Dr. Peter Vanderloo of Dodgeville – 1994

Dr.  Peter Vanderloo of Dodgeville – WVMA President 1994

Personal information

        I live in Dodgeville. My hometown is Washington, DC, where I was born and raised. I went to Iowa State because I was interested in veterinary medicine.

        When I was a young lad, family friends had a farm in northern Virginia, and I use to go to their farm on vacations. A teenager on a farm can do all the things he ever wanted to do. It was there I got interested in livestock and the livestock industry. I asked myself the question, "What can you do in combined science and livestock and know as much about livestock as possible?" Veterinary medicine seemed to be the answer.

         I was interested in veterinary school and went to Iowa State. While there, I met my wife, Jody, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in bacteriology. I started vet school in the fall of 1971 and graduated in the spring of 1975. While I was a senior veterinary student, I went to Dodgeville for two months on a preceptorship. While I was in Dodgeville I thought that it was really a nice town, but never gave any thought to ever going back. I had a 2 ½ year Army commitment after veterinary school, so I didn't think too much about practice.

        I was stationed in San Francisco from 1975 through 1978 and was in a pathology residency program there. I was very happy being a pathologist. I liked it. It was probably the one job that I was best at.

        I got a call one night from the guys in Dodgeville and they wanted to know if I was interested in a job. And I said, "Well it's too bad you called today, because a week ago I extended for a year. But if you're still looking for somebody in a year, give me a call." They called a year later. I was on orders to go to the East Coast, but decided to give dairy practice a try.

        We moved to Dodgeville in September of 1978 when our son was just one year old. When I came to Dodgeville there were three other veterinarians; I made the fourth one. It stayed that way for about 10 years when we finally decided we'd add another veterinarian. We've had a series of veterinarians, but remain with five veterinarians. We're losing two partners, and I will officially be the new old guy.

         Our practice has changed considerably, in that 25 percent of our dollar gross is from small animals, and I think that's probably going to increase.

WVMA

          I'm certain that my involvement in organized veterinary medicine started when Dr. Ed Lindner was WVMA President. He was probably looking for somebody that was an easy hit for a committee. I also had the opportunity to be on the executive board and served on it for four years. I was probably also an easy target for somebody that was looking for a nomination to run for the presidency. I remember Dr. Dahl was the Nominating Committee Chairperson. He called me and asked me to run. I naturally tried to hem and haw and think of a way to get out of it. I said give me a few days to think about it and he said, sure, that's not a problem. So I hung up the phone and as I've done for quite a few years when I have something that I'm not sure what the answer is, I cornered Dr. Lindner one day soon thereafter and he said, "You have to run." He said it's a wonderful experience and I'd enjoy it. I took him at his word and I'm awfully glad that I did.

          When it's all said and done, I enjoy the science and I enjoy practice but the greatest thing about what I do is the people. It's the clients I meet and the other veterinarians. I've met a lot of veterinarians by being involved in organized veterinary medicine. They're a real interesting group of people. When I get the opportunity to talk to young veterinarians or veterinary students, I always try to put in a plug for organized veterinary medicine, because you get to meet so many more people, it's a great benefit, and not only professionally, but personally. Actually, for me it was a bigger benefit personally than professionally.

         The Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association is a life sentence in a lot of ways. For example, I called my executive board member with a complaint about a certain issue before the executive board. He called me back and asked me to be on a committee to attack it; so I'm still learning to keep my mouth shut. This committee is looking at the issue of mandatory continuing education for Wisconsin veterinarians, so I suspect my involvement with the WVMA is not over. I'm certainly willing to try to contribute as much as I can.

UW-School of Veterinary Medicine

         When the veterinary school at the University of Wisconsin was in the planning stages, the individual who was appointed the dean, Dr. Easterday, had the great insight that Madison didn't need to run a conventional large animal ambulatory program. He decided instead to rely on practices that were within a hundred miles of. We were actually in on the planning part of the program.

         I remember going to the veterinary school and meeting with Dr. Danny Butler from Guelph (he was on the faculty at the vet school when it was forming), Dr. Sheila McGuirk and Dr. MacWilliams who were all trying to plan this ambulatory program. It's a requirement for all the veterinary students, no matter was their interest, to spend two weeks in an ambulatory program. Our practice has been a participant in that program since its beginning.

        It's a good program for the practices that participate because they have a closer association to the veterinary school. It's also a way to meet young students and to stay current. Most of all, it's a wonderful benefit for the students. It gives them a taste of the real world, no matter what kind of practice they go into, they can come away learning some things about practice.

        The ambulatory program is important. The veterinary profession is a very small profession, and is becoming more and more fragmented, because people are interested in more diverse areas. If we all share some common ground, even if it's two weeks in a large animal practice, we can talk to each other much more easily and we're going to stay together as a profession. In the real world we need to be able to speak with as a united a voice as possible.

During his term

         The WVMA is a good organization that represents the veterinarians of our state really well. I was the immediate past president when the famous heifer was diagnosed with TB in northern Wisconsin. I got a call from then Secretary of Agriculture, Allen Tracy. The Department. Of Agriculture was assembling a committee to look at the TB outbreak and the Department of Agriculture's handling of it and their ability to respond to disease problems in the state. This sounded pretty intimidating. The first question that came to my mind was who was going to be the chairperson of the committee. He said he had Dr. Easterday in mind and that was a real positive thing because he's very experienced in university and governmental politics. I was confident that he could guide the committee very ably.

         We met over a course of six or seven months and wrote a fairly lengthy report. The committee members were Dr. Easterday, representing the university, me representing the veterinary community of Wisconsin, a farmer representing dairy farmers and Bill Geary who was then one of the vice presidents of Equity Livestock and is now the chief executive office for the Wisconsin Agribusiness Council. And our committee interviewed most of the people that were involved with the TB outbreak. It's a process in which I was really glad I could partake.

Dairy Herd Health Program

          At the same time, the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine began a two-year program called the Dairy Herd Health Certificate Program. Classes met every two months for two days. I started in that program as one of a five-man practice. After the first two sessions I found myself in a four-man practice. If I participate in anything like that again, I'm going to practice part-time, because it was just too much work to be a man short and try to do that course at the same time. But it was a great course and I'm glad I took that time.

        One of the sidelights on that dairy herd health management program is that, over time, Dr. Lindner's been involved on the local production credit services board and he's always looking at ways to promote veterinary medicine. One of the ways he thought would be beneficial would be to tie the veterinary practitioner with the lending institutions, whether it's the bank or with farm credit. He finally found a willing vice president in the farm credit association together with Dr. Nordlund and Dr. Dahl. Over time, this has been very important, as the farm credit people are generous financial supporters of the dairy herd health certificate program. I hope that relationship bears fruit for the profession.