Huntingdon Valley vet looks back on 50 years
By Matt Schickling
Wire Staff Writer
A man can see a lot through 350 dog years.
Dr. Donald Shields, a Huntingdon Valley veterinarian, has been through his fair share of animal dealings, from treating and taking in strays to operating on a celebrity’s dog to teaming up with a human cardiologist to save a dog’s life, twice. He’s been through it all, and even after 50 years, at 77, Dr. Shields is still in the fold.
“Well, it went by pretty fast. That’s all I can say for sure,” he said. “I’ve treated everything from birds to boa constrictors, but primarily cats and dogs.”
Now, “semi-retired” after he sold his practice in 2010, he stayed on board at World of Animals At Bethayres (formerly Bethayres Veterinary Hospital) to work three days a week. Even with the part-time work, he’s regularly seeing patients, treating various problems, administering vaccinations and performing surgeries.
After all this time, it’s natural to reflect on the past, but Shields is not one to wax poetic. He knows exactly what led him down this path.
“I grew up in Pittsburgh, and had a dog as a child. I was interested in medicine as a kid so it seemed a natural follow-through to go to medical school,” he said. “I went to college with the proposition of studying science, but it never occurred to me to become an M.D.”
But it had occurred to him to work with animals. His childhood dog, Lucky, a female collie mix, was a fixture in his life from ages 4 to 12 and inspired his lifelong affinity for animals.
He took on undergraduate studies in science at Bucknell University and followed that at University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Science, where he graduated in 1963. A year later, he opened a practice with partner John Gulliford in the same building that he’s working out of now on Philmont Avenue.
“The building was just a house until we started practicing here,” he said. “For the first 20 to 30 years, we did orthopedic surgery, we did all kinds of surgery, emergency care and so on. That’s all sort of changed in recent times.”
He’s alluding to the existence of specialty-care facilities like Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Center (VSEC) in Levittown, where there are separate departments of specialists for cardiology, oncology, dermatology, neurology and so forth.
But back in the 1970s, veterinary hospitals like this were not commonplace — all animal treatment needs were taken to the local veterinarian.
While the two types of hospitals coexist amicably, the specialty care may have made business at Shields’ hospital a little less complicated.
For example, in 1974, Shields recruited the help of a heart surgeon to put a leftover human pacemaker into a dog. The practice was somewhat revolutionary at the time, and Shields caught attention from local newspapers for his work. The operation added an extra year of healthy living to the dog’s life.
The pair teamed up again in 1987 to perform the operation on a different dog, this time using a lithium battery, which was more efficient that the cadmium battery used before.
“By then, pacemakers evolved and were much better,” Shields said. “That dog went on to live for several more years.”
Putting pacemakers in animals was state-of-the-art during these times, he added, but now the operation happens fairly often.
His business caused many animals to paw in and out of his life through the years. While most moved on and back to their families, some stayed. He recalled the particularly odd circumstances that brought he and his wife, Donna, a new pet.
They were driving on Bustleton Avenue near Feasterville when a commotion on the road ahead caused them to stop. There was a cat lying unconscious in the street that had just been hit by a car.
Shields first thought the cat had died, but something happened.
“He picked his head up and looked at me and it was a big ol’ stinkin’ tomcat,” he said.
They took him back to the hospital and treated him for a concussion and a chipped tooth, and, after a month, took him home. That cat’s name was Crash.
In 2010, Shields removed a small tumor from actor Bradley Cooper’s dog, Charlotte, while he was visiting Jenkintown, where he grew up.
But even in 2014, when the excitement is dying down, Shields seeks to keep things interesting. This week, he’s participating in RAGBRAI, an annual bike ride across the state of Iowa. For the 26th year straight, Shields and some friends are making the 406-mile trek across the Hawkeye State in just seven days.
“It’s my annual stress test. If I make it through that, I’ve got another year or so to go,” he joked.
“It’s not a race, it’s just a ride.”
The same could be said for his last 50 years.
