Open House at the Vet Clinic

[simme]

Had an open house at the vet clinic on Saturday. Lots of things to see and do for kids and adults as well. Lots of work to plan and execute. Lots of anxiety about the weather. The date was set a couple months ago. Then forecast was heavy rain and thunderstorms for Saturday. But the bad weather split and went north and south around us during the event. As soon as the event was over and stuff loaded up and moved out, the bottom fell out.

This guy showed up. He is 2 years old and needs to be neutered soon.


The required longhorn.





Young Watusi heifer and bull with their water buffalo friend.



Brahma cross steers that are being broke to ride.

More to come.

 

[simme]

Painted "bony" horse with bones showing on one side and internal organs on the other side.


Pony and horse rides for the kids.


The little guy on the pony has a terminal illness. This is his first pony ride. Funds were raised to assist his mother with expenses. He had a great time, but a very sad situation.

The local mayor came to present a proclamation for the little guy and to give some assistance from the city. The little guy was bored with that part. He wanted to go see the animals.

Even had snake handling.


Several rescues present with dogs and cats for adoption. Several craft vendors offering their goods for sale. And of course hot dogs and hamburgers.

For those with FB, here is a video overview.

 

[Mrcopier]

Looks like fun

 

[farmerjan]

Do you treat all those different breeds of animals as part of your practice? I think it is great that you had that. Sorry for the little boy's health situation. Hope this day sticks out in his family's memory as one of the really good ones.

 

[kenny thomas]

Someone put a lot of time into the planning of it. Good event.

 

[simme]

Do you treat all those different breeds of animals as part of your practice? I think it is great that you had that. Sorry for the little boy's health situation. Hope this day sticks out in his family's memory as one of the really good ones.

My daughter is the owner/vet. I am just the handyman, grass cutter, facilities crisis manager, sometimes banker, computer tech, parking attendant, and such. Just everyday stuff that any cattle or farm person is accustomed to.

She treats just about any species. She went to vet school at University of Georgia. The students there make a choice to study small animal, mixed animal or large animal. She took the mixed animal practice path. Most of her work is small animal - dogs and cats, along with goats, sheep, pigs. She does some cow work and horse work and a few reptiles and chickens and such. Most vets here only see small animals. There are some equine vets around. Commercial cow vets here are almost scarce as hen's teeth. She does a good bit of small ruminant work because the equine vets are generally horse only. The hardcore cow vets don't want to mess with goats and sheep. She sees a lot of those "in between" species, almost all are pets.

The "petting zoo" was brought by her good friend who trains horses and has cattle. Her friend's boyfriend bought the camel in Florida just last week. He had talked to some of the vets he knows about neutering the camel and did not find anyone willing to take on the job. One vet had attempted to neuter a camel in the past and the camel died. And a camel is not cheap to purchase. My daughter is willing to do the research and find the vet field support for the neuter so will see how that works out. She sends her difficult cases to expensive specialists or to the UGA vet school. I asked why not send the camel to UGA? She explained that the vet school does small exotic work, but not large exotics. She has a big network of people to consult with and will get it figured out.

I think having a network of people to consult with and being willing to spend the time and effort to do that is a very important characteristic of a good vet. Most people probably do not understand that a vet graduates with very little surgery experience - probably dog and cat spay and neuters depending on how much they volunteered with rescues their last year of vet school and their selections for clinical rotations in school and externships at vet practices the last 12 to 15 months. My daughter never got an opportunity to participate in a pig c-section in vet school. When she was faced with her first pig c-section in a barn in the middle of the night, she was a little lost. She runs some FB groups that are for vets only to share knowledge and interesting cases. She was able to make a FB post to her pig vet group with a picture of the pig with her planned incision line overlaid on the picture. And had a reply very quickly from a pig vet - in the middle of the night. She proceeded with her first pig c-section and all went well. Fascinating to me how technology can be used.

 

[farmerjan]

That is wonderful for her to be so "into it" and willing to learn and do ..... so many of our vets around here are small animal or large animal... several specialize in horses, and my preferred vet clinic is large animal only but does "farm animals".... mostly cattle... but some horse farms... and the odd sheep and goats and such. Don't know how much he knows about exotics but he always talks about consulting with other vets about stuff...

 

[kenny thomas]

And she has to AI a few cows for daddy each year to pay him back for all those jobs he said he does. Sure glad she is good at AI.

 

[TCRanch]

That is so awesome! Thanks for sharing. You've earned bragging rights with your daughter!

 

[simme]

Someone put a lot of time into the planning of it. Good event.

Kenny, there is a connection to your local area. The girl in the blue shirt will graduate this week at your nearby Lincoln Memorial Vet School.


She worked at the vet clinic while earning her pre-vet degree at Clemson. Then came back to work each summer during vet school. Did her last vet school 4 week externship at the clinic. No farm background, but enjoys large animal work including cattle. She will be working in Catlett, Virginia at a mixed animal practice. Dr. Rachel will be a great vet.

 

[coachg]

My daughter is the owner/vet. I am just the handyman, grass cutter, facilities crisis manager, sometimes banker, computer tech, parking attendant, and such. Just everyday stuff that any cattle or farm person is accustomed to.

She treats just about any species. She went to vet school at University of Georgia. The students there make a choice to study small animal, mixed animal or large animal. She took the mixed animal practice path. Most of her work is small animal - dogs and cats, along with goats, sheep, pigs. She does some cow work and horse work and a few reptiles and chickens and such. Most vets here only see small animals. There are some equine vets around. Commercial cow vets here are almost scarce as hen's teeth. She does a good bit of small ruminant work because the equine vets are generally horse only. The hardcore cow vets don't want to mess with goats and sheep. She sees a lot of those "in between" species, almost all are pets.

The "petting zoo" was brought by her good friend who trains horses and has cattle. Her friend's boyfriend bought the camel in Florida just last week. He had talked to some of the vets he knows about neutering the camel and did not find anyone willing to take on the job. One vet had attempted to neuter a camel in the past and the camel died. And a camel is not cheap to purchase. My daughter is willing to do the research and find the vet field support for the neuter so will see how that works out. She sends her difficult cases to expensive specialists or to the UGA vet school. I asked why not send the camel to UGA? She explained that the vet school does small exotic work, but not large exotics. She has a big network of people to consult with and will get it figured out.

I think having a network of people to consult with and being willing to spend the time and effort to do that is a very important characteristic of a good vet. Most people probably do not understand that a vet graduates with very little surgery experience - probably dog and cat spay and neuters depending on how much they volunteered with rescues their last year of vet school and their selections for clinical rotations in school and externships at vet practices the last 12 to 15 months. My daughter never got an opportunity to participate in a pig c-section in vet school. When she was faced with her first pig c-section in a barn in the middle of the night, she was a little lost. She runs some FB groups that are for vets only to share knowledge and interesting cases. She was able to make a FB post to her pig vet group with a picture of the pig with her planned incision line overlaid on the picture. And had a reply very quickly from a pig vet - in the middle of the night. She proceeded with her first pig c-section and all went well. Fascinating to me how technology can be used.

Why not reach out to other vet schools like Auburn , Clemson or Miss St ? Bet one of those could help with the

 

[simme]

Why not reach out to other vet schools like Auburn , Clemson or Miss St ? Bet one of those could help with the

My daughter has very good connections and knowledge of the Auburn vet school. Two good friends did their residency work there. Clemson does not have a vet school yet.

I think this is going to be the solution: Dr. Meredyth Jones in Oklahoma has extensive large animal experience and has a consulting and continuing education business. Even has a CE course on camels including castration. After discussions and consultations, I think the plan is that my daughter will do the castration here. Probably with support of some local vet friends who have never observed a camel castration.

Dr. Jones has many CE modules at a reasonable price. Some people here might find some of the cattle ones beneficial.

About - Large Animal Consulting & Education

largeanimalce.com

 

[kenny thomas]

Kenny, there is a connection to your local area. The girl in the blue shirt will graduate this week at your nearby Lincoln Memorial Vet School.
View attachment 44751

She worked at the vet clinic while earning her pre-vet degree at Clemson. Then came back to work each summer during vet school. Did her last vet school 4 week externship at the clinic. No farm background, but enjoys large animal work including cattle. She will be working in Catlett, Virginia at a mixed animal practice. Dr. Rachel will be a great vet.
View attachment 44752

Wish i had know it. That's 15 miles from me. I sure would have let her get some experience here.
Could have gotten her set up in her own practice if she wanted. We need a good large animal vet. Its odd that with a vet school in our county we need a vet.

 

[Lucky_P]

Wish i had know it. That's 15 miles from me. I sure would have let her get some experience here.
Could have gotten her set up in her own practice if she wanted. We need a good large animal vet. Its odd that with a vet school in our county we need a vet.

Kenny,
Many of these new vet schools that are popping up around the country - including LMU - are utilizing a 'distributive' model. Cheaper for them, because they don't have to build, equip, staff, and maintain a conventional veterinary teaching hospital. They 'farm-out' the students to various private and corporate veterinary practices to get their clinical experience. Some students get great experience at some sites, others get very little. I'm not convinced it's the best educational experience to prepare a vet student to hit the ground running.
But... since they have no teaching hospital, and I suspect, no 'ambulatory' clinical service, the presence of that veterinary school in your area does nothing to ensure that producers have access to a competent veterinary practitioner.

All AVMA-accredited veterinary schools have to teach a 'balanced' curriculum, covering all species. Some programs allow students to 'concentrate' slightly on specific fields of interest during 'elective' blocks, but all have to learn dog/cat, cattle/small ruminant, equine, etc.
There is really no 'specializing' while in vet school... new grads need to know at least a little about everything. One might graduate thinking, "I'm only going to work on cows. Or horses." But then injuries or other things happen, and they need to switch gears and go to small animal practice or government jobs, etc. For example: One of my Dairy professors developed a serious allergy to bovine saliva, bovine serum proteins, etc.; he could no longer work on cattle, so he switched over to poultry medicine.
Personally, i'm so decrepit that I could not do the physical part of food animal practice today, and I've have been broken down far sooner if I'd not left practice 5 years in to pursue a diagnostic pathology career that lasted 30 years. Those dead cows don't kick or run you over!

I'll echo Simme's comment that new graduates often come out with little surgical experience. I never spayed a dog until I was out on my clinical preceptorship, the last quarter of my vet school career. The only hands-on surgical experience I got in school was whatever we did during once-a-week student surgery labs during our third year. Some schools are doing better, these days - I've heard that MS State has a program working with local animal shelters, and numbers are sufficient that students are required to have spayed/neutered at least 10 animals during their clinical year in order to graduate. But... I have a close colleague who's mentored LMU students in his practice, and many of them have related that at some clinical sites, they are not even allowed to touch client animals... only allowed to 'watch'.

 

[kenny thomas]

You have described it exactly. When they were trying to get approval to start the school we wrote letters of support for it because we were told they would work with local producers. They promised that if we had a cow or calf die that we could just deliver it there for a diagnosis. As soon as approved all that changed. Wont allow anything brought in.
At first they had 1 teacher who brought students to the farms to learn. She even brought students each week to our stockyard to do preg checks. They got hands on learning. Most that came to my farm hadn't even castrated a calf. It was in their final year of vet school.
The teacher married and moved away and the school didn't replace her or that part of the program. Im very disappointed in the school.

 

[simme]

Clemson is in the process of building a vet school. They hope to accept students in the fall of 2026, but that date is not certain. The Clemson study was done by the former dean and a former officer of Lincoln Memorial vet school. So, it will be structured similar. No teaching hospital. No live animals on site. Only classrooms and labs. Learn all the ....ology courses and do the labs on campus. The school will contract with vet clinics in SC and surrounding states for the clinical rotations where the students have hands-on experience - diagnosis, treatment plans, procedures, etc. The school will provide some compensation to the clinics for their efforts. The vets at the clinics will have to invest their time in "training" on the expectations, plans, procedures and paperwork for the student training they provide. I wonder how consistent that clinical instruction and experience will be. I expect there will be a lot of diversity in the actual amount of hands-on that a student gets at these private practices as well as the quality of that experience. Can the vet school find enough vet clinics that have the facilities, patients, patience, and willingness to provide adequate clinical training for 100 students per year? Then there is the issue of living and travel expenses for the students as they travel to various clinics for a few weeks at each one.

Clemson's budget for the new vet school is $285 million. And no teaching hospital included. Money don't seem to go far these days. I read that a conventional vet school with a teaching hospital would have been over $500 million.

I understand that there are 5 new vet schools in the planning stages in the US and all of them based on this model.

 

[kenny thomas]

I know of students from LMU that get their hands on training as far away as Montana, Texas, and Florida.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

That looks like a really great and fun event. Do male camels need to be neutered? Are they mean?

 

[simme]

That looks like a really great and fun event. Do male camels need to be neutered? Are they mean?

I am told they are mean with very strong jaws that can do damage to a person. They have weird feet with pads on their feet that compress as they take a step.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Yet the Arabs milk the cow camels. "Female camels typically reach sexual maturity around their third birthday and will mate by age 4 or 5. In comparison, though male camels start to rut at age 3, they do not achieve full sexual maturity until around age 6. "
So in about a year that young camel bull will become a bad boy.