Never a dull moment

Broadway Animal Hospital celebrates 30 years of helping animals

MOSES LAKE — When Dr. Marvin Chamberlain was a child, his mother suggested he become a veterinarian.

He lived on a dairy in Moses Lake and liked working with animals. He followed his mother's advice and attended veterinary school at Big Bend Community College for two years and six at Washington State University. A typical veterinary program involves four years following the undergraduate years.

He remembers the "anxiety-ridden" feeling when buying the clinic and starting Broadway Animal Hospital in 1977.

"You come out of school and you're poor and you have to figure out where to get financing and it's very similar to any other business. You have no money, you need money, they don't want to work with you until you have money," he chuckles.

He and Dr. Karen Allington have been there ever since, with no sign of being jaded.

"I'm never bored," he says firmly. "It's always interesting, it's always different, it's always a challenge."

The challenges in the profession are dealing with life and death situations and the decisions needing to be made with clients who bring their pets in. It's not unlike any other medical situation where the life of the patient is in your hands, he says.

Dr. Chamberlain says the times where an animal is beyond help can be devastating, but may be better for the animal in some cases. Although it's a very difficult thing, it's very similar to humans, he said.

"You still have the mourning, but you have the knowledge they aren't suffering," he said. He said losing an animal from a sudden accident is much more difficult than a prolonged illness, since there is no mental preparation.

"We're not just dealing with the pet, we're dealing with the human emotion," he said.

In spite of these tough decisions, he's driven in part by the excitement involved.

Something he finds particularly interesting is diagnosing the patient, "the detective work" as he calls it.

This is where veterinary medicine is like human medicine.

"(It's) exactly the same testing that's done in human medicine," he says.

Examining organ function, white and red blood cell count, electrolyte panels, are all done at the clinic. He said anything you can do in medicine can be applied to a pet.

He says treatments vary based on the species, since certain animals respond better to pain and larger ones need more restraint and stabilization.

Throughout his career, he's seen technology advance, something he enjoys.

"The excitement, joy and sense of accomplishment comes along with your increased abilities with equipment," he said. "It's fun to have that at your fingertips."Someone is always in house, working on an animal and another in the field.

He doesn't find any animals more difficult to work on than others, but the exotic animals require more research, due to seeing less of them.

"There's a lot of different cases that come in, some more challenging than others so I don't know that I can pinpoint one in specific."

Dr. Chamberlain doesn't remember the first animal he treated, but there are unique experiences remaining in his memory. One such experience was when burrowing owls were being transferred to Canada and he helped examine them and prepare them for transport.

Another involved a sick calf owned by a woman in Mae Valley. It never got the birth milk needed to provide immune system protection. The calf was in her garage on a blanket.

"When they moved him from the garage to the barn, he stood out there and bawled and bawled until she took him his blanket," Chamberlain said.

"The calf had pneumonia, very severe, so we had to go through the treatment and along with her good nursing care, we pulled the little guy out," he added.

The calf lived to be almost 20.

Broadway Animal Hospital is holding an open house Friday to celebrate 30 years of helping animals. The open house has food and prizes and provides a chance for people to share animal experiences and enjoy a day of social relaxation, Dr. Chamberlain said.

Broadway Animal Hospital is located at 3712 E. Broadway Extended in Moses Lake.