A legacy of healing

A lighter moment was a 3 a.m. call with a worried pet owner asking why her canary had stopped singing. A scarier one was the realization he was looking into the mouth of a rabid dog.

These are the moments -- good and bad -- that Jackson veterinarian Dr. Charles Cox will cherish as he soon settles into retirement after a long and memorable career that has spanned three decades.

"I have loved working with animals and meeting the people," Cox said. "But it's time to slow down a bit."

So the 60-year-old vet has sold Cox Animal Clinic, which has operated in Jackson 29 years, to two veterinarians from Fredericktown, Mo., Drs. Kelly Carrow and Bruce Branum, who have renamed the clinic Heartland Veterinary Care.

Cox is leaving behind a legacy of healing pets, as well as soothing the concerns of their owners.

"People love pets, because they love people unconditionally," he said. "For some people, it's easier to get along with pets than with people."

As so many people do, Cox, an Illinois native, sort of fell into his career, developing a love for the field after taking a part-time job at a small veterinary clinic while attending junior college in Centralia, Ill.

Unlike Cox's Jackson clinic, which mainly treats pets, this was a mixed practice that also treated farm animals like horses and cows.

"I enjoyed working with the pets and going out on country calls meeting people," Cox said. "It was a job I grew into."

So when he went to the University of Illinois in the late 1960s, Cox majored in veterinary medicine. He learned he would soon be drafted once he got out of school. He enlisted so he could go into the military as an officer in the veterinary corps.

From New Jersey to Thailand

His job included treating sentry dogs in New Jersey, which were mainly German shepherds that guarded missile sites across the state. He chuckled when he recalled that once it was too cold to take the dogs out, but that the soldiers had to venture outside anyway.

His military days also sent him to Thailand, where rabies was endemic.

It was there that he looked into a dog's mouth and realized it had the fatal viral disease that attacks the central nervous system. He remembers, even though it caused him to get 13 shots in the stomach to make sure he didn't contract it, that it didn't rattle him too much.

"That was in my young days, when I thought nothing could happen to me," he said. "I'd be more nervous now."

After his tour of duty was over, he went to work for a country practice in Greensville, Ill. On his first day, his boss left for vacation. Early that first morning, Cox was called at 3 a.m. to deliver a calf. This birth required a Caesarean section, something he'd never done.

"I had to do this with car lights and a kerosene lantern," he said. "I remember, my hand on a book, trying to remember how to do this."

Everything turned out all right, and the calf was fine, and Cox felt he'd accomplished something good.

"At first I was nervous and scared," he said. "But then I did it and there was this nice, good, live calf. It was a neat feeling."

After two years, he moved to a larger, seven-vet clinic in St. Louis, which treated mostly small dogs and cats, along with some so-called "pocket pets," such as hamsters, gerbils, rabbits and mice. It was a vibrant practice and Cox remembers it as a trial by fire.

"I was taking appointments at 9 at night," he recalled. "A lot of nights I wouldn't get home until midnight."

Grand total of $1,200

After that three-year "learning experience," Cox and his wife wanted life in a smaller town. When he heard that a veterinarian in Jackson had died, Cox offered to buy his practice from his widow. She didn't want to sell, but said he should start a practice here anyway.

So, in the fall of 1975, he did. Though he fell in love with the town, its people and their pets, business at first was less than stellar. He remembers that the first year, he made a grand total of $1,200. But within three years, business had improved and he continued a career of treating dogs with such ailments as skin problems and cats with allergies.

"I don't know where the time went," he said. "But I've loved doing this. I like the interaction with the owners and the animals, too."

There were difficult parts to the job, too, such as euthanizing a sick pet.

"You never get used to that," he said. "It's not unusual for all of us here at the clinic to cry. That part I won't miss."

Cox said he is leaving the clinic in good hands. Branum earned a degree in animal science in 1984 and a doctor of veterinary medicine from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1986. He spent 13 1/2 years in Fredericktown as a veterinarian. Carrow is a 1997 graduate of University of Missouri-Columbia College of Veterinary Medicine and has been a practicing veterinarian for the past six years.

Under the new owners, there will be some changes made to the clinic, said Branum, including that it will become a "mixed clinic," meaning they will begin to treat farm animals as well as pets. There will be some technological improvements as well. They will add a laser surgery unit, which will aid with procedures like spaying and declawing. That will mean no bleeding at all, he said.

They also plan to expand the hematology and blood chemistry lab, which is used to treat kidney and liver functions. They will also begin offering preoperative screens, Branum said, which will make sure the pet is safer for surgery, which reduces risk, especially in older pets.

Cox will continue to do relief work as needed, and Branum said they consider themselves lucky to have him around.

"We know we've got some pretty big shoes to fill," he said. "He has great relationships with the clientele."

smoyers@semissourian.com