Flies swarming in heavy heat or dirt lodged in gritty teeth — it's hard to pick the most unbearable element of Tommy Reece's workplace.
Behind the stalls and chutes at the horse auction in Mountain View, Reece and his crew of four note the unfavorable conditions and get to work anyway.
There are almost 200 horses headed to the auction block this afternoon, and the group has to get blood from about half of them.
"This gets to be a tag team operation," Reece said, garbed in one of his trademark blue jump suits, loading test tubes of blood samples into his portable centrifuge. "Some of us are bleeding, some of us are drawing, some of us are handling, and then we have to go back and finish up the paperwork."
In Southwest Oklahoma, where agriculture is a way of life, large-animal veterinarians like Reece are as important to business as an auditor is to a bank.
Whether testing horses for equine infectious anemia or consulting herd managers on keeping their stock healthy, or even keeping current with the latest practices of the trade, the Tipton based veterinarian does not have to strain to stay busy.
"It's different every day," he said. "You never know what's going to appear."
Even routine blood work at the horse auction can get messy, and just as it looks like the day's work in Mountain View may be coming to a close, a raucous bronco steps into the corral.
Later determined to be a former bucking horse at area rodeos, the horse revolts against its handlers and smashes loudly against the rails, staring down the doctor and his mysterious needle.
Working together to restrain the animal, Reece and his crew just barely avoid having to dip into the heavy tranquilizer case as they attempt to draw the horse's blood.
"If you're looking for a culprit, it's whoever owned him and didn't break him," Reece said. "But broke or not, I have to get a blood sample."
At this auction and at auctions in Wichita Falls and Stephenville, Texas, Reece tests the horses to make sure they aren't carrying an infectious disease that could potentially wipe out a herd.
Like many large-animal veterinarians, Reece has worked with animals since his boyhood days.
Raised on his family's farm in Tipton, just down the street from the site of his current home and office, Reece said it wasn't until his final semester of college at Cameron University in Lawton that he picked his career.
"I had to make a decision, so I guess having to enroll for the fourth semester is what decided it," he said. "But it's something that was always in the back of my mind."
He earned a bachelor's degree in animal science at Cameron, and in 1980, after six years at Oklahoma State University, he obtained his doctorate in veterinarian medicine.
Since then, Reece said, a lot hard work and a lot of continuing education helped him maintain success in a career that is often overlooked by young graduates.
He said it's not the pay but the working conditions — long hours on the road and outside, with ample late-night calls and weekend herd projects — that scares most people from the job, though small animal vets generally do make more money.
"There's not a whole lot of people that do this, and that's by choice," Reece said. "People don't want to live in this kind of environment. And if you're going to work in this environment, then you just have to accept the hours. I just go wherever somebody calls me."
Reece also contributes to the science of animal doctoring by participating in research trials as well as sharing his knowledge and expertise with students.
Rick DeMars, who also lives in Tipton, said working as an assistant to Reece is helping him get some hands-on experience while he works through the veterinary technician program at Purdue University.
"When we're four or five hours on the road, that's four or five hours of classroom time," DeMars said. "Dr. Reece is a real good sounding board for some of the questions I have."
DeMars said he has learned that the job is about more than dealing with animals.
"Veterinary medicine is just as much about working with people," he said. "It's very challenging, but it's very satisfying at the end of the day. I would rather be outside on a cold, windy, wet day than sitting in an office."
Reece also works with a Future Farmers of America program and checks out some of the student's goats.
Reece said working hands-on with the herds and providing consulting for the herd managers is the most practical and essential part of his job. Sometimes that means helping with a pregnancy or conducting fertility tests and vaccinations, Reece said; but often it means, as it does now, checking on the herd's general welfare and condition and making treatment recommendations to the herd's owner.
"A manager has a full list of things on his plate," Reece said. "He doesn't have time to know, for example, whether or not the internal parasites in his herd are getting out of control. That's what a consultant does."
He said he will work with the herd manager to schedule a vaccination program, as well as to decide what product or medication works best in any given scenario.
"It's about knowing what syringe to pick up and when to pick it up," Reece said. "I'm supposed to be able to give that independently, without any bias."
With the FFA goats, Reece — with DeMars at his side — will conduct a simple visual test to determine whether they have roundworm.
"You do it simply by looking at the white of the eyes," Reece said. "The whiter it is, the more anemic they are."
DeMars said that just by looking at the goats an experienced veterinarian can see if there might be another, more serious, problem at hand.
"Just giving them a once-over you can make a quick, overall assessment of their health," he said. "Are they alert? Are they happy?"
Working together, the two hold open the eyelids of three of the goats and find the bulging white eyeball is indeed a little red.
"Looking at these three, yeah, we need to go de-worm these guys," Reece said.
But treatment is a combination of strategic treatment and management, Reece said, and he also suggests a little pasture rotation might help in the long run.
Reece said he is happy to provide some volunteer services for the Tipton FFA for a simple reason — he is an alumnus.
Heading back to the truck, Reece said he wouldn't change his job for the world.
He said he enjoys the challenging combination of hands-on research and medicine with the common sense that comes with being raised in rural Oklahoma.
"It's a rather unique combination of science applied to agriculture," he said.
___
Information from: The Lawton Constitution, http://www.lawton-constitution.com
