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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 2020)
A16 NEWS Wallowa County Chieftain Wednesday, February 19, 2020 Enterprise’s new veterinarian has cattle, equine ranching roots But if you need your camel checked out, she can do that too By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain Enterprise Animal Hos- pital, owned by Dr. Severin Knudsen, just welcomed a new veterinarian to its staff, Dr. Kala Grover. Grover is a native of Crane, in the midst of Oregon’s vast high des- ert Harney County ranching country. She started work at the Enterprise clinic on Monday, Jan. 20. Grover’s father was a buckaroo in southeast Ore- gon, giving the young Gro- ver a taste of livestock han- dling from the ground up. So she is no stranger to rural areas or livestock. “I lived in bunkhouses on ranches all over the area there growing up,” she said. “I have a big cattle and horse background, obviously.” As a young girl, Grover decided to make veterinary medicine her life’s career choice. “I remember being about seven or eight years old and bumping around out in the pickup checking cows and telling my Dad, ‘I think I want to be a vet,’” she said. “He told me that was a ter- rible idea. He had dedicated his whole life to cows and horses, and he hasn’t had much sleep, and he hasn’t had much money.” Grover said her father is very proud of her now and was trying to warn her of the long road involved. She said if she hadn’t become a vet she probably would have studied genetics or genomic research in college. Grover persisted in her dreams. But she had her own ideas about how to achieve them. While class- mates interested in the fi eld attended Oregon State Uni- Steve Tool AT YOUR SERVICE — Dr. Kala Grover, right, of Enterprise Animal Hospital, with her family: husband Ryan Lisle, son, Merle and Gypsy Cob, Shamus. versity, Grover chose Wash- ington State University. “Every single kid that I graduated with that went to college went to OSU, and I wanted to meet some differ- ent people,” she said. “I was also a little more excited about their animal science program.” Grover majored in Ani- mal Sciences and minored in Biotechnology. She grad- uated WSU in 2011. From there she went to Ross Uni- versity, known for its inter- national medical program in the West Indies. Then she joined World Vets, which gave her unique opportu- nities in doing vet work that included aiding in herd health, which included ani- mals as diverse as goats, cat- tle and camels. For more than two years, Grover lived on an island with a 30,000 population, which she found rewarding. “It was a great vet school because older vets go there to retire, so I got to learn radiology from the guy who wrote the book and clini- cal pathology from the lady who wrote the book,” she said. Grover eventually returned to Oregon State for her degree in veterinary medicine. She also did clin- icals at the university hospi- What’s the future of the Arts in Wallowa County? Josephy Center off ers a brown- bag to fi nd out By Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa County Chieftain At the Tuesday, Feb. 25 Brown Bag at the Jose- phy Center for Arts and Culture, Seth Kinzie, Jeff Costello and Cheryl Coughlan will talk about their visions for the arts in the community, and invite discussion from audi- ence members about what role art should play in the future, and what new or old art forms and genres you would like to see. Winners from the Wal- lowa Valley Arts Council’s 2019 Patron Scholarship, Joan Gilbert and Andrew Marchlewski, will be introduced. And fi nally, there will be discussion of the long-awaited merger, completed last month, between the Wallowa Val- ley Arts Council and the Josephy Center. Next week’s event is at noon at the Josephy Cen- ter. Brown Bag events are free and open to the public. Save the Date Feb. 28th and 29th OPEN HOUSE tal for the “hands on” por- tion of her doctorate degree. In February, 2016, Gro- ver took her fi rst profes- sional position at Newberg Veterinary Hospital as pri- mary and solo large animal vet. The practice had seven doctors and all of them had done large animal practice before and were done with it,” Grover said. “They just passed the reins over to me and said, ‘Good Luck.’” Grover said to her sur- prise, she found herself falling in love with “goat” medicine as she’d never imagined herself as a goat specialist. She eventually became known as “The Portland Goat Doctor.” These days, Grover fi nds her biggest focus is on equine care. She ventured out on her own from NVH, focusing on equine and camelids, such as alpacas and llamas and has worked extensively with camels as well. In 2017, she suffered a major horse wreck that put her out of commission for some time. She was forced to close the doors of her business as she had no part- ner or associate vet to pick up the slack. She pulled up stakes and returned to Harney County and worked as an associ- ate there until accepting the Enterprise Animal Hospital job from Dr. Knudsen. Grover obtained the Enterprise position after she placed an ad announcing a “mixed animal vet extraor- dinaire wants rural practice.” “I had requested the Pacifi c Northwest, and he was the only person in the Pacifi c Northwest to get hold of me,” Grover said. “My husband, who is an avid hunter and packer, said I had gotten a call from Enterprise. He said, ‘That’s the job!’” Now, Grover’s biggest focus is on equine care. But her interest isn’t limited to veterinary treatment. “The history of man was built on the back of a horse,” she said. In her spare time Grover enjoys riding and horse-packing, camping and black powder shooting and hunting. Grover, her hus- band, Ryan Lisle, and son Merle, own six horses as well as three dogs, three chickens and two Nigerian dwarf goats, which are used for milk. Dr. Knudsen said he’s glad to have Grover on board. “I was looking for some- one who would actually want to be here and fi t in with the community and knew what they were get- ting into,” he said. “She knows what the rural life- style is about. She’s prac- ticed in rural eastern Ore- gon and knows what being a rural vet is about and be able to fi t into the community and the practice.” Grover is enjoying her time in Wallowa County and looks forward to meeting new clients. “I’m excited to be here where there’s a good horse population,” she said. “I hope that people give me a call with some of their chal- lenging horse cases now that I’m in the county.” Fossilized bee parasites found in amber By Steve Lundburg Oregon State University CORVALLIS — Bee- tle parasites clinging to a primitive bee 100 million years ago may have caused the fl ight error that, while deadly for the insect, is a boon for science today. The female bee, which became stuck in tree resin and thus preserved in amber, has been identifi ed by Oregon State University researcher George Poinar Jr. as a new family, genus and species. The 100 millionyear old mid-Cretaceous age fos- sil from Myanmar provides the fi rst record of a primi- tive bee with pollen and also the fi rst record of the bee- tle parasites, which continue to show up on modern bees Oregon State University The same bee entombed in amber, with four light colored parasites visible. today. The fi ndings, published in BioOne Complete, shed new light on the early days of bees, a key component in evolutionary history and the diversifi cation of fl owering plants. Insect pollinators aid the reproduction of fl owering plants around the globe and are also ecologically critical as promoters of biodiversity. Bees are the standard bearer because they’re usually present in the greatest num- bers and because they’re the only pollinator group that feeds exclusively on nectar and pollen throughout their life cycle. Bees evolved from apoid wasps, which are carni- vores. Not much is known, however, about the changes wasps underwent as they made that dietary transition. Poinar, professor emer- itus in the OSU College of Science and an international expert in using plant and animal life forms preserved in amber to learn more about the biology and ecology of the distant past, classi- fi ed the new fi nd as Disco- scapa apicula, in the family Discoscapidae. UNDERSTANDING ALZHEIMER’S AND DEMENTIA Free CEU credits available! Alzheimer’s disease is not a normal part of aging. Join us to learn about the impact of Alzheimer’s, the difference between Alzheimer’s and dementia, stages and risk factors, current research and treatments available for some symptoms, and Alzheimer’s Association resources. 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