The Incredible Dr. Pol

Dr. Pol, DVM, has a practice in rural Michigan, and this reality show follows him as he makes his rounds to his various farm patients, as well as the office where people bring their domestic animals. It has an old fashioned feel to it. The doc knows his patients and their owners, and you get to see him deal with birth, injuries, death, and the hard decision to put an animal down. He's not a man given with the gift of much gab, but he has a distinct likability about him. He's a man who is 75 as I am writing this, and when I first watched the show I was guessing he was in his mid to late 50s. That's what comes from doing what you love - it keeps you young at heart. Also part of the practice is his son Charles, who, as he admits, is not even a veterinary technician, just an assistant, but seems to be loving what he does and being around his dad. The office is organized and maintained by Dr. Pol's wife of 50 years, and then there is "Dr. Brenda", Brenda Grettenburger, and the junior vet on the team, Dr. Emily Thomas.

There are a wide variety of situations, animals, and dilemmas, so I am yet to get bored. I will tell you that there does seem to be a good deal of professional jealousy about Dr. Pol. If you look around the internet you'll see fellow vets talk about how uncaring the staff is and unsanitary the procedures are. Folks, it is called editing. You don't see every little thing that is done. Plus you don't wind up with 20,000 patients by being a bad vet. Dr. Pol was disciplined by a Michigan state board a few years back based on the complaint of a viewer of this show who was a retired veterinarian living in Tennessee! However, that decision was reversed and even the owners of the animal in the case in question said that they were happy with the outcome.

I'd recommend you watch the show. Just don't mention it to your vet or they are likely to start snorting, stomp out of the examining room, and fire you and your pet from their practice. Just my two cents.

Watch this show as regularly as it's on...we love Dr. Emily! She's the most caring and personable person on that staff! A loving person!

I am currently watching the series and took a look at some of the reviews. There have been criticisms of Dr. Pol's methods by some vets and others. What they are not taking into account, in some cases and which many viewers may not know or ever experienced is that a rural practice where the primary clients are farmers and residents on a very thin financial edge, is very different than a city practice where clients have funds to treat pets with expensive equipment and who have the time, patience and sometimes staff to help with the followup care. City vets are careful to not offend the humans who pay the vet bills. At a city vet my dogs go into a clinic where they are coddled by the staff, attended to with utmost care and the fees are in the high hundreds if not thousands. When I was house sitting in very rural area of Hawaii and the owner's 2 dogs got into figh that resulted in lacerated ears, the drive to the vet was 45 minutes. The vet came outside into the parking lot, the dogs never even went into the clinic (vet took a few minutes in between surgeries to attend to the combatants) I held each dogs, vet said no use to stitch them up, gave us antibiotics and off we went like. In a city clinic they would have been stitched, maybe even held overnight with lots of "oh, poor boy" vs. Dr. Pol who has a "stupid dogs... this didn't have to happen" attitude. He does not have time to coddle the pets/ livestock or the owner but he gets the job done. Rural and city are very different. In the show you see Dr. Pol, using very practical and expedient methods that save his clients money and help the animals. I have recommended this show to my friend who recently become a farmer with no prior experience so that person can learn what can befall his livestock. I find it fascinating and informative. Is it top of the line veterinary care? Not always - but it is practical rural vet care.

Love the show, its kinda relaxing. Love dr Brenda :) They are looking lazy sometimes, like euthanising animals that does not seem that 'done'. I'm not vet tho, so I don't know, but my husband was vet technician and said on one occasion that kneeling while operating a pig ruins your knees and hurts so dr Pol maybe avoids it 😬 I also don't understand purpose od Charles, he is not a vet, but is always there and is presented like 'part of team'. Whyyy, does he live with his parents, that is the only explanation, why would he be there. He is not that funny I'm sorry, they could cut down with him. Show us dr Brenda more, she is adorable 😍

I watch Dr. Pol about four times a week because I love the show and the staff. My husband and I are from New Jersey and just moved out to Indiana recently. We went to Mackinac Island last week to celebrate our anniversary and decided to stop by Dr. Pol's clinic hoping to get a quick peek at one of the vets. We took a few pictures by the sign and were going to leave and saw Dr. Brenda jump into one of the cars and we stopped in front of the sign and was hoping just to get a wave and she put her head down and sped past us. I know they're probably inundated with fans but would it have killed Dr. Brenda to wave. I certainly have a different opinion of her now.