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“I’ve always enjoyed working with animals,” Gonzalez said, recalling as a child he would find weary animals and take them home in his native Puerto Rico. “I got myself in trouble for that.
“I think some people are born with it,” Gonzalez said. “It’s already in your blood before you realize it is there.”
Gonzalez, of Strandberg Veterinary Service in Alma Center, has been a veterinarian for 10 years.
While not the most glamorous job, it never ceases to keep Gonzalez guessing.
“Some days we get to do some pretty cool stuff,” he said. “Some days it is kind of boring.”
McNulty Farms
Gonzalez made a stop at McNulty Farms regarding a cow that wasn’t eating.
“For some reason, she’s just not feeling too good,” Gonzalez said.
If a farmer cannot be on site when Gonzalez arrives, they often leave a note or mark the cow that needs attention.
Gonzalez used his stethoscope to listen for abnormal sounds in the cow’s heart, lungs and stomach.
“This is to get an idea where the cow is at,” he said. “So we have a general picture of the animal.”
Hearing nothing unusual, Gonzalez checked the cow’s temperature.
While 98.6 degrees is ideal for humans, a cow’s temperature should fall between 99.5 and 101.5 degrees.
A temperature reading during the winter months can be considered reliable. That’s less so in summer, Gonzalez said, as hot barn conditions can abnormally raise a cow’s temperature.
The temperature of the cow at McNulty Farms was 100.6 degrees, “perfectly normal,” Gonzalez said.
Next is a rectal exam, during which Gonzalez explained one of the differences between human medicine and animal medicine: “When you go to the doctor, you behave yourself. The cows may not.”
The rectal exam also offered no clues. “She’s not giving me much to work with,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez decided the cow could benefit from a dose of laxative pills and an injection of B vitamins to stimulate its appetite.
Before administering the injection of B vitamins, Gonzalez gently tapped the cow’s hindquarters to prepare it for what is to come.
“They don’t even notice,” Gonzalez said.
He then gently stroked the cow’s head and offered a “good girl” before departing the barn.
Coming to Wisconsin
Gonzalez’s quest to become a veterinarian brought him to America’s heartland.
“Why not go to Wisconsin, the dairyland state?” Gonzalez asked himself when choosing a veterinary school.
It came at a cost: Tuition was between $80,000 to $100,000.
“A lot of us, for the first half of our careers, pay our student loans,” Gonzalez said. “At first, it’s hard.” He expects his loans will take about five more years to pay off.
“You got to do it because you love what you are doing,” Gonzalez said. “The money pays the bills, but there has to be something else.”
Another treatment
After checking in with the office, Gonzalez headed for the Roger Hansen farm to administer intravenous antibiotics to a pair of cows with mastitis, which is an infection of the mammary gland.
Gonzalez identified the cows in question and searched for the jugular vein.
“It’s a pretty good-size vein,” Gonzalez said. “It’s like a garden hose.”
“Got anything for me, for the flu?” Hansen asked.
“Sure, we can give you some stuff,” Gonzalez replied with a laugh. “You may not wake up tomorrow.”
Gonzalez visited two more farms that morning. He estimated he makes rounds at six to eight farms a day.
“Every day is different,” he said. “It depends on the calls that come in.“
Changing business
While Gonzalez’s work has remained the same throughout the years, the landscape of veterinary medicine has not.
“Over the last few years, we have been losing some farmers; they have been closing down,” Gonzalez said. “It’s sad to see. It’s too bad.”
But even as smaller farms close, larger farms continue to grow.
“We aren’t losing cow numbers,” Gonzalez said.
Of the hundreds of cows he treats each year, he performs about 150 to 200 “twisted stomach” surgeries.
“They are fairly common,” he said. “I consider myself a surgery-type of person. I enjoy doing surgeries.”
Although the hours are long, he isn’t becoming rich and the patients can sometimes be hard to work with, it’s easy to see why he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I like my job pretty much all the way through,” he said. “I enjoy it. You have to enjoy it to stick to it.”
