“Dr. Jeff Rocky Mountain Vet” is Animal Planets’ most viewed program averaging nearly 1.3 million viewers an episode, but it wasn’t a walk in the park for the show’s star Jeff Young and his extremely busy clinic. Young lost money in the first season, and he didn’t enjoy being “handled” by the film crew.
“First season hurt a lot financially,” said Young, who’s known for being blunt, but “The second season we got a really good crew, and we filmed twice as much in half the amount of time.”
Last week’s episode, the second to last of the season, was the most watched episode of the series with 1.5 million viewers. Young revealed a cancer diagnosis, B-cell Lymphoma, and that the clinic, Planned Pethood Plus, was in the process of moving from the Highlands neighborhood to Wheat Ridge.
Young was diagnosed with cancer after doctors discovered an 8 cm mass in his lung. He cut his signature shoulder-length graying hair because of the chemo, which took more of a toll on his employees and friends than it did on him.
Hector Martinez, who has worked with Young since high school, hasn’t watched the most recent episode. He said cutting Young’s hair was hard enough, watching the episode will choke him up all over again.
“When I cut his hair it was the most difficult experience for me,” Martinez said. “He was so positive about it, but you don’t ever want to see a friend go through something like that.”
The diagnosis was painful for fans and customers as well. Hundreds of people took to Facebook to wish him a speedy recovery and explain their love for his show and work.
Despite the show’s ratings and his new fandom, Martinez said that he and Young never anticipated the show would be as popular as it’s become. One thing they learned was that the show is a great way to spread the clinic’s message about the importance of spaying and neutering companion pets to a larger audience.
People now notice Young in public and have started to approach him when he’s away from the clinic, Martinez said. But, Young doesn’t let the attention, or his cancer diagnosis, affect his work or his clinic
“I don’t see myself as a hero or anything like that,” he said. “Attitude is everything in life. Had my last pet scan done today, hoping I’m free and clear, but even if it’s not I’m not gonna cry about it. I don’t have real phobia of death, I guess.”
In the midst of the day to day chaos of his clinic and the cancer diagnosis, Planned Pethood Plus was moving to a new location, one that is over double the size of the original.
“The bottom line is the highlands are gentrified, it’s completely ridiculous,” Young said. “[At the new location] we have 75 parking spaces and 7 exam rooms now. The front is bigger, the boutique is built in. It’s a lot better.”
The new location, 4595 N Harlan St., is 8,000 square feet, not including the apartment on the second floor where Young will live, just like he did at the old location. However, his apartment space is not quite done, so he’s living in a trailer next to the clinic.
Young said when he semi-retires, he plans to use the trailer to travel to rural parts of Colorado that have limited access to veterinary care, which is something he has done periodically for the last 20 years.
Young estimates that he has performed more than 160,000 desexing, population-controlling procedures throughout his career. He performs these procedures for little to no cost, which is the clinic’s main goal. To keep the prices low, Planned Pethood Plus sees an enormous volume of patients, it has nearly 80,000 patients in its system.
“Basically, we work harder. Everyone here knows that what you see here, you won’t see for three, four or five years somewhere else,” he said. “We discount a lot of things based on the story and circumstance of their pets.”
Young said he doesn’t understand how some other vets can rationalize the charge of their care.
He said many people are told they can pay $5,000 to have their dogs broken leg fixed, or they can put the dog down for x amount of money. Making people decide between the two doesn’t make sense to him, and he doesn’t want to have that kind of clinic.
Young graduated from Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 1989 and has run his clinic in the Highlands neighborhood since 1990. Young was signed to star in his own show by Double Act in 2014, which was then picked up as a series by Animal Planet.
“This is not a one-man show, and truth is the support of my staff has been incredible,” he said. “I’m definitely tired of feeling tired, but my staff has really picked it up.”
Watch the final episode at 7 p.m. Saturday on Animal Planet.
