Work-life balance key for Dr. Keri: Prairie Vet

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This article was published 13/12/2019 (2485 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Watch out, Baby Yoda, because some extremely cute real-life animals are ready to steal your thunder.

Season 3 of the multi-award-winning series Dr. Keri: Prairie Vet premières tonight on the specialty cable channel Animal Planet Canada and features so many real-life furry friends that you’ll forget all about the scene-stealing star of The Mandalorian.

Produced once again by Winnipeg’s Merit Motion Pictures, the new season of Prairie Vet launches with the episode The Doctor is in… And Out, which focuses on Dr. Keri Hudson Reykdal’s effort to maintain a work/life balance at her mixed-animal veterinary practice in Manitoba’s Interlake.

The episode follows the vet as she checks up on her four-legged patients before receiving a phone call that her own dog, an Australian shepherd named Siri, is ill.

Hudson Reykdal spends the night sleuthing out the reason for Siri’s illness, and we learn about her previous experience with burnout and how she handles her emotional well-being in the challenging profession.

One thing’s for sure: being a mixed-animal vet isn’t easy.

“Mixed-animal means I do a bit of everything,” Hudson Reykdal explains in an interview. “I do all species, from dogs and cats to pocket pets, like hamsters and gerbils, right up to horses and cattle.”

The diversity can be fun but also takes an emotional toll.

“As a vet, your job can be all-consuming,” she says. “There’s always a crisis to deal with and vets tend to be emotionally invested in our patients and clients.”

“It’s all about finding balance. Sometimes we let our work overtake everything and that’s when we get burnout. For myself, it was about setting boundaries. I have to take some time for myself.”

Time for herself doesn’t necessarily mean time away from animals, though.

“All of my hobbies are animal-related,” she admits with a laugh.

“I have my Australian shepherds that I like to do things with. We do some obedience work, some rally and they also come along when I’m out riding my horses. I ride them to relax and unwind at the end of the day.”

Her love of animals isn’t entirely unexpected… as a matter of fact, it actually runs in the family. Her father was a veterinarian but, growing up in Saskatoon, she didn’t always want to be a vet.

“I really didn’t know what I wanted to do until after my first year of university,” she says. “I took a year off to refocus and decide. I loved animals growing up, but I think having a dad as a vet, I wanted to rebel against my parents.”

After graduating from veterinary school, Hudson Reykdal moved to Ashern, about 180 kilometres north of Winnipeg, and established her rural practice.

“I’ve been here for my whole career,” she says.

“Not a lot of vets want to go into rural practice. It’s really hard work, especially with our Manitoba winters being what they are.”

Despite the difficulties of the job, Hudson Reykdal has no intention of leaving anytime soon.

“My client base out here is very loyal,” she says, and with the continued success of Dr. Keri: Prairie Vet, she’ll likely be a familiar face in the Interlake for years to come.

“There are tons of animal lovers out there,” Hudson Reykdal says, reflecting on the success of her show. “Just about everybody loves animals and a lot of people grow up wanting to be vets. That draw to animals, learning about them and the different ways they can be taken care of has a lot of interest for people.”

It’s not only the people and the animals that have made an impact on the show.

“We try to show the diversity of Manitoba and how beautiful this province is.”

frances.koncan@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FrancesKoncan