GRAND COULEE, Wash. — Dr. Marlene Poe knows the large-animal veterinarian shortage very well.

She’s the owner of the Grand Coulee Veterinary Clinic in Grand Coulee, Wash. And she’s the wife of a cattle rancher.

“We are in a crisis,” Poe said. “On a regular basis I see the struggles that producers in this area face when it comes to providing for the health of their stock, be it a 500-head cow-calf herd or the family with just a few cattle for the kids to show in 4-H in their backyard.”

She’s fielded calls from ranchers living hours away, seeking care for their cattle, horses and swine.

“I’ve castrated piglets in my garage that had been driven from over an hour away as the owner could not find a closer vet to help,” she said.

Clients have told her she’s the only veterinarian along the Highway 2 corridor who will see horses.

“It took us a generation to get to this point and it may take a generation to correct the issue,” Poe said.

Upgrading mobilePoe joined the Grand Coulee practice as an associate in 2010. She and her husband, Ryan, bought it the following year.

They raise wheat and canola and run a 130-head cow-calf ranch.

About 15% to 20% of her practice is large animals, cattle and horses, and the rest is small animals. Of the large animal services, she estimates 75% of her practice is mobile.

Poe received a USDA Rural Practice Enhancement grant for $125,000 to upgrade her mobile clinic and radiology capability.

She also works with rodeos and equine groups, and was recently able to conduct an on-site basic eye exam on an injured horse using the upgraded equipment.

With the grant, Poe will also begin equine dental training later this year. Horse teeth are constantly growing and require care. Currently, no one in the region provides such services full-time.

“Not everybody has the ability to haul their horse to Spokane, Ellensburg or Yakima,” Poe said.

RecruitingThe grant was originally designed to help rural practices hire more vets. But it’s difficult to recruit people to the Grand Coulee area.

The previous generation of veterinarians would work 80 hours a week, often missing family events, Poe said.

Because of the long hours, not many vets want to go into large animal or rural practices.

“Vets have a history of working ourselves to the bone,” Poe said.

She’s booked for appointments three weeks in advance. For surgical appointments, she’s booked up to two months in advance.

“I’m insanely busy — it’s almost a detriment to my health, because I also have autoimmune disease,” Poe said. “Finding that balance between doing all the work and not working myself to the grave is very fine.”

Poe’s practice recently added a part-time small animal veterinarian, the wife of a new local pastor with several small children.

It enables Poe to offer more large-animal veterinary service while still having someone at the office several times a month.

“The need is to find the people who want this lifestyle and actively want to be in this realm of practice,” she said. “You can’t create that, that’s just a person that has to want to be here. Like me, I love living in the middle of nowhere.”

In case of emergencyLarge animal emergencies tend to be seasonal, during calving season in late winter or early spring. Small animal emergencies vary week to week.

Poe directs after-hours small animal emergencies to a Spokane clinic.

“Since I live 30 miles from the office, it is just physically impossible for me to provide adequate on-call services to the office,” she said.

Large-animal emergencies are limited to active clients.

“Those clients actually get my cell phone number — I call it the Bat Phone,” Poe said. “They get the stern lecture to not give it out to anybody.”

Giving creditPoe grew up on a mink farm in Snohomish County. She showed sheep and beef in 4-H.

“Where I’m at today is only because of a few vets along the way that were willing to mentor me, and also 4-H programs,” she said. “If it wasn’t for 4-H, I would not have the experience and the skillset as far as public speaking or record keeping to get into vet school, let alone survive the hell that it was.”

Her original plan was to research infectious diseases, but she realized she was meant to be a general mixed-animal practitioner.

“I know personally how important the human-animal bond is, as far as just making it through life in general, and how important the care of animals is to humanity,” she said.

What clients sayIn June, a new U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy went into effect requiring a prescription from a veterinarian to buy medically important antibiotics for livestock.

The new rule makes large-animal vets like Poe even more important, said Brian Isaak, Coulee City, Wash., rancher.

Isaak has 275 mother cows. Poe comes out twice a year to evaluate every animal.

“She recognizes that there’s an economic side to decisions, but also a moral side — making sure we’re making a living raising animals, but also doing that in the most humane way possible,” Isaak said.

“She’s a hell of a surgeon, she’s a diagnostician, she figures stuff out — I think that’s her strong point,” said Cindy Cauble of Hartline, Wash., who brings her horses, cats, dogs, ducks and geese to Poe.

Cauble said she was thrilled when she first heard about Poe receiving the USDA grant.

“What do you need in this area? A vet to be able to come to your house with all her stuff,” Cauble said.

Owner, Grand Coulee Veterinary Clinic

Age: 43

Hometown: Granite Falls, Wash.

Current location: Practices in Grand Coulee, Wash.; lives in Hartline, Wash.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in animal science, Washington State University; doctorate of veterinary medicine, Washington State University

Family: Husband Ryan; daughter Katie, 13; son James, 11

Hobbies: Horse riding (“I’m a horse fanatic.”), reading, play violin

Website: http://www.grandcouleevet.com/

Blog: https://thegravelroaddiaries.blog/