It will be twenty years in May since I hung my High Desert Veterinary Service shingle out in Reno. I left behind a career as an internal medicine specialist, working in a hospital setting with a large support staff and primarily critically ill patients to become a solo ambulatory practicioner in Northern Nevada.

Some of my more entertaining memories over the years:
# Castrating a CRAZY black mustang in a classic 400 high desert hail storm.
# Getting called out by an equine client at 2 am to treat her SOW with a prolapsed uterus (oh boy was I tearing through the text book on the way to that one!!...what the???)
# Assisting the fire department with a Sawzall to cut a horse out of the WINDOW he decided to use as a stall exit.

And then there are the memories that keep me going, and looking forward to the years ahead:

#The septic foal with clostridial diarrhea who couldn’t stand up for a week.
# The draft mare with a T post penetrating her thorax and pericardial sac.
# The Welsh pony with cervical arthritis who was profoundly ataxic for 3 months
# The yearling Arab with pleuropneumonia whose chest we tapped too often to count.
#The foxhunter whose severed brachial artery I initially ligated with a strand of baling twine.

Why do these memories keep me going? Because they all recovered fully.
Because they all were treated at home.
Because they all had owners who went the extra mile, who stayed up night after night, who listened carefully and followed instructions, who didn’t understand the concept of “I can’t”, who believed in me and in their horses’ inner strength.

You are what makes me get up and go out day after day, year after year. You are the reason I continue to work to become more patient, more understanding, and above all more educated in my dedication to the wellbeing of our animal partners.

You make it happen.
Thanks for being who you are.

Emergency Vet
(775) 742-2823
Email us at
hidvet@gmail.com

hidvet@gmail.com