Friends & Neighbors: Emily Felker

By Lara Hayes

Have a 75-pound, 13-foot long Burmese python with a cold and don’t know what to do? Call Emily Felker and she’ll help you.

Felker, a veterinarian who is under contract with Whitfield and Murray counties to provide certain services, has treated many animals during her career, but she says that python was by far the strangest. So how do you make a snake suffering from sniffles feel better?

“Antibiotic injections,” said Felker.

Felker says she doesn’t remember not having an innate way with animals, something she doesn’t share with anyone else in her family.

“It was tolerated,” she said. “My family doesn’t dislike animals, though. We always had a family dog and cat. I was just always fascinated with them. I remember getting an opossum out of a trap and bringing it home. I was like Elly Mae Clampett (from ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’).”

Felker spent much of her childhood in Monroe raising baby raccoons, opossums and squirrels. She said she never worried about getting bitten because rabies was not as prevalent then. However, a baby chipmunk she was caring for did sink its teeth into her dad once.

“I was holding it. Dad bent down to look at it and it bit him,” she said.

Felker attended The Galloway School in Atlanta but skipped her senior year to go to Georgia State University. She also skipped her senior year of college to attend veterinary school at the University of Georgia. The only degree she holds is a doctorate of veterinary medicine; however, getting into veterinary school wasn’t as easy as it sounds.

“Only one out of every nine applicants got in,” said Felker.

Female vets were also more uncommon back then. Felker said she didn’t let that deter her.

“A female working with large animals was an oddity,” she said. “A lot of the men in the community would come, park their trucks and watch.”

Following graduation in 1984, Felker moved to Chatsworth, where she did large animal work. Delivering calves was one of her favorite things.

“I have long, skinny arms. I was a natural,” she laughed. “Growing up, I mostly helped bottle-raise orphan calves.”

In 1988, Felker moved to Dalton and began working at the Animal Hospital of Whitfield County. After several years, she saw a need for a local vet who made house calls, so she bought a van. She continued until 2006 when she broke her leg and fractured her back.

“It takes a special person to do house calls,” Felker said. “I wish there was a local vet who would do it. Very few people have the privilege of going to work every day and being told, ‘Thank you. I’m glad you do that.’”

As much as Felker tries to save each animal she works on, there are those that cannot be helped. It’s something she has come to terms with.

“It’s part of life, as you would expect,” she said. “Our job is to take care of animals. Sometimes it can be kinder for the animal to let them go.”

Felker is a big supporter of River Vet Emergency Clinic in Chattanooga in the event of after hours emergencies.

“Veterinary medicine is more sophisticated than it used to be. They have the best equipment and staff for emergencies,” she said. “They serve a large area and give better veterinary care than was ever available in this area.”

Some may be upset at the distance, but Felker said it’s really no different than seeing a vet here.

“It’s only 30 minutes. If people can’t make it up there, those animals wouldn’t have made it anyway,” she said. “It would take at least that long or longer to meet a vet at a local clinic.”

Felker now does “low-cost” spay and neuter clinics and shots each Thursday at the Murray County Animal Shelter in Chatsworth, works part time at Dalton Animal Care and owns Four Paws Pet Resort, which offers luxury boarding kennels for dogs. On March 29, she will participate in an adoption day and offer low-cost vaccines in conjunction with the Murray County Humane Society at Tractor Supply in Chatsworth.

“I realize vet care has become very expensive,” said Felker. “I try to help people out.”

She is also very involved with the Whitfield County Saddle Club. The club will sponsor Horse Day for 4-H’ers on April 19 at the North Georgia Fairgrounds to introduce children to horses.

“Whitfield County is no longer agricultural, it’s urban now,” she said. “Children don’t have the opportunity to be around animals much. Brenda Jackson with the Extension Office and the Saddle Club are trying to change that.”