While You’re Here Doc, Farmyard Adventures of a Maine Veterinarian by Bradford B. Brown, DVM, published by Tilbury House at www.tilburyhouse.com

What an excellent title for this book, as all large animal veterinarians have heard these dreaded words. Each chapter in this book illustrates how a well-scheduled day can easily be ruined by this unscheduled work. It is said that the great Dr. Delano Proctor of Lexington, KY, put a sign over the door of his new barn, which read, “While You’re Here Doc.” When asked why that sign, he replied, “Because that’s how I got the money to build it.”

If you use James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small as the highest standard (score of 10) for veterinary memoirs, then I would rate this book as an 8. My large animal practice experience in Maine began in 1972, which corresponds with the time of some of Dr. Brown’s stories. Therefore, I can affirm that the characters described in these stories exist in Maine without any need of embellishing.

The September 2006 issue of Downeast Magazine an excerpt from Chapter 7. The article was entitled “All Creatures Vicious and Vile” and included selected passages about the pet monkey, Watson.

Even though the characters, animals, and stories are both humorous and compelling, the veterinary medicine is not always accurate. The most glaring example of this point is on page 33 (Ch. 5, “The Horse with the Broken Leg”). Dr. Brown took x-rays of the horse’s “injured front leg” and diagnosed “a simple fracture of the tibia” and a “dislocation of the medial patellar ligament” which are both anatomically located in the hind legs.

His additional comments about the Ruffian tragedy were certainly not based on any real insightful knowledge or experience with equine orthopedics. About 31 years ago Ruffian, the greatest female racehorse of all time, fractured her proximal sesamoid bones in her right front leg during a race. Dr. Brown stated on page 34 that while “only conjecturing,” he believed that Ruffian could have been saved by surgery. He then stated that the insurance money may have been the determining factor in her fate. A quick Google of Ruffian racehorse turns up a Wikipedia article which states that Ruffian underwent an emergency surgery that lasted twelve hours. Unfortunately, during her recovery in a padded stall, she thrashed so violently that she caused catastrophic damage to her leg. She was euthanized for humane reasons.

On May 20, 2005, during the Preakness Stakes race, Barbaro suffered a catastrophic fracture of his right hind leg. Only by an unprecedented Herculean effort, with some very good luck, has the University of Pennsylvania Widener’s Intensive Care Unit been able to keep Barbaro alive to this point. Indeed, on January 9, 2007, Barbaro received additional surgery and continues to be hospitalized. Updates on Barbaro’s condition are available at http://www.vet.upenn.edu/barbaro.

In general, the veterinary medicine described in these stories has been overly simplified for story telling. Readers need to understand that these simplified treatments do not constitute the current standards of care in veterinary medicine. Dr. Brown suffered a stroke in 2003 and was assisted in writing this book by his oldest daughter, which may explain some of the problems with accuracy. Nevertheless, the difficulties and rewards of practicing large animal veterinary medicine in the Maine climate with the unique Maine clientele is very well illustrated and well worth the reading.