Career Musings

One night a long time ago, when I was about 16, I found myself standing next to a chute at Dr. Grady’s, ankle deep in blood, helping hold up a uterus that was hanging out the side of a cow while the vet attempted to find all the little cuts that the newborn calf at our feet, with two broken legs, had made inside his mother because he was overdue and his milk teeth had cut the crap out of her.  This was after several hours of my Dad and I trying to jack the poor ginormous cross bred calf out of the little yearling that had somehow managed to get herself in a family way.  It was a rough night.  It was cold, it was messy and after stitching up the cow, we then had to set and cast two front legs of the calf.   

It was shortly after that night when my career path changed.  All my life growing up, I thought I would become a vet. But after spending the night like that, and realizing that the financial rewards for a large animal practice barely breaks even on a good year, I decided that there were easier ways to make a living.  That’s not to say there aren’t moments when I wonder…but then again, I haven’t been out much on cold February nights either.

My new television obsession has made me wonder about my choices though lately.  I have become quite a fan of Dr. Pol, on Nat Geo Wild. I have avidly watched the re-runs and new episodes for about a month now, and it completely takes me back to my childhood of pulling calves, stitching up horses, castrating calves, branding, vaccinating, and dealing with the inevitable bloated steers. Dr. Pol reminds me so much of the vets in my past, Dr. Brown from Delta and especially Dr. Pavetti, who was one mean old guy, but knew his profession. I am so enthralled that I have been known to watch 3-4 hours of it at a time, and trust me, I don’t sit that long for very many things.

I was doing a little reading on the net the other day and read some criticism of Dr. Pol and his practice.  I’m not surprised, most vets these days only deal with small animals, and only the best for little Fifi, but I know what it is like for those large animal vets, that are out in the corral with the cold, an injured animal and a rancher that could only afford to call him as a last ditch effort. People think those with livestock must be wealthy, they have land, they have animals…but the reality is that most are living on a pretty thin margin.  These animals aren’t pets, they are income.  There is precious little time to worry about the pain of a cow that is in the last stages of a breach birth.  Nor is there always a clean place to stitch up the horse that just ripped it’s tendon on a piece of wire.

These days in Grand Junction there is really only one large animal vet, large animals don’t pay very well, but there are times when I wonder what that would have been like…