jeff wells all my patients have tales author

Jeff Wells grew up in a small community in southeastern Iowa. This book is for all animal lovers, Veterinarians, and especially those that are aspiring to be Veterinarians. I fully recommend it to anyone either considering a veterinary career, or (like me) endlessly in awe of these healing angels. Having said that, it’s hard to imagine a book with this goal doing a better job of it. While it begins with an open description of his difficulties in studies, and pauses for certain moments like his moving or marriage, this serves far more as a guide (whether warning or advertisement) to what a veterinary practice is like in our modern society. The nature of the book is as a collection of short vignettes, and this is also its one failing – each chapter seems a unit unto itself while the book covers a decade or more, we don’t really sense Wells’ growth or even much of his personality. Yet the more entertaining parts of the book involve his dealings with his patients’ owners – whether taciturn farmers who continue to trust older vets over him even when they see the aged docs getting diagnoses wrong, or cruel sorts delighting at his humiliations. The book delightfully immerses the reader in the harsh grotesque beauty of the profession – I can’t count the number of times we find Wells’ arm up a birth canal or rectum, or the number of times an animal thanks him for his efforts with an explosive bowel movement. Unlike the urban or suburban image most of us have of the profession, these many stories involve rural Colorado and South Dakota, so not just dogs and cats but everything from the expected horses and cows to yaks, circus elephants, and even a run-in with an African lion. ‘Those darn turkeys got her down in the front yard’”Īll My Patients Have Tales is a marvelous look at the life of a beginning veterinarian. A quote was “she began to thank me for fixing her filly and it was then that I noticed the red marks covering her face and arms. After that visit the clients decided to get a guard dog and got rid of the turkeys. My favorite part was where he gets attacked by guard turkeys. Jeff treats the animals with great care.Īll My Patients Have Tales by Jeff Wells is a great book. He would not let Jeff treat him and ran around the exam room while knocking glass containers off the counters. One of the animals in the clinic was a cat. He also works with smaller animals in the clinic. Jeff needed to determine whether or not the horses were pregnant. The first patient they meet was a few horses. After vet school he moves to Colorado where he meets Jenny his assistant.

The student that had to check this ahead of him didn’t have fun with it. On his third year of collage the students had to check if a cow was pregnant. When he goes to vet school he takes different classes on animal science. The conflict of the book is dealing with the animals that put up a fight. Christie was with him after he moved to Nebraska for another job. Jenny was his assistant when he worked in Colorado and was with him for some of the funniest moments in the beginning of the book. The main character is Jeff but there are also Jenny, and Christie. In the first half of the book he is in Colorado. The setting takes place in the south west. If I had to rate this book I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. This book is about Jeff’s life and how he survived being a veterinarian all in a set of hilarious stories. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.I read the book All My Patients Have Tales by Jeff Wells. –Jane Ritter, Mill Valley School District, CA END The short, down-home stories filled with heartfelt emotion and laugh-out-loud incidents will resonate with reluctant readers as well. Teens who love animals or have enjoyed James Herriot's books are the obvious candidates for this one. Because mixed-animal practices are hard to find, readers learn of an almost lost profession. Difficult situations that include euthanasia are included and yet, throughout his memoir, Wells's love of animals and the personal satisfaction he feels shine through. No amount of education prepared him for the kinds of situations he faced, many of which were challenging, frightening, and often dangerous. Wells writes with compassion, humor, and wonder, and does a compelling job of engaging readers. His 36 stories range from treating circus animals to miniature pigs to yaks, along with a host of cat, dog, and horse anecdotes. As the junior member of a practice, it was Wells who had to answer the late-night emergency calls. Adult/High School–Wells recounts his rigorous education and on-the-job training as a vet in rural South Dakota and then in a Rocky Mountain community in Colorado.

Jeff wells all my patients have tales author