About us
Fern Hollow has been on the east side of Salem since 2011. We have grown carefully and turned down the chance to grow faster, because the thing people value here — being known, and being given time — is the first thing that breaks when a clinic gets big.
How we started
Dr. Maren Okafor spent nine years in a referral hospital where the appointments were fifteen minutes long and the patients arrived already frightened. She could do good medicine there. She could not do the other half of the job — the part where you sit down, explain what you found twice, and let somebody decide without feeling hurried.
In 2011 she took over a tired two-room practice on Hollow Creek Rd with a leaking roof and a good north-facing window, and set the appointment length to forty minutes. Everybody told her the numbers wouldn't work. Fourteen years later the numbers still work, mostly because clients who feel listened to come back, and because catching things early is cheaper than catching them late.
We are still on Hollow Creek Rd. The roof is fixed. The window is the same one, and on winter mornings it is where you will find Biscuit.
2011
Opened on Hollow Creek Rd
14
People on the team
2,400
Patients on the books
Arrived in a cardboard box in 2014 and declined to leave. Sleeps in the north window, greets dogs with unearned confidence, and is not available for adoption under any circumstances.
What we believe
Every clinic has values on a wall. These are the four that cost us money and we keep anyway.
In plain words, including the expensive ones and the ones with no good answer. We would rather you left unhappy with the news than confused about it.
Nearly every complaint about vets is a complaint about being rushed. We book fewer patients per day than we could, on purpose, and the maths works out.
Written estimates before anything begins, a phone call if the plan changes mid-procedure, and an honest answer when a test isn't worth running.
A calm animal gives accurate readings and a truer exam. Gentle handling isn't softness bolted onto the medicine — it is part of the medicine.
The team
Four of the fourteen. The rest are nurses, assistants and receptionists who will know your dog's name before you've finished spelling it.
Veterinarian & owner
Founded the clinic in 2011
Maren opened Fern Hollow after nine years in a busy referral hospital, mostly because she wanted to know her patients' names without looking them up. Fear Free certified; happiest doing senior medicine and the long, unglamorous conversations that go with it.
Veterinarian — surgery & dentistry
Joined 2016
Tobias runs our surgical and dental days. He is the person who calls you from the treatment room mid-procedure to talk through an unexpected finding, which patients' owners tell us is the single thing they remember most.
Lead veterinary technician
Joined 2013
Priya trains the whole team in low-stress handling and can get a blood sample from a cat who has decided otherwise. She built our towel-and-treat protocol, which is a real written document and not a figure of speech.
Client care coordinator
Joined 2019
Jonah is the voice on the phone. He is the one who finds you a same-day slot that isn't really there, remembers which dog is scared of the doorbell, and sends the reminder you actually needed.
Fourteen years
Dr. Maren Okafor takes over a two-room dental practice on Hollow Creek Rd and turns it into a clinic. Three staff, one X-ray machine, a lot of borrowed furniture.
Priya joins and rewrites how we handle cats. The towel-and-treat protocol becomes an actual written document taped inside every cupboard door.
Dr. Tobias Reyes joins; we add a dedicated surgical suite and full-mouth dental radiography, which most clinics our size still don't have.
The whole team completes Fear Free certification. We knock through the north wall to build a separate cat entrance and waiting room.
In-house laboratory installed. Bloodwork results in about twenty minutes instead of two days — which changes what a same-day sick visit can accomplish.
Fourteen people, roughly 2,400 patients on the books, and a waiting-room cat named Biscuit who has never once been on the payroll.
We keep two appointment slots a week for pets from Marion County rescues and foster carers at cost. If you foster, tell us when you book — no forms, no proving it.
We're at 1147 Hollow Creek Rd NE in Salem — and a first visit with no exam at all, just treats and a look around, is completely fine by us.
Call before 10:00am on a weekday and we hold same-day slots for sick pets.