SPARK
FEBRUARY 2021
10
A DOG MAY BE A MAN’S BEST FRIEND,
BUT A DOG’S BEST FRIEND
IS DR. TURNERA CROOM By Dave Person david.r.person@gmail.com
Dr. Turnera Croom is a veterinarian without an office, which is just the way she likes it. “I decided to start ... (Dr. Croom Mobile Veterinary Services) because I don’t like to be stuck in a building all day,” she says. Dr. Croom, whose mobile clinic covers the greater Kalamazoo area, including surrounding small towns and cities, also is outside the norm because she primarily offers holistic-health services. She even recently became a certified animal chiropractor, which she has added to her practice that includes food therapy, Chinese herbs and her own brand of pet CBD products, which are available online and at various locations in Kalamazoo. “I like to be able to give people a holistic alternative,” she says. Although she still offers standard veterinary services, she is phasing them out in favor of her specialized approach. With two exceptions, she is not taking new patients other than those whose owners are interested in her holistic approach to treatment. Those two exceptions are puppy and kitten vaccinations and her Last Wishes service, in which she comes to a people’s homes to humanely euthanize their aging and ailing pets. “I still do new puppy (and kitten) appointments. ... Keeping unvaccinated puppies and kittens away from older animals (through in-home visits) is crucial to keeping them from becoming sick with parvovirus, distemper and cat leukemia,” she says. Dr. Croom says her typical patient is a middle-age dog whose owners have a regular vet for diagnostic and surgical procedures, but want holistic treatment for other ailments. As with all of her visits, with the exception of the Last Wishes service, the initial consultation is via Zoom, an aspect of her practice that was necessitated by the Covid outbreak and has been enormously successful. “We have instituted the video visit as the crux of our practice,” Dr. Croom says. “I can see them and hear what they’re saying,” she says of the pet owners. “I can give them my full attention.” “We (also) get to see their pet,” she says, “and I can give an initial physical exam that way.” From there, she can either schedule an in-person visit — which during Covid is held outdoors — or suggest a holistic remedy using products that she will have delivered to the home if she has them in stock, or that the pet owners can order.
