About SJB Animal Care Center in Jacksonville, FL
The same corner of St. Johns Bluff Road since 1988. The same commitment to a small schedule, unrushed appointments, and a team that knows your pet by name. This is who we are and how we work.
Trusted by Jacksonville pet families since 1988. Locally owned. Nearly four decades on the same corner.
The Story Behind SJB Animal Care Center
SJB Animal Care Center opened on St. Johns Bluff Road in 1988. Back then it was a veterinary clinic in the strictest sense. Exams, vaccines, and surgery. The kind of neighborhood practice most Jacksonville families of that era grew up with.
Over the decades, the scope of the practice grew alongside what pet families actually needed. Grooming came in. Then boarding. Then structured monthly wellness plans that made routine care predictable instead of a surprise at checkout. Today the same building on St. Johns Bluff Road is home to a full-service pet lifestyle center: medical care, grooming, and boarding all delivered by one team, at one address, on one long relationship.
What hasn't changed in nearly forty years is the culture. Long appointments. Doctors who take time. Follow-up calls the day after a visit. Handwritten sympathy cards when a family loses a pet, and holiday cards to check in during the season. The rituals that make a practice feel less like a business and more like the neighborhood institution it actually is.
Everything Your Pet Needs, Under One Roof
The scope of what happens inside this building has grown a lot since 1988, but every service is delivered by the same integrated team. Services are organized under four categories:
- Medical Care: Veterinary Medical Care, Diagnostics & Lab Testing, X-Rays & Ultrasound, Hospitalization & Critical Care
- Surgery & Dentistry: Surgical Services, Spay & Neuter, Dental Care
- Preventive & Wellness: Preventative Care, Vaccinations, Health Certificates & Travel, Rabies Tag Registration
- Specialty Care: Dermatology & Allergies, Pain Management & Laser Therapy, Behavior & Anxiety, Nutrition & Weight Management, Breeding & Reproductive, End-of-Life Care
Plus our lifestyle services: Complete Care Wellness Plans, Grooming, Boarding, Daycare, and Pharmacy.
What We Believe About Veterinary Care
Every practice puts up a values statement. Most of them read the same. Ours is grounded in things you can actually see in how we operate.
Time matters more than volume:
Prevention beats treatment:
Continuity is care
Communication doesn't end at check-out
Cost shouldn't force a bad decision
The People You'll See Every Visit
The veterinary team is led by Dr. Kirk and Dr. Thivierge, backed by support staff, vet techs, and groomers who've been part of the practice for years. Because the schedule stays small on purpose, the vet you see at your first appointment is the vet you'll see for follow-ups, and the front desk staff knows your dog's name from the second time you walk in.
Full bios, backgrounds, and headshots for the entire team live on our dedicated Team page.
Rooted in the Jacksonville Community
We've been part of the Southside neighborhood for nearly forty years, which means we're not just a business that happens to be located here. We're a business built by and for local families.
A few of the ways that shows up:
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Duval County rabies tag registration handled directly at the clinic, so you don't have to make a separate trip
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Military discounts for the active-duty and veteran families across Mayport and NAS Jax who make up so much of our client base
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Angel Fund financial assistance for pet families facing unexpected hardship
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First Coast Veterinary Specialists & Emergency referral for after-hours emergencies we don't handle in-house
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Benjamin's CocoCubs locally made chocolates available for purchase in the hospital
How SJB Runs Differently from a Higher-Volume Clinic
Most veterinary practices are built to scale. More locations. More patients per day. More doctors rotating through more rooms. It works, but it comes at a cost, and that cost lands on the pet family in the form of shorter appointments, unfamiliar faces, and the sense of being another slot on someone else's calendar.
SJB is built the opposite way on purpose.
The schedule is capped. The patient list is small enough that we know the animals in it. The lab is in the building, which means answers come back the same day instead of a week later. The follow-up call happens because someone from the team dials it, not because a system triggers an automated survey. When a client loses a pet, a card gets written by someone who knew that pet.
That's how a practice looks when it's designed around the relationship instead of the throughput. You feel the difference the first time you walk in, and you feel it every visit after.
How We Make Care Accessible for Every Jacksonville Family
Cost matters. It shouldn't be the reason a pet doesn't get the care they need. A few programs and options that reflect that:
- Angel Fund: our in-house financial assistance program for families facing unexpected hardship
- Payment Options: Care Credit financing, military discounts, and all the ways we make cost predictable
- Complete Care Wellness Plans: flat monthly pricing on routine care starting at $59
- Lost Pets Resources: free help and local resource guide for Jacksonville families searching for a missing pet
Common Questions About SJB Animal Care Center
Answers to the questions Jacksonville pet owners ask most about preventative care.
Come Meet the Team
The best way to understand a veterinary practice is to sit in the exam room and see how it runs. Book your first visit and see the difference an unrushed thirty-minute appointment makes.
