Veterinarian Lee Morgan knew he’d have to deliver the bad news.
He’d have to tell veteran musher Richie Diehl that some of his sled dogs could not continue to run in the 2020 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across the Alaskan wilderness. Morgan and other volunteer veterinarians at a checkpoint about 260 miles from the finish line of the nearly 1,000-mile race had noticed that some of Diehl’s dogs had started coughing.
While the dogs seemed fine otherwise, the veterinarians agreed that Diehl couldn’t take the risk of something serious developing during the 85 grueling miles to the next checkpoint staffed with veterinarians.
“We didn’t know exactly what was wrong with them, but our decision was unanimous. The dogs couldn’t carry on,” Morgan, who lives in Gaithersburg, wrote in his book Four Thousand Paws: Caring for the Dogs of the Iditarod (Liveright, February 2024), which recounts his experiences while volunteering at the storied annual race.
Even though Diehl was a serious contender to win, he accepted the news and dropped out. “I don’t want to lose any dogs,” he told Morgan. The vets later learned that the dogs had inhaled a fungus on straw bedding; all would eventually be fine.
“For Diehl, dropping out of the race had been brutal, but it was the right thing to do,” Morgan wrote in his book. “In this race, as in any elite race, this choice can mean life or death. But these are the choices we’re called to make.”
So go the days of the 60 or so volunteer veterinarians who are selected to care for the roughly 1,000 sled dogs that race in teams over about two weeks in March, according to Morgan’s account of his experiences since he began volunteering in 2012.
Morgan, who runs a veterinary hospital in Georgetown, would learn over the years that trusting his instincts when treating the dogs—plus learning how to survive the harsh Arctic conditions of bone-numbing cold and ever-changing weather—were the keys to success during what’s known as “The Last Great Race.”
Many advances, including in the care of the dogs, have occurred since the Iditarod was first organized in 1973 to honor the role of sled dog teams in Alaskan culture as the main source of transportation before airplanes took over. The Iditarod is Alaska’s best known sporting event, although the state hosts other sled dog races during the winter. Still, the Iditarod has its detractors, with animal rights activists long claiming it is harmful for sled dogs and calling for an end to the race. Three dogs died during the 2024 race, according to the Associated Press. The deaths were the first to occur in five years.
Morgan pushed back against the criticism when discussing his book in a mid-January interview. “That was kind of one of the reasons I wanted to write it, because there’s so much effort that goes into trying to protect the dogs,” he says.
The veterinarians examine the dogs as teams stop at 26 checkpoints along the race route, looking for conditions that can lead to injury or even death, he says. The vets have the final word on whether a dog can continue or must be dropped from the race. Dogs that are dropped are flown back to Anchorage to wait out the race.
In his experience, Morgan says, mushers accept a vet’s decision about their dogs because, like Diehl, they don’t want to see the animals harmed.
He recalls a musher who was once within 50 miles of finishing the race when he dropped out. “I remember asking him the next year, like, ‘You were so close, why did you drop off?’ He says, ‘Well, my dogs weren’t really having fun anymore, so I stopped.’ I think there’s that attitude. And I think the [veterinarians] who have lost dogs of mushers, it’s been devastating.”
Morgan says anyone who’s heard the excited yipping of the teams can see that the Alaskan huskies are born to run. “When you look at the dogs, you see how much they enjoy what they’re doing,” he says.
Treating the sled dogs—and the animals he sees in his clinic—epitomizes why Morgan became a vet, he says. He loves animals, but there’s more to it than that.
Training to become a veterinarian is almost like earning “a Ph.D. in comparative physiology,” he says. “And I love the problem-solving that goes into it. You’re working with a patient that cannot tell you where it hurts.”
Morgan has run his Georgetown clinic with his wife, Kris, for 23 years. As he recounts his race experiences, it is clear that serving as a veterinarian for the Iditarod and for other sled dog races satisfies his desire for adventure.
“For me, it was great—staying outside in these tents, and you’re flying in with a bush plane,” Morgan says of his Iditarod experiences. “It’s all very adventurous, you know, very cool, so I really enjoyed that.”
His experiences over the years haven’t always provided such pleasant memories. A stove fire in a tent at one checkpoint, for example, led to an explosion that everyone, luckily, survived. A harrowing bush plane ride to another checkpoint was interrupted by a mountain downdraft that left Morgan shaken.
“It’s kind of a scary feeling because you’re pulling back on the stick and you’re still sinking, and then we kind of fly out of it, and all of a sudden this storm … came up really quickly,” Morgan recalls. “I just remember the pilot just having a hard time controlling [the plane] and, you know, just sweating, and I’m trying to help him.”
Morgan’s passion for animals and adventure has led to other unusual experiences. Among them were caring for dolphins as part of a U.S. Navy program and the five months in 2008 that he cared for several dozen poison dart frogs in an exhibit at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C. He agreed to help even though he had treated just one frog in his career, knowing he could draw on his years of experience.
“You can use that nucleus of knowledge now and then to specialize in whatever creature you want because you understand the basics,” he says.
With the launch of his book behind him, Morgan decided to skip this year’s Iditarod and go instead to work at a sled dog race in Sweden. But he figures he’ll be back to serve in Alaska because, as he says in his book, “the lure of the Iditarod is irresistible.”
“I know I’ll return,” he wrote, “to provide care, to be captivated by the beauty of the Arctic, to marvel at these mushers and their dogs as they pit themselves against other teams and against the challenge that is Alaska’s Iditarod, to endure.”
This appears in the March/April 2025 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
