Dr. Daniel Hocks Meakin grew up on the east side of Cincinnati. From a very young age he always wanted to work with animals and began his lifetime commitment to animals catching wall lizards, rescuing wildlife, and studying zoology. Starting early with a rather large collection of exotic pets (snakes, lizards, turtles, ferrets, rabbits, raccoons, and rodents), as well as the normal dogs and cats, Dr. Dan was known as the neighborhood zoo keeper. During middle school, Dr. Dan was accepted into the junior zoologist program at the Cincinnati zoo. So while most teenagers were getting into trouble, he was attending rounds at the zoo and hanging with an elite group of future zoologists and educators.

Dr. Dan graduated from St. Xavier High School where he gave mini courses on reptiles and frequently entertained his classmates with various exotic animals he would bring to the biology classroom or cafeteria. His yearbook picture has him holding a 3 foot alligator! During high school Dr. Dan worked at a reptile dealer called Reptile where he held cobras and various venomous pit vipers for the first time. Dr Dan’s first vet experience came with his driver’s license working after school and weekends at Montgomery Animal Hospital as a veterinary assistant with a team of veterinarians.

Dr. Dan went to college at the University of Notre Dame and studied biology. In college, Dr. Dan smuggled a 8 foot boa into his dorm room and had a aquarium with aquatic turtles. After college Dr. Dan attended veterinary school at the Ohio State University where he graduated with Dr. Linda Meakin in 1989. Dr. Dan completed a 1 year internship in small animal medicine and surgery at West LA Veterinary medical group working with specialists in surgery, exotics, and internal medicine.

Dr. Dan returned to Cincinnati in 1990 and began working with Dr. Dill at Cherry Grove Animal Hospital, where he had worked summers during veterinary school. Then in 1993, Dr. Dan opened the first All Creatures Animal Hospital in Amelia with his wife Dr. Linda Meakin. Dr. Dan practiced at the Amelia All Creatures primarily for the next 29 years, growing the practice and expanding to a newly constructed facility across the street in 1997. Then 5 years later in 2002, they added a few doctors and built a 15k square foot expansion to add more boarding, grooming and training. The Meakins opened their All Creatures Anderson location in 2007, and their Mt Washington location in 2012.

Some of Dr. Dan’s highlights in his career include the following:

• Vet Camp – In 2002, Dr. Dan started offering vet camp for aspiring young veterinarians and for the next 17 years vet camp was always filled up and many graduates have gone on to become veterinarians.
• Pet Health Day – for past 11 years Dr. Dan has provided heavily discounted vet care to the underserved people of Adams County on his time away from All Creatures.
• Videos on exotic pet care. Early in Dr. Dan’s career, he produced and published 10 videos on caring for reptiles, lizards, snakes, birds and other small mammals. He did these to help save time and prevent repeating himself in every room. Now his clients are much more educated about the proper husbandry of these non-traditional exotic animals.
• Creature Feature – Dr. Dan wrote a column, “Creature Feature,” in the Clermont Sun for over 15 years, trying to pass on good pet information and preventive strategies for pets in his community.
• Veterinary medicine outreach – Dr. Dan has traveled to Ecuador and Chile to serve veterinary missions to help pets in other countries.
• Conferences and continuing education – Being all about learning new skills, during the 29 years of building all creatures, Dr. Dan attended over 100 hours of continuing education annually including specialty conferences with zoo animal, reptile, small mammal, avian, internal medicine, and surgery conferences.
• Surgery – orthopedic – Dr. Dan has preformed over 1000 orthopedic procedures on birds, reptiles, rabbits and other domestic pets. His favorite surgeries are repairing unstable knees in dogs, such as ACL, meniscal, and knee cap issues. Bone plating is a close second.
• Dr. Dan has lectured at veterinary and non-veterinary conferences on reptilian medicine, surgery, and other topics including turtle shell repair (Reptile dysfunction).
• Dr. Dan has educated and mentored no less than 10 currently practicing veterinarians prior to acceptance to vet school through his staff mentorship at All Creatures.
• Dr. Dan is proud to have 2 daughters in veterinary school at this time (Katelyn and Keely). Dr. Dan’s other children have all worked in the practice including the oldest Michaela, now a licensed pharmacist, Kiernan, a Miami senior applying to vet school, and Cavan at West Va. University studying forestry.
• “Pass it on” – Dr. Dan’s original C/D he wrote and released in 2016 contains fun songs he wrote concerning his deceased friends/mentors (Johnny C, Plantar of the seeds), his pets (My dog loves me, Waiting on a puppy), dog breeds (learning from my hound, pit bull blues) and his kids (Experience, This is your story, Destiny).

Recently, Dr. Dan has settled into the Anderson All Creatures as the medical director at the smaller office on weekdays. On weekends Dr. Dan sees clients in Adams County at Adams County Veterinary Services. In the next 5 years Dr. Dan plans to spend more time at the west union practice.

Besides exotic pet care, Dr. Dan’s interests include orthopedics, ophthalmology, and oncology. His hobbies are herpetology (reptiles), playing and writing music, and the usual outdoor stuff (hiking, biking, kayaking). He spends his free time at his Adams County cabin or with his family in Florida. Usually he’s with his Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Roo, and his 7th grade live in nephew, Keeghan.

Dr. Dan plans to continue practicing until it’s not fun anymore and invites new clients to come in and ask for his music CD called “pass it on” (Free to new and exiting clients while supplies last)