Prior to Veterinary School

I grew up in a small town, Bloomingdale, Michigan.  It is tucked away in Southwest Michigan.  Bloomingdale had an official population of 471.  It makes Milan huge in comparison.   Easy math makes Milan's population just about ten times bigger.   My graduating class had 55 students in it.   This is a rural small town.  It is now about 528 people, an increase of 57 in 43 years.  It was marginal ground to raise crops.  I took a soils science class at Michigan State University during my undergraduate studies.  It was then I realized there were seven soil types on our sixty-acre homestead.  We referred to the farm as the "Ranch".  Soils were from blue gumbo clay, sandy loam, and gravel to a half acre of muck.  There also was an old worn out oil well.  The well paid a whopping dividend of $12.50 per year, if it pumped.

The natural vegetation included bracken fern, wild onions, black berries, huckleberries, choke cherry trees and wild strawberries.  There was a large cattail area and a pond put in back near the swamp woods with the poplar trees.  We used half of our acreage for summer cattle pasture.  We milked about twenty dairy cows and had a few hogs.  I personally liked beef cattle.   I had a Shorthorn heifer and raised steers for the Van Buren County 4-H Fair.  We had a collection of non-farm critters, a spider monkey, porcupine, and couple of raccoons.  There were chickens for eggs and Sunday dinners.  Ducks in case we wanted a taste of something different.  We raised a couple of turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner.  My Mother could make a banquet from a promise.  She had to.  There were seven children.  When we were all home for a meal she cooked a twelve-quart pan full of potatoes.  The potatoes and most other dishes were able to make one pass around the table.  I learned about leftovers when I went to college.  We were taught manners and a good work ethic by both parents.

I would milk our cows, feed the critters, clean up milking equipment, and then got ready for school.  Homework was at night, again after chores.   I mention this as background there have and will be many people whom have done the same or more.  I used to make some pocket money by doing chores for area farmers that went on winter vacations.  This meant getting up earlier 4:30 am for the drive to their farm.  This also meant I had to find someone else to do my assigned chores so I could accept the outside job.

My Dad was a hunter and angler.  We had coonhounds and beagles.  There were always cats around the farm.  They were special.  We also had a couple of Appaloosa horses as one of my sisters had the horse bug.  After I went to college, the work force was not enthused about milking cows and the cows went to market.

I had an aunt; well I called her Aunt Suzanne.  She was a Veterinarian and practiced in Constantine, Michigan.  She lived about 60 miles away.  She was my first Veterinarian mentor.  I would go visit her when I was on break from classes from MSU.  I would carry the Pandora grip case and just be helpful on farm calls.  I would really charge my batteries being with her.  She also did a smattering of small animal practice also.  She was one of the best diagnosticians I have ever seen.  She did it with minimal diagnostic equipment available.  I really learned a lot about handling cattle, dogs and cats and of course being able to get along with people.

I had a cow named Tag that developed milk fever when I was a sophomore or so in high school.  Our local farm Veterinarian, Dr Dickey came out and gave her the calcium she needed.  I learned about the cause of hypocalcemia and the effect it has on a cow's ability to stay vertical and stand.  In Veterinary School, I learned its effect might be lessened by diet management during the dry period.  Cow's need a resting period referred to as the dry period.  This time off regenerates the mammary glands or they are not able to sustain lactation after the current pregnancy.  What was amazing that night was watching her get up within minutes of this wonderful liquid being given.  

I learned to love the baying of coonhounds when they were on a strike call.  These magnificent animals would give you their absolute best effort doing their passion of chasing raccoons or mink.  My dad would be devastated when Smokey would occasionally get beyond hearing range.  Sort of like teenagers that forget what curfew time is.  He would leave his hunting coat where they entered the woods.  He would go back twice a day to see if the wayward pursuer had returned.  Smokey always eventually showed up tired, hungry and slightly embarrassed that he was caught up in the moment of the chase.  Tending for the dogs daily needs of housekeeping bedding, policing elimination droppings and nutrition monitoring was a favorite time each day. 

The soft silky fur of kittens and puppies and watching them play with unabashed abandon is still a personal warm moment for me.  They are the fun end of the circle of life.  Youthful enthusiasm leads to adult seriousness that meanders into old age forgetfulness and decline of health issues, even in animals.  There is something special playing with puppies, kittens, calves, piglets, foals and even some young children.

I learned in Veterinary school that chokecherry and cherry trees have prussic acid (cyanide) in their wilted leaves and it kills cows and other animals.   Bracken fern is toxic for cows and wild onion can be toxic for cows.  I knew wild onion could be tasted in the milk when cows were grazing on it.  Oil well discharge in addition to raw petroleum products will cause an alkali soil change and plants growing on it would affect cows.  Raccoons harbor a deadly roundworm, Baylisascaris.  I found there are people that love the animals they live and work with.  I love seeing the miracle of birth, a wobbly foal or a gangly calf working diligently to get that first meal.  

Those 60 acres taught me a lot.  They started a life journey into Veterinary Medicine.