After 25 years, the Pet Vet heads to the classroom

But it is a lesson from his son that’s causing him to treat the quarter-century entrepreneurial milestone in an unusual way.

Crooke is selling his vet business to move into an entirely new field.

“Last year, I was helping my son with his homework and he said, ‘Dad, you could teach this stuff.’ I had an illness that put me in the hospital three times last year, and that really changed my perspective on what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So I found out what was required, and I got certified to teach,” Crooke said.

For the last few months Crooke has taught integrated science – physics and biology – at Kickapoo High School in the mornings and attends to his veterinary practice in the afternoons.

New vet in town

Early in 2006, Crooke will leave his practice in the hands of Dr. Kim Retchloff. Crooke connected with Retchloff through an advertisement he placed in a trade journal for the sale of his business.

“I ran an ad in the spring, just to see what would happen,” Crooke said, explaining that he selected Retchloff based on her veterinary philosophy. “I didn’t want someone to come in only for the money. I had someone call from California with questions about revenues and net profits – but (Retchloff) asked questions about protocol and what pain medications we use. She has the interests of the pets in mind, and I want someone who will take care of the patients after I am gone.”

Retchloff is in the process of purchasing the clinic for an undisclosed amount. Retchloff will be moving to Springfield from Iowa in December and plans to take over around the first of the year. Crooke will maintain a light presence in the office by occasionally assisting on the weekends.

Retchloff, a 2000 Iowa State graduate, said she’ll change the name to Tenderheart Animal Clinic and focus on smaller animals and basic surgeries. However, she has experience working on sheep, llamas and alpacas, and she plans to test that market here.

Retchloff will assume Crooke’s clientele and “take things as they come” while she settles in.

“I’m very eager to get started,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to meeting everybody.”

Veterinary changes

Crooke is confident that his practice will thrive through this change, just as it has through the radical changes in the field of veterinary medicine over the past quarter-century.

“It has changed pretty dramatically. Twenty-five years is … several lifetimes for our patients,” Crooke said. “We now have a pretty much fully equipped lab here in the hospital – when we started that was unheard of. To be able to have an (electrocardiograph) in the hospital was pretty upper level; now it’s standard. It’s the same thing with X-rays. And now we have even gone beyond X-rays to have ultrasounds.”

While the technology that drives his field has changed, Crooke noted that the clientele has not. Crooke said that he primarily treats dogs and cats, along with the occasional “little fuzzy thing,” such as a hamster or guinea pig. “But I’ve never really enjoyed anything with scales or feathers,” he added.

The caretakers who bring him these animals are essentially the same as they were 25 years ago.

“When I started in 1980, we had two types of people; those to whom animals are basically livestock and those who grew up with animals as members of the family,” Crooke said. “Those who grew up with pets as livestock do not care to put money into the treatment of a pet – they would just as soon euthanize it. Those of us who have grown up with pets as family are more inclined to go through the types of treatments that wind up costing a bit more.”

Sadie Tuckness is in the latter group.

“My dogs are my family,” said Tuckness, who has been bringing Crooke her pets for 23 years.

Tuckness said she will miss Crooke.

“I have some of his largest clients,” Tuckness said, referring to her four canines that weigh between 87 pounds and 167 pounds each. “I hate to see him leave his practice … but he’ll be good at whatever he wants to do.”

In the next 25 years, a new vision will guide Crooke’s former business.

“Being younger and having some nice ideas about growth, I expect (Retchloff) will take it to new levels,” Crooke said, declining to disclose revenues of his business. “It’s hard to envision what the next 25 years will be like because technology has changed so much in the last 25 years – but I think it will be an amazing transformation.”