Veterinary Clinic

By

Joan Gandy

The Natchez Democrat

VIDALIA, La. &045; Veterinarian Dr. Veronica Paul Duncan was 4 years old when her mother opened a clinic on Airport Road in the fall of 1983.

Dr. Debbie Guillory remembers it well. She had completed the difficult four-year program at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine in Baton Rouge, all the while a mother as well as a student. Daughter Veronica was nine months old when Guillory began vet school.

One month ago, Duncan joined her mother at the large clinic on U.S. 84 west of Vidalia, as she, too, recently has completed the rigorous education and training at the LSU institution.

Two veterinarians in a family is not so unusual, Guillory said. &uot;But we are the first mother-daughter vets in the history of the school,&uot; she said proudly. &uot;They recognized us at the graduation.&uot;

Tears of pride welled in her eyes as Guillory recalled her daughter’s return to work at Miss-Lou Veterinary Clinic.

&uot;I’m really proud of Veronica,&uot; Guillory said. &uot;She is a good person, and she has worked hard. She had a lot of things to overcome. She’s a perfectionist and a fair and good leader and was one of the outstanding students in her class.&uot;

The mother said she listens to her daughter down the hall talking to a client or to an animal and feels blessed. &uot;Anyone who has watched a child grow up and go into any profession knows the feeling,&uot; she said. &uot;You realize that they are grown and doing that task they have learned. And when you know the struggle they have been through, it is even more touching.&uot;

The mother and daughter are more like sisters and fast friends, Guillory said. &uot;She’s like a best friend. We’ve been through a lot with each other and are honest with each other. There’s one thing that I know I can get from Veronica. She says what she thinks.&uot;

Duncan does not remember how her mother &045; and her mother’s friends &045; carried her around the vet school or set a blanket on the floor for her in the library or study room. She does not know whether those years affected her decision to become a veterinarian.

She does know the decision came early in life. &uot;It’s what I’ve always wanted to do,&uot; she said. &uot;I went to college as a pre-vet major, and I stuck with it.&uot;

Vet school was difficult, but she loved the challenge. &uot;I had always heard how difficult it was, but I also always had been taught that to call anything an accomplishment, you have to work hard to get it.&uot;

She stood out as a leader from the beginning. &uot;The first week of school, they select a class representative,&uot; Duncan said. &uot;They elected me and then elected me to be representative all four years. Today, I remain the class agent, kind of a liaison between the school and the class.&uot;

She won school awards in various categories. One of the most significant to her was the intensive care award given by the faculty, support staff and intensive care teachers to a fourth-year student.

Duncan graduated on May 16 and began work at the clinic on May 18. The work was not all new to her, as she always had helped at the clinic and, in addition, had taken her required internship at her mother’s clinic.

Guillory said she believes her eldest daughter has made the right decision. She has told all her children, two other daughters and a stepson, to choose a profession they still will want to pursue when they are 40.

&uot;That makes the decision more profound,&uot; she said. &uot;What you choose is about making a living, making money so you can take care of your family, but more than that it is about the end of the day and not wishing you were doing something else.&uot;

As for Guillory, at the end of some days she is disappointed, she said. &uot;Sometimes I’m sad about how things turn out, but I never at the end of the day say I wish I were doing something else besides being a veterinarian.&uot;

Duncan and her husband, Joseph Duncan, who were high school sweethearts, have moved into a new home in Monterey. One of her challenges is balancing her work and time at home, she said.

Returning to Miss-Lou Veterinary Clinic has had huge rewards, Duncan said.

&uot;One of the neatest things is that I now take care of people’s animals who are the reason I could go to school. They watched me grow up, go to school, get married,&uot; she said. &uot;And dogs that were puppies when I left to go to school now have little gray eyes and mouths.&uot;

Guillory looks at the three veterinarians working at the clinic now and thinks how fortunate she is, she said. &uot;I have an associate who has been here four or five years, Dr. Shirani Hickman. She took a tremendous load off me. And now we have Veronica.&uot;

The other important ingredient at the clinic is the staff, Guillory said. &uot;They are awesome. They are our eyes and ears. They teach us things every day about compassion and love. We’re really a veterinary family,&uot; she said. &uot;It’s not just Veronica who is family.&uot;