After dedicating 45 years to caring for animals in the Powell community, Ray “Doc” Acker, DVM, retired last month. 

Bighorn Animal Care Center is in good hands, though, as Big Horn Basin native Britt Whitt, DVM, bought the practice and took over at the beginning of June. It’s now known as Paintbrush Veterinary Clinic.

“He [Acker] had a wonderful practice and a very wonderful client group,” Whitt said. She said the opportunity to take over “was kind of one of those fortuitous things in the world that came together.”

“I’m very excited,” Whitt said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for my family and also an opportunity for me to serve the area. Becoming a veterinarian was my calling in life from the time I could mispronounce, but say the word.”

A lifetime of service

At age 76, Acker is ready to step back from the practice he’s owned since his 20s. 

He grew up on a ranch in West Texas and was accepted to both medical school and veterinary school, leading to a difficult final decision.

“I liked medicine. That choice was a hard one,” Acker said, “but I decided animals were really where my love was.”

After graduating from the University of Missouri School of Veterinary Medicine in 1977, he initially focused on horses with an equine specialty practice. However, he grew tired of working in a big city and decided he wanted to live and practice in a more rural setting. He’d done an internship in Cody when he was a student, and “I fell in love with the area,” so he began looking for a practice here.

“I had just come up here hunting, and was visiting with one of the veterinarians in Cody at the time, and he told me that Dr. [Weldon] Lee was having bad health issues, and that he really needed to sell, so I went over and talked to him and we made a deal. I talked to him in October of 1980, and made a deal right there.”

After returning to Texas and selling his practice, Acker took over Lee Veterinary Clinic on March 1, 1981. He left the name for the first 10 years before changing it to Big Horn Animal Care when he incorporated.

Years later, the building was in need of an update when Acker heard about another veterinary clinic for sale just down the road. It had a more modern layout — with two exam rooms and a large treatment rom — plus new, upgraded equipment.

“I saw that opportunity to move into a better facility, so I bought it,” Acker said of the 2022 move.

After more than 50 years in the business, Acker has seen many changes in diagnostics and technology, including ultrasounds and X-rays.

“For example, the X-ray that we had and that Dr. Whitt has, is a computer-enhanced program, and it’s just incredible, the pictures and diagnostics we get, has changed a lot, quite frankly,” he said. “The anatomy hasn’t changed though, so often there are new surgical techniques that come along that you have to learn. But the animals are still built the same.”

Acker said surgery was one of his favorite parts of the job. He enjoyed working with small animals and horses the most, but working on large animals, including cattle, isn’t easy. Acker said he’s got “quite a few artificial body parts.”

“I used to say ‘I usually end up in the hospital about once every two years,’” he recalled. “I’ve got titanium plates and screws in my neck from a horse hitting me in the head with his head and rupturing two discs in my neck. I got kicked in the knee for the heck out of it and it ended up having to be replaced after a few years.”

The profession is also hard on the shoulders — and checking nearly 600 cows in a day during the fall season year after year after year did a number on his body. Combined with the accidental injuries, he’s had three shoulder replacements and three knee replacements.

“I went in for my first shoulder replacement and the surgeon in Billings looked at my chart and said, ‘Oh, another veterinarian,’ and I said, ‘Oh, you do a lot of us, huh?’” Acker said.

As much as he’s been beat up by the bigger animals, Acker says he can count the number of times he’s been bitten on two hands. The first bite was on a call for a large animal.

“I went up to this place, and this blue heeler met me with teeth and I said, ‘Get back, get away from me,’ and he ran away and disappeared around the back of the house,” Acker said. “I went on up to knock on the door. He ran all the way around the back of the house and bit me in the Achilles tendon.”

Working in ‘a wonderful place’

Acker decided a few years ago that it was probably time to retire and sell his practice.  

He listed it with a specialty broker for veterinary clinics, which was trying to sell 19 rural clinics across the country and had no interest in any of them. Veterinary medicine has changed a lot over the years, Acker said, and rural practices just aren’t selling as young veterinarians aren’t really interested in doing mixed practice anymore. Most are drawn to small animal practices in the big city, where it’s more of a 9 to 5 job.

Acker had just given up on being able to sell it as a practice and was looking at just selling off his equipment, when he was approached by Whitt. 

“I did not want to leave the people in my community high and dry without coverage, but I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he said. “The good Lord was taking care of me: Dr. Whitt said she heard that I had my practice for sale, and bang, it happened.”

The two met for coffee the next day and made a deal. 

“It worked out great,” Acker said. “And Dr. Whitt is going to be wonderful for Powell because she does mixed practice. She’s good with all the animals. I think she’s going to be a great fit, and she’s going to give good coverage to the people in our community.”

During his career, Acker spent six years on the Wyoming Board of Veterinary Medicine and served as president and other positions of the Wyoming Veterinary Medical Association. He also was a volunteer firefighter for six years.

Acker thanked the community for the support over the decades.

“I raised my kids there, and it’s been a wonderful place,” he said.

The veterinarian also gives special thanks to his vet techs, Sara Troyer and Rachel Brandon.

“They’ve been taking care of me, with my physical situation, being kind of broke down,” Acker said. “They have been fabulous at propping the old man up.”

In his first official week of retirement, Acker said he wasn’t missing seeing the animals every day. But he has three dogs, two cats and three horses at home to keep him busy. He and his wife bought a home in Wapiti in 2019 and he takes care of animals in the area. He’ll also occasionally fill in for Dr. Whitt. 

As a surprise, his wife Rebecca recently bought him a 1968 Pontiac GTO convertible.  

“I’ve always wanted a muscle car, but I always had the good sense not to get one and be frugal,” Acker said. “She found this car, and she sprung it on me …”

On the horizon is a trip to see his daughter in Medford, Oregon — and at some point he’d also like to drive the Alcan (Alaska-Canadian Highway) and visit Alaska.

Exciting opportunity

Whitt grew up in the Big Horn Basin. She graduated from Meeteetse High School and went to Northwest College for two years before attending the University of Wyoming and then Colorado State University for vet school.

After graduating in 2013, she returned to the Meeteetse area and became a mobile practitioner, working out of her vet truck. Whitt spent a year in clinical practice in Montana in 2016 but came back to Wyoming and spent a few years focused on “raising cows and kids.” 

For the last year-and-a-half she’s worked at a small animal practice in Cody, but she decided her heart was in mixed animals as she and her family raise cattle, some sheep and also have horses. 

When the opportunity became available to purchase Acker’s practice, Whitt didn’t hesitate. 

“My dream job is being able to do wellness exams and surgeries for dogs and cats or to go check a mare or go do cattle work,” she said. “This last week I was trimming the feet on a 300-pound goat out in the parking lot because he needed his feet trimmed. I like having that variety.”

She purchased the practice in February, but wasn’t able to officially take over until June 1. Acker agreed to stay on until that point.

“I took a tour of it and was like, ‘Yep, I’ll buy this,’” she said. “Then I worked there for two days, and then we hit the ground running, or at least tried to.”

A lot of Whitt’s clients have been with her since she began her mobile practice years ago and are excited she’s finally in a more clinical setting. She’s also looking forward to meeting many of Acker’s longtime clients. 

“Just last weekend on emergency service, a new-to-me client came in, and the general feeling I got is they are very excited that things are continuing,” she said. “When you go from having an established veterinarian and they retire, potentially you may not be able to find care someplace else.”

Whitt had a busy first week, getting to know staff and figuring out the new operating system. It was a little chaotic but Whitt expects things to settle into a rhythm soon. 

“I was doing inventory and rearranging things as well,” she said. “We also gave the inside an entire makeover with updated colors.”

Vet tech Megan Mansfield recently joined the staff. She worked with Whitt previously and is serving as her office manager. Whitt also has a first yet vet student for the summer as well and her oldest daughter, 14-year-old Bandie, is helping out.

“She [Bandie] has been going down the road with me since she was a year old and also has aspirations of being a vet,” Whitt said.

Her main short-term goal is just smoothing things out as she and the staff get comfortable with each other and the operating systems. In the long-term, Whitt is excited to revamp the large animal side of the practice. She plans to build some better holding facilities in the back for cattle work, and at some point would like to have a brood mare/horse barn for equine reproduction and for keeping a horse for treatment if needed. 

“I really believe that the sky is the limit because I think that if you treat people right and you do a good job the potential is pretty much endless,” Whitt said. “To be able to practice medicine and see all different types of animals, and to have the tools to be able to handle all kinds of things, that’s exciting for me.”

Whitt also bought property in the Powell area last fall, allowing the family (she has four children ages 8-14) to raise cows and grow hay on their own land. 

“Leasing property, you put all kinds of time and improvement into it, and then ultimately, if your landlord decides to lease it to someone else then you’re on your merry way,” she said. “It’s been a dream of mine to have our own place where we could keep our cows, keep our horses, and it was going to be ours forever.”

She said Acker will still be around on a limited basis, helping her with advanced orthopedics cases and filling in on occasion.

“He should be enjoying retirement and sipping a Mai Tai,” Whitt said, “but I told him ‘We want to keep you wanting to come back.’”