Nancy Stone / Chicago TribuneKathryn Gamble, head veterinarian at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, knew from an early age that her love of animals was something she needed to make a career out of.

CHICAGO — Kathryn Gamble is at her desk, animatedly talking about one of the joys in her life: teaching.

As the Dr. Lester Fisher Director of Veterinary Medicine and Veterinary Services at Lincoln Park Zoo, Gamble coordinates research, including studies by veterinarians, veterinary techs, the nutrition manager, keepers and veterinary preceptors. She does rounds most mornings, dealing with some of the zoo’s residents. She also oversees the zoo’s extensive teaching programs — a residency program, one of about only 20 in U.S. zoos; a veterinary preceptor program; and a zoo medical support internship.

During the conversation, to illustrate a point, she calls up a photo on her computer. It’s of an orange-ish cat made of indeterminate materials, appearing to be undergoing an ultrasound.

“I had a student (in the preceptor program in 2012) who couldn’t use the ultrasound on a real cat, so I made a Jell-O cat. Well, not Jell-O. It was pudding,” she says. “Inside I put a cookie. And a balloon of water. I told her to ultrasound it and see what was in there. She was so excited about it.”

The little project combined teaching with another joy in her life, cooking.

Gamble was born in Houston and spent her early years there. She attended Texas A&M, earning her bachelor’s (veterinary science), master’s (clinical pharmacology) and doctorate (in veterinary medicine) degrees there. She has been in practice since 1992 and came to the Lincoln Park Zoo in 2002. She lives in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

During our visit, she discussed her job, her passions and her cats. Here is an edited transcript of the conversation.

Q: Where did your interest in animals come from?

A: Nobody quite knows. I presume I was dropped off from space. There are no doctors in our family. No veterinarians. When I was 8 or 9, depending on which parent you ask, I walked out of a dinner party my parents were having. I had seen what people did at weddings (to get attention) — I hit my water glass with a spoon. Everyone looked. I then announced I was going to be a veterinarian, that I was going to go to Texas A&M, and that I was going to bed.

Q: Did you have a lot of pets as a child?

A: I spent a lot of time begging for various creatures. We had a lot of cats — I have a lot of cats now. I got a job at a wildlife center when I was 11, a very feisty 11.

Q: That’s kind of a veterinarian connection.

A: I did a lot of rehab work in Houston. People would walk in (to the family home) and find a box of kittens. Or the time my father found five baby opossums in the shower. My mother once got a call from a woman from church, and she said that a cat had died during surgery and there were four kittens and the veterinarian was going to euthanize them. But I got the kittens, and I got to raise them, which was super fun. I got to do a lot of things. Spiders, snakes. … I don’t know if my parents knew what to do with me. But I knew what to do with me.

Q: What’s a typical day for you?

A: Nothing’s typical. We start between 7 and 8 and finish between 5 and 6. We meet as a team at 8 o’clock. Generally mornings are spent on procedures, and afternoons are for paperwork. We (handle) between 11,000 and 13,000 records a year.

Q: And the job itself?

A: A zoo vet’s job is like being a country doctor. We know who is friends with whom, who is pregnant. Sixty or seventy percent of what we do is preventive medicine. Zoo bunnies to primates, we make sure everyone gets their vaccines. … The director of veterinary services really has to be a vet. That gives confidence to the staff and keeps you in touch with the veterinary world. I do enjoy leading the team; it lets me do extra teaching.

Q: Are there certain animals you really look forward to seeing, treating?

A: I do enjoy giraffes very much. And hornbills (tropical birds), reptiles. Individually, the one I’ve enjoyed working with most is the little gorilla Nayembi (the gorilla suffered severe facial injuries in February 2013 and needed six months of care before she could rejoin her family). It could have been a disaster, but she came through it. … Vet school doesn’t say what to do when the nose falls off your baby gorilla.

Q: What aspect of your job would surprise people?

A: One thing, so many of our patients are unknowns. … I love my medical colleagues, but they have just one species, humans, and I have eight. We can model only so far. Gorillas are like humans. Lions and tigers, cats. Wolves and dogs, that’s pretty good. But what do you do with an aardvark? That’s something you can’t model, so we have to figure out treatment. If you have a bacterial infection, there are several drugs that have been approved for treatment. But there’s nothing for a gorilla or chimpanzee. Withholding treatment would be ridiculous. Anything outside the range of a typical dog or typical human, we have to adjust. People ask me, “What’s the toughest animal to treat?” I say the biggest and the smallest.

Q: There’s renovation work going on at the zoo. Do you have a say in those things?

A: Our degree is a doctor of veterinary medicine. I like to say it’s a doctor of veterinary meddling. Pest control, nutrition, the paint. We want to be aware of everything that goes on in their environment.

Q: You mentioned you have cats?

A: Six cats, all gray. I like matched sets.

Q: Any kids?

A: No kids, except my husband. He’s an orchestra conductor (Robert Carter Austin of the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra, based in Irving, Texas). We commute; he lives in Texas.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge to a long-distance marriage? Or the most positive aspect?

A: It is challenging to keep two households running — sometimes to remember which house or city an item is or should be. But we talk often in between visits and make the best effort to be together every weekend. The biggest positive aspect: lots of frequent flier miles.

Q: What kind of music do you like?

A: Classical. I have no choice. Classical and country-western. He grew up in Tennessee.

Q: A lot of kids want to be vets, but it’s not easy. Do you have any advice?

A: It is a challenge to focus early and study hard, but those skills get you through veterinary school. It is more than just loving animals.