Why call the vet?

[Warren Allison]

We are four hours from the nearest vet, banker, insurance salesman, feed store or implement dealer. The implement dealer we do most business with is seven hours away.
You learn by doing.

Wow! How far to a convenience store. gas station? How far away are fire/police./EMT?

 

[Dave]

Wow! How far to a convenience store. gas station? How far away are fire/police./EMT?

I am not nearly as far out as Gcreek. But there is no fire or EMT to call. Fire is me with a garden hose. EMT is the wife with a first aid kit. There is a half dozen deputies in a county bigger than the state of Delaware. Pretty easy for the nearest one to be 2 or 3 hours away. You learn to rely on yourself and your neighbors.
The wife owned a ranch on the Oregon/Nevada line. It was 2 hours each way to Winnemucca Nevada to the nearest grocery store, bank, parts store, etc. 3 hours north to the county seat in Burns. She would go to town once a month with a list of about 6 stops to make while in town. And there is a reason why out west distances are measured in hours not miles. There are no traffic cops and speed limits are an option.
I think if you were going to Gcreek's place you better have a full tank when you pull out of Williams Lake.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Vets are great for advise, or some prognosis, but as for physical labor that doesn't require special tools, you're better off learning to do it yourself. Lot of cattlemen rely to much on a vet, then get stuck in a bad way when the vet isn't available. I give my vet enough work every year, that he'll keep renewing my prescription drug orders.

 

[Dsth]

So Dsth are you saying the blood sample told you she was due Feb. 3rd then she didn't calf? Explain this a little better if you don't mind.

I sent blood sample in with 2 other cows blood samples to get tested. she was about 60 days bred according to my AI breeding date. Feb. 3rd due date is based on my breeding date not from BIOPRYN test. No calf yet and she will be heading to sale barn probably this weekend. hope this provides the info you want. I have my vet preg check when I have enough cows to justify having the vet up, but have been sending blood samples in when I only have less than 5 cows to check. they are later cows to calf.

 

[Dave]

B and I have been having some good laughs about vets and preg checking. I have a cow out here that I bought Nov 11. She was preg checked to be 7 months along. She hasn't calved yet. B's son had his cows pregged in November. There is a 3 year old the vet called open. She was thin so she didn't get shipped. They put her out with the heifers who get fed better so she would put some weight on. She calved 2 weeks ago. Last Thursday I bought 3 bred cows for B. They all were called 8 months bred. One of them calved on Saturday. Last spring B hauled 4 Waygu cows up to Spokane to be flushed. The vet had said they were all open. Got them to Spokane (5 hours) and turned out all 4 were bred. All of this is different vets. And I could go on. But you get the point. We take vet's preg checking results with a grain of salt.

 

[WFfarm]

Our vet is a large animal practice with 5-6 vets and they are about 45minutes away. They always have someone on call and on road patrol. They have a large area and service a lot of the large dairy herd around us and are happy to drop of meds if they are going by our place. We can usually get one out for emergencies in about an hour. It's about $90 for them just to pull into the driveway and then they are on the clock, charging by the MINUTE. it's more for after hours visits, which is usual when we have emergencies We try to do as much as we can ourselves, pulling calves, vaccinating, castrating, treating hoof rot and pinkeye. We usually try to only use the vet if we get stumped on an illness or have a stuck calf, or to preg check.

 

[gcreekrch]

Wow! How far to a convenience store. gas station? How far away are fire/police./EMT?

Post office, 3 general stores, cops, welding shop, liquor store, school, airport, gas station, greasy spoon, all 25 miles away. Major center is 220 miles. We have fuel delivered and have learned to do most things ourselves. ( we don't have a still.......)

 

[annmariemz23]

Thankfully my vet is good about communicating via text. Had a cow last summer with what I though was pink eye. I was treating her with terramycin and it wasn't improving. We got her in the squeeze and sent pics to the vet. She said most likely foreign object in the eye. She told me to glove up, get some lube, and sweep my finger into her eye lid (she also said don't worry about going deep - eek). But after doing that I picked out a fox tail. I think the more things you encounter the more comfortable you get doing it.
I also just learned how to draw blood to send off for preg check. Super neat but I may need some practice before mastering it.

We get foxtails a lot too, but have never stuck a finger in the eye very far, and often cannot find the foxtail even though it really looks like foxtail rather than pink-eye. So what do you lube with for an eye?

 

[TCRanch]

We get foxtails a lot too, but have never stuck a finger in the eye very far, and often cannot find the foxtail even though it really looks like foxtail rather than pink-eye. So what do you lube with for an eye?

I use Vetericyn gel.