'Incredible Dr. Pol' can't retire because other vets won't treat farm animals

Veterinarian Jan Pol says he can't retire even though he's 75 because neighbors and folks far from his central Michigan home of Weidman worry who will treat their farm animals if he calls it quits.

“Nowadays veterinarians say, ‘I only want to do cats.’ Or, ‘I only want to do dogs,’” said Pol, known for his series The Incredible Dr. Pol, now in its 12th season on Nat Geo WILD. "What are you going to do? ... “How can I say no to an animal?”
  
Some people have driven more than 100 miles to see him because they have a sick farm animal and cannot find a vet with appropriate experience. “I had the State of Michigan call me with a question about chickens,” he said.
 
Pol, the youngest of six children, grew up on a dairy farm in the Netherlands, where he started to care for animals when he was as young as 12. When the local vet arrived to help deliver piglets, he had the boy reach up inside the mother pig to extract the babies.

Sadly, he wasn’t strong enough to get them all in time. Only one that he could pull free lived. “It was so enjoyable,” Pol recalled.

That satisfaction has never waned in nearly 48 years of a veterinarian practice.
 

The worst part of his job is putting down animals. The best is when he saves sick animals whose owners fear will have to be euthanized.
 
Pol and his wife of 50 years, Diane, have had 15 Great Danes over the years. They now also have a Newfoundland and a St. Bernard. He has younger dogs to balance out having older ones.
 
While most of his practice involves farm animals, the Nat Geo WILD show, which airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET/ 8 p.m. CT, has brought him exotic creatures to treat, including alligators, hippopotami, elephants and tigers.

Treating these animals can be dangerous, such as one time when bulls charged him — he got out of the way fast. “You will never be able to take the wild out of an animal,” he said.

After tending to thousands of animals over the years, Pol advises pet owners to have them spayed or neutered.

Pol, who is delighted that agricultural schools use his show in lessons, says his advice to other vets is to treat all creatures, not just popular household pets.
 
“I would like to see the new veterinarians do it with common sense,” he said.