Photo by Erin Nelson.
Dr. Claire Bellman gives Hamp, 4, a quick exam assisted by Brandon Davis at Birmingham Animal Hospital + Resort.
When Dr. Claire Woodall Bellman was growing up on Winthrop Avenue in Mountain Brook, she didn’t want to be a vet — not yet, anyway.
But she loved animals.
“We always had pets growing up,” Bellman said. “We were a big dog family. We had labs, and when I was in high school, we got two little yorkie mixes. Having those on the adult side of childhood, around 17 to 19, sometimes I felt like they got me better than my friends got me.”
She said her mom nurtured her love and respect for animals, and both of her parents encouraged her interest in medicine.
“My dad is a doctor, and my mom is a nurse,” Bellman said.
So she thought she wanted to go into medicine for humans, too. After high school, she went on to study biology/pre-med at Washington and Lee University.
While she was there, she shadowed a cattle vet, and she found she liked the variety it offered more than the idea of specialization.
“You might see anything from pregnancies to infections to orthopedic issues — everything,” Bellman said. “That kind of opened up my world to veterinary medicine.”
After college, she did research in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Auburn University for a year, then spent five years studying at the Royal Veterinary College of London.
“I got a ton of experience there — they’re very experience based, and Europe and the UK are just a little further ahead in the animal welfare department,” Bellman said. “I learned a lot about gentle handling of animals and reducing stress, and I really appreciated that. You can provide better care to the animals when they’re less stressed because you can figure out what’s wrong.”
That’s the idea behind Birmingham Animal Hospital + Resort, a state-of-the-art facility she opened a little over a year ago. Her husband, Samuel, whom she met in London, is an engineer and helped her build out the hospital to fit the fear-free philosophy.
“Everything down to how it’s set up, to the colors we chose, it’s all to reduce stress,” Bellman said.
She also decided to pair her veterinary care with a resort that offers services like day care, boarding and grooming.
“That way, dogs aren’t just coming to the vet to be poked and prodded,” she said. “Most of the time when they come, it’s for fun.”
That means they associate the hospital with happy days, Bellman said. “It’s turned out great; we have our regulars, and they walk through the clinic to say hey on their way to day care.”
On the veterinary side, Bellman handles a lot of the care, including surgeries. She’s joined by several other vets with specialties such as dermatology, nutrition and cardiac imaging.
“We have a really good team, and everyone has a similar vision in how they want the feeling of the vet clinic to run,” Bellman said. “We want to be a part of the community. Everything we do is for the health of the animals.”
Birmingham Animal Hospital + Resort is located at 2316 1st Ave. S. downtown.
For more information, visit birminghamanimalhospital.com.
