Blikslager Takes Role of Director of Veterinary Medical Services at NC State

Dr. Anthony Blikslager, who had been serving as interim associate dean and director of Veterinary Medical Services at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, has accepted the position on a permanent basis. He was formerly the head of the Department of Clinical Sciences.

“Anthony stepped Into this position on an interim basis and very quickly was moving the hospital forward and developing plans for the future,” says Dr. Kate Meurs, dean of the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine. “He held numerous listening sessions with individual groups within our hospital as well as referring veterinarians. I am incredibly excited and grateful for his willingness to take on this leadership role.”

Blikslager, a professor of Equine Surgery, received a Ph.D. in gastrointestinal physiology at NC State University in 1997. He completed a residency in large animal surgery at NC State in 1994 and an equine medicine and surgery internship at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1990. He received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.

As director of Veterinary Medical Services, Blikslager will be leading the NC State Veterinary Hospital, which offers more than 30 specialized services such as cardiology, dermatology, neurology, exotic animal medicine and farm animal medicine and treats more than 30,000 clients a year. The hospital’s small animal and large animal emergency clinics also offer world-class emergency and critical care every day all day.

“I appreciate the dean’s support of me and her faith that I can manage a very complex, highly rated, excellent veterinary hospital,” Blikslager says. “I’ll be working to make it an even better organization than it already is for the animals we treat and the people who work in it.”

The hospital also provides continuing education programs for veterinarians to learn about recent developments in veterinary medicine, as well as pet loss-grief support via dedicated social workers. 

In his new role, Blikslager also will be overseeing a major expansion of the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine’s Large Animal Hospital. State lawmakers this year approved $70 million for the project, which will include intensive care facilities and sports medicine facilities for horses as well as dedicated facilities for farm animals.

“We were thrilled to see the Large Animal Hospital expansion gain budgetary approval,” Blikslager says. “It could not have come at a better time. We have been working toward developing state-of-the-art facilities over the last 20 years, and now we routinely fill our facility with patients from all over North Carolina.”

Blikslager says he is particularly excited about the new facilities that will allow the hospital to continue to advance treatment of emergency and critical care for large animal patients, complex sports medicine concerns in equine athletes and management of large animal patients in state-of-the-art isolation facilities from disease outbreaks across the state. 

“The support of the state and the university of our Veterinary Hospital is incredible, and we will work tirelessly to make sure we have the finest facility in the nation,” Blikslager says. “This will in turn ensure we are able to continue to recruit and retain exceptional faculty and staff, which is how we maintain our reputation as the very best.”

Blikslager has won numerous national and international awards over his 34-year career, including the Research Leadership Award from NC State University in 2023, and the American Veterinary Medical Association Clinical Research Award in 2020. He was named an Alumni Distinguished Professor and awarded the Ned E. Huffman Leadership Award from NC State University in 2017. He won the Applied Equine Research Award from the World Equestrian Veterinary Association in 2011, and he received the Pfizer Award for Excellence in Research from NC State University in 2006.

“Our big goals are to increase efficiency across the hospital so that we can maximally serve the clients and referring veterinarians who have patients with the most difficult to diagnose and treat problems,” Blikslager says. “Our hospital is second-to-none when it comes to compassionate and cutting-edge care, and I am extraordinarily proud to be in this position.”