With a heart for the mission field, Dr. Odom responded to the call to be a veterinarian while in the midst of raising five children.
With her very supportive husband, whose response to the call was “Let’s go for it,” and with five kids ranging in age from 9 to 19, the family moved from Scottsdale, Arizona to Ames, Iowa for mom to go to veterinary college at Iowa State University, where Dr. Odom received her DVM in 1996.
After a year taking care of farm horses, cows, and sheep in Appalachia, Dr. Odom and her husband returned to Phoenix, Arizona, where they owned Downtown Pet Center in the inner city for six years, reaching out to the poor and homeless as well as providing low cost spay/neuter for many rescue groups.
In 2001, Dr. Odom took a position as Pre-Veterinary Advisor and Adjunct Faculty at Arizona State University, where for another six years she taught Vertebrate Zoology, Animal Science, and Animal Physiology to the pre-veterinary students.
In 2007, after her husband had become paralyzed from a stroke, they moved back to her husband’s home in eastern North Carolina. Having also worked for two large corporate practices during those years, honing her internal medicine skills, in 2008 Dr. Odom felt a new call from Revelation 22:2 – “the leaves of the tree will be for the healing of the nations.” Realizing that plants were given to us for our food and medicine, Dr. Odom began to pursue the study of integrative medicine, and she now has training in veterinary homeopathy, traditional Chinese veterinary medicine and acupuncture, canine and equine sports massage therapy, and Western herbal veterinary medicine.
Because so many clients on the other end of the leash have expressed a desire to know more about alternatives for their own health, Dr. Odom completed an ND through Trinity School of Natural Health. Along the way, Dr. Odom also completed a two-year Graduate Certificate in Biblical and Theological Studies at Denver Seminary.
In 2015, Dr. Odom’s husband of 43 years passed away, and she subsequently downsized her life to a boat moored downtown on the Cape Fear River, with her horse boarded nearby. Hurricane Florence ended that lifestyle abruptly in 2018, and in order to continue to care for her over 30-year-old horse, Dr. Odom looked for a new home – and was blessed with a seven-acre farm near Chinquapin. Sunflower Farm is home to Sunflower Veterinary Clinic and Integrative Animal Health Service, and when Dr. Odom is not at Ideal Pet Care, she offers conventional “minute clinic” services as well as making integrative care available to those seeking complementary modalities for their pets, horses, and livestock.
With five adult children, Dr. Odom now has ten grandchildren. A deaf Border collie named Rye, and Pippi, a herding Border collie-in-training, as well as Louise and Mac, the Great Pyrenees sheep guardians, manage the sheep side of things on the Farm. There are also the five orange Sunflower Cats – Cheeto, Cheddar, Queso (aka Oregano), Goldfish, and Gouda (aka Julietta) and their gray tabby buddies named Blossom and Calvin. Annie the porch cat works at the barn to keep the mice away from livestock feed. A wacky macaw named Samson keeps things screamingly funny, while Colt the gentle rooster and his harem of hens contribute eggs on a daily basis. Four rescued donkeys, Star, Dave, Frank, and Jenny keep half of the farm mowed and guarded from intruding wildlife, while Sheba, the one-eyed Quarter Horse, shares the pastures with Rose, the gentle giant Belgian, both soon to be equine assisted learning program horses. Honey and Ranger manage another pasture, with Honey in training to be Dr. Odom’s riding pony, and Ranger the gentle, adorable mini also awaits his debut in the EAL program (he would love to be a birthday party pony also). Raised garden beds, farm repairs, feeding everyone, and working and playing with obsessed Border collies keep Dr. Odom busy when she’s not at Ideal Pet Care or her own clinic. Dr. Odom is a member of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Jacksonville.