Healthy live-stock, happy farmers: Meet Dr. Pollock at Highview Animal Hospital

The days of country doctors making house calls may be all but forgotten. But you can still find Dr. Tom Pollock of Highview Animal Hospital on the job and in the field in rural Parkersburg and the surrounding area. His patients may be quadrupeds, but he keeps the tradition of the country doctor alive, working long hours to keep the livelihood of farmers healthy and the people of Iowa fed.
     On a Sunday afternoon at Ray Haupt’s dairy farm in rural Wellsburg a cow named Alaska had a displaced abomasum following calving and stood in an end stall awaiting surgery. Dr. Pollock arrived and laid out his surgical tools. He disinfected the area, covered the surrounding hide, sanitized his hands, and put on a sleeve glove that reached up his arm to his shoulder.
     The farmer’s daughter held Alaska steady as Pollock injected a local anesthetic. It’s important that the cow doesn’t feel pain and struggle during the surgery. Pollock made the incision. He reached his arm in and corrected the placement of the abomasum, the cow’s fourth stomach. Then he sutured it in place and closed the incision.
     Today, Alaska is as good as new. Pollock has tended to the veterinary needs of Haupt’s cattle for the past 16 years.
 
Read more in next week’s Ag Tab.