By Sue Wambolt, Contributing Writer
Westborough – While it is said that a dog is man's best friend, for the dogs (and cats) who are scheduled for surgery at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, 200 Westborough Road, North Grafton, Dr. John Berg is their best friend.
A Westborough resident, Berg has been on staff at Tufts since 1986, becoming Professor of Surgery in 2001. He specializes in small animal (dogs and cats) soft tissue surgery; meaning all kinds of surgery except orthopedic and neurosurgery. His special interest is surgical treatment of cancer. Berg also serves as editor-in-chief of the Tufts newsletters “Catnip” and “Your Dog.”
He teaches several courses at the school. On a typical day he has a small group of fourth year vet students and surgeons-in-training (called residents) working with him. During the day, they see new clients and patients, do surgeries, and take care of their post-op patients. Berg teaches as much as possible as they go along, with the students and residents doing some of the surgery with him observing and helping. He also gives about 20 hours of lectures each year, teaches in some laboratories, and does research (mostly pertaining to surgery as a cancer treatment).
Berg finds his job extremely satisfying.
“The cancer patients and clients are often the most rewarding for me because the animals are often older,” he said, “and the bond between the owner and animal is very strong. The owners very much appreciate our efforts to treat a difficult disease.”
According to Berg, the animals he treats are generally great patients. There is the occasional mean dog but, for the most part, the dogs and cats are well behaved. He added that the animals are far less stressed by being hospitalized than their owners imagine. The problem for surgeons is that, in general, animals recover too fast and want to become active before they should.
“This will sound harsh, but I generally do not become attached to the animals I treat,” he said. “I care about them, but becoming attached and emotional is emotionally exhausting and does not help you do a better job; in fact, it has a tendency to cloud judgment and add stress to the job. I think most vets would say the same, that we care, but stop short of becoming attached. The exception is in the case of animals you’ve worked with for a long time on difficult problems, when it sort of becomes unavoidable.”
While Berg treats only dogs and cats, many years ago when he used to dabble in orthopedics, he fixed a fracture in a moose. At Tufts though, there is a specialist who takes care of the “exotic” animals like snakes, birds, and ferrets (to name a few).
Outside of his work in the operating room, Berg is the recipient of many awards and honors. Among them, he was twice awarded the Pfizer Distinguished Teacher Award and named the White Coat Ceremony speaker (2012). He has written chapters in more than a dozen books and articles in more than 54 journals on a variety of topics in soft tissue surgery and surgical oncology. Berg served as the chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences at Tufts from 1998 until 2011 and he is an honorary member of the Veterinary Society of Surgical Oncology. Berg is also a popular lecturer asked to give presentations at a variety of conferences and seminars.
The Pfizer Distinguished Teacher Award is “awarded” by the students, who vote for their selections, so it carries with it a special honor.
“It means a lot,” Berg said. “It's nice to be appreciated by the people who actually “consume” your teaching.”
When not working, he enjoys his own collection of animals adopted from the Foster Hospital – a German Shepherd named Keyser, four cats (Minnie dot, Kitoo, Annie, Girl-Girl), four guinea pigs and a fish (Terry). He and his wife, Gail, a technician who works in surgery at Tufts, are the parents of two daughters, Cara, 16, and Sidney, 12. Together, they enjoy outdoor activities such as cycling, tennis and skiing.