Live Oak Veterinary Hospital
No
Animal
Too Small
Written By Jordan Rosenfeld
W
hile the most common
animals to come
through a veterinarian’s
office are cats and
dogs, Jeanne Haggerty-Arcay, DVM,
veterinarian and co-owner of Live Oak
Veterinary Hospital in Morgan Hill, has
provided veterinary care for animals as
small as mice and the occasional lizard.
“We’ve done surgeries on multiple
hamsters,” Haggerty-Arcay said.
Hamsters are prone to tumors in their
cheek pouches. Unsurprisingly, it is
usually children with pet hamsters
whoinspires their parents to bring in
these tiny, infirm rodents for treatment.
Practicing medicine to help animals,
even those with short lifespans, is just
part of the spirit that drives Haggerty-
Arcay’s practice. At the tender age of
nine she decided she would become
a veterinarian.
52
“It was just something I always
wanted to do,” she said.
During her youth, Haggerty-Arcay
worked with horses and other large
animals for about a decade. She and
her three sisters showed animals
through the 4-H Club and attended
equine grooming and medical clinics
at UC Davis where she learned how to
care for the animals on an even more
complex level.
After college, she worked as a
Vet Tech in San Martin, where she
met Dorothy Verble, who is now the
Hospital Manager at Live Oak.
Verble, who admires Haggerty-
Arcay’s steady, patient way with the
animals, also raves about the collective
talent of the practice’s other three veter-
inarians, who include Loreen Clark (co-
owner of the practice with Haggerty-
Arcay), Mike Switzer, and Jill Muth.
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
february/march 2019
The practice also has about 25 other
employees.
Verble said she loves working at
Live Oak. “I’ve loved animals since I
was an itty bitty. I was allergic, but I
didn’t care.” She’s worked for veterinar-
ians since the mid-1980s. “I don’t think
I’d ever want to work anywhere else.
It’s great to be around these animals,”
she added.
Haggerty-Arcay and fellow veteri-
narian Loreen Clark bought the Live
Oak practice in 2010. She has enjoyed
immersing herself in the Morgan Hill
community ever since. “A lot of our
clients are involved in the community
in some way, and are people I know
[from] elsewhere; from school, the gym,
or church.” That sort of small-town
feeling, she said, doesn’t happen in a
bigger town like San Jose.
One of the perils of working in a
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