Female veterinarians make their mark

In April, The Millerton News published a story on a decision by some local vets to stop offering 24-hour emergency care. The story, which can be found online, examined some of the reasons why vets were increasingly sending their clients to animal ERs at night and on weekends.

One interesting trend that was revealed while researching that story was that, increasingly and all across America, veterinarians are more often women than men. Nearly 80 percent of students in vet school are women. (As recently as the 1980s it was still about a 50/50 ratio of men to women.)

However, the 24-hour on-call vet is not totally extinct. There are four veterinary practices in the larger Tri-state area that will answer their clients’ emergency calls 24/7. It is, given the statistics, ironic that three of the four are women.

As a follow-up to that April story, this week The Millerton News offers profiles of those three women vets who practice in the area.

Old-fashioned ‘can-do’

Barbara Clayton’s home and practice are inseparable. While that makes it hard to ever completely leave work behind, it also means that she has received clients in the dead of the night in her bathrobe and slippers. Her clients don’t care how she is dressed; they’re grateful to have her answer their call at 2 a.m.

Clayton’s path to veterinary medicine was indirect. She worked at racetracks and as a vet tech for 10 years after graduating college. When she decided to go back to school to get a veterinary degree, she was 32 years old.

No school in the U.S. would accept her without making her retake a lot of her undergraduate course work. She ended up at a veterinary school in the West Indies for three years and then did her one-year clinical rotation at Oklahoma State University.

“I think the fact that I went to a school outside the U.S. was really key. I learned to practice without all the bells and whistles. The teachers weren’t publishing papers, they were teaching us, and there were only 14 students in my class. We really learned practical hands-on medicine.�

Clayton is a woman who thinks on her feet and to whom multi-tasking is second nature. Those are qualities, she believes, that are shared by many women — and that can make them particularly good at balancing veterinary work and a family.

She is the mother of two children — an 11-year-old boy and a 15-year-old daughter, who is autistic. Her husband is also a vet.

Clayton feels strongly about being available to her clients at all  hours of the day, seven days a week. While some vets have begun to refer their clients to special after-hours emergency clinics, she feels that most of her clients can’t afford the higher cost of care. For some, she said, it’s the equivalent of a mortgage payment.

If an animal goes from her care to an animal ER, it’s because specialized care or equipment are needed. “I think I know when I’m in over my head and the client needs to go to an animal hospital.�

While she averages about 10 emergency visits a week, she probably answers triple that in calls. “Clients don’t know what an emergency is. But most of the time I would rather field the call then have them freak out.â€�  

Holistic and traditional

Tina Aiken is from Germany and went to veterinary school in Hanover, then spent a year in Cambridge, England, doing her residency. It was there that she met her husband and partner, Mark Aiken, who is Irish. They share a practice in Ancramdale, N.Y.

Kilshannagh Veterinary Clinic handles both equine and small animal clients. Aiken’s practice is a mixture of traditional and alternative medicine. She does acupuncture, chiropractic and herbal remedies, and also ozone, laser and shock-wave therapies.

Many of the treatments that Americans consider alternative, she said, are considered mainstream in Germany.

Like Clayton, Aiken finds that many emergencies can be handled by telephone.

“In most cases I can talk them through. For every person I see, maybe I’ve talked to five on the phone.

“Still, I get lots of calls that really aren’t emergencies, like ‘I want to change my appointment.’�

Aiken is well aware of the role women play in the profession. A couple of years ago, she and her husband brought Alison Kaufman on board as an equine vet.

Kaufman, the mother of twins, had been part of the Millbrook Equine Veterinary Clinic. But she wanted to spend more time with her family and only work part-time.

Aiken told a story that she says is typical: “A client’s daughter who was practicing as an equine vet and is married to an equine vet wants to start a family, so she is looking for a job at a small-animal practice.

“The hours are tough. It is the reason why a lot of practitioners are giving up the 24/7. People often make this decision in school and focus on small-animals.�

Aiken says if she wanted to hire another vet to help her, it would be almost impossible to find someone to work the after-hours calls. But she sees women as healers and thinks it is why they are drawn to the profession.

On the road

Jayme Mottler answers her cell phone at all hours, and a look at her schedule indicates that she spends much of her time on the road. Her Chevy Tahoe is her office.

Mottler is a mobile vet with a client base that extends throughout Dutchess, Litchfield and Southern Berkshire counties. In addition to her private practice work, Mottler also is employed by the New York Racing Association as an examining vet and by the New Jersey Racing Commission as an associate state vet.

She also works at the Ulster Animal Hospital in Kingston, N.Y., as a relief vet. It is this association that allows her to offer her private clients, full surgical services. She is able to utilize the surgical space and the equipment for her patients.

It is an arrangement that works well for her clients, because not only will Mottler care for their pet at the hospital, but she will pick it up from their home on the day of surgery and bring the animal back at the end of the day.

Mottler knows this area well. She worked for Dr. Kent Kay at Millerton Veterinary Practice from 2000 to 2004, until he sold it to Sand Road Animal Hospital.

The life and practice that Mottler has carved out for herself, is a far cry from the working mother-vet who counts the hours at the office as those spent away from her children.

Mottler lives at home with her mother and a menagerie of animals, but her mom is able to do the feeding and chores if the late-night hours pile up. As for why she is attracted to this line of work, Mottler has plenty of answers: “I don’t do the same thing everyday, so I don’t get bored. I’ve mixed it up nicely, so it works.�

She sees the service she offers as one-of-a-kind.

 â€œIt helps the community, particularly the elderly who might have a hard time getting to a vet office. It’s good for pets with behavioral anxieties, and end-of-life decisions are often easier made at home in a relaxed atmosphere. And for working people, it’s a great convenience,â€� Mottler said.

As for the trend toward more women working in this field, Mottler explains it this way: “We see more women in the field because we are perceived as being more compassionate. I have very personal relationships with a lot of my clients.�

(One has the impression she is talking about her animal clients as much their owners.)

Mottler’s expertise ranges from ferrets to farm animals and she has quite a large number of equine clients. But if someone calls with an unusual animal or problem, “If I can’t do it  I’ll try to find them someone who can help. I don’t do everything.â€�

She sums up her philosophy as, “You can do a lot of things and be good at it, but do too many things and you can’t be great at it.�