Ironwood Veterinary Clinic closure leaves Yuma County pet owners worried

Ironwood Veterinary Clinic will close on July 30, taking a long-running Yuma provider off the map at 2632 S Avenue B and leaving pet owners with fewer places to turn for routine checkups, emergency treatment and end-of-life care. The clinic says it has been caring for pets since 1985.

The closure lands in a county already strained by a veterinarian shortage. Ironwood’s posted hours were already limited to Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with Friday through Sunday closed, so families that depended on that schedule now have a short window to move records and line up another provider before the doors shut for good. Annette Lagunas, executive director of the Humane Society of Yuma, has said some Arizona pet owners drive three to four hours to reach a veterinarian, a distance that can turn an injured pet or overdue vaccine into a full-day trip.

The pressure will likely fall on the clinics still advertising service in Yuma. Foothills Animal Hospital says it provides emergency care and veterinary services in the area, while Reliance Animal Hospital’s Yuma pages advertise 24-hour emergency vet care and routine appointments. With one established clinic closing and the county’s veterinary pool already thin, pet owners could see longer waits for appointments and tighter capacity at the remaining offices, especially for urgent visits that cannot be delayed.

Aftercare is part of the gap too. Lakey Animal Crematory says it contracts privately with local veterinarians and offers individual cremation with ashes returned, a detail that matters for families already worried about where pets will go after death. The broader pipeline is not immediate relief. The University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine says it has more than 300 DVM students, and USDA says its Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment and Veterinary Services Grant programs are aimed at shortage areas, especially rural communities. Those efforts may help over time, but they will not replace Ironwood when it closes at the end of the month.