The vet is in

By Kelly Van De Walle

At five years old, Shirley Kittleson knew she wanted to be a veterinarian.

“Even then I knew I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else,” she said.

For the last 29 years, she has been living the dream of that little girl.

It’s not a surprising dream, especially when you take into consideration her childhood. Kittleson grew up in rural Sherburn, Minnesota, to your typical farming family. However, this wasn’t your typical corn and soybeans operation. Her family also bread, raised and trained American Saddlebred horses, a breed of horse that characteristically carries themselves with an attitude that eludes description – some call it class, presence, quality, style or charm. This superior air distinguishes their every movement. They are sought after because of their speed, beauty and strength. But again, the Kittlesons weren’t breeding ordinary Saddlebred horses. They bred golden American Saddlebreds, making them not only incredibly unique, but incredibly rare.

“We exported horses to Iran, Africa, South America, everywhere,” Kittleson recalled. “There aren’t many gold Saddlebreds.”

Dr. Kittleson remembers showing her horses (at one time their ranch had over 100) at state fairs and society shows every weekend. Often her family would travel across the state and across the country with the horses – literally. Her resourceful father (who built every building on the clinic grounds, including both houses) remodeled an old highway post office into a horse van that included enough room for six people and six horses to travel comfortably.

Horses were a large portion of her life during her childhood, as were the many dogs and cats that she ran with every day. Sharing her parents’ love for every four-legged creature, she decided at a very early age she wanted to work with them for the rest of her life.

Soon college beckoned and Kittleson couldn’t wait to begin pursuit of her career. After graduating from Iowa State University, she had the opportunity to attend the Animal Medical Center in New York, which, at the time, was the largest small animal hospital in the world. She completed her residency in Washington State and, following this, she only her dream of opening her own practice left to accomplish. However her idea was to treat both large and small animals and to do so required ample space, stables and pasture. Luckily there was one place that had all three.

Back home.

“My parents were excited about it,” she said. “It was something I had in mind the whole time. It worked out.”
She turned what was once Goldmount Stables when she was growing up into Goldmount Veterinary Center, caring primarily for small animals and horses with her five employees.

The massive clinic has 30 stalls, two equipped with cameras which feed directly into Kittleson’s bedroom, as well as one stall custom made for any contagious patients. There are two surgical rooms, one large padded room for large animals, and a separate chamber for smaller ones. Kittleson does a majority of her own lab work, having the capability of doing both X-rays as well as ultrasounds. The trophy room, which once housed a multitude of honors, became an office, with the trophy case modified into giant a medicine cabinet.
Like anyone of her profession, Kittleson said the hardest part of her job is putting animals down when there is simply no more that can be done for them. Conversely, sending them home with their owners gives her the greatest joy.

“The best part is sending the animals home health and the owners happy,” she said. “That makes it all worthwhile.”
On this day, she has done both. In the same hour as she sends a customer’s kitten home after it recovered from a dog bite, she was in the process of putting a horse down because of a stomach ailment.
“It’s hard,” she said. “You wish you can do more.”
Unlike human medical doctors, veterinarians, of course, do not have the luxury of simply asking their patient where the problem is. Consequently, Kittleson is part doctor, part detective.
“Sometimes it is a challenge figuring out the problem,” she said. “It’s part detective work. But animals don’t lie or exaggerate, so in some respects it might be easier.”

Unlikely patients

Being a small animal and horse veterinarian for the last 29 years doesn’t necessarily mean Kittleson has operated exclusively on cats, dogs and equestrians. She has treated everything from a sugar glider (a tiny gliding opossum from Indonesia maxing out at seven inches long) to a two-ton bull and even bears. Other exotic or unusual “pets” visiting her rural office have been birds, raccoons, tigers, monkeys, cougars, even a skunk.
“Skunks actually make pretty good pets,” Kittleson said. “That is, as long as you remove their scent gland.”
She has given hernia surgery to bulls weighing more than medium-sized sedans and has even de-clawed a bear. That one, she says, was a bit challenging.

“We didn’t know how to anesthetise a bear,” Kittleson said. “So we called up a zoo to figure it out. Everything went fine. We can handle most things here.”

The only major problem resulted not from a bull or mountain lion, but from a horse. According to Kittleson, she was giving a horse a spinal tap, which many can handle without too much aggression, however this particular one decided it was having nothing of it.

“When that needle hit its mark the horse did not like it at all,” she recalls. “It started bucking and kicking and managed to get out of the holding pen. A door to my office was opened and it managed to get in there. The needle was still in it so it kept kicking and ended up destroying the office. Finally it came back and calmed down a bit and we were able to settle it down.”

While the situation appears quite destructive, Kittleson easily finds the silver lining.

“The horse was never injured through it all,” she said. “Which was the best part. Plus we had an excuse to remodel the office. It needed it anyway.”

Looking back after 27 years of practice, Kittleson is satisfied. She continues to surround her practice/ranch/home with pets. Helping to keep customers company as they wait on news of their own animals are four dogs, 20 cats, five Saddlebreds and a cougar named “Sierra” obtained 13 years ago after the previous owners could no longer care for it.

“This has always been a passion for me,” the gentle veterinarian said. “I love every day.”

Horse advice from the vet:

Watch out for West Nile. While Kittleson hasn’t seen any cases of West Nile this year, that doesn’t mean the deadly disease has been eradicated. According to Kittleson, vaccination and early detection is key. “If caught early enough the disease can be treated,” she said. Initial symptoms include depression (hanging of the head), wobbly movements and jerky faces.

Keep out of the heat. With the recent heat wave gripping much of the country, horses have it especially rough. Kittleson said they should have plenty of water, shade and a nice breeze to help keep them cool. Salt is also essential as they are constantly sweating it out. “If they are locked in a barn with no breeze in these temperatures they are overheating,” she said. Kittleson also advises not to work or ride them until temperatures recede.