Even before the COVID pandemic altered the way businesses do business, Dr. Jill Luther was hatching an idea for the University of Missouri School of Veterinary Medicine to offer mobile animal surgery services. As that concept grew to fruition, the university and the vet school were making budget cuts, and adding mobile vet surgery didn’t make the cut.
Instead, Luther evaluated the analysis and plan she fashioned, ended her seven-year teaching stint at the vet school, and started Heartland Veterinary Surgery in 2021. Now, nearly five full years later, Luther has provided soft-tissue and cancer surgeries for scores of dogs and cats, taking her mobile service to area veterinary offices. She often performs surgeries that are beyond the expertise of other veterinarians, which typically means those pets and their people are referred to the MU vet hospital for advanced care.
Based in Columbia, Heartland is a mobile service offering advanced vet surgery services to Columbia, Jefferson City, Lake of the Ozarks, Kansas City, St. Louis, and beyond, usually within a two-hour drive.
“There needed to be something in the middle, between a spay and neuter clinic and very expensive, often unattainable advanced specialty care,” Luther said. “And that’s the niche that I fill.”
“Mobile” does not mean she drives from place to place to perform surgery in a van. Rather, she brings her own equipment to veterinary offices and uses the staff there for support and anesthesia services. The referring vet pays Luther, and the pet parent pays the vet.
Luther said her costs are lower than a specialty or advanced care center, which has to cover extensive overhead expenses. She also provides free consultations to veterinary clinics and offers on-site surgical teaching for a fee.
“I do feel like I’m an educator at heart, and that’s what I still do with seasoned practitioners who want to learn new techniques,” she explained. “I’m a lifelong learner, too. I learn from them and they learn from things I do. When I was in a brick-and-mortar specialty practice, there was very little contact with the referring practitioner. Now, it’s all about the contact and the communication.”
Luther grew up in a home that had cats — no dogs — and, according to her mother, Luther wanted to be a veterinarian. However, Luther, who was a ballet dancer in her formative years, with a continued affinity for musical theater, started college as a pre-med student at Missouri State University in Springfield. An ecology class her junior year sparked an interest in animal health, and she envisioned a career with the United State Department of Agriculture or a similar organization at the intersection of human and animal health.
Along the way, she developed a passion for surgery and small animals, leading to enrollment at MU, where she was a student, vet hospital resident, and then vet school faculty member. Also during that time, she completed a small animal internship at the Animal Medical Center in New York and, after completing her surgical residency at MU, performed orthopedic, soft-tissue, and neurosurgery in private practice in St. Louis.
One especially memorable stretch involved working in a cat-only clinic.
“I love the environment of a cat clinic,” Luther said. “There’s no chaos. You can’t be chaotic and loud, or the cats will go crazy.” With little prompting, she added with a laugh, “Crazier.”
Her pet clientele has ranged from a 2-pound kitten to a 200-pound Great Dane. She also see “a lot of cute Frenchies,” referring to the growing popularity of French bulldogs.
“And they all have different attitudes, too. Sometimes they’re sweet as pie,” she said. “Sometimes they are a bit more spicy.”
That’s a seemingly subtle but important distinction for Luther’s mobile vet surgery service, because taking a cherished pet to its regular veterinary clinic instead of having the pet transported to a specialty hospital means less stress and a more familiar environment for the animal.
There have been some memorable surgeries, too. During her time at MU’s veterinary hospital, she operated on a dog to remove a fifth leg. The fifth leg, located near the tail, had part of a pelvis and other leg structures, but it was nonfunctional. Further examination showed the dog had two bladders and two urethras that needed to be reconstructed into one, and the canine had a heart defect.
“It was a crazy case,” Luther said, noting that the furry patient was “a super white fluffy Samoyed” that became the star of its rescue dog organization. There was also the German shepherd mix that had eleven socks in its stomach. Luther removed the socks. She has also operated on a chinchilla and other “pocket pets,” though that is not her specialty.
The experience with the animal clinic in New York gave her exposure to exotic pets like snakes and birds.
Luther is also familiar with the difficult and often heart-wrenching decisions that pet parents face when weighing the cost of care versus the animal’s best interests. She is often asked, “What would you do, doc?”
“My values might be different than theirs, so when it comes time to advocate for your pet, there is a financial consideration, yes, but it’s also about what is best for the pet,” she said. “It’s a delicate balance. I try to help them. If they haven’t already had those conversations, that’s what I try to guide them to do. That conversation is more valuable than the surgery I do.”
Luther’s website notes that her nonclinical interests have evolved into helping others recognize and combat compassion fatigue and stay committed to veterinary medicine. Her family includes her husband, Wally, a teacher and builder, and kids Walter, 14, Millie, 13, and Oliver, 9. Together, they enjoy fixer-upper homes, traveling, “and a controlled, chaotic life of four cats, a spazzy mixed breed dog named Raspberry, and Scarlett, the Mini Aussie who herds everyone.”
As her practice grows and the miles from Columbia and Kansas City or St. Louis continue to add up, Luther is especially eager to establish and nurture more connections with Columbia and central Missouri veterinarians.
She added, “I want to serve the community where I live as much as possible.”
