Parker County Today PCT MAY 2019 | Page 53

Texas Veterinary Medical Association and a member of the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the American Veterinary Medical Association.  Not only does Dr. Synowsky have a passion for veterinary medicine, but also for his community and the people in it. In 2017, he was elected the first mayor of Dennis. It’s a posi- tion that he got into not because he loves politics, but because he was one of the founding members to have it incorporated.  “I was part of the group that started the push to incorporate and provide some protection for us. When it came down to it, it was a matter of being part of it from the ground up and in all those meetings to make sure that we got off on the best spot possible and lay the ground work and foundation to go forward and grow,” he said.  Growth is something that Champion Embryo Transfer Services has experienced in the past year with new clients’ high success rates with pregnancies, something that is easy to see as he looks out from his office. “It’s easy in our business to see if we have success or not. We either have pregnancies or we don’t,” he said with a laugh.  Dr. Synowsky finds that those pregnancies and the births of the foals are the most rewarding thing about his profession.  “I would say every time I do an 11-day pregnancy check and I see a pregnancy, it’s always a good feel- ing. The most rewarding part is actu- ally foaling out mares and delivering a new baby, but it’s also the most exhausting part of the job. They usually foal out late at night, like what happened one night at 1:30,” he said.  For him, those long hours are, at times, the most difficult part of his job.  “My dedication to making sure everything is done as well as we can do it means I’m up here a lot and I have a lot of long days. There are a lot of nights, and if my wife wants to spend the evenings with me, she will have to come hang out at the clinic with me,” he explained. From the business end, Dr. Synowsky also has a unique pay structure from a lot of reproduction firms. “It’s not uncommon in this day and age for companies in the repro- duction industry to view their clients as numbers and present huge bills, to charge big for every small aspect of equine care without the backing of a strong success rate,” Dr. Synowsky said. “That’s not us.” He offers cycle management programs to make the client’s fee schedule and billing as easy to under- stand as possible. One thing that makes them stand out against some of their competitors is their embryo transfer pregnancy fee and recipi- ent mare lease is only billed once they see a viable pregnancy with a heartbeat in the recipient mare. If the transfer does not produce a preg- nancy, there is no transfer charge. They are also backed by his live foal guarantee.  “Our live foal guarantee is the best in the industry and rivals anyone else’s live foal guarantee. If for some reason a recipient mare does not produce a live foal that stands and nurses after checking her in foal with a heartbeat, we will redo the embryo transfer for no additional pregnancy fee, and with no additional booking fees, deposits or insurance policies,” he explained.  Dr. Synowsky is excited about the new technology in his field, stating that with the scientific development and success rates with intracytoplas- mic sperm injection (ICSI) mares that wouldn’t have a successful breeding career will now be able to continue breeding and produce great offspring. “They do breeding in the lab under a microscope and grow the embryo there and ship it out to a facility to be implanted in the mare,” he explained. “It’s been happening for a while and the success rates have gone up dramatically over the years, and [it] has really taken off and has changed the game.”  To read more about Dr. Synowsky and his work with foals and mares, go to championets.com. Weatherford Equine Breeding Center and Medical Center Continuing to be the leader in Equine Veterinary Care W “I grew up on a farm surrounded by horses and cattle. A lot of the vets that we dealt with were people that I looked up to, and that’s just what I decided I wanted to do.” Foland said. The concept of WEMC originated in 2001 when the three doctors decided to combine their practices and open a medical center that could serve their local clients as well as clients from referring veterinarians across North Texas. “We do anything from routine health maintenance, like vaccinations and worming’s, to full emergency surgeries, colic’s, and orthopedics and fractures and things like that,” Foland explained. “I love working with really good horses and being around people that have horses… Favorite thing, probably, is taking horses that are injured or colicky, and getting them turned around.” After the Medical Center was opened, business continued to develop and increase, and the Center eatherford Equine Medical Center opened its doors in 2002. Started by Drs. Jeff Foland, Bruce Hebbert and Justin Ritthaler, WEMC offers an unprecedented level of service including sports medicine, surgery, internal medicine, podiatry, diagnostic and regenerative medicine. Drs. Foland, Hebbert, and Ritthaler all grew up in ranching environ- ments in Wyoming and Nebraska, and all knew at an early age the were destined to become veterinarians. 51