by CAROL MOWDY BOND
Photos courtesy of Elizabeth Baca
During the May 2011 tornado outbreak, the EF5 El Reno–Piedmont tornado slammed the area with 295-mph wind speeds and a path more than 65 miles long. In the aftermath, Elizabeth Baca, DVM, headed out the door.
“The tornado caused a lot of flying-debris injuries,” Baca says. “It was two in the morning, and I was with people standing outside with flashlights, working on a horse with lacerations from flying debris. We were cleaning and suturing the wounds, taking care of the horse as best we could. There was no power, no anything. There were no landmarks. Plus, the force of that wind took debris so deeply into wounds, driving in very small pieces of debris. It’s really challenging to take care of those animals.”
Baca says after a tornado, the first priority for large animals is administering basic first aid, followed by addressing their emotional well-being.
“The tornado shortens the time you have to take care of things because the wind drives and imbeds debris so deeply. You have to clean injuries with soap and water and wash it out as best you can,” she says. “Horses are pretty sensitive beings. Sometimes they can be sensible and sometimes not. After a traumatic event, there’s a period of recovery. Do your best to get them back into a routine in a safe, secure spot. That’s really helpful for their healing and for your healing.”
A native Oklahoman, Baca has Sooner State roots that run deep. During the nineteenth century, her great-grandparents lived in a dugout before building their sod house. When the general store in Frisco fell empty, they made that store into their home.
Baca herself grew up on a farm near Yukon. Her dad grew small grains and owned livestock. She attended Yukon schools and El Reno Junior College (now Redlands Community College), then Oklahoma State University and Texas Tech University.
For three years, Baca taught in the meat-science program at Eastern Oklahoma State College. Returning to Stillwater, she earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine. She followed that with a 20-year stint as a country veterinarian in Piedmont.
Primarily a large-animal veterinarian for years, Baca has a portfolio of fascinating stories. Once, using pickup lights in a snowstorm, she performed a C-section on a heifer tied to a fence.
“I did a lot of farm calls and house calls,” she says. “I’ve traveled a fair way to do things for people when they couldn’t find someone else nearby. Oklahoma has a shortage of large-animal veterinarians, and it’s not getting better. So if you’re willing to do that, it’s not easy. It’s physical labor dealing with livestock, including horses. It’s a lot of hard work.”
However, the area transitioned to more homes and small acreages. When that happened, Baca’s clientele shifted to more small animals.
But she wears a diverse tool belt, and now Baca works with the USDA as a veterinary medical officer involved in the export process of animals and animal by-products.
“If you take your hunter-jumper horse abroad to the Olympics, you have to take your animal through certain requirements and get certification,” Baca says. “We work with your veterinarian to make sure you’re meeting all those requirements, and then we review and sign off on the health certificate that allows your horse into that destination country.”
She says, “By-products are all kinds of things, including cattle hides that will be tanned into leather, by-products used to make pet food, and medical research samples and tests.”
Baca has assisted with disease outbreaks, such as Asian influenza, or bird flu, working in Idaho. She also has observed wild-horse gatherings, working with the Bureau of Land Management, and in California where a mountain lion attacked horses.
She has also worked ports of entry. “I spent time in North Dakota during the COVID-19 pandemic when a lot of stuff was shut down, but you still have commerce going through,” she explains.
“There are animals crossing the border both ways — a lot of bison, baby pigs and horses cross. There are a lot of rodeo people who maybe live in Canada, and they winter in southern Arizona and go back and forth.”
With such a diverse veterinary background, Baca offers simple but important advice — maintain a good relationship with your veterinarian. “Both state and federal law require a valid client-patient relationship for a veterinarian to be able to prescribe antibiotics or other prescription medications, including sedatives and pain medication for your horses or other animals,” she says.
“There are services a veterinarian provides that a horse owner cannot, and having that relationship in place is something I strongly encourage rather than in an emergency scrambling to find someone who would be willing to take you on as a client in a difficult scenario.”
These days, Baca and her husband live on a Kingfisher County spread where they grow grass for their livestock. They also have cattle, chickens, guineas, a Great Pyrenees, a Border Collie and a Lab-Pit mix. They also breed and sell horses.
