Dr. Colleen Robertson, veterinarian and owner of the John Day River Veterinary Center, administers vaccines to cattle at the Bear Valley 96 Ranch near Seneca on Sept. 28, 2023. 

JOHN DAY — When ranchers in Grant County need help keeping their cattle and horses healthy, they need a doctor who makes house calls. They call Dr. Robertson.

As owner of the John Day River Veterinary Center, veterinarian Colleen Robertson has been helping ranchers and pet owners keep their animals healthy for nearly 25 years.

At Bear Valley 96 Ranch, just northwest of Seneca, Robertson was busy the morning of Sept. 28 helping rancher Brent Jackson vaccinate his livestock against brucellosis, a rare but serious disease that causes stillborn calves, decreased milk production, weight loss and infertility.

“She’s probably the most important person on our team; we need her really bad,” Jackson said. “She does all the hard work on our health program, and if we have an emergency, sometimes she’s the only one who can handle it.”

Robertson attended veterinary school at the University of California at Davis, completing her doctorate of veterinary medicine in 1998 and staying on to complete a master’s in preventative veterinary medicine in 1999.

“I did track for (agriculture) so where I went to school, I tracked for food animals, so that does put you more in that livestock department,” Robertson said. “But here (at the veterinary center), we’re more generalists. We do more of everything.”

Robertson joined the practice in 1999 under former owner Hans Magden when it was Gambler Veterinary Clinic. She is a member of the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, and she sits on the Oregon Veterinary Medical Examining Board.

The center has about 18 employees. Robertson is helped by fellow full-time veterinarian Dr. Jandy Torland and part-time veterinarian Dr. Leon Pielstick.

“I became a partner after about five years being here, and I did then buy (the veterinary center) from Hans,” Robertson said.

Much of the work Robertson and her staff do is preventative, meaning giving vaccinations and taking other measures to keep livestock healthy. But the center often gets calls — about once a day on average — to help sick livestock.

“Livestock work is kind of seasonal, so … what you might call wellness or preventative medicine is a lot in the fall and probably a lot in the spring because a lot of people have their cattle turned out for the summer just grazing mountain pastures, things like that. But if you’re to average, it’s once a day we get a farm call of some kind.”

Robertson said the veterinary center west of John Day mostly covers Grant County, though it also serves parts of Wheeler and Crook counties when the need arises. Roughly 30% of the calls are for cattle, with 20% for horses and the rest for smaller animals and pets.

“The kind of ranches that are around here are what they call cow-calf, (meaning) pregnant mommas raising calves,” Robertson said. “There are people that spring calve. Most people around here do spring calving, which means the calves are born in the spring.”

Some of the common calls for help from the veterinary center are for dystocia, or difficult birth, Robertson said. Pneumonia season for cattle comes with the colder weather, she added. Colic and lacerations are the most common ailments for horses.

“It’s just hard where we get these spreads of temperature where it’s like 80 degrees or even maybe 90 degrees and then down to 40,” she said. “If you get a shift of temperature 40 degrees or more, it’s just really hard on the cattle’s lungs. The lungs are not their strong suit.”

For ranchers like Jackson, Robertson has been an indispensable part of their livelihood, where disease means an economic hit. Robertson said she’s been honored to be part of the success of local ranchers.

“I’ve come to realize it’s an honor to be part of people’s business like that,” she said. “I’ve been here 25 years now. I mean, it’s truly a blessing to be of some help.”