Cape Cod Veterinary Specialists was originally envisioned by Dr. William B. Henry, one of the first boarded surgeons in private practice. His passion for supporting and growing veterinary hospitals has pushed CCVS where it is today. Dr. Henry became boarded in 1968 when he passed the first offered specialty certifying exam in veterinary surgery. He combined forces with his son Charlie D. Henry as a hospital administrator and Dr. Edward J. Kochin to found CCVS. Dr. Kochin is a veterinary surgeon who joined Dr. Henry in his quest to bring specialty veterinary medicine to the Cape. In 2000, these three founders jumped on an opportunity to start a large emergency and specialty hospital in Buzzards Bay, MA, and purchased the site of Bourne Bridge Mini Golf when that business was closing. Along with the land, Cape Cod Veterinary Specialists obtained the most famous member of our team, an 18-foot-tall giraffe statue. She is an original statue from the mini-golf course that welcomed and bid farewell to Cape travelers for years. She has become our mascot and earned her name in 2009 when she went missing. She was found in the yard of an Onset family and was returned home to watch over Route 25. She was dubbed “Mustang Sally” or “Sally” at that time as she had been “running all over town”.

While the CCVS building was being planned, permits obtained and the facilities built, the surgeons of Cape Cod Veterinary Specialists treated many patients on Main st. of Buzzards Bay, sharing space with Buzzards Bay Veterinary Associates. In 2006, CCVS started seeing emergency patients 24/7. At this point, it became the Cape’s only 24-hour emergency and specialty hospital. To this day, CCVS (now located in Buzzards Bay & Dennis) remains the only 24-hour emergency and specialty veterinary hospital on the Cape. We moved into the current Buzzards Bay building in March of 2007. It was in 2007 when specialty services started to expand and our first critical care and internal medicine specialists were added. Over the years since we opened, CCVS has expanded in the number of specialists, doctors, services, and cases seen. We have developed an emergency and critical care veterinary residency program, a veterinary internship, and a structured veterinary nurse training program. Training and teaching keeps our medicine sharp and our employees active and engaged.

In 2014, the team purchased a referral practice in South Dennis and grew it rapidly into a second CCVS satellite location, which is now known as Cape Cod Veterinary Specialists Dennis. Our Dennis location plays a pivotal role in taking care of pets from further out on the cape, making the drive more doable for their people and being available for stabilization and treatment for pets too unstable to make the further drive to Buzzards Bay.

Cape Cod Veterinary Specialists is an organization that was founded to take care of the pets of Cape Cod, the Islands, and the Eastern South Shore as well as the people who love them. The teams that have picked up the reins from the Henrys’ and Dr. Kochin, work hard to be there for people when their pets are sick or injured, requiring emergent or specialist care. We have and will continue to be an important part of our community, working with the referring veterinarians in our area to take complete care of pets. We strive to offer the best medicine with the most compassionate staff in New England.