By Chris Aldridge
Kentucky Ag News

Dr. Ryan Wonderlich was influenced from an early age to become a large animal veterinarian in central Kentucky.

“My roots are deep in agriculture and veterinary medicine,” he said. “Both of my grandparents farmed in Iowa, my father was a vet, I have two uncles that are vets, and my cousin’s husband is a vet.”

Wonderlich said that makes for much veterinary “shop talk” at family gatherings.

“The rest of them don’t like it too much because that’s all they got to listen to!” he mused.

Wonderlich founded Wonderlich Veterinary Services in his native Shelby County in 2009, a year after he graduated from Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He majored in agriculture at Western Kentucky University.

“When I first started my practice 13 years ago, I did 50 percent horses,” said Wonderlich, noting western Shelby County is dotted with several prominent American Saddlebred horse farms.

“That’s really changed a whole lot,” he added. “Now I only do about 1 percent horses. Horse people want you to be available all the time. I do a whole lot more scheduled work with beef cattle than emergency work.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, one of the large animal veterinarians working for Wonderlich was Dr. Alex Hagan, who went on to be deputy state veterinarian then returned to private practice.

“Now it’s just me,” Wonderlich said. “I’ve narrowed it down to what I can do by myself with two guys (veterinary technicians) working with me.”

What Wonderlich likes the most about his profession is working outside.

“I can’t imagine being in an office every day,” he said. “I don’t think I’d make it very long!”

What Wonderlich likes the least is working long hours, especially with a wife and three children ages 9 and younger waiting for him at home. He also has his own herd of 70 commercial beef cows to look after, helped by his family.

“I don’t work a 9-to-5 schedule,” he said, “but the after-hours work is not too bad.”

Wonderlich spends two days a week 33 miles from home as the veterinarian on-site at the Washington County Livestock Center in Springfield. The farmer-owned stockyard hosts a feeder calf sale on Mondays and a head calf sale on Fridays.

“When I started working down there seven or eight years ago, they didn’t even have a vet on Mondays,” he said. “It’s grown a lot. It’s a good place to work.

“The rest of the week, I go to farms. Most of it is scheduled work with regular clients. A whole lot of what we do is herd work, vaccination and deworming.”

Wonderlich even uses his own herd of cows to serve as surrogate mothers for clients.

“We use them as a co-op herd that we put embryos in for our clients and sell the calves back to them,” he said. “It’s something that adds value to our calf crop.”

All the while, Wonderlich helps beef cattle producers by caring for their cow-calf herds and setting up protocols for processing calves.

“I try to be an advocate for the beef industry,” he said.

You can reach Dr. Wonderlich at (502) 321-6768 or ryan.wonderlich@gmail.com, or visit Wonderlich Veterinary Services’ Facebook page.