Dr. Wesley Kinchen briefly tried to be an accountant. It ran in the family, and he figured he might give it a semester’s worth of a shot before discovering, in his own words, that “accounting is not genetic.”
A clear nudge from his girlfriend at the time — now his wife, Courtney — was all it took to get him to stop hedging. He changed his major to veterinary medicine at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, before the semester was even over, and never looked back.
Today, Kinchen is a veterinarian at Cumberland Animal Hospital in Lebanon, eight years into a career he feels was the right call every step of the way. But ask him what kind of case actually gets him excited to walk into an exam room, and the answer isn’t the dramatic surgical save you’d expect: “I love diarrhea cases. It’s my favorite thing to treat,” he said, laughing at himself, and he means it.
It traces back to his first year of clinical work, when everything he’d learned in a classroom still felt like theory he hadn’t figured out how to apply.
“You’ve got all this information, but you’ve got to learn how to actually be a vet,” he said.
Diarrhea was the first thing that clicked into place — the first time he looked at a case and thought, “I know what I’m doing. I’ve got this down.” It’s a small, unglamorous thing to be proud of, and it tells you something about a man who would rather sit with the ordinary parts of the job than chase the impressive ones.
A DAY AT CUMBERLAND ANIMAL HOSPITAL
For Kinchen, who grew up in nearby Smyrna, Cumberland Animal Hospital means a 45-minute commute that starts most days before 6 a.m. The days themselves run long: appointments from around 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., an hour that’s supposed to be lunch and usually isn’t, more appointments until 6 p.m., and whatever paperwork the day left behind after that. Some days are wall-to-wall surgery. Some are nothing but exam rooms, one after another, each one needing a different version of him.
While most people have a clear picture of what a veterinarian’s day may look like, most don’t grasp the pace at which they work — a pace akin to anxiety-inducing medical dramas. “Everyone needs a chunk of your time,” he said, describing days when a string of 10-minute conversations quietly eats an entire hour before he’s even reached his actual to-do list.
He’s quick to redirect credit to his technicians, too, the ones restraining anxious animals and drawing blood all day with a steadiness he still finds himself impressed by. “None of them are getting rich in this field. They do it because they love it.”
THE DOG THAT TAUGHT HIM THE REST
If the routine clinical cases taught Kinchen how to be a vet, his own dog taught him what the job is actually for.
Eleven years ago, he brought home a Great Pyrenees puppy named Lily Belle. His father, watching his son juggle the veterinary school workload, told him he’d end up giving her up after six months. Lily Belle proved him wrong, and then some. She’s been through the rest of vet school, a wedding a week after his graduation, a first house, and two kids.
“She’s been there every step of the way,” he said.
It’s not a sentimental detail. It’s closer to data. Ask Kinchen what actually shapes the way he treats the people who bring their pets to him, and he can point to his own dog. “I’ve had this dog that’s literally been through every major milestone of my life,” he said. “Never again will I go through all of that in this short a time period.”
That understanding — of how much one ordinary life can hold inside it — is what he carries into every exam room, whether the patient on the table is somebody’s new puppy or somebody’s last afternoon with an old friend. No matter how backed up his schedule is that day, Kinchen tries not to let it show.
“I don’t want someone who’s trying to rush in and out, or not take the time,” he said.
SHOWING UP
Kinchen doesn’t talk about any of this in grand terms — not the job, not his family. At home, Kinchen has Courtney, their two young sons, Brooks and Carson, and a dog who, by his own account, is more thrilled to see him walk in the door than anyone else in the house. Between his hours at the clinic and Courtney’s work as a newborn nurse in Nashville, their household runs on a tight schedule.
His parenting advice, from a man constantly in demand? “Ninety percent of being a parent is just showing up,” he said. “I try to make sure I still make it to as many of the baseball games as I can.”
It’s the same instinct that keeps him in the exam room a little longer than his schedule actually allows him to. Kinchen’s whole career runs on it. So, it turns out, does the rest of his life.
GET TO KNOW DR. KINCHEN
Dr. Wesley Kinchen sees patients at Cumberland Animal Hospital in Lebanon, which is currently accepting new patients and can be reached at (615) 444-1232. A University of Tennessee, Knoxville graduate of both the undergraduate and veterinary schools, he’s a Smyrna, Tennessee, native who spends his off hours on the golf course, watching UT football, or chasing down his kids. GN
