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Once an animal exhibitor, Ohioan now a fair veterinarian

By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

OWENSVILLE, Ohio — Not surprisingly, Dr. Brenda Specht was first in the gate at this year’s Clermont County Fair in Owensville. A call to tend to a sick calf and a lame horse at 2 a.m. sent her to the fairgrounds from her home in nearby Milford, Ohio.

Her work completed by 5:30 a.m., Specht sped back home for a little more sleep, but one hour later more calls came in from the barns at the fairgrounds. It was nearing weigh-in time on this opening day and her services were needed many more times before sunrise.

Specht is a veteran of the animal vet circuit (she’s been employed by the Bethel-Tate Veterinary Hospital the past 11 years) but she’s new to the county fair grind. This is her first full season as veterinarian at this county fair in southwestern Ohio.

“I’ve had just one hour of sleep,” Specht said with a good humor, as she squinted in the sunlight. “Wow, this is going to be tough. I’m busy from sunup to sundown. I’m on call 24/7 for the livestock animals in this county because there’s no emergency clinic for them in this area.”

She graduated from The Ohio State University in 1998. While she’s tended animals for the past 11 years, she’s been around the Clermont County Fairgrounds most of her life. Specht began showing her animals at this fair when she was eight years old. Her mother, Elaine, has marched in 39 out of the past 40 fair parades, missing the one when she was pregnant with Specht.

Did she ever imagine giving vet care to animals at a fair that she attended and exhibited at as a young girl? “Actually I did,” she said. “I was raised around goats, pigs, horses and chickens on our 30-acre farm. I was one of those kids who said they wanted to be a veterinarian someday. I made it happen.”

Her family auto serves as a mobile MASH unit for the animals at this fair. Needles, gauzes, syringes, medicine, bandages – you name it, Specht has it. “I’ve got all the supplies I need to handle animals at this fair, even the alpacas,” she said.

She was hoping to be a dog and cat vet. Her route was diverted early in her education.

“I tried to get into mixed animal practice, but there were no openings at the time,” Specht said. “Nowadays they’re looking for large production farm veterinarians as well as small farm animal veterinarians. I’m your small hobby farm vet, I guess.

“I can work with farms that have 30 to 40 horses, but I enjoy tending to farms that have just two to three horses or just eight to 10 farm animals. That’s my thing.”

In just 11 years of animal practice Specht has done it all, from delivering animal babies to mending broken bones – and with animals of all kinds: alpacas, pigs, goats, chickens. You name it, she’s given it treatment. She’s even used to euthanization.
“It’s not as tough as you might think, because the animal is suffering,” she said. “It’s harder to watch them die and not do anything about it. That’s the toughest part.”

The hardest part of this job, Specht says, are the long hours. “Yeah, the long hours is toughest and next in line are the people who don’t like what you tell them,” she said. “Sometimes it’ll cost them some money to fix their problems, but these fair people have to realize they don’t get to show their animal if they’re not healthy.”
Near the end of this interview Specht’s name is blared over the fair speaker. She has no time to waste and heads to another barn to tend to another ailing animal. She is desperately in need of sleep, but as the attending vet at this fair, sleep has to wait – and coffee just may get her through opening day.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun,” Specht said. “I have no regrets. It’s what I do.”

8/12/2009