Meet Your Neighbor

Dr. Gregg Stephan

May 21, 2007

Practice Owner
Animal Hospital of Sun Prairie

As part of a unit on community, second grade students at Royal Oaks Elementary School have been interviewing local business people from a variety of professions. This week's Meet Your Neighbor is courtesy of three of these young reporters -- Maggie Bauman, Catherine Desens and Madeline Weber -- who learned what it's like to be a veterinarian by talking with Dr. Gregg Stephan, practice owner of Animal Hospital of Sun Prairie.

My responsibility is to make sure your pets stay healthy -- and if they're not healthy, to try to get them healthy.

Mainly dogs and cats, although we do see some birds, guinea pigs, rats and snakes. We see an occasional iguana and an occasional hedgehog. We see quite a few ferrets.

In the morning I do surgery and in the afternoon I see appointments.

Eighteen years.

I think I like labs the best, but that's only because I have one.

The hardest surgery is probably repairing a broken bone.

I graduated from high school. Then I got an undergraduate degree after four years and went to veterinary school for another four years. I was 27 by the time I was done going to school.

I have seen them, but not too often. The turtles we see have usually had their shells broken or have some parasite issues from eating things they shouldn't have eaten.

I probably see from 35 to 50 a day.

I have two other veterinarians, three technicians, four receptionists at the front desk, three different people in the kennels and three groomers.

We hospitalize. Almost every night there's somebody here.

I have a dog, a cat, fish, hamsters and hermit crabs. I always get the leftovers at the end of the school year.

We do sometimes, but you have to have a special license to do that.

My favorite part about my job is seeing the pets get better when they're sick.