All in a day’s work

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This article was published 05/12/2017 (3143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new television series tags along with one of Manitoba’s veterinarians and offers a glimpse of her hectic workday, filled with ornery cattle, troublesome pups and all the miles driven in between calls.

 

Dr. Keri: Prairie Vet, which debuts Sunday night on Animal Planet Canada, follows Ashern veterinarian Dr. Keri Hudson Reykdal, who treats the illnesses and injuries to pet dogs and cats just as an urban-based veterinarian would, but also is on call 24/7 to treat the Interlake’s many farm animals.

The opening episode dives right into one of Hudson Reykdal’s busiest stretches — calving season for the thousands of cattle on Interlake ranches.

“The crew was really great to work with,” she says, recounting the filming of the 10-part series. “They didn’t know anything about cattle, so I had to give a quick animal-behaviour course. It made calving season more exciting.”

Her veterinarian practice is centred in Ashern, about 180 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, but she treats cattle up to 100 kilometres away, at ranches as far north as Gypsumville and as far south as Eriksdale and Lundar.

On top of that, Hudson Reykdal owns a 600-cattle ranch near the eastern shores of Lake Manitoba with her husband Calvin — and also has four dogs and a horse, all of which get their share of airtime on the show.

While the show depicts the miracle of a calf’s birth and the return to health of a sick house dog, the most eye-opening aspect of Dr. Keri: Prairie Vet is Dr. Keri herself, and the difficult life she leads.

In one moment she’s grappling with a 55-kilogram newborn calf while avoiding getting kicked by the mother and the next moment she’s rigging up her mobile X-ray camera to help diagnose the frightened pup’s troubles.

It’s the little dog that causes the most trouble, ready to nip at Hudson Reykdal and her assistant in the clinic.

“We can have cattle that can be pretty fractious and hard to work with as well,” she says. “But it does seem to be with dogs, the smaller they are the bigger they think they are, so they can sometimes present a bit of a challenge.”

She enjoys treating dogs and cats the most, but working with farm animals is the lifeblood of a rural veterinarian, Hudson Reykdal says, even if the job has its dangers.

“I got my hand caught in a chute once; a bull went down when I was semen-testing and trapped my hand in the chute and tore off the end of my finger,” she remembers. “My own horse, I had some troubles with it at home and ended up breaking my ankle. I got bit by a dog pretty bad — it was a dog who had gotten hit by a car and we were trying to get it restrained so we could get it sedated and I got bit pretty bad…

“I had to do four-hour surgery on a dog 10 days after I tore the end of my finger off. I don’t know if I’d ever do that again — maybe I’ve become smarter over time. But the dog had gotten shot with a pellet gun and it was dying and it needed surgery. I did it and the dog is fine.

“Injuries are part of the job and you try to heal up as fast as you can. Being self-employed, you don’t want to be out for long, because you have bills to pay.”

On top of those injuries, constant pregnancy tests on cattle early in Hudson Reykdal’s veterinary career led to carpal-tunnel surgery on both of her wrists.

“In the olden days when I started 15 years ago there wasn’t ultrasound for cattle so it was manual palpations,” Hudson Reykdal says. “For checking pregnant cows, you’re sticking your arm up their butt to see if there’s a calf in there. Just a lot of wear and tear on arms and elbows and shoulders.”

The 10-episode show is produced by Winnipeg’s Merit Motion Pictures, which also produces Polar Bear Town, a look at life in Churchill, for OLN Canada.

Dr. Keri: Prairie Vet follows on the heels of Dr. Jeff: Rocky Mountain Vet, a show that follows Denver veterinarian Dr. Jeff Young. After four seasons, that show has become the specialty-cable channel’s most watched series, and Dr. Jeff has achieved celebrity status in the United States.

Hudson Reykdal — even the ranchers on the show’s first episode call her Dr. Keri — doesn’t expect the television spotlight will get too bright, however.

“It’s a small town, right, so everybody knows everybody else. I’ve seen more people in the community because I’ve seen their dog or cat or horse or cow on one occasion or another, but I don’t think anything will change.”

“We do have some clients in Winnipeg, dog breeders, and I already have clients who come out to see us. But, no, I don’t think it’ll change anything.”

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca Twitter:@AlanDSmall