Many clients ask Dr. Middleton about her hearing loss, her cochlear implants and her process of becoming a veterinarian. Her story follows:
Dr. Ann Middleton, a San Diego native had wanted to be a “doctor” as a child.When she was 10, she contracted spinal meningitis, was in a coma for a week and was expected to be brain damaged if she recovered. She recovered but was profoundly deaf as a result. Her parents and her school decided to have her mainstreamed rather than send her to a special school for the deaf. She joined the local 4-H club at that time, starting off with raising pigs, then sheep, then steers. She spent 8 years involved in the San Dieguito 4-H club and that experience strengthened her desire to be a veterinarian. In her senior year at Torrey Pines High School, she enrolled in a work experience course which was observing at a local veterinary hospital, Academy Animal Hospital, owned by Dr. Charles Sodikoff. During her college, she was a veterinary assistant at Academy. She obtained her B.A. degree of Animal Physiology at U.C.S.D. in 1984 and her D.V.M. at U.C. Davis in 1988.
While in college, Dr. Middleton's roommate had a cochlear implant. She investigated having an implant for several years and finally was implanted in 1985 (Symbion Ineraid). This cochlear implant vastly improved her ability to communicate by lip reading and through what she could hear with the implant (about 80% perception). She also has a special amplifying stethoscope and can identify heart murmurs and abnormal lung sounds very well. In 2000, she had her other ear implanted (Advanced Bionics Clarion) as a back up as technology has been changing tremendously and soon the implant from 1985 will be obsolete.
She has volunteered at the House Ear Institute (http://www.hei.org/research/aip/aip.html) and U.C. Irvine Auditory Research (http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/hesp/) in their cochlear implant research projects. Most of her research participation is with Dr. Fan-Gang Zeng, currently the research director at the U.C. Irvine Speech and Hearing Lab. Some of the research studies she participated in were how accurately she could distinguish difference between two very similar sounds (both in a quiet environment and in a noisy environment), speech recognition, and music sounds.
After becoming a Veterinary Medical Doctor, Dr. Middleton took her first position with Altadena Animal Hospital in the Los Angeles area, where she worked with a veterinary surgeon who also had a severe hearing impairment. She then worked at Oakhurst Veterinary Hospital from 1989-1997. There she worked with dogs, cats, pocket pets, and occasionally injured wildlife. She returned to San Diego County in 1997 and worked at All Care Cat Hospital for 4 months prior to it’s being sold. She worked for her mentor, Dr. Charles Sodikoff, for 1 year before he sold his practice. She purchased Cheshire Cat Clinic from Dr. James Babbitt in 1999. In 2007, she purchased All Care Cat Hospital and merged the two cat hospitals together, moving Cheshire Cat Clinic to the All Care Cat Hospital location in Clairemont. Dr. Middleton has also volunteered her services at Baja Animal Sanctuary (http://www.bajaanimalsanctuary.org/) in Rosarito, Mexico. She was able to arrange some caravans with volunteers, pre-vet UCSD students, and her own staff to go down and do spays/neuters, other minor surgical procedures, and perform treatment on a number of dogs and cats at the sanctuary. The shelter is a non-profit organization. The “hospital” had been without electricity and running water originally. They have since moved to a new location.
Dr. Middleton strives to keep up with the latest on feline medicine. She is a member of Veterinary Information Network (http://www.vin.com), a member of the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association), CVMA (California Veterinary Medical Association), SDCVMA (San Diego County Veterinary Medical Association), AVDC (American Veterinary Dental College), and AAFP (American Association of Feline Practitioners).
Her special interests (besides her career which she considers very fascinating and is always investigating something new) include fixing up her house, traveling, family and friends, reading, gardening, fitness, and, you guessed it, her pets.
