Ok I wasn’t sure if this post belonged on the blog but have decided to go ahead and write and title it accordingly, it also fits because of my current situation. Double entendre!!!

Essentially a post about me, what I’ve done, what I’m doing, so I don’t blame you of you skip over. Seriously, no hard feelings….

Since an early age (think 7 years old) I had dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. I think most kids want to become veterinarians, why not?? playing with dogs, cats, and hamsters all day? I was just crazy enough to follow that path to the end. I went to the University of Guelph to take a honors bachelor of science in Animal Biology with the hopes to attend the Ontario Veterinary College which is also in Guelph. In 2009 I had the exciting news that I was accepted to OVC! The following 4 years were some of the most grueling and exciting years of my life. Through my time in Guelph I participated in a lot of research projects, mainly in dairy cows. Something completely novel to me, I had probably seen cows three times in my life up until that point, being from Toronto and all. I quickly fell in love with the gentle giants and was taken aback by their insane digestive biology. In my fourth year at OVC I streamed into the mixed animal curriculum where we learned how to treat dogs, cats, cows and horses with a sprinkling of exotics and pocket pets (hamsters, ferrets). Upon graduation looking for a job was difficult, the large animal market in the area I hoped to practice was saturated. Electing to stay close to family I took a small animal position. I’ve practiced small animal medicine since then, travelling eastward across Canada providing locum (relief) vet services to many, MANY clinics. While it was a challenge coming into various new environments it has also been a blessing being able to see how different clinics operate and to meet so many amazing people.

After 4 years in private practice I moved back to Guelph to pursue graduate studies. I’ve always enjoyed working with cows, I’ve always wanted to be able to contribute more to society, and felt this opportunity couldn’t be passed up. My current PhD thesis is investigating Johne’s disease in dairy cattle in Ontario. Johne’s disease is a bacterial disease of cows that is untreatable and leads to chronic wasting and death. The current way we approach this problem is through testing and removal of infected cows from the herd. We also attempt to improve management of these animals and minimizing exposure of this infection to the younger more susceptible cows/calves. Seems pretty simple right? remove the sick ones, prevent others from becoming sick? yea I wish. The issue is that this disease is hard to detect, when we see one sick animal in a herd there are many other animals that appear healthy but are secretly spreading the bacteria everywhere! Further more these secret spreaders don’t always spread, so they may test positively one time but negative the next time. This poses an issue when we try to decide whether or not to remove a cow. Do we do it when we get a positive? are we sure its positive?

So while I’m sorting that fun out I’m also providing relief veterinary services to various small animal clinics in the area. Oh and writing these posts which I hope continue to help wonderful pet owners like yourself.

**Cute picture of a ewe right?? This is a method of restraint to help with examinations and treatments