The State of Veterinary Medicine from Where I Stand by Dr. Elizabeth Holland Wow! The kindness in the wake of being named the Iowa Veterinarian of the Year blew me away. Thank you! It was a surprise and honor to be acknowledged in that way and a true joy to have my family surprise me in Ames. Veterinary medicine is a profession I love. It is my great joy each day to observe the wonder of our relationship with animals. I love the challenge of combining education, healing and science to solve problems. But even more, I love the connection with my clients. I love finding common ground, laughing together, and having positive interactions. Almost as amazing is working with our team of individuals that care just as much as I do. They care about each patient, each client and each other and we keep each other going when things are tough at work or at home! How lucky am I!?

I’m not gonna lie, having a “new-to-us” vet (yay Dr. Powers!) start this Spring has had me feeling nostalgic. Today is actually my 13th anniversary of starting at Adel Veterinary Clinic. How lucky I was to land in this great clinic with a fantastic team and amazing mentor, Dr. Pat Rohret!? Each day, I work to continue the excellent medicine with a good helping of small-town charm that attracted me to this place in the first place.

As a designated Cat-Friendly Practice®, it is our mission to implement the highest standards of care and stay up-to-date on best practices in feline medicine. We are constantly learning more about these amazing animals and as we do, our care and approach change.

It is with sadness that we announce the departure of Dr. Scott Beeman from Adel Veterinary Clinic. After 10 years of service, he and his family will be moving to Duluth, MN and we wish them all the best. Dr. Beeman shares the following:

I feel like if you know us very well, none of what I have to say will surprise you. But today, I want to say it again anyway. We have an AMAZING team. These people love animals. They love people. And they WORK SO HARD! What you may not know is that every member of our veterinary team is underpaid, overworked and at real risk for compassion fatigue. We face death, financial challenges and heartache daily… and this, of course, was before COVID 19. Without a doubt, these individuals have a calling to serve. They are skilled in a way that could be far more lucrative in a whole host of ways, but they choose to help your pets. The other piece I need to share is how AMAZING our clients are. I know we aren’t the cheapest vet clinic in the world. I struggle with this daily. It eats at my heart and gut that we must charge for our services when every member of our team would rather do it all for free.

For those of you that don’t know already, I never even considered becoming a vet until I was almost out of college. I always thought I would be a human medical doctor. As a third year pre-med student I had a chance encounter with an injured German Shepherd and his owner and a light bulb went off in my head. I could work with people AND help animals! Since then, veterinary medicine has become my home. In it I can combine the challenge and rewards of being a scientist, a healer and a teacher. Add to that a small business owner, an active community member and (hopefully) a positive role model for my team members- I love it!

With the newly released FDA report regarding dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and boutique pet foods, we feel compelled to speak out publicly for the health and safety of our patients. In the last ten years, the pet food industry has shifted dramatically. One of the changes we have seen is a move toward popular “grain-free” diets or diets containing exotic proteins or other ingredients involving peas, potatoes, lentils and legumes for dogs. Multiple studies have shown that these diets are not nutritionally superior nor is there a correlation between allergies and grains. However, excellent marketing campaigns have understandably swayed pet owners.

I had a particularly difficult goodbye at the clinic last week. It was actually an ideal situation in many of the ways we would hope for; Bubba was old, Bubba was loved beyond measure and the Bubba’s health was rapidly declining. Regardless of all of that, getting the message that it was “time” grabbed me in the throat. My very young son taught me so poignantly about “throat pain” when he said his “throat hurt” when our cat died and I realize now that when the tears well up, it TRULY does hurt in my throat. What the heck!?

At Adel Veterinary Clinic we have veterinarians and team members committed to staying up-to-date on the latest in all aspects of small animal veterinary medicine. We pride ourselves in having an open mind, doing our own research and using a broad scope of resources to make our opinions. One of the most common (and complicated) questions we answer is what food should we feed our pets. Nutrition is certainly a vast and complicated subject and not one that we spent a lot of time on in veterinary school. It has (rightly or wrongly) also been debated that large food companies are often behind the education we did receive.