(upbeat music) - And welcome back to "A SHOT OF AG."

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth-generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

I had a podcast that turned into an XM Radio show, which turned into a television show, which led me to here.

But today is not about me, today is about Dr. Kimberly Stevens.

- Hello.

- Is it Doc Kim?

- Sure, whatever you wanna call me.

- What do your friends call you?

- Dr. Kim.

- Dr. Kim?

- Mm-hm - Okay, all right, because somebody wrote down Kimberly, so now I'm confused.

- That's okay.

(both laughing) - How have you been?

- I've been good.

We've been really busy at the clinic, things are going well.

So, things are good.

- We did a podcast with you, and it's cool, since you live around Galva, that you were able to come to the studios at Bradford.

So, it's the second time that you and I have got to do an interview in-person.

- Yeah.

- It's a big deal for me.

(both laughing) - It is nice being geographically close to people that you enjoy and get along with and have same interests.

- Well, I wouldn't go that far.

- Oh, boy.

(both laughing) - All right, your veterinarian service, Stevenson?

- Stevens.

- Stevens Veterinarian Service, where's that at?

- It is in Galva Hometown, Galva, Illinois.

- [Rob] Okay, and it's yours?

- It is mine.

- [Rob] That's a big deal.

- Yep, I bought it when I was 29, and it was the most terrifying thing I've ever done.

- The 29 is awful young to have your own vet clinic, isn't it?

- It is, yeah.

Typically, you're an associate for at least five to 10 years, but two years out of school.

- Two years?

- Mm-hm.

- What'd you?

Did you just strong arm?

Everybody else out of town?

- No, I think my mentor just had a vision and went with it, and I wasn't necessarily on board to begin with, but- - I'd say in two years, were you ready for it?

- My mentor is very good about telling me the dos and don'ts of not only business life, but also working with clients.

And so, yeah, we'd seen a lotta cases and I have a lotta other mentors that I call on pretty frequently, and peers that I call on just to make sure we're in line 'cause I'm not practicing with anybody else.

I'm the only doctor in my practice.

So, yeah.

- All right, let's go way back.

- Yep.

- You grew up on a farm?

- I did, yes, we had sows and we had dairy cows.

We stopped having sows about 1999, dairy cows about the same time, so... - Well, for people that aren't in the hog industry, you stopped one year too late.

- Yeah.

- (laughs) If you would've stopped in let's say '97, life would have been a lot better.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, it got pretty rough.

- It was, it was tough and the dairy industry was tough at that time too, so we just started having feeder cattle and then when I bought the practice, we actually sold all the feeder cattle as well.

So, we're just a row crop farm now.

- Okay, did you always wanna be a vet?

- I did, I can remember sitting in the parlor while my grandpa was milking and telling him that I wanted to be a vet.

And he said, "I did too at one point," but he is still farming.

He's 92 years old, my grandma's 91 years old, they've been married for 71 years- - [Rob] Really!

- And have grown a great life together.

But yeah, it just didn't work out for him to be a vet, but it's nice to be doing his dream and my dream all together.

- So, when you told him, "Grandpa, I'm gonna be a vet," he's probably just, like, patting you on the head, that's sweet.

- Yeah.

- But you followed completely through with it.

- I did, yeah.

- Do you ever wanna be anything else?

- I didn't, I never went through that stage of, "Yeah, I'm gonna be a Disney princess and then I'm gonna be a firefighter."

- [Rob] It's overrated.

- Yeah.

- They don't get paid that much.

- Disney princesses?

- You'd think if you're the princess, you'd be living all right, I don't see them living in air-conditioned castles.

- They do have a big castle though.

- Who cares?

I don't think half of them have plumbing in 'em.

- Yeah.

- Okay, focus.

- Okay, got it.

(both laughing) - So, from a little girl, was it because you had animals on the farm or was it because a vet would come to the farm?

- When I was little, I don't remember a veterinarian coming very often.

We did a lot of our own stuff, vaccinating, working the calves, dehorning.

We did a lot of that stuff ourselves.

If there was a big emergency, we would have a veterinarian out.

And Doc Dickinson was great, but he wasn't necessarily super-personable with the children, so I didn't really get a whole lot of interaction with him.

He was one of those like own-to-business guys that came and fixed what he needed to fix then left.

But, I don't know, I just really enjoyed animals, which is what everybody says, but there was some cases that our family had that couldn't be fixed, and so, I just felt like maybe more could have been done.

- Okay, that's great that you wanted to be one, but I know veterinarian school used to be over conservative, to get in, the competitiveness was crazy.

- Yeah.

- Is it still that way?

- It is, very much so, yeah.

So there's 32 veterinary schools in the country.

- [Rob] That's it?

- Yeah, when you think of MD schools or medical human schools, there are hundreds of them.

And so, the year I applied to veterinary school, there was 1,500 kids that applied, or students that applied, and there was 120 spots at the University of Illinois.

- Whoa, 1,500 applied?

- Mh-hmm.

- And how many got in?

- 120.

- And you were one of them?

- It turns out, I don't know why.

- Did you?

- I didn't push them any cash, no.

- Okay, are you really smart?

- No, no, I went to Blackhawk College first here in Kewanee, and Dan Hoe always tells the story, 'cause I go back and I guest-lecture, and he always tells a story to students that I was not a curve-setter, but I was involved in pretty much anything that you can be involved in.

So, I didn't have bad grades, but my grades definitely were not 4.0, but being involved in a lotta extracurricular things, judging teams, activities on campus, all of those things are super-important for your application process.

- Well, not everybody knows Blackhawk school.

There's one in Kewanee, there's one somewhere else, too.

- In Moline, - Moline, but it's a smaller school, a junior college, but nationally known when it comes to livestock, judging, that type of thing.

- Yap, livestock, soil team does really well as well.

The horse-judging team, horseshow team is also nationally known.

We just got accredited for a new veterinary technology center, so we are graduating now veterinary technicians, pretty much anything to do with the agriculture industry, we have a niche for, or a degree for at Blackhawk College.

And I sit on the board of trustees, and so, I'm pretty well entwined with the day-to-day activities of Blackhawk, and really am compassionate about that school and that campus.

- Do you think that helped you get into U of I?

- None of my recommendations... Well, actually, one of my recommendation letters did come from a teacher at Blackhawk College, and he is a University of Illinois graduate as well.

So that always helps to pick your references very carefully and strategically.

- I went to Southern myself.

- How was that?

Sukis?

Is that right?

- Sukis.

- Sukis?

- You're a veterinarian.

- Is that a dog?

- Saluki!

- Saluki?

What is it?

- What?

- It's a dog, right?

Like a Husky.

- Isn't this what you do for a living?

- No, they're Siberian Huskies.

- No, they're Egyptian racing dogs.

- Oh.

(both laughing) - Starting to double-guest this.

- I didn't know I had to know Egypt stuff, too.

- Well, they are... We'll move on, we'll move on.

(both laughing) - Why does a school in Illinois have an Egyptian dog as their mascot?

- Because reasons, I don't know.

- Okay, all right, we're moving on.

- You chief line, I don't know, you don't even have a mascot anymore.

- Well, that's not Illinois' fault.

- Okay, that one, we're not gonna get into that.

No, please do not email me or the station, 'cause I was a Saluki, I don't really care.

- An Egyptian dog.

(both laughing) - So you go to U of I, you do graduate.

- Mm-hm.

- And then what happens?

- So, I have a few job opportunities.

Actually in veterinary school, you have the option to track either large animal, mixed animal, small animal, and I decided to track large animal through my fourth year.

And so I went all over the country, looking at dairy cows and working with dairy cows, and I really wanted to be a dairy cow veterinarian.

In 2010, when I graduated, the milk prices and the dairy industry were not good, and so, what my plan was, did not work out.

I really wanted to join a practice that I'd spent a lot of time with in Wisconsin.

And they, unfortunately, decided that it was not a good time to add another partner into the practice.

They had already eight veterinarians, and with milk prices declining rapidly, wasn't great for them, but- - You don't wanna be in Wisconsin, anyway.

- I love Wisconsin, it's beautiful.

- Cheese and fireworks, that's all they got.

- And brats!

- Well, I say Illinois brats can compete with them any day.

- Yeah, so I had a couple of job opportunities here in Illinois, but I decided to go back to my hometown, which was the best decision I ever made.

So, yeah, I joined Galva Regional Veterinary Services, and my mentor is Dr. Coleen Lewis and she owned the practice at that time.

Had a really nice practice.

- But that's cool though, right?

'Cause you went back to work with your mentor.

- Mm-hm, I did, yep.

- For two years?

- Yep.

- And then she didn't like working with you, so she left.

- That could be part of it, (laughs) - No, seriously, what did happen?

- So, she actually was the person that designed the Veterinary Technology degree, and the building at Blackhawk College, and so she left practicing general medicine to pursue that at Blackhawk College.

She is the Head Veterinarian at Blackhawk College now.

She also runs a bovine embryo transfer business, tuition, genetics and has been successful there as well.

- Okay, so you've got your own vet service?

- Mm-hm.

- What is it?

Is it big animals, small animals, mixed?

- Yeah, it's a mix, so we are classified as a mixed-animal practice, which means we see small animals, which are dogs and cats, and we see pocket pets, which are hamsters and gerbils and- - Pocket pets?

- Pocket pets.

- I've never heard that before.

- They can fit in your pocket.

- Oh.

- Hedgehogs can also fit in your pocket and are called pocket pets, but I would not advise it.

- Well, it depends on how big of a pocket you got.

- That's true.

- You get those kangaroos, right?

- Yeah, they're not pocket pets.

(both laughing) And then we see large animals too.

So, horses and cows and pigs and sheep and goats, and all that fun stuff.

- So, how does that break up?

Half-and-half?

- Yeah, in my practice, it is about half-and-half.

Revenue-wise, large-animal brings in a little bit more than small-animal, but, yeah.

- I would have guessed the opposite.

- Yeah, and most people do, but you think of a bottle of medicine though, so like a 100 mil bottle of an antibiotic for a pig producer can be up to $500.

Now, that's not all revenue, or it's not all profit for me, but just the medications are just so much more expensive, that if you break up gross revenue, it's- - I hope that it comes in a plastic bottle.

- It comes in a glass bottle and a plastic.

- What is wrong with them?

- I don't know.

(Rob laughing) But it does have a plastic covering over it.

- Well, yeah, it better come with its own body guard for 500 bucks.

- And bubble-wrap, and yeah.

- And that's like an injectable?

- It is.

- Okay, so take me through the small-animal side of it, right?

Because I think that's what most people know, right?

So you have people bring... Is it like the vets on TV, I guess is what I'm trying to ask.

- It is, it absolutely is.

The really neat thing that people don't necessarily realize if they're not used to the veterinary industry, is we are like a little hospital inside of a building.

So my building's only 2,500 square feet, but in that building, obviously, I have my exam rooms, but I can draw blood from a patient there in the clinic and get results.

I have a blood work machine that gives me results in eight minutes.

So I can pop that blood sample in, and it will analyze kidney, liver, pancreas, bone marrow function, all of that, in the clinic.

I brought my ultrasound today.

It is smaller than some of the bigger clinic's ultrasounds 'cause we take this out on the farm as well.

But that is how big our ultrasound is and I'm able to take it out on the farm.

And so I can do cattle or I can do small animals in the clinic.

And then we have a digital x-ray as well, so we can take x-rays and get results in six seconds.

- So on the screen area, this is what you put?

- So that goes in the tuckus of a cow.

- Okay, I wish I would've known that before.

- I cleaned it.

- Did you?

- Yeah, I cleaned it just for you.

- Yeah.

(Dr. Kimberly laughing) It's kind of cool.

- Yeah, it's really neat.

♪ Do you remember ♪ (Dr. Kimberly laughing) ♪ Don't worry ♪ But you're saying quit playing with my- - No, I don't think it works like that.

No, I don't care.

- Can you drop this thing?

- Yeah.

- Okay, let's not do that, though.

- No, let's not.

- That's a lot of buttons.

- It is a lot of buttons.

- This probably wasn't cheap.

- It was not, no.

- Okay, but do you- - But I have insurance on it so you can drop it, I suppose.

- Do you feel like it's worth it?

- Oh yeah, mm-hm.

So I can preg-check cattle down to 28 days.

And at 28 days, the embryo is the size of a green pea.

- [Rob] Really?

- Yeah, so I can scan the cow's uterus with that.

- And that's by, (whistles) - Mm-hm.

- Yeah, okay, the things you get to learn.

But this is probably revolutionary for a veterinarian.

- Yeah, hand-palpating, when I was doing hand-palpating without the ultrasound, 33, 35 days, which doesn't sound like that big a deal, but if you're in a dairy world where you can get a few more days to get the animal pregnant, it is huge.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- Huge.

- I can imagine.

Do most vets have something like this?

- I think that most large-animal veterinarians do.

Small-animal vets have a huge ultrasound machine that you would see, like in a human hospital, but those are way more expensive than my little IBEX, but he does perfect for what I need.

- Because I kind of remember, this is going back to when we had hogs, this is like in maybe the late '80s, early '90s, they had one, it was huge and it was not very good.

This thing pretty clear?

- Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it's very nice.

- Do you ever play with it on people and just see what's going on inside?

- No, you're not supposed to do that.

- Legally?

- Correct, we can't do animal or human medicine.

- Well, I didn't say you were gonna prescribe anything or something like that, but it's like, "Hey, you wanna see your liver?"

That's like a party trick or something.

- You know the best party trick ever?

- I would love to know, (laughs) - So we have a drug in veterinary medicine called apomorphine, that comes in like a little pill and you dissolve it in water, and then put it as an eye drop in the dog's eyes and it starts them to vomit.

It makes them vomit.

- That sounds like a lot of fun.

- It is a lot of fun.

It's the weirdest thing when you tell owners, their face is exactly like what we were doing.

And then they're like, "That is so cool."

And I just think it's a fun party trick, can you imagine?

- For you or the dog?

- For the dog, 'cause he ate something he shouldn't have.

And then you put the little eye drop, and out it comes.

It's wonderful.

- Oh, whether he wants to or not.

- That is true.

- Okay.

(both laughing) Again, we would never use that on people.

- No, mm-mm, nope.

(both laughing) - Okay, getting a little more serious here.

It is tough, I would imagine.

You're a veterinarian, and you have someone bringing in a cat or dog.

And they love 'em, right?

They love them, these are our kids, we love this animal so much.

You have to tell 'em, "What we saw on the test is not good."

That's gotta be hard to do.

- It is, but I do find that people really appreciate, not necessarily bluntness, but not beating around the bush.

People know, and I wear my expressions on my face and my clients know that.

So, when I walk back into the room, people know that they're not gonna be probably getting good news.

But it's really important to give clients all their options.

So, if you're diagnosing a dog with cancer, there's a fabulous cancer center down here in Peoria.

There's a lotta referral centers, and most people just want the dog to have a good quality of life for the life it's got left.

So being able to help our clients through that is super, super-important.

And I think they really appreciate that part of our practice that we follow, we're happy to see new puppies, but we really try to care for those older dogs and those older patients.

- I remember, I asked you on the podcast, how many times did you come back to someone and say, this is what your pet needs to survive, and it costs this much and them not being able to come up with it.

And I was shocked that you said it had not happened.

- Yeah, people always do talk about, that it is a lot of money, and it is.

You think about taking a dog to surgery, and taking all of its intestines out and finding what he ate and why he's vomiting, that is a very technical surgery.

And then keeping them overnight for several nights until they're eating and drinking and urinating and defecating on their own, the costs do build up.

But once you explain what the cost is and why the cost is so high, people understand that.

They get friends and rally together and they come up with the money.

- Because you've got to keep the doors open.

- Right.

- You gotta pay the power bill, you've got employees.

- Yeah.

- So it is a business.

- It is, and I think that people understand that, but there are a few people that I do have to remind, and I'll point right at my employees and say, "She has four kids at home."

- Oh, that's good.

What're they gonna say to that?

- Well, yeah.

- (chuckles) I get it, because I've been shocked by vets too, right?

It's something wrong with the dog and then you get the bill, and (whistles) Wow, that's high.

- Yeah, well, and I think that as humans we're so used to the human healthcare system, where it's insurance and a small co-pay when you go see your doctor, but insurance pretty much takes care of the rest.

And then you might get your bill in the mail later.

But it's after the fact that you're like, oh golly, now you do have to fill.

- Then we forget about all those feelings.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Oh, we're so happy that Spot is alive, but then you get the bill.

It's like, "Oh, that veterinarian."

Tell me about, "Not One More Vet."

- So, "Not One More Vet" was started when a very world-renowned veterinarian, Dr. Sophia Yen committed suicide.

She was in California.

She was an animal behavioralist, she was absolutely wonderful.

I wish I would've known her, personally, I didn't, but she wrote a lot of books, did a great job with veterinary behavior.

And when she committed suicide, it really opened up the world's eyes to the fact that veterinarians struggle.

And we have a lot of struggles with our profession.

And so, "Not One More Vets" was formed.

And there's support groups, and there's a 800 number, there's websites.

There's a lot of different resources out there for veterinarians that are struggling.

- I didn't know this until I met you.

Because I think a lot of people see a veterinarian, and like you said, that's what everybody wants to do.

So you should be on top of the world.

But it's not always that way.

- It's not, and especially with social media right now, man, you get beat up a lot on social media.

It's really easy for someone to be upset, either with a diagnosis, or upset with a bill, or upset with whatever.

And man, they just get on their phone and start their little thumbs goin' and a lot of veterinary suicides are contributed to social media.

- I also remember you talkin' about how, like, if you do an operation or something, you're there.

You feel like you can't walk away from your veterinarian service.

- Yeah.

- Have you gotten any better at that?

- No, not at all, actually.

(both laughing) Yeah, no, I had a non-client today, even, that called and said their dog was really sick and I just had prior commitments.

And it's hard to say no to those people because that's why we're in this profession, is we wanna help, and we wanna be there.

- Yeah, but you gotta have a life too.

- I know, I'm gettin' better at it, but it's practice.

- I'm not sure if I believe you.

- Yeah, well, I am getting better.

- It did open my eyes because, yes, my dog is dying, I take it to you, it has an operation, that dog means so much, right?

And that's on you, and I see that now.

I see that that's an unfair pressure, really, for the veterinarian.

- Yeah, but your successes are really fun, too.

And when your clients bring you cookies and things like that, that's always great.

But yeah, like you were saying earlier, if I do do an operation on a dog, and that dog does stay overnight or even if it's just sick and it stays overnight, I do stay with that patient overnight, because I would want my pet to be stayed with.

- Okay, I would like to see you delegate more.

As a friend, I would.

- Yeah, but I think it's unfair to put your staff in that position because what if the dog starts crashing in the middle of the night?

- Not everything's rainbows and unicorns, that's your line, not mine.

- That's true.

- Okay.

- Yeah, and I'm just not there in my career yet.

I am to the point where I only see my own client emergencies.

And that was a tough decision.

But if I saw every single person that called, I would be working 24/7.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So between 5:00 p.m and 8:00 a.m, I only see my client emergencies.

There's emergency clinics in the Quad Cities and Peoria that can take those cases.

- Where can people find you on social media and stuff?

- Yeah, we're on Facebook under "Stevens Veterinary Clinic."

- And be nice.

- Please.

(both laughing) - I could see it, right?

Because we are in a culture where everybody just, it's so quick to complain, right?

"I don't agree with that bill," or "I took my dog to a veterinarian, my dog still died, or my dog had to be put down."

And it is life.

And I think sometimes people forget the life-and-death cycles.

It's not all rainbows and unicorns.

- Yeah, I even had a kid, this was a couple months ago, that he was riding his bike behind my truck as I was getting into my truck at night, and he yelled at me, "You killed my dog!"

I'm like, that's a great way to end the day.

And he's eight or nine.

- He was ridin' behind your truck?

- Well, as I park at the clinic, so he was riding- - Oh, I was gonna say, hit the brakes.

- Yeah, I know, but it's just so hard 'cause that came from, obviously, anger from his parents.

- Yeah, still, yes.

I would love for you to be able to separate yourself from it a little bit more.

I say that as from someone looking outside, someone who's your friend.

But yeah, I can imagine how tough it is.

- It is, and I do take things.

Like I said, I wear my emotions on my sleeves and I take things very personally.

But I've also come back to my hometown, knowing that I'm gonna know every Tom, Dick, and Harry that I see.

- (laughs) It is Galva.

- It is Galva.

- (laughs) Oh, well, I'm really glad you came here.

Dr. Kimberly Stevens, Dr. Kim.

Yes, thank you for coming on, and to everybody else, we hope you catch us next week.

(upbeat music)