Your farm’s best friend: the veterinarian

The value of a good veterinarian who can expertly manage day-to-day tasks and unforeseen animal emergencies can’t be over-stated. But Ken Johnson, a rural Manitoba vet for 44 years, has also made a sizable contribution to the future of veterinary medicine. In this episode of Between the Rows, Johnson shares some of his stories as a large animal vet, how technology has changed the veterinarian/client relationship, and the role of mentorship to help meet the challenge of bringing the next generation of young veterinarians to the practice. Hosted by Laura Rance.

[podcast_transcript]

Ken Johnson: [00:00:06] I recently had a five year old that came over to help move some cows. And so needless to say, it was going to take us a little longer to move that that group. His dad was like, Sorry, it’s going to take so long, Ken. And my answer was, Well, actually, this makes it the fourth generation that I get to work for.

Laura Rance: [00:00:31] That’s my friend, Ken Johnson. Well, actually, he’s been my vet for almost 20 years. But that makes him a good friend too, I am Laura Rance, and this is Between the Rows. Our show this week is a story about how one vet has made a big difference to the future of veterinary medicine, especially in rural areas. But first, here’s a word from our sponsor.

Commercial: [00:01:08] You know, not all nitrogen works as hard as I do. My ESN polymer coating means I can stay out in the field longer, up to 80 days. Those other guys, huh? First, hot wind or heavy rain. And they’re out there scared of soil, bacteria and standing water, too, but not me. It’s why ESN is the leading controlled release nitrogen and broad acre agriculture. See for yourself. Just check out smartnitrogen.com

Laura Rance: [00:01:46] Welcome back to Between the Rows, I’m your host, Laura Rance, I think there’s a lot of people in southern Manitoba who would feel the same way I do about Ken Johnson. He’s the kind of vet they could make TV shows about the kind of vet who never shows up on time, but who never rushes away, either. When he was at my place working with my animals, it was like he had all the time in the world to answer my questions. Talk about options and share a few stories. Large animal practice usually involves making house calls with their trucks loaded with supplies. Vets go from appointment to appointment. Never quite knowing what’s waiting for them at the next stop. If it’s a sick or injured animal, they’re often dealing with an emotionally distraught human being, too. Ken wasn’t much older than his youngest client when he first started working with animals.

Ken Johnson: [00:02:40] Well, I grew up on a mixed sort of a mixed farm. Me, my father and his two brothers farmed together, and the livestock portion of that in a small mixed farm operation was over what we call the home farm, where my grandfather and grandmother had homestead and that’s where my aunt or my uncles lived. And so I would travel back and forth to the animals with my dad or my tractor or by bicycle. And so I often think my mother put up with a lot of late suppers because I certainly milked cows slower than my uncles. But they, you know, sort of instilled that animal efforts to start my career. So I’ve always been involved in animals. We became a grain farm when I was just shy of being 13, when the Red River was going to take out the barn and and wouldn’t survive one more flood, so the animals were sold. And so but even after that, the neighbors or otherwise, I guess, have always had an interest in in veterinary medicine.

Laura Rance: [00:04:08] Ken graduated from Vet college in 1978 and went straight to work for a practice located in southern Manitoba. That was a time when beef cattle producers were introducing the big bone exotic breeds into their breeding programs. It was a tough transition, especially for the cows.

Ken Johnson: [00:04:28] You know, times. It certainly changed the the spring of 1979 Claude, and I did over 100 caesareans that spring between the two of us, … and the rest of the practice that occurred. So, you know, if I jump ahead until these days, you know that there isn’t the that reproduction side of things have settled down a little more and caesareans are less seen in the veterinary world. Back when I graduated was sort of in the the exotics were here, but they weren’t, you know, that they weren’t necessarily as developed as they are now. And so even clientele that I did caesareans for in the early 80s, I was still working with them and we’re not seeing that anymore. So a lot has changed for the better,

Laura Rance: [00:05:36] And it’s it’s a combination of herd management and genetic selection that’s been Behind that change

Ken Johnson: [00:05:41] That’s correct. You know that, you know, in terms of it’s just the knowledge base has increased and all of that has allowed that to happen.

Laura Rance: [00:05:57] Ken with his wife, Elaine, as business manager, operated their own practice, located just outside of Winnipeg city limits over the past four decades, he’s been on the front lines. As farming changed from small mixed farming operations to highly specialized ones. Animal agriculture has become bigger, more intense and much more sophisticated, both in the technology available and the expectations of clients. The type of young person attracted into veterinary medicine has changed, too. When Ken graduated from Vet School, many of his colleagues came from a farm and most of them were male.

Ken Johnson: [00:06:37] Now, if you look at the classes going in, it is predominantly female. Urban female has always been the highest earner is now the highest percentage of applicants. So if we’re looking at getting rural practitioners, we have to convince either the urban, female or urban male to to want to go there. And we also have to convince the rural and males and females to stay there. The the the bright lights of the city are always beckoning. But but rural life and rural veterinary medicine certainly has as some benefits as well.

Laura Rance: [00:07:33] One of the biggest challenges facing rural and large animal veterinary practices today is balancing the needs of clients with the lifestyle expectations of new graduates. The long hours and weekend calls that Vets of Ken’s era might have just accepted as part of the job make it harder in this day and age to attract and keep young vets.

Ken Johnson: [00:07:57] I think certainly after ours is always a challenge when we’re hiring veterinarians or or keeping veterinarians. You know, it is an instance where that, you know, you know, affects our personal lives as well as our professional lives and how well we can do things. And and we sometimes get stretched both in both manners of that. It is an instance where practice is the things that have changed now with with larger practices, multi veterinarian practices, you know, addresses that to some extent. There is some clinic areas that use sort of a cooperative call basis where where again, you might be on call for a larger area, but less often in an attempt to to kind of give people some work life balance.

Laura Rance: [00:09:12] There’s been another big shift in the operating environment, too. That’s nowadays have to get used to having their professional opinions questioned by an invisible expert, only a computer keyboard away.

Ken Johnson: [00:09:26] Dr Google is is there and that may not be a bad thing. That’s information is a key to solving problems. But I mean, it is an instance where when clients hear that MRIs are potentially available for their for their animal, they may not realize that the next one may be in the University of Minnesota or the University of Saskatchewan because their multimillion dollar cost to create such things. So we communications with our clients, obviously is the key.

Laura Rance: [00:10:07] There’s certainly a lot more technology at your disposal now,

But what you’re telling me is that the expectations on the part of Clients is certainly higher.

Ken Johnson: [00:10:17] Correct from the technology, you know, we’ve got ultrasounds now that we can pregnancy test thousands and literally see a fetus, you know, in the late twenties, you know of days of pregnancy. My fingers, you know, even when I would call something pregnant at thirty five or 40 days, you know, the owners now get to see a picture. And so it really is there rather than just what I feel. So, you know, there’s there’s that digital x ray machines. Cell phones are probably the number one tool that we have gained in the years of from communicating both. I can now phone a client a few minutes, a few minutes away, and they can stop what they’re doing rather than sitting and waiting in the milk house or waiting for me patiently. Well, they have no idea where I am and between phones and now take photos. I mean, we often communicate with how wound is healing or what what actually they’re seeing, you know, with a with a phone or a video message and pictures. And so that communications really counts.

Laura Rance: [00:11:45] Our show today is about Ken Johnson, a Manitoba vet who has made a big difference during the course of his 44 years in practice. During our conversation, I asked him to look back on some of his career highlights.

Ken Johnson: [00:11:59] Well, I think, you know, as we think of our high points, we always sort of think of the unusual. You know, I’ve I was co-chair of the Veterinary Committee for the Pan American Games. So something that, you know, that was a real privilege. A lot of work. But it was it was certainly exciting to do. I worked for the musical ride in the RCMP comes through Manitoba. I’ve basically flown polar bears out of Churchill. I’ve flown ostriches internationally when they were, you know, in the late in the late 90s and early 2000s. I guess some of the day to day highlights watching or hearing of some of my former students or ones that I either referenced in veterinary schools spend some time with me in their private studies, getting experience or as work for me, as students or as veterinarians. Seeing them doing well, whatever they’re doing in their endeavors is always, you know, very interesting and meaningful moments.

Laura Rance: [00:13:15] Speaking of interesting and meaningful moments, you never quite know how the day in the life of the vet might go.

Ken Johnson: [00:13:23] One morning, early one morning conservation phones and they need help moving a moose that had been located in the loading dock area of a Sobeys in South S. Patel. As I’m driving there, I hear Brian Barkley from CJOB say in his traffic report, Folks, you should stay away from this area of South St. Patel because there’s a moose. Well, that is actually the opposite happens because everyone then drives over in that direction to see this thing. And as I am arriving, Winnipeg police officers stops my vehicle and says, We’re rerouting everyone. And I said, Actually, sir, I think I’m one of the people you want to let through because I’m the guy going to help with the moose. Oh, OK. So as I come up, the moose comes up from the loading dock area, and that’s where a semi can normally back into. So it’s submerged a little bit and had gone in there to sleep in the in the in the dark, and there was a police car with two sitting at the top of the ramp. And as the moose would come up, the police officer turned on his sirens and his lights and and honk his horn and everything, and the moose would run back down.

Ken Johnson: [00:14:46] Well, of course, having been involved, a little bit of wildlife work that’s going to work until the moose decides it’s not working anymore. So I walked over, knocked on his window as he rolled it down. I said, Officer, you know, you know, just be aware that the next time that the moose decides to do this, he may not run back down away from you. He might just come right over top of the car. So be ready to get out of the car because he’ll just crush the roof. And I hate to see your pin. His partner is sitting outside the other side of the door with a rifle and a shotgun, and he says, Well, then we’ll just have to shoot the moose. And I looked over my shoulder and there’s like hundreds of people there watching the the apartments behind or everyone’s out on their balcony enjoying their morning coffee, watching this from above. And I said to the officer, Do you ever want to be promoted? He said, Certainly. And I said, Well, and don’t shoot the moose.

Laura Rance: [00:15:48] Sprinkled between the interesting experiences and exciting calls were the difficult calls. Those were the calls that Ken had to choose between the people and the animals. He always chose the animals.

Ken Johnson: [00:16:03] The, you know, the low points in our careers will involve cruelty to animal cases. I was a humane inspector before now, an animal protection officer. You don’t have to be a veterinarian to do that and veterinarians don’t. Well, we we are compelled now to to report cases when we see them. But but even above that, as an APO (animal protection officer) , I’ve reminded more than one person that, you know this, you know, you can’t do what you’re doing or be reported, and I’ll be back here officially, so. So let’s just work on this problem. But, you know, as a veterinarian, you always want to help. And and so some. Days, the frustrations are that someone has chosen to either be neglectful or cruel.

Laura Rance: [00:16:51] Despite all of the technology and and the new ability that vets have, you’re still dealing With patients that can’t speak for Themselves. What have you learned over time about how animals tell you what’s going on? I mean, how and how do you talk about that to young vets?

Ken Johnson: [00:17:12] Well, I think the first thing that you realize is that animals are pretty honest. I mean, and when you’re working, you know, when, when you know, animals are anxious or in pain, they’ll they’ll let you know.

Laura Rance: [00:17:32] Like my horse, Q, who under most circumstances was a calm and sweet-tempered mare. However, she made no secret of her aversion to vets with their cold stethoscopes and needles.

Ken Johnson: [00:17:48] You know, you can learn an awful lot from a horse by just watching their ears and watching what they’re doing.

Laura Rance: [00:17:53] Q’s ears would flatten against her skull, and she’d start to prance and snort like a fire breathing dragon, almost from the moment Ken’s truck rolled into the yard. Q had had a leg injury as a young horse that took a long time to heal, and she never forgot it.

Ken Johnson: [00:18:14] Some of them can hold a grudge, but but it’s mainly just in terms of what their previous experiences have been. So communications there you have to be smooth and reassuring s, and there’s probably nothing that you know we have to do to teach our young veterinarians and students is to sort of stand your ground and still be calm and appear calm when when that animal is acting up.

Laura Rance: [00:18:42] That’s easier said than done when you’re dealing with eleven hundred pounds of angry muscle on top of four big hooves. But can never left before Q had her annual round of shots, her teeth filed if needed, and a full examination.

Ken Johnson: [00:19:01] You know, we are probably closer to pediatricians in the babies can’t talk because we have to communicate not only and make our points known to the animal, but also communicate it to the owner. One, they’re paying the bill, but also they need to understand what the follow up is, what the possibilities are. The options are and make the decisions for their animal.

Laura Rance: [00:19:37] Ken’s childhood experiences growing up with farm animals equipped him with an instinctive knowledge of animal behavior that prepared him for his career in veterinary medicine in ways he couldn’t have imagined. But it was his people skills and willingness to mentor young practitioners that are perhaps his greatest contribution to the profession. When Ken came to the yard, he almost always had a student in tow. Many of them were learning about agriculture and rural life at the same time as they were learning how to be a vet. Ask a Ken to put a number on how many aspiring vets he’s mentored over the years, and he’ll go through a complicated process of determining he has no idea. There have been too many to count. As is often the case with Ken, he told a story to tell the story.

Ken Johnson: [00:20:32] I was at a veterinary meeting one day and the host veterinarian looked around the room and said, Ken, stand up, look around the room. How many of the 40 veterinarians in this room can you link to either referencing them into school or working for you as a student, you know, type of thing. And the answer was 24 out of the 40. So so it was an instance by which, you know, that is rewarding and that you watch some of them become just, you know, just excel in the field of veterinary medicine.

Laura Rance: [00:21:15] There’s a lot that goes into giving students their first experiences in the field. First of all, he had to keep everyone safe. My horse Q was a great demo horse for that. He had to make sure having some greenhorns along didn’t compromise the level of care he provided to the animals. He had to provide a running commentary to make sure his students understood what he was doing. But in his book of life, this was just something you do.

Ken Johnson: [00:21:42] Well, I guess, you know, being from a rural area, you always try to help your neighbor. I was a 4-H member, so I learned to do it by doing counts and communication skills. Certainly, you know, become involved there. Manitoba has us as a need for young veterinarians. And if we don’t kind of show them what we’re up to and what the possibilities are, then they may choose to go elsewhere.

Laura Rance: [00:22:16] Ken was recently recognized by the Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association with a special award for his work mentoring young veterinarians.

Samira: [00:22:24] Dr. Johnson has been my mentor since I was 19 years old, and I will never forget the advice that he gave me when I was struggling through my first cat neuter, he said. Samira. First you get good, then you get fast. Thanks, Dr. Johnson. 

Unknown:  The most important thing that Dr. Johnson taught me is that veterinarians are people helping people care for their animals, whether it’s a great gibbon at the zoo or a tiny kitten in the corner of someone’s barn. Veterinarians to be good veterinarians is first to be good, kind people.

Ken Johnson: [00:23:01] It is a people business, I mean, I’ve had the experience of being in the emergency, getting stitches from being kicked or whatever and explaining to the resident doctor that it’s a good thing he’s not a veterinarian because his bedside manner is is such that no one would call them back. And it’s it’s an instance where we we have to regard ourselves for as good as our last job and we got to be doing our best to get it, to get to maintain that client and do future work.

Laura Rance: [00:23:37] After Ken and Elaine sold their practice a few years ago. He continued to work for its new owners. However, he recently developed a health condition called peripheral neuropathy. It causes numbness in his fingers and toes. The doctors can’t tell him why, but I can’t help but wonder whether all those years in the field and those cold, damp barns had something to do with it. The condition has forced him to step back from frontline practice, although he continues to work as a consultant. Thankfully, he leaves in his wake a small army of practitioners who have learned from one of the best. Thanks, Ken. That’s all we have for you on this week’s Between the Rows, but we’ll be back again next week. I hope you’ll join us. I’m Laura Rance.

Commercial: [00:24:43] You know, not all nitrogen works as hard as I do my ESN polymer coating means I can stay out in the field longer, up to 80 days. Those other guys. First, hot wind or heavy rain. And they’re out there scared of soil, bacteria and standing water, too, but not me. It’s why ESN is the leading controlled release nitrogen and broad acre agriculture. See for yourself. Just check out smartnitrogen.com

[/podcast_transcript]