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Veterinarians and why you don't use them
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<blockquote data-quote="regolith" data-source="post: 986263" data-attributes="member: 9267"><p>If a vet is competent, is helping my animals, and I can afford him, I'll probably use him quite a bit.</p><p></p><p>Believe me, a vet can be competent and still be of no use at all in helping resolve health problems - or limited use.</p><p></p><p>Some of the clinics here offer day classes in basic things like hoof trimming, calf rearing, reproductive management. They're not expensive. I haven't attended any because when I've attended similar things in the past they're generally aimed at the beginner, and there's little for an experienced person to learn with a vet whose time is taken up answering the most basic questions.</p><p>One of my bosses used to get the vet in to trim feet on a few cows, back when I was starting to trim feet, and we'd both watch and ask questions and learn. In that instance, we're paying for tuition rather than to get cows' feet fixed. Take note though that I rarely get a vet in to trim feet now - only if I can't find time to do them and in that instance I can hardly justify it because I still have to help the vet get the cows in and hold the rope while he's trimming.</p><p></p><p>A lot of the routine stuff that vets (or their technicians) here do is because the farmers aren't allowed. I'm not legally permitted to hold a syringe full of lepto vaccine, certain hormones or local anaesthetic. I can dehorn my calves without anaesthetic if I want to but I get the vet to do it because doing the job with anaesthetic significantly reduces their trauma.</p><p>I plead guilty of treating everything that looks as if she needs 'antibiotics' with white penicillin for 3 - 5 days because that's all I can get without consulting a vet and there have been instances in the past where I've called a vet to see an animal that needs something 'different' or 'stronger' and ended up culling her anyway, sometimes when the vet's discretion was not to treat her the way I thought she should be treated.</p><p></p><p>Charging for consultation is fair. My lawyer and accountant charge me for providing advice over the phone, why shouldn't a vet? The charge would certainly make me more reluctant to call when finances on farm are tight. My biggest complaint about vets is when they're wrong, gotta give them a certain amount of slack but only so far.</p><p>Just an example - and I don't blame any vet because both acted on the information they saw and the cow was treated appropriately:</p><p>A couple months ago at milking an 8 year old cow didn't milk out on one quarter, milk looked fine so I made a mental note to check for mastitis before milking her next. Saw her in the paddock later staggering around, frothing at the mouth - I left her there as the tracks were so poor I couldn't have got her home, fully expected to find her down or dead in the morning but she stumbled through the mud all the way to the milking shed then collapsed as soon as she reached the yard. I called the after-hours vet told them it was mastitis and I didn't have meds on hand to treat that sort of mastitis, vet came out found her hypothermic and nearly dead, treated her for milk fever and gave her antibiotics/anti-inflammatory 'just in case it helped' then came to where I was working and told me she was dying, and then looked at her and she'd sat up. Two days later I called my usual vet who came out and treated her for milk fever again and like the first vet, said the mastitis didn't cause this - though she was getting full treatment for toxic mastitis in addition. I asked him to come back to her again the next day. By then the mastitic quarter and the one next to it were turning purple and the skin sloughing off and I got to hear the vet say "I think we've under-estimated this infection". The following day I lifted her to her feet and both quarters were black and cold. We shot her - even with treatment most cows don't survive black mastitis.</p><p>In this case neither vet recognised the problem even though I told them she had mastitis and the rest of her symptoms progressed from the time she was identified as having mastitis. Both vets had decided it wasn't worth treating for black mastitis but had given her the appopriate drugs anyway 'just to be sure' or 'to prevent complications from being recumbent'. The vet bills were equivalent to the value of the cow but I'd wanted to give her the best chance to recover - she'd been a good cow.</p><p></p><p>Your business management lessons are more important than you might think. Something I never realised till working with a vet who just doesn't deal with the 'business' or paperwork side at all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="regolith, post: 986263, member: 9267"] If a vet is competent, is helping my animals, and I can afford him, I'll probably use him quite a bit. Believe me, a vet can be competent and still be of no use at all in helping resolve health problems - or limited use. Some of the clinics here offer day classes in basic things like hoof trimming, calf rearing, reproductive management. They're not expensive. I haven't attended any because when I've attended similar things in the past they're generally aimed at the beginner, and there's little for an experienced person to learn with a vet whose time is taken up answering the most basic questions. One of my bosses used to get the vet in to trim feet on a few cows, back when I was starting to trim feet, and we'd both watch and ask questions and learn. In that instance, we're paying for tuition rather than to get cows' feet fixed. Take note though that I rarely get a vet in to trim feet now - only if I can't find time to do them and in that instance I can hardly justify it because I still have to help the vet get the cows in and hold the rope while he's trimming. A lot of the routine stuff that vets (or their technicians) here do is because the farmers aren't allowed. I'm not legally permitted to hold a syringe full of lepto vaccine, certain hormones or local anaesthetic. I can dehorn my calves without anaesthetic if I want to but I get the vet to do it because doing the job with anaesthetic significantly reduces their trauma. I plead guilty of treating everything that looks as if she needs 'antibiotics' with white penicillin for 3 - 5 days because that's all I can get without consulting a vet and there have been instances in the past where I've called a vet to see an animal that needs something 'different' or 'stronger' and ended up culling her anyway, sometimes when the vet's discretion was not to treat her the way I thought she should be treated. Charging for consultation is fair. My lawyer and accountant charge me for providing advice over the phone, why shouldn't a vet? The charge would certainly make me more reluctant to call when finances on farm are tight. My biggest complaint about vets is when they're wrong, gotta give them a certain amount of slack but only so far. Just an example - and I don't blame any vet because both acted on the information they saw and the cow was treated appropriately: A couple months ago at milking an 8 year old cow didn't milk out on one quarter, milk looked fine so I made a mental note to check for mastitis before milking her next. Saw her in the paddock later staggering around, frothing at the mouth - I left her there as the tracks were so poor I couldn't have got her home, fully expected to find her down or dead in the morning but she stumbled through the mud all the way to the milking shed then collapsed as soon as she reached the yard. I called the after-hours vet told them it was mastitis and I didn't have meds on hand to treat that sort of mastitis, vet came out found her hypothermic and nearly dead, treated her for milk fever and gave her antibiotics/anti-inflammatory 'just in case it helped' then came to where I was working and told me she was dying, and then looked at her and she'd sat up. Two days later I called my usual vet who came out and treated her for milk fever again and like the first vet, said the mastitis didn't cause this - though she was getting full treatment for toxic mastitis in addition. I asked him to come back to her again the next day. By then the mastitic quarter and the one next to it were turning purple and the skin sloughing off and I got to hear the vet say "I think we've under-estimated this infection". The following day I lifted her to her feet and both quarters were black and cold. We shot her - even with treatment most cows don't survive black mastitis. In this case neither vet recognised the problem even though I told them she had mastitis and the rest of her symptoms progressed from the time she was identified as having mastitis. Both vets had decided it wasn't worth treating for black mastitis but had given her the appopriate drugs anyway 'just to be sure' or 'to prevent complications from being recumbent'. The vet bills were equivalent to the value of the cow but I'd wanted to give her the best chance to recover - she'd been a good cow. Your business management lessons are more important than you might think. Something I never realised till working with a vet who just doesn't deal with the 'business' or paperwork side at all. [/QUOTE]
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