A Day in the Life

By the time Jones graduated from high school in Southern California in the late 60s, society had changed. The country was experiencing turbulent times with Vietnam war protests and civil rights movements in full swing. Affirmative action had also been initiated to improve opportunities for people of color.

Jones entered veterinary school at UC Davis in 1970, two years into his undergraduate degree as one of only two Black students in his class. Jones said he thinks affirmative action helped him gain entrance. But it was his hard work and determination that garnered him the Upjohn Award for clinical proficiency during his senior year.

At the time, DVM students hadn’t yet started choosing tracks such as small or large animal or zoological medicine. So, when Jones graduated cum laude and took his first job at Adobe Veterinary Hospital, a mixed practice in Los Altos, he had the opportunity to practice large animal medicine— delivering lambs in a barn and sewing up barbed wire cuts on a horse—in addition to caring for companion cats and dogs.

That style of doing everything became impractical however, when Jones decided to establish his own clinic several years later. He purchased an old building in South Los Altos that had once been a bike shop and remodeled it into a veterinary hospital. His son, Andrew (who had been born a
year before the rigors of veterinary school), helped him build a sign and they hung up their shingle for business. Jones ran the practice there for about 10 years before he sold the building and built a slightly larger hospital. Andrew followed in his dad’s footsteps, obtained his DVM from UC Davis in 1995, and now practices in Pismo Beach as a radiologist in a small animal practice.

What Jones didn’t have in terms of experience during the early years of his career, he took continuing courses to learn or found textbooks to show him new surgical techniques. On the business side of things, he took management courses to learn how to run a practice and hired part- time veterinarians to help.

After selling his practice, Jones became a VCA medical director for a few years until he joined the Animal Doctors Veterinary Hospital in Palo Alto nearly a decade ago. He now works two days a week with Dr. Greg Bogatsky ’06, another UC Davis alum who has owned the hospital for the past five years.

After a successful career spanning more than four decades, Jones said one of the appeals of his profession has been wearing many hats. →

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“As a veterinarian—especially in the early days of my career—I could be a surgeon, a dermatologist, a radiologist, a dentist and an internist all in the same day,” Jones said. “I enjoyed doing it all.”

When asked if he considers fully retiring, Jones chuckled.

“It’s hard to let go of this profession when it’s been your life. What more would I do? I don’t like golf, and I can only fish and play for so long! I’ve seen retired colleagues lose their joy. For now, the work is still challenging and I always enjoy continuing education and my clients. I don’t have to hire, fire or worry about overhead expenses anymore—I just get to do what I enjoy.”

Bogatsky is grateful for the help of a seasoned professional.

“Having the experience of Dr. Jones in the clinic has been great. He’s the most even- keeled veterinarian I’ve ever worked with,” Bogatsky said.

Jones said he has witnessed many changes in the profession since his years in school, especially the shift to specialization. By the time he started his first hospital, mixed practices were beginning to disappear. Vaccine clinics had begun popping up and that changed the profit margin schedule for privately owned clinics.

At the same time, office visits and surgery costs grew due to expanded technology— but also became safer. In the early years, most clinics couldn’t afford to have an EKG machine, so they shared equipment.

UC Davis was the only full-service specialty hospital, but Jones said they couldn’t always wait to get patients there.

“A lot of clinics refer special cases now; that is the standard of care. But we didn’t always have that option,” Jones said. “We did our own emergency surgeries—often in the middle of the night.”

Thankfully, in the 1990s, the Peninsula veterinary community formed an emergency clinic for veterinarians working in the area and they all had a share in it. They hired ER specialty veterinarians so they could refer emergency night calls to the specialty clinic.

“That created a huge shift in quality of life for single practitioners—it made life easier!” Jones said.

While technology improvements have led to greater quality of care, Jones is also concerned about the increased cost in veterinary care.

“It’s hard for many to pay thousands of dollars for a surgery,” Jones said. “Insurance has made that easier, but not everyone has it. Veterinary medicine has become more like human medicine and I’ve seen people who will spare no expense on their pet.”

Jones doesn’t do a lot of surgeries these days (there’s not as much demand where he works). He sees more patients for age- related issues and general health concerns. His favorite part of practicing now is getting a challenging internal medicine case.

“I like to be presented with a case where I wonder, what the heck is going on here?” Jones said. “Those cases are fun.”

When Jones does take a day to slow down, he enjoys flyfishing—which he took up when he first thought he would retire many years ago—as well as reading and spending time with his many grandchildren.