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Sunil Dcosta
1 Jun 2023
SuperPets Small Animal Clinic and Aqua-Physio Fitness Centre: Co-owner and co-founder - Dr. Nikita Pujari's Commitment to Unparalleled Care, Transforming the Lives of Pets with Compassion and Expertise.
1. As one of the founders of SuperPets Veterinary Clinic, could you share the inspiration behind establishing the clinic and the specific goals you aimed to achieve in the field of animal care?
Dr.Nikita Pujari: SuperPets came into picture in August, 2018. There was no major inspiration, but there always was a motivation to serve animals with better diagnostic equipment, which was lacking in many clinics and in better infrastructure, at par with human hospitals. We wanted to ensure our patients receive best facilities and more treatment options, without us compromising on anything. That is when we, came up with SuperPets, wherein as our tagline suggests, we provide ‘2nd chance to 1 life’.
Together, with support from our families, we started the setup with a vision to do something big in a 200 sq.ft area. Slowly we moved towards 2000 sq. and now the next big goal is a proper hospital.
2. How has the support of your family and the collaborative effort with your husband, Dr. Yash Savla, shaped the growth and success of SuperPets Veterinary Clinic since its inception in 2018?
Dr.Nikita Pujari: SuperPets is much more than our child. It’s our dream and life. Coming from humble backgrounds, the expansion and investment in clinic was a huge leap of faith and we are grateful to them for helping us in every way possible.
Support from both of our families has been immense. They motivated us to dream big and enabled us in balancing our personal life. They encouraged us to learn more, educate ourselves and our whole team in different ways to help our patients in better manner.
3.  SuperPets Veterinary Clinic has grown significantly from a 200 sq ft clinic to a 2000 sq ft setup, offering a wide range of facilities. How have these expansions allowed you to better serve the needs of your patients and their owners?
Dr.Nikita Pujari: Growing 10 folds was very much required as our practice grew. Our aspirations were not getting fulfilled in a small space. With more number of rooms, tables and staff we can cater more number of pet parents at a time.
With inclusion of physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, pet shop, grooming and in patient facility, we are now able to fulfil almost every need of a pet and their parents.
4. Can you elaborate on the advanced diagnostic equipment and infrastructure you have implemented at SuperPets Veterinary Clinic, and how these investments have improved the quality of care and treatment options available to the animals?
Dr.Nikita Pujari: We have explored into many new things in the veterinary field.
We specialize in multiple sectors, but foremost amongst that is endoscopic and laparoscopic surgeries. Endoscopy and laparoscopic surgery is minimally invasive surgery wherein endoscope is either inserted via natural opening of body or via keyhole incision to retrieve any foreign object, perform spays, to perform diagnostic procedure etc. This helps us visualize internal organs for better diagnostic purpose and aid our patients heal much faster, avoid pain, reduce any risk of infection and makes the whole surgical procedure lot simpler.
Apart from medical and surgical sector, we are very proud of our Aqua-Physio Fitness Centre, which is one of a kind in India and offers best rehab facility and modalities to our patients to recover from any orthopedic or neurological aberration, help geriatric patients to live a pain-free life or to just maintain their health and fitness for good quality of life.
5. What measures does SuperPets Veterinary Clinic take to ensure that all patients receive the best possible facilities and treatment options without compromising on the affordability and accessibility of care?
Dr.Nikita Pujari: With best diagnostics and treatments, due to number of things, there are times when costings can go high. But most of our doctors are well experienced. Although we prefer proper diagnostics, with their expertise incases where clients are unable to afford certain tests, they are able to provide good treatment options with their beat judgement.
We try to minimise the tests as much as possible in these situations.
About accessibility, nothing can compare with the actual examination of patients, but we do guide people who stay out of town to the vet near them and can discuss the treatment options with the vet over there. This way the patient benefits and we are able to to spread our knowledge in certain specialised subjects to far off places.
6.  How do you and your team at SuperPets Veterinary Clinic stay updated with the latest advancements and techniques in veterinary medicine, and how does this ongoing education benefit the animals under your care?
Dr.Nikita Pujari: Fortunately for us all the veterinarians working at SuperPets, have a very optimistic and positive approach towards cases and always like to discuss in what other way they can help patients. That hunger learn fortunately never seizes. They love to read new case papers, publications, see webinars, attend conferences etc. They have that passion to specialise in a certain department and that enthusiasm encourages them to approach seniors and best in the field and interact with them, ask them doubts.
Having no ego and knowing that everyday is a learning experience helps a lot.
The tagline of SuperPets is ‘second chance to one life’, so that itself makes us find ways to push our boundaries and treat our patients till their last breath.
7.  Could you share any remarkable success stories or cases where SuperPets Veterinary Clinic has made a significant impact on the health and well-being of animals, showcasing the clinic's dedication to exceptional veterinary care?
Dr.Nikita Pujari: Some medical, some surgical and some physiotherapy cases as well.
One of the cases being of Dosa Gill. Dosa was a 9 month old husky, who came to us with haemoglobin of 2.7, pale mucous membranes and laboured breathing. We perfomed multiple tests in which he was positive for 5 protozoals (5 ticks) and leptospirosis which is an extremely deadly combination.
But none of our team members lost hope and took this as a challenge. Post urgent blood transfusion, continuous critical care monitoring over five days of 24*7 hospitalisation we were extremely happy to see Dosa start eating and playing with his parent again. Another case where in, we could save 2 dogs of same family after they consumed a strip of ibuprofen and paracetamol tablets with help of haemodialysis and continuous treatments and monitoring over 3 days again gave us a boost and certain sense of achievement or the case of Roxy, the tetraplegic puppy due to dog bites, whi started walking properly in two weeks with initial stabilisation and intensive rehabilitation with multimodal approach of physiotherapy, acupuncture and hydrotherapy gave us a sense of satisfaction of being in this profession. Such are the cases which drive us to do more and better.
8. In addition to medical treatments, what other services does SuperPets Veterinary Clinic provide, such as pet grooming and a pet shop? How do these additional offerings contribute to the holistic care of the animals and their overall well-being?
Dr.Nikita Pujari: Although our main focus is on medical treatment of animals by means of medicine, surgery and rehabilitation. But pet shop and grooming makes life easier for us and pet parents, as SuperPets provides one stop service for every pet needs. It’s easier to explain parents regarding different toys, treats and food available that is best suitable for their fur baby. Apart from that any patient requiring a specific medical bath or grooming, it is easily taken care of in our pet grooming. Everything being in-house, we are extremely sure of the quality of service and products, it’s easier for our clients to not run at different places for one thing and moreover, for many of our patients (specially who have anxiety) it’s easier get adjusted to one place and certain people, instead of meeting new people at different places and trying to form bond every time.
9.  SuperPets Veterinary Clinic places importance on the emotional well-being of both the animals and their owners. How do you ensure a compassionate and supportive environment for both parties, especially during challenging times?
Dr.Nikita Pujari: Luckily for us our doctors and the whole staff are animals lovers and they connect with every patient like it’s their own.
Even the most aggressive dogs needing long time care are treated with love to provide them positive reinforcement.
There can be many difficult times during the journey as pet parents. We feel that communication is the key. Trying to be in pet parent’s shoes and addressing their issues accordingly is super important. Luckily most of us here are pet parents, so that connection becomes lot easier.
10. Looking ahead, what are your future aspirations for SuperPets Veterinary Clinic? Do you have any plans for further expansion, introducing new services, or implementing innovative initiatives to benefit the animal community?
Dr.Nikita Pujari: Many of the vets in India prefer going to foreign countries in search of better learning opportunities and for advanced technologies. Our dream is to bring all those life changing technologies to india.
We wish to further explore in the field of endoscopies, digging more in the field of minimally invasive surgeries.
Also, pain management and rehabilitation is an art which many people tend to overlook. We wish to explore it further as we know inspite of having a full fledged rehabilitation centre there are still many things which we can do and introduce.
Going further a proper structured hospital is what we aim for, to have answers and options for every condition. At the end of the day we are going to face many challenges, but the whole idea is to overcome them and work towards greater good and betterment of animals.