dr. Syd.” She views this as a community project and hopes the Big Sky community will rally behind her vision.
“Everything’s really moving forward. The biggest crux for me is a capital campaign to get it off the ground,” she said. Through her nonprofit, Riley’s Urgent Fund for Friends (RUFF), Dr. Syd has currently raised $500,000 for the project, and she is looking forward to RUFF’s biggest fundraising event of the year, Mountain Mutt Mania on Aug. 4 in Len Hill Park.
Named after Dr. Syd’s first dog, Riley, RUFF is a nonprofit organization that started in 2020 as a way for Dr. Syd to provide some financial assistance to people who found themselves having to make tough decisions about their pets during an emergency. The mission of RUFF is “to better the lives of animals by removing cost prohibitive barriers for medical access,” according to its website. This nonprofit will be the entity raising funds for the Lone Peak Veterinary Hospital expansion project. LPVH also put in for Resort Tax funding as a one time capital campaign.
Dr. Syd has already been working closely with Big Sky Build and has almost completed the plans for the new building, and says that all the necessary permits should be completed by as early as August. It is estimated the project will cost around $5 million.
In October 2023, Dr. Syd purchased the land for the project, a piece of property directly behind Caliber Coffee and Mountain Pearls Dentistry, with hopes of breaking ground as early as this fall. She hopes to hire an additional veterinarian, as she has seen a surge in demand over the past seven years.
“It’s getting harder and harder for me as one person to accommodate everyone,” she said.
Dr. Syd said that in addition to the much needed space, she plans to fill the new facility with more equipment and resources. She wants this facility to accommodate after-hours urgent care, and overnight care which she says Big Sky is currently lacking.
In addition to the expanded facilities, Dr. Syd plans to fill the second floor of the new building with five apartments for staff members.
“One of the biggest conundrums of the vet clinic is keeping working professionals—who need a certain skill set—here in Big Sky, because it’s just so hard, affordability wise,” she said.
She also made sure to mention that these units will all be pet friendly—she knows it’s difficult for pet owners to rent in Big Sky, and most veterinarians are pet owners.
With a veterinary clinic closing in Ennis recently, Lone Peak Veterinary Hospital has seen an influx of animals coming in from West Yellowstone and Ennis, putting even more stress on their already overloaded facility. The next closest veterinary clinic for Big Sky residents is in Four Corners, so Dr. Syd says that LPVH ends up having to do a lot of emergency care.
The Lone Peak Veterinary Hospital has always acted as a local shelter in Big Sky, and Dr. Syd believes that this will be a crucial part of the new expansion.
When the Sheriff’s office or Fire Department finds a lost or stray dog, Dr. Syd takes it in, checks it out, and does what she can to get it back to its owner, all free of charge as a community service. She hopes that the new shelter will provide opportunities for community members to volunteer and help walk and feed dogs, much like the Heart of the Valley Animal Shelter in Bozeman.
Dr. Syd said that there are a lot of moving parts with this project, but she believes that rallying the community behind this expansion will be crucial for the long-term sustainability of the LPVH in Big Sky. She is currently running a business, designing a building, running a nonprofit, and hopes to soon become a landlord if the project succeeds.
“If you wanna do something in Big Sky, you wear a lot of hats,” she said.
