Taking Cattle To the Vet

[Bright Raven]

I guess we may be lucky to have the local vets we have. Their facilities are hospitals, and treated as such. It always amazes me how spotless and clean smelling these places are and impresses me how they clean and sanitize constantly.

I got to say, that is not even close to what I saw yesterday. Sadly. And the smell was obnoxious. Wow!

 

[Nesikep]

last time I had a vet come out here it cost me $500 just in travel expenses

It's also why it was the last time.

:shock: How far did they have to come? That makes the $60 ours charges sound that much better.

its a little over an hour each way

I guess we may be lucky to have the local vets we have. Their facilities are hospitals, and treated as such. It always amazes me how spotless and clean smelling these places are and impresses me how they clean and sanitize constantly.

Our vets hospital is small but really nice.

 

[Redgully]

I am lucky, I have a vet who is next door to a university and training students is a big part of their business. They had to come out once to take samples from my herd and we had to collect manure from 11 animals. Out jumped four students and the vet, I just stood back and students did all the work and no extra cost. Just get call out fee of $60. Another time we had a cow and the calf had a malpresentation needing a cesarean. The vet got me to take her to clinic to use as a lesson for students. They looked after her and the calf all week for free. Their facilities are spotless and only smell of hay and iodine. I guess I am just lucky I am only 40 minutes away or it might be a different story.

 

[Dave]

I only took any to the vet one time. I found out that I have better facilities than they do. Both of the good large animal vets were out in the field so I ended up with a junior dog vet. It was just bangs vaccinate two heifers. It took me ten times more time and ended up costing as much as having one come to the farm. They have a $40 farm call charge but there was a $20 per head chute charge. One of these heifers was a real witch. I was certain we were going to have a wreck with their loading and unloading facilities but we got lucky.

 

[TCRanch]

Vets doing farm calls here is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Closest one to me charges $150 to drive about 20 miles.

:shock:
$30, maybe 10 miles from the clinic/mobile vet truck.

 

[TCRanch]

Call me lucky!! Two large animal vets at our local hospital. It's as clean as possible but sometimes it's hard when their clients are trailer-to-trailer. That said, when we take ours in and there's someone before &/or after, everyone pitches in & helps with the animals, hosing down the facility/chute, etc. Both will make ranch calls, even in the middle of the night. Dr Kip had polio as a child & sometimes it's hard for him to get around but he's gone down in a draw to work one of my down cows & Dr John has worked quite a few of our cows in the barn by simply haltering them even though we have a chute right there. Granted, my cows are very docile but when they need medical attention all bets are off - you just never know.

Having said that, Rod your point is extremely valid! The equivalent of sending your kids to school without their vaccinations. Hosing down the chute/working area of the clinic in between animals certainly helps but obviously isn't completely sanitized and isn't logistical so having your herd fully vaccinated, especially if you're transporting anywhere off the property, is just common sense.

 

[gizmom]

We do both, the vet comes out if we have to give Brucellosis vaccine to the heifers or if we have a large group of bulls to BSE. We also end up hauling animals to the vet, Bulls that have sold that need a current BSE is the main culprit. Tomorrow the boss is hauling one with an abscess, she is going to have to be blocked. We had her scheduled to go Wednesday morning but she had a calf instead. I feel sorry for her I know she is hurting. Our vet charges 75.00 for a farm visit we sure can't afford that for every bull we BSE.

Gizmom

 

[snoopdog]

Our established vet has a hospital, and very clean but won't come out for less than 150 service call and you have to at least have a head gate. The last couple of times we've called him, either he's not available, or doing sale barn work, so we're pretty much done with him, and have a line on one that's wanting business.

 

[elkwc]

I agree about what many have said about sanitation. I often reflect on the old cow vet we had for years that I helped some. He was a large animal vet but did small animals because it was 35 miles to the closest small animal vet. He was a little rough around the edges and a straight talker. He was well respected as a cow vet and clients brought cattle from a large area and he always drove a VW bug. We were talking about him and his sanitation practices recently. As one man said he had him do 4-5 C sections through the years and everyone got ok. He usually gave them a shot in the trailer and then either layed them down on the bermuda grass or would lay a tarp down on the gravel drive way and do it there. He said since this vet went to vet heaven he has had 2 done and lost the cow both times and they were performed in modern, clean, disinfected clinics. I helped him one Saturday morning do a C section on a Char cow that had won Denver. He layed her down on the gravel drive way just like any other cow. Both survived. Here in SW KS our closest vet is 35 miles away. The vet I used retired again. You take who you can get not who you want. And only one does calls of any kind on a Sunday. In west central OK when I went she used an old vet that they had used for years. He is semi retired now. Does some but in his mid 70's. Another vet 35 miles away retired. I only know of one that does country calls. The rest require you to haul them to the clinic. We do almost all of ours now due to that. Used to have the vet out to do pg checks but do it ourselves now. We have a nice hydraulic chute with a cover over it and nice pens so prefer to do it there. I don't see the large animal vet situation in either area getting any better.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Our established vet has a hospital, and very clean but won't come out for less than 150 service call and you have to at least have a head gate. The last couple of times we've called him, either he's not available, or doing sale barn work, so we're pretty much done with him, and have a line on one that's wanting business.

Best time too use them,is when they need your business...best strike while the iron is hot..they cool down pretty quick...those old haphazard farmers take all the wind out of their sails :cowboy:

 

[Coosh71]

I guess we may be lucky to have the local vets we have. Their facilities are hospitals, and treated as such. It always amazes me how spotless and clean smelling these places are and impresses me how they clean and sanitize constantly.

I got to say, that is not even close to what I saw yesterday. Sadly. And the smell was obnoxious. Wow!

We have 2 large animal Vets here in a town of 2700 people. It's a very rural area (not bush plane rural but...), With the choice we go with one vet alone for several reasons. They deep clean all parts of their facility daily before they go home, will make farm calls ($25), and has a 24 hr e ergency line with a service that calls him immediately. Just can't beat that. Yes he would prefer you bring a single animal into the clinic, but also just this morning said "take some pics and send them to me". Man I'm busy like all of y'all. That's worth something there.

 

[BRYANT]

The idea of taking cattle to the vet is kinda crazy to me! The vets around here always come out to the farm to do their work. The only exceptions might be for horses or if someone was taking their cow to MSU but taking animals to MSU is not something that a person trying to make money would do (or at least someone trying not to loose to much)

If you don't have facilities, I guess you have to. My vet comes here. It does include a 50 dollar field call.

with no facilities how do you get the animal on the trailer to go to the vet?

I have more than one pasture but only one place has a facility with a shoot to do much doctoring cattle with but the other places has a place to load cattle but not work them. I have a place that is 5 miles to a large animal vet or I can haul them 45 miles to my set up. Money ahead to use vet 5 miles away

 

[wbvs58]

Ron, you are correct. A lot of practices are not desirable but they get away with it. I guess firstly you have to have facilities that are conducive to wash down and drains and sumps to collect the effluent, this all costs money both in the facilities and labor. I don't think cattle are very often brought to the Vet in Australia, it would mostly be horses and a high level of biosecurity is practiced with all the personal protection gear because of the zoonotic disease we have in Hendra virus.

Other practices that warrant scrutiny is the multiple use of needles as you have brought up before and multiple use of examination gloves as in preg testing. Often blood comes out on the glove and then goes into the next beast, can facilitate the spread of BLV (lymphoma virus). These practices are bound to be tightened up soon but the client will have to pay both for the materials and the time involved in changing gloves or needles.

Over here farms are now required to have an up to date biosecurity plan so farmers are much more aware of these things than they used to be. It is not unusual for the farmer to question the practices of professional people.

Ken

 

[Redgully]

Ron, you are correct. A lot of practices are not desirable but they get away with it. I guess firstly you have to have facilities that are conducive to wash down and drains and sumps to collect the effluent, this all costs money both in the facilities and labor. I don't think cattle are very often brought to the Vet in Australia, it would mostly be horses and a high level of biosecurity is practiced with all the personal protection gear because of the zoonotic disease we have in Hendra virus.

Other practices that warrant scrutiny is the multiple use of needles as you have brought up before and multiple use of examination gloves as in preg testing. Often blood comes out on the glove and then goes into the next beast, can facilitate the spread of BLV (lymphoma virus). These practices are bound to be tightened up soon but the client will have to pay both for the materials and the time involved in changing gloves or needles.

Over here farms are now required to have an up to date biosecurity plan so farmers are much more aware of these things than they used to be. It is not unusual for the farmer to question the practices of professional people.

Ken

The biosecurity plan was quite easy to do but we had to do Johnes testing with it as being from western Australia we have a jbas 8 level if we tested as johnes isnt present here. We would drop to jbas 6 if we didn't test. What approach did you take and how was the whole johnes issue viewed in your area?

 

[wbvs58]

Most people have just sat on jbas 6. I am doing the 3 yearly check test and am jbas 7. That lets me into the NT and WA I think. WA is very unlikely but the NT is a real possibility, the likes of CPC will come this way and buy bulls at minor sales to go into the Territory.

Ken

 

[AdamsCreek]

Our established vet has a hospital, and very clean but won't come out for less than 150 service call and you have to at least have a head gate. The last couple of times we've called him, either he's not available, or doing sale barn work, so we're pretty much done with him, and have a line on one that's wanting business.

Same deal here. I was using a young guy out of Muskogee. $75 fee last time I could get him out few years ago. Advertises farm call vet in 2 foot tall letters on the side of his truck. Needed him twice the last two months and can't get him out wants me to haul to his clinic. I give up and started buying drugs from one of the horse racing guys in the area.

 

[gizmom]

The boss got the cow with the abcess to the vet Friday, by then she was just pizzed off with the world. She gave the boss an exciting thrill ride over a fence. They got her treated and blocked so she should start feeling much bettter. The boss is still pretty agile for a senior citizen.

Edited to add our vet is very good at keeping his facilities sanitary, we are blessed to have a great one that loves large animals.

Gizmom

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

All this makes me smile thinking of when we first moved to NY from Kansas.
In Kansas (back in the 70's), large animal vets hauled their facilities with them. Had a chute, with panels to make an alleyway for house calls, or you just loaded them up & unloaded at their facilities.
When we moved out here, our daughter had a show heifer that had a bull calf. She left him in tact so she could show them as cow/calf pair. After NY State Fair, I called a vet that had visited her 4-H club. Told them I had a beef calf that needed castrating. Gal gave me a time & date to bring him in.
We only had stock racks at the time. We walked him up into the back of the pick-up & headed to the vets office. when we got there, I couldn't find an unloading area or ramp. So, I finally parked & went inside and said I had an appointment to have a calf castrated, but where was I supposed to unload him? She said, well, the doc will just castrate him out in your trailer.
Hmmmm - I said, "you do realize this calf weighs about 800# ?"
Vet gave him Rompom. My daughter & I tailed him & held him up against the stock rack side, while the vet castrated.

Ken learned to do our own castrations after that.
We have LOTS of large animal vets in Upstate NY, but they are used to dairies. NY is the 3rd largest dairy state. Many probably didn't know that. Vets do NOT like to take on new beef clients. They love my facilities. Which are not fancy, just very functional.

 

[gizmom]

Jeanne

One of the reasons I love this site, hearing about how things are done in other areas of the country. I didn't realize that New York had that much dairy.

Gizmom

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

HaHa. When I moved here from KS, people asked "how can you possibly find enough land to feed your cows." When people think NY - they think NYC. In Upstate NY, residents would just as soon have NYC a different state. NY's #1 industry is AGRICULTURE. Amazing isn't it!!!