Molly Wright began her college journey not knowing what she wanted to become. A ride in a veterinarian’s truck and 10 years later, she is Dr. Molly Wright.
Today she is living out the career path she loves as a veterinarian specializing in large animal medicine.
Wright was just beginning that career at Cohutta Animal Clinic in Blue Ridge last Thursday when she talked about her journey.
Having graduated from Gilmer County High School, she left for Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) in Tifton, Georgia, to pursue a degree in science.
Home for the summer, she took part in an internship at Ocoee Animal Hospital. Working alongside Dr. Michael Zager, she soon decided her career.
“The first time I rode in the truck, I knew it was what I wanted to do,” Wright said.
She remembers how they went on a call to care for “a blocked goat.”
“The immediate relief for this patient” was so rewarding she made up her mind, she said.
“I knew I wanted to work with animals. I knew I wanted to work with producers,” Wright said. Large animal work, which requires going to the animals and meeting their owners, was the perfect choice.
As soon as she made her decision, she learned right away she would have to change schools. She transferred to the University of Georgia (UGA) where she would earn her Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Science.
The change was a set back of sorts in her education since veterinary medicine requires a specific course route from the first day a student sets foot on a university campus.
But that did not slow her determination. She was forced to wait a summer to get started in the right rotation, so she used the time to work and save money.
After graduating from UGA, she attended Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in the Caribbean.
Her last stop on the way to her doctorate was Oklahoma State University for her clinical training.
Wright said she received hands on experiences at Ross, but Oklahoma State gave her the experiences of “working already” with patients and clients before graduation. She received real world experience in the “physical labor” of large animal medicine.
While based at Oklahoma State, she did several externships, including stops in Texas, North Carolina, with Dr. Sowers in Dawsonville, and at Cohutta Animal Clinic.
Learning animal medicine at Ross University and then completing clinical requirements at Oklahoma State broadened her knowledge of animal care, she said.
Last week was her first week on the job at Cohutta Animal Clinic, having just joined the practice owned by Drs. Will and Grace Murray Patterson.
Wright is strictly doing “farm calls” right now.
“You can’t trailer everything in,” she said, talking about the care large animals, especially herds of horses, cattle, goats and the like, need.
She talked about how important regular care is because large animals “don’t show you that something is going on until it’s pretty bad.”
Deworming is especially important to animals that are always outside grazing.
As she cares for the animals, she looks past them to their owners. In many cases, “these animals are their livelihood,” Wright says.
The owners know the animals’ tendencies, so Wright is able to learn about the animals in a different way. “I know the medicine,” she says. Knowing their owners, learning the animals characteristics, continues her education.
Of her patients, Wright says, “I’ll see them when they need to be seen.”