Picayune Veterinary Clinic has a new veterinarian who hails from Nova Scotia and brings 10 years of veterinary care experience.

Kathryn Sykes, DVM, and her husband recently moved to the area. She joined the staff in August of last year.

Sykes said she had an interest in the field since she was a child and as such always wished her family would move to a farm, but they never did.

Moving to the Deep South was not much of a culture shock for Sykes. She said she enjoys the pleasant people, being able to provide medical care to large animals on a farm and getting to know the clients and their pets.

“They’ve been really good to me here, it’s a great place to work,” Sykes said.

Her previous experience includes a one-year internship providing equine care in New York state and working at mixed animal and small animal practices in Nova Scotia.

In the future she plans to help her husband care for alligators at the farm he runs in Louisiana, especially since she recently became licensed to practice veterinary care in Louisiana.

She and her husband live near Covington, La. and have two children and one dog. Sykes said her daughter is a big fan of Blythe Odom, DVM, who also practices at and owns Picayune Veterinary Clinic. She said that Odom’s inspiration on her daughter has her considering becoming a veterinarian when she grows up.

Sykes enjoys using the clinic’s new ultrasound machine because it helps with the practice of internal medicine. Her goals are to increase the clientele in equine care because she enjoys diagnosing lameness in horses. She said it involves finding the cause of the horse’s pain, which can involve a pinched nerve, and then manage that animal’s care through injections and monitoring platelet and plasma levels to encourage healing.

Picayune Veterinary Clinic has one other veterinarian on staff, Heath Stroupe, DVM.

It is located at 2507 Highway 43 S. and is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Staff can be reached by calling 601-798-7706.