Milliron Monday: A Fairly Normal Monday 4 27 2020

Above: At Milliron Clinic, Dr. Smith at work. 10/21/2009

Abbott "Pete" Smith, D.V.M.

June 16, 1938 - February 22, 2010

“Everybody sends stuff here if they think they’re going to die.” Pete Smith, D.V.M.

Welcome to Milliron Monday where every Monday we celebrate the legacy of Pete Smith, D.V.M., and  Milliron: Abbott “Pete” Smith, D.V.M. The Biography (Monday Creek Publishing 2017). A graduate of Colorado State University and a well-known veterinarian in southeast Ohio, Dr. Smith continues to motivate and inspire. 

In his lifetime, Dr. Smith was often in the local news. Whether he was supporting the local Humane Society or interviewing about being a veterinarian, Dr. Smith always was a person of interest. He could tell a good story, usually a real-life event that only a veterinarian could encounter. 

On Monday, August 24, 1998, reporter Chris Vance of The Athens News, posted an article: Amesville vet has high-tech facility, low-tech manner. Dr. Smith interviewed that Monday about his state-of-the-art clinic equipment, including EKG machines, ultrasound equipment, and other specific equipment that other local clinics did not have...

     Abbott (Pete) Smith, D.V.M., cut carefully into the dog’s abdominal area, daubing the blood that seeped from the wound. Then he slipped his fingers inside the cut, probing with a faraway look in his eyes, seeing by touch. A few minutes later, the dog was being sewn up and wheeled away to recover from heavy sedation. It was a fairly normal Monday. Smith would be in and out of surgery until 10 that night.

     “Everybody sends stuff here if they think they’re going to die,” said Pete Smith, who founded his Milliron Clinic on Ohio Rt. 550 near Albany in 1968. While other veterinarians have a regular core of patients, Smith gets about 40 percent of his clients through referrals and earns the most income from surgery and internal medicine, with a smaller percentage in vaccinations.

     Many of Smith’s referrals may come about because of his technological capabilities. Since his facilities are equipped to care for horses, he has many sophisticated toys that he can use to diagnose and operate on cats and dogs.

     “Because of the horses, we have a lot of specific equipment,” he confirmed. This includes X-ray machines, EKG machines, automated blood work machines, fluid therapy, dentistry facilities, ultrasound machines and the capability to do orthopedic work. It also includes a facility that has nearly 10,000 square feet of floor space, a straw-covered recovery room for horses, and grounds to bury dogs, cats and horses (the latter with the assistance of a backhoe). Smith said that Milliron is the only facility in Athens County that does cremations.

     Besides providing a burial service for animals, Smith uses the Milliron Clinic farm to raise feed and uses his own animals – a gang of lethargic cats that lounge about his waiting room – as blood donors. “They work, say, 15 minutes a year,” he said.

     Though Smith used to do house calls, he stopped about 10 years ago as the demand went down. Also, it sometimes was difficult to collect payment after working on the farm all day. Another factor in cutting out farm calls was travel expenses. In the most extreme cases, Smith made calls to Canada and once to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he cared for participants in “The Wonderful World of Horses” show in the mid-1970s.

     Smith works most with racehorses, but also sees some trail and work horses.

     “I probably don’t have any client that’s responsible for one-tenth of one percent of my income. If somebody gets mad at you, you can still survive,” he said wryly.

     Milliron seems to gain many of its patients by doing what many other clinics lack equipment to do, such as bone plating, at competitive prices. Smith maintained that his clinic charges a fraction of what the Ohio State University Veterinary College would want for such an operation. He noted that major operations such as horse colic surgery, which takes nearly 100 gallons of IV fluid, is often half the price of other clinics because Milliron’s rural setting and the lower standard of income hereabouts.

     “I wanted a college town with pretty scenery and cheap land,” Smith said of his decision to come to Athens County from Southeastern Colorado in 1963. “I came to Athens and never regretted it.”

     The afternoon was waning, and it was time for Smith to go back to work after a short nap on his cot in the back office. He explained that he caught a nap so he “could still form complete sentences by eight o’clock in the evening.” As the door opened to the car outside he stepped forward, blood from surgery still present on his scrubs. “Be kind,” he said. “This is what I do for a living.”

Have a great week ahead.

Connect with Gina

Amazon Author Page

Milliron: The Biography

www.gmcknight.com

www.mondaycreekpublishing.com

Through captivating, powerful, and emotional anecdotes, we celebrate the life of Dr. Abbott P. Smith. His biography takes the reader from smiles to laughter to empathy and tears. Dr. Smith gave us compelling lessons learned from animals; the role animals play in the human condition, the joy of loving an animal, and the awe of their spirituality. A tender and profound look into the life of a skilled veterinarian.