Equine vet loves the camaraderie of Salmon Brook Veterinary Hospital

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Dr. MJ Bruce makes sure she has all the supplies she needs for her first call of the day. Photo by Shirley Murtha

When deciding where to sign on to a practice, Dr. Marjorie (MJ) Bruce chose the Salmon Brook Veterinary Hospital in 2019 because of its reputation of having top-of-the-line diagnostic equipment and treatments that are hard to find at smaller-sized local veterinaries. She was impressed with the fact that the large animal team has the benefit of a full laboratory, knowledgeable receptionists and dedicated technicians. It didn’t hurt that the practice is relatively near her family in Bedford, Mass., and she has several college friends nearby from her days attending the University of Connecticut.

Bruce didn’t come to her choice without having had a pretty full background of education and work experience, but it was really inevitable that she would end up in horse-related employment. “I always wanted to be a veterinarian. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to work with animals,” she notes. During her freshman undergraduate year, she decided to pursue another career that would allow her to have more time with her own horses. Ultimately she realized that she wanted to be more involved with the equine community and she went back to school for veterinary medicine.

Let’s see how Bruce arrived here in Granby. At Bedford High School she played soccer, but mostly rode horses. She worked at her barn on weekends and after school, and competed in eventing throughout her high school years and into some of her college ones. She started at UConn in 2005 as an animal science major, but switched to chemical engineering, thinking that career would provide her more time with her horses. In 2009 she graduated from UConn and started work as an environmental engineer. She worked as a consultant in Massachusetts, and then moved to an engineering job in Colorado for two years.

Once she got to Colorado, she realized how much she missed her horses and being outside. She was accepted into Colorado State University’s veterinary program in 2013. She completed the five-year program in 2018, getting her MBA and DVM at the same time. She did her medicine and surgery internship at Rhinebeck Equine in Rhinebeck, N.Y., where she says she “was incredibly well-trained.” After that, she was hired at Salmon Brook, where she is “happy to continue to practice gold standard medicine.

“I made the right choice in SBVH because it has an excellent clientele who will do what is right for their horses, and because the clinic itself has a feeling of camaraderie and family that I haven’t experienced anywhere else,” Bruce notes. She also appreciates the support system that the practice offers, which is critical in a time when there are fewer and fewer veterinarians going into equine practice and when 50 percent of them leave the field within their first five years. It is critical that vets be allowed to increase their value by adding skill sets beyond their college courses. For example, SBVH recently supported Bruce in further training to learn animal chiropractic, which required her flying to Kansas for a week each of the past five months. She just completed the course and is excited to be able to offer this new modality to her patients “to keep them going strong for years to come.”

When asked what she likes best about being an equine vet, and what she finds most challenging, Bruce offered the following. Not surprisingly, she likes best the close relationships she has developed with her clients and their horses. “It is so rewarding to help a horse and see my patient go on to lead a healthy and happy life.” Her biggest surprise was discovering that despite her grueling internship year, she hadn’t “seen it all” by any means! She notes that she learns something new almost every day.  The most challenging aspect of the job is being on call 24/7. She is happy to provide the service for her clients’ animals, but the on-call can take a toll. She is thankful that she shares the calls with the other equine vets, Doctors Weber and Wilson.

Bruce’s dedication is certainly noticed by her clients, such as Linda Swedo, who is “very grateful Dr. Bruce chose to join the Salmon Brook family of veterinarians. She is the kindest person and an amazing, dedicated, compassionate and caring doctor. Her total commitment to giving her expert care and advice is so very much appreciated.” We have a feeling that there are many others who feel the same way.