Veterinary clinic bids Dr. Norman farewell

CRESCO - After four years at Harmony & Cresco Veterinary Clinic, Dr. Kyle Norman is moving on. The Cresco clinic hosted a farewell reception for Dr. Norman, serving cupcakes and treats as members of the community stopped by to wish him well.
Dr. Norman accepted a job in Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona at a small animal-only practice.
“I’ll be working there full-time and the owner is looking to expand the practice. I’ll be doing some orthopedic surgeries there and the same sort of work I do here,” he said.
Dr. Norman said a deciding factor in the move was that he and his girlfriend will be able to be together and work at the same clinic.
“My girlfriend is a veterinarian as well and she lives in northern Wisconsin right now. It’s a four-and-half hour drive for us every weekend. So, that’s the main reason we’re moving; this way we can be together and not have to commute long-distance anymore. We are going to be at the same practice,” he said.
Dr. Norman recalls a couple of particularly memorable moments during his time working at Harmony & Cresco Veterinary Clinics.
“The first orthopedic surgery I did here was a fractured femur on a small dog. I had never done anything like that. The owner trusted me to work on his dog even though I was inexperienced in that part of veterinary medicine. We had to go back and revise things but in the end the dog’s leg healed and the owner was very grateful to me for that. Things like that stand out in my mind.
Another unforgettable experience involved a chicken.
“I did surgery on a chicken; that was a memorable moment.  I was on-call and a lady asked if we worked on chickens and I said, ‘Yes, what happened?’, and she said her dog had attacked one of their pet chickens. The chicken had a three-inch long gash on its neck. I was thinking, ‘Three inches on a chicken neck? Is the chicken still alive?’” She said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘Bring it down and I’ll take a look and we’ll see what we can do.’”
“I was wondering how to stitch up a chicken, so I went to the textbooks and online sources for veterinarians and found a book chapter on poultry anesthesia. It said isoflurane is the perfect anesthetic for chickens. I put the chicken’s head inside the little mask we have for dogs and cats and the chicken fell right asleep. I stitched up the laceration and pulled the mask off and pretty soon the chicken popped up and was doing great.”
While Dr. Norman has had many rewarding moments as a veterinarian, the job is not without risk.
“I just came off of an injury; I was out, pulling a calf from a heifer. I got the calf out and went to take the halter off the heifer. As I grabbed it, she jerked her head really hard and broke my ring finger on my right hand. I had to have surgery on that and was out of commission for almost two months.”
As Dr. Norman prepares for his new job and home, he is grateful to the Harmony and Cresco communities for their support.
“You definitely create a special bond with those animals that you’ve saved,” he said. “I love this community and have really enjoyed my time here, getting to know people. There are a lot of people I’m really going to miss.”

Cresco Times

Phone: 563-547-3601
Fax: 563-547-4602

Address:
Cresco TPD
214 N. Elm Street
Cresco, IA 52136

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