On most days, patients flap, crawl, scamper, scuttle, hop, slither, and climb through the 1455 square feet of Dr. Eric Westheimer’s clinic, and that’s the way he likes it.

A local vet in practice here since 1975, Westheimer has seen almost 30 years of cats, dogs, guinea pigs and rabbits, as well as snakes and lizards, even the occasional ferret, pygmy anteater, and sugar glider.
“It’s not illegal for me to treat one,” he says of the extralegal pets people might bring in, “But it’s illegal for me to have one.” Thus, he won’t hospitalize them, but he has no problem bringing them back to health.

Dr. Westheimer’s patients come from as far as Ventura, Los Alamos, even New Mexico, and his work is not limited to pets. He was the Santa Barbara Zoo vet from around 1978 to 1985, treating every animal except for the hoofstock. “Monkeys are my favorite,” he said, and one only need look around to see it. Clients might sit next to the stuffed toy monkey on his couch and gaze at the cabinet of monkey memorabilia while conferring with him in his office.

For the most part, though, it’s Goleta’s cats and dogs that visit him for their regular examinations, maybe a vaccination, a spay or neuter, or the allergies that strike them this time of year. Yes, folks, even our pets get allergies from living in the Good Land.

“There’s the pollen this time of year, and in the winter we have mold spore,” he said. Many of the cases he sees are dogs with allergic dermatitis. Because of the recent heavy rains, a concern of his is leptospirosis, a water-borne bacteria that can spread from animals to humans. The best way to guard against it is to keep animal feed free of rats and mice, which transmit the bacteria through their urine.

Other conditions he sees are oddly familiar to humans: dental problems, and obesity, which strikes 60 - 70 percent of pets. “It’s a lifestyle thing,” he said.

Westheimer’s love for animals goes way back to a childhood spent in Texas on an uncle’s ranch. “I knew I wanted to be a vet since I was three,” he said, although his initial ambitions in college were not geared towards veterinary medicine.

“I found I didn’t really have that much talent,” said the erstwhile art major, and so in his sophomore year he decided to pursue his first love for animals and went into veterinary school. It wasn’t too long after his graduation in 1975 that he moved out to Goleta (after a brief very hot stint in the San Diego area), and he’s been here ever since.

“I love Goleta,” he said. “The people are nice and it’s a great community; if the water was ten degrees warmer I’d never go anywhere.”

With Fourth of July coming up, Dr. Westheimer has a few words of advice for owners of pets that might get spooked by the fireworks’ noise:

“I’d recommend (owners) to keep them inside, turn the radio or the music, or television on - something with loud bass to cover the (firecracker) noise up. And if the dog is really bad, and you know it’s trying to escape, I’d say to tranquilize them.”

And, as to the recent West Nile scare, Dr. Westheimer encourages dog and cat owners not to be too concerned, but for owners of birds to make sure to keep mosquitoes away from them. He encourages those concerned to visit Merck’s online manual at www.merck.com.

The perpetually in demand vet and his wife Karen both run Valley Animal Hospital on South Fairview. They have two grown children, both graduates of San Marcos: one daughter who is now a performer in San Francisco who goes by the name Harvey, and a son, Cody, who is a film composer in Los Angeles. The rest of their family includes two dogs and a “cool and wacko” cat.

PHOTO BY SONIA FERNANDEZ