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Frontier veterinarian

New exhibit fulfills long-time plan

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Fort Dodge veterinarian Dr. Michael Bottorf looks over an old bottle of pills recently in the new Veterinarian’s office at the Fort Museum and Frontier Village. Most of the artifacts in the office were collected by the late Dr. Bill Ryan. It’s located in the Colby Brothers Livery Stable building.

Among the many artifacts collected by the late Dr. Bill Ryan for the Frontier Veterinary Office at the Fort Museum and Frontier Village is a long-empty brown bottle with a fading label with the word “Tobacco.”

Dr. Michael Bottorf, the veterinarian who organized the collection of instruments, books and medication, explained that it wasn’t used to ease horses from a bad cigar habit.

“We know it’s an insect repellent,” he said. “People saw something that worked and they often made their own medicine.”

The newly added exhibit is located in the Colby Brothers Livery Stable. It gives visitors a glimpse of what veterinary medicine was like on the frontier.

One thing that differed, there was little or no government oversight of either the medications or the practitioners.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Fort Dodge veterinarian Dr. Michael Bottorf, right, looks over some old instruments recently with Fort Museum and Frontier Village Executive Director Veronica Guyader in the new veterinary office at the site. It’s located in the Colby Brothers Livery Stable building.

“Back then,” Bottorf said. “It was not regulated by the FDA. Some of the medications were compounded in somebody’s kitchen or back room.”

A lack of electrical power also made doing some things more difficult.

“This centrifuge,” he said pointing to a hand-cranked machine in the case, “I have one in my office I plug into the wall. This is run by a hand crank, you turn the handle to spin it. I can’t imagine it did a very good job.”

The practice of dehorning cattle was also a different procedure then. In the current era, it’s done when cattle are calves. Back then, it was sometimes done on adult cattle, which required a large cutter like the one on display.

“It must weigh 35 pounds,” Bottorf said. “I can’t imagine doing more than one or two myself. It took a real man to dehorn in that day and age.”

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Among the many items in the collection are old bottles of medicine produced by the Fort Dodge Labs as well as instruments and books on veterinary medicine.

While the size of the instruments may have changed, much of what’s on display is quite familiar to Bottorf. They are similar to instruments he still uses in his Fort Dodge practice. That includes the dental instruments.

“They’re not that much different than what’s used today,” he said

Some of them, such as a dental float, which is used to file horse teeth, have been upgraded.

“They have some of these that are battery-powered now,” he said.

The patients a veterinarian would have on the frontier have also changed since then.

On the frontier, there were no “fur babies.”

“Pets were not as important,” Bottorf said. “Animals were for milk, meat and work.”

Another change, a positive one, is pain control for the animals.

“Pain management is something I’ve seen totally transform in my 40 years in the practice,” he said. “Lots of things have gotten better.”

Bottorf said that Ryan collected many of the instruments and other artifacts on his travels and during his long association with the Fort Dodge Laboratories.

“It was his dream to have this open as an exhibit,” Bottorf said. “He and I had many conversations over his wishes. We did it like he wanted to.”

That includes bottles of giant pills and other products no longer manufactured. One contains an ingredient that’s a substitute for strychnine.

“None of these are in production today,” Bottorf said. “Diseases change, drugs change, practices change. There’s a lot of liniments and tinctures — whatever a tincture is.”

Veronica Guyader, executive director of the Fort Museum and Frontier Village, said that the Frontier Veterinarian was part of the original plan for the Livery Stable when it was built in 1993. She said that a period of rapid growth at the Fort and Ryan’s busy schedule delayed getting it open.

She’s grateful for it.

“I know this was his dream,” she said. “I’m really glad we took this project on.”

For the time being, the exhibit is housed in one room. Eventually, a second room that would have been an exam room will be added as time allows.

Neither Bottorf or Guyader will be spending time in period costume as a frontier vet.

“No for me,” she said. “I’m scared of horses, that wouldn’t work.”

A ribbon cutting will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday to officially open the exhibit with the ambassadors from the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance.

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