A local veterinarian came away with national recognition a few months ago when Dr. Birte Klug of Selkirk Veterinary Services was honoured by the Canadian Association of Professional Dog Trainers.
“A few months ago, I got a letter from the Canadian Association of Professional Dog Trainers. One of my clients is associated with them and she had basically nominated me for the Veterinarian of the Year,” said Klug.
Though the nomination was a surprise to Klug she was very happy to receive the honour.
“It’s nice to be recognized for something you do for the health and welfare of the dogs,” she said.
Klug is originally from Germany receiving her credentials in Berlin in 1995. After some years in research, she moved to Manitoba and eventually found her way to Selkirk to set up her practice.
“In 2004, I moved to Winnipeg, and I worked for a clinic in the City of Winnipeg, and then after a few years, of becoming first a permanent resident, and then eventually deciding to look into Canadian citizenship, the plan was to settle in. At that time, the clinic here went for sale. So that’s kind of what started the journey,” she said.
Klug said that she decided to pursue the field of veterinary medicine because it’s both a challenging and satisfying field. She also had a connection to animals from early on and decided to combine her interests.
“We have two veterinarians here, myself and my full-time associate and then we have, depending on the time of the year, we’ll have between 12 and 15 staff. We do small animals only, no large animals. And, basically, we think that pets are our family members. They can be your best friend, and we want to help people, human beings, to take the best care possible of their four-legged family members. [We want to] enable them to live life to the fullest and be as healthy as possible, because that’s where we get our joy. I mean, pets are super important for people,” she said.
She believes that we need to have top-notch veterinary care for our pets in all of life’s situations.
“It’s something which we always want to make sure that we are able to offer it. It can be a challenge, especially, you know, involving the cost of veterinary care. But we want to make sure that we at least are able to offer to relieve any kind of suffering in our pets and to make sure that they, again, can live a good long life so that we have ongoing joy from them,” said Klug.
Klug’s advice to pet owners in our community is twofold. She suggests that residents purchase pet insurance so that the financial cost of unexpected circumstances isn’t a burden when making decisions about their pet’s care. She also suggests that you establish an ongoing relationship with your vet where your pet has yearly visits. That way you are a current patient on their books and it’s much more convinient to get your pet in to see the vet in emergency situations. There is currently a shortage of veterinarians so this is very important.
Her future plans after winning this award are to continue working in Selkirk.
“Our future plans are to continue with outstanding services. We do specialize in dentistry because it’s a big, big health factor for all pets and to continue with excellent services taking referrals from other veterinarians in that area. But also, you know, trying to fit in as many people as we physically can in our busy schedule to be able to see their pets and help them to live a healthy life,” said Klug.
She also wanted to take this opportunity to remind rural pet owners who care for cats that they offer a spay clinic for female cats on a regular basis to help control the feral cat population. It’s a very reduced price to cover the bare minimum of costs.
“I’ve [let people know] mostly through Facebook and social media trying to reach people who are in the country and farms that deal with a lot of that problem because cats get dumped off at their farm property and all of a sudden, there’s a litter of another five cats,” she said.
Keep up with the Selkirk Veterinary Services’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/selkirkvet
