The Rural Voice, 1980-09, Page 10Peter Conlon, with "Sage", a German short haired pointer. Below, Ben Miltenburg
"on the Job."
Memo
ANIL
PG. 8 THE RURAL VOICE/SEPTEMBER 1980
intensive swine operation where she
learned swine husbandry and some
minor surgery. Consequently, she knew
more about pigs than the average
student entering vet college. Last
summer she worked at a clinic in Prince
Edward Island, where she found that
sheep and goats are becoming very
popular.
GETTING SETTLED IN
After classes finished in May, Karen
and a few friends went to Jamaica for a
week. On her return she started work
with the Goderich Vet Clinic. For the
first ten days she travelled around with
the owner, Dr. Bill Schilthuis, meeting
clients and getting filled in on current
cases. "This really helped me get
pettled into the practice," she says.
"The good cases are most rewarding.
One farmer phoned in that his chickens
were dying and he didn't know why. I
asked him to bring in a dead bird and he
said that none had died that day and the
one which had died yesterday had been
buried. That same afternoon he ap-
peared at the clinic with a dead bird --he
had dug up the one he had buried. I did
a post mortem and prescribed an
antibiotic for the rest of the birds. A few
days later he made a special trip into the
clinic to say that all his birds were better
and he was very pleased with the
service. This really made my day."
When asked about how she copes
with the stresses of vet work, Karen
responds: "1 find that I really worry
about some cases. So I just call the
client to find out how the animal is
doing. Then at least I know what is
happening. But you have to get used to
the fact that you have some good days
and some bad days."
••••••
Dr. Peter Conlon hails from the
suburbs of Montreal where his family
lived next door to the MacDonald
College Research Farm. He is the son of
Douglas and Nancy Conlon. His father
was always interested in animals and
Peter spent a lot of time at the research
farm. He has wanted to be a vet for as
long as he can remember. Landing a job
at the Newry Vet Clinic has put him into
an area of intensive agriculture in
Huron and Perth Counties. He started
work immediately after classes finished
as the clinic was quite busy with the
Spring rush, but in July he took a
two-week vacation in the Maritimes.
LIKES MIXED PRACTICE
Peter has enjoyed finding his way
around the country concessions and side
roads and he likes the mixed large and
small animal practice at the Newry
Clinic. He took a Master's Degree at
McGill University in animal genetics
where his thesis was "A comparison of