Local veterinarian Roger Bruce retired at the end of December from his practice on Orchard Road after nearly 30 years of business in San Benito County.
The animal doctor who offered services to companion animals along with large animals such as cattle or horses will be moving to Colorado.
In his years of serving the greater Hollister area, he has operated on an elk, camels, llamas, alpacas and once on a mountain lion. Once when the circus came through town, he made a diagnosis on an elephant.
The veterinary clinic started up under new ownership on Jan. 2, with Briar Cunningham as the veterinarian and Juan Pablo as the veterinary assistant.
Bruce reminisced on his time in San Benito before his departure in December. He recalled the time a dog owner dropped off a mutt that was part pitbull and part Catahoula hound dog while heading out of town for a duck hunt. The owner said the dog had been used as a pig dog for hunting and had sustained an injury recently.
“The pig got in at his loin and pulled it away,” Bruce said. “The backbone was showing. It had maggots in the wound when he got here.”
Bruce surmised the injury was not a new one, but he performed surgery and the dog survived. The owner never returned to get the dog. When another couple came in to the clinic to put their own companion dog to sleep, Bruce told them he had a dog for them when they were ready for a new pet.
“Today is not the day – it’s not the time,” he told them. “But when you are ready …”
But he said the dog saw its chance and cuddled up to the husband. The couple took her outside and threw a ball for her. The couple took her home that day. A few years later the dog was in an accident again, where it went over a cliff. The couple took it to an emergency veterinarian in Santa Cruz, where it was then transferred to an animal hospital in Davis.
“She got out of the hospital in Davis and had quite a life,” Bruce said.
On one of their last days in Hollister, Bruce and his wife Nancy, who served as a veterinary technician at his clinic, showed the new owners around the property. Greg Louis and Elizabeth Akers are purchasing the property, along with the custom-built clinic that includes the Bruces’ home on the second floor.
Bruce said the home was designed by his stepdaughter, Joanna Coch, while she was an architecture student at Cal Poly. He visited veterinary clinics to come up with a space that would be functional for both the business and home. When construction was completed in 1989, he said his clinic featured the first large animal surgery room with a hydraulic surgery table in the area.
Cunningham has 25 years of experience and started her career in Hollister when she worked as a relief vet for Bruce. She recently worked in the Sonora Foothills and as an emergency vet in Turlock. She and vet tech Pablo plan to offer on-call services so locals will not have to travel out of the county for emergency room visits.
“When I was an emergency doctor in Turlock, we had clients come from Los Banos because there was no place to go,” Cunningham said. “They can come here now.”
She said she is looking forward to watching the business grow and that she wants to make sure clients know the practice will remain open.
Like Bruce, she works with small animals, but has also dealt with some exotic patients through the years. She has done rehabilitation work with hawks and owls. She’s also sewn up a couple of boa constrictors, she said.
While Cunningham will run the practice, Louis and Ackers are looking forward to having more space to expand their nonprofit dog rescue. The couple rescues Rhodesian ridgebacks, a dog bred in Southern Africa for lion hunting. The two have rescued more than 2,000 of the dogs in 20 years.
“It’s going to be wonderful to have a place for them to play and run and be social,” she said.
Her oldest dog Makeetah, who is 12 and a half years old, would even climb trees when she was younger.
“We are really excited for the opportunity to continue (his) work and to continue to support large and small animals,” Louis said.
For information on the clinic or to make an appointment, visit http://www.ausaymasvet.com/ or call 637-0097.
