Why don't vets want to doctor cattle any more?

[jersey lilly]

Guess we are lucky too. Our vet that we use will make farm calls. I don't usually call him out for anything other than bangs vacs and bull testing. Every thing else we take care of ourselves. He doesn't have facilities for cattle at his office but has a portable chute he takes to those places that dont have one of their own. He tries to do his "frilly pets" on Mondays and Tuesdays and Thursdays as we have two sale barns that sell. One on wednesday and one on saturday. He's not hard to get out when ya do have an emergency. But most times if he can he'll tell ya what to do over the phone. I can call him any time, day or night. He does however have a place to work on horses at the office.
We also have another vets office that has a team of about 6 vets. 2 of which specialize in large animals.
my daughter wants to be a large animal vet, not because she loves the money but because she likes working on large animals. I think that's where the problem lies. if ya dont like it, ya won't do it. The Gov't is talking about making large animal vet school only a 2 year course instead of the 6 or so it is now. Those that choose small animals will only have 4 years. Also a plan is being implemented that will totally pay for your vet school expenses if you specialize in large animals and agree to go to an area for 1 year and work. They are going to use this as incentive to get more kids to choose this field. Because as it is now there are fewer and fewer choosing lg animals, and in places like Montana, Idaho, basically all the northern western states so I've read its' really hard to get a vet out when needed.

 

[milkmaid]

I haven't had a problem getting my vet out...but then the times he does come I've had my cows caught and tied or at least penned. He never has to wait for me to bring them off the back forty.

I've had vets say they couldn't dispense meds for my dogs if I didn't bring them in since they hadn't seen them before. Good thing they don't tell me that when it comes to cows.

 

[Ryder]

don't let my grandaughter see these posts about how much dog/cat vets make!!
she is in the process of applying for vet schools to become a large animal vet, if she sees these posts she might change her mind!
hate to lose my investment of helping her pay for schooling should she decide to change her mind!!
vickey any suggestions ? has a 3.7 gpa U of ARIZ, which she is not fond of the vet program. currently working for a large animal vet and loves it PROTECT my investment folks am paying her tution !!
UC DAVIS? U OF COLO? others??

She should go where she can get in. It is very competitive to get in.

 

[SF]

Have similar problems with vets in my area. Not many wish to work on large animals. Most do not have the faciliities to treat large animals at their offices. Most do not want to come out to the farm.

 

[stocky]

For 25 years, we had a vet who would come out 24 hours a day. He always knew what was wrong with the cow when he walked through the gate. It was grass tetany, milk fever, or hardware, and luckily they all were treated with the same medicine. It was 25 dollars per call and that included the medicine. He saved as many cows as any of the vets since. He also pulled his old chute all over the country doing every kind of work on the farm. Then the new generation vets came and two of them got together and paid him a ton of money to retire and all of a sudden the calls were 100 plus all the add on costs and they were particular about coming out. He set up a store out of his house and sold medicine for 1/2 of what the new vets did, so they paid him a ton of money to close his store. Now, there is one vet within the entire area who will come out, and that is very limited. He wants you to bring your cows to his place between 8 and 5 with an advance appointment so he can get to it between dog and cat visits. Real nice guy, but it isnt good for the cattle person. That is what we have, so I do almost all of our vet work. While cattle prices are high, we can afford him. When cattle prices go back down, there will be no use in calling him for a prolapse that will cost 200 for the service and the cow will bring 15 cents for slaughter. These are choices we face and economics will decide whether to treat or to use a bullet. It goes against all of our thoughts, not to treat a cow, but you cant go broke doing so, either

 

[bullred]

Jersey Lilly,

What part of SE Texas are you in? Close to me?

CJ

 

[ctlbaron]

I have to say we have 2 good vets here. One is a + 40 year vet who really knows his stuff. The other is younger but he is good too. It's not that hard to get one of them out to the farm. Some folks we have here on the board have had enough experience to be a fair vet in their own rights. We have several older farmers that are called on by the younger ones to help pull a calf or doctor stock from time to time. There is much to be learned from these old gentlemen. I guess all in all we are in pretty good shape here.

 

[Dad at the Ranch]

The neighbor called me over last Saturday evening to look at a sick calf of hers. I diagnosed it as blackleg and gave it a shot of antibiotics (knowing that it's chances were slim to none). She had called her vet and got the answering service. All of the vets in our area use the same answering service. Each vet takes turn being on call. Anyway, the vet on call wasn't her vet. This vet refused to come out because he hadn't seen this calf before. What kind of crap is this? How could the vet on call have expected the have seen this animal before?

The north Texas region has lot's of cattle but the vets want to stay in their offices and work on dogs and cats. One, dog and cat owners tend to pay not matter what the price and two, it's safer and cleaner work........

What's a cattleman to do? I doctor all of mine that I can and take the rest to Durant OK, 20 miles from my house... This vet is located next to the stockyards and doesn't mind working cattle.

Do any of you have this problem?

BTW, the calf died that night. I got the neighbor to take it to Durant to confirm my diagnosis. It was blackleg...... Believe it or not, the vet there was open on Sunday morning.

Heck, I just may have to move to Oklahoma......

Johndeerefarmer, Sounds like someone forgot to Vaccinate :?: Your question makes me thankful where we are located south of Dallas. Our Vet is a great one! Now his son and daughter-in-law (both Vets) have joined him & helped enlarge his business. They do Large & small animals and make ranch visits if needed. Yes we are lucky!

 

[Vicky the vet]

Ok, listening to most of you I fully understand why there are few or no large animal vets out there.

Just a few points from the vet's perspective.

1) You don't bother calling me until one of three things happens...either you've tried everything else you can think of and it didn't work, it's late and you want to go to bed, or it's dying.

2) You complain about the bill...constantly...and then are slow to pay...

3) your profits go up but when my expenses go up, I'm not allowed to charge more. When your profits drop, I'm expected to charge less.

4) You go searching for cheaper drugs, vaccines and free advice, then wonder why I'm not available all the time at your convenience. I have expenses and it would be nice to have a life as well.

If it sounds like I'm crabby, look at it from my perspective. Why should I work 100 h a week to earn what a secretary earns and take the abuse?

Just a thought from the other side...

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, listening to most of you I fully understand why there are few or no large animal vets out there.

Just a few points from the vet's perspective.

1) You don't bother calling me until one of three things happens...either you've tried everything else you can think of and it didn't work, it's late and you want to go to bed, or it's dying.

2) You complain about the bill...constantly...and then are slow to pay...

3) your profits go up but when my expenses go up, I'm not allowed to charge more. When your profits drop, I'm expected to charge less.

4) You go searching for cheaper drugs, vaccines and free advice, then wonder why I'm not available all the time at your convenience. I have expenses and it would be nice to have a life as well.

If it sounds like I'm crabby, look at it from my perspective. Why should I work 100 h a week to earn what a secretary earns and take the abuse?

Just a thought from the other side...

Hey VV!!!!

Sounds just like my veterinarian - an absolutely stellar individual - and your answer is similar to my previous post - and his words:

Well, let's put the shoe on the other foot for a minute.

You are the veterinarian.

You have a hip replacement to do on Pookie. Cost to client? $2500 or possibly more after physio and meds.

You have a C-section to do on a cow 100 miles away. Drive time is costly but you charge $75 bucks and the client hits the roof.

You lose the calf because you were either called to late or it was "just one of those things". $300 more on the bill - farmer Brown hits the roof again.

That hip replacement is done in your own office and surgey.

The owner is grateful and gives high praise. Pays with no complaint and pays on time.

The C-Section takes place with a cow tied to a tractor with a chain and it is pouring rain and there is no roof. You do not even get the offer of a bucket of hot water, soap and clean towel. It is 0300 and boy would a coffee (no offer) taste good right now.

Farmer complains about price - to you and everyone within 100 miles - and then pays on 90 days.

Which veterinarian would you like to be?

Saw this last year when I rode with my veterinarian for a few days - just for the heck of it.

Bez'

 

[dun]

Ok, listening to most of you I fully understand why there are few or no large animal vets out there.

Just a few points from the vet's perspective.

1) You don't bother calling me until one of three things happens...either you've tried everything else you can think of and it didn't work, it's late and you want to go to bed, or it's dying.

2) You complain about the bill...constantly...and then are slow to pay...

3) your profits go up but when my expenses go up, I'm not allowed to charge more. When your profits drop, I'm expected to charge less.

4) You go searching for cheaper drugs, vaccines and free advice, then wonder why I'm not available all the time at your convenience. I have expenses and it would be nice to have a life as well.

If it sounds like I'm crabby, look at it from my perspective. Why should I work 100 h a week to earn what a secretary earns and take the abuse?

Just a thought from the other side...

Well said, couldn;t agree more!

dun

 

[Frankie]

You guys need to move to OK. We've got three vets within 15 miles, maybe four, if the sale barn vet works for the public, too. The vet we use is only about seven miles and she'll come to our place at all times of the day or night, though we don't call her for just anything. She's also one of the most reasonably priced vets in the area. We have good facilites here on the place and our cattle are relatively easy to handle. We pay promptly. After reading these posts, I'll have to call our vet up and tell her how much we appreciate her!

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Definitely agree with everyone's posts! Having a relationship with a large animal Vet is a gift, a blessing!

In our situation we have a list of 8 Vets. All will do large animals. However, only about 4 will make ranch calls: usually $1.50 a mile + about $75. an hour on site. Others wil take our Longhorns with an appointment at their clinic/hospital. We are also about 2.5 hours from a quality Vet hospital/surgery facility that will take horses for surgery: expensive. When we sell an animal we load it up and take it to any available Vet for Health Certificate: Our Large Animal Vets are about 25, 35, 45 miles from here, depending on which one we use.

We are also a TB Accredited and Brucellosis certified disease free herd. This requires yearly re-testing for TB & Brucellosis for every animal over 18 months of age. Involves 2 trips by Vet plus procedures done + blood samples via Express mail to Vet Lab. This averages about $750 a year or so.

Granted, most Vet "emergencies" happen on weekends, holidays, after office hours, or when the (all of) the Vets are either out of town, solidly booked up, on vacation, etc.

Large animal illness can mostly be prevented with having quality, healthy animals from the start, taking quality care and nutrition of them, all vaccinations & de-worming done regularly, keeping trash out of pastures & "hardware", and some luck. The MAJOR events (accidents) can never be predicted or scheduled to happen when you or the Vet is available to assist.

 

[MarkV33598]

The vets in my area are just too boo-coo. They all do cats and dogs in the air conditioning and the large animal vets only do horses and charge an arm and a leg. As soon as you mention cattle they're no longer interested in your problem.

 

[J]

Seems to me that if you have good working facilities for the vet to use when he comes out, your cattle are penned and waiting and you help him out every chance you can he will be willing to come back. (also pay promptly) Some of the pens I've seen before, if I were a vet and someone wanted me to come work there I would loose interest too. The vet I use is willing to work on anything. We all gripe about vets some time or another but when the weekend vets don't succeed in treatment they then want a miracle. It's kind of moving in on their living when we treat things ourselves but they also have to understand we are trying to keep overhead low.
Kind of a double edged sword I guess?

 

[Rancher6]

Seems to me that if you have good working facilities for the vet to use when he comes out, your cattle are penned and waiting and you help him out every chance you can he will be willing to come back. (also pay promptly) Some of the pens I've seen before, if I were a vet and someone wanted me to come work there I would loose interest too. The vet I use is willing to work on anything. We all gripe about vets some time or another but when the weekend vets don't succeed in treatment they then want a miracle. It's kind of moving in on their living when we treat things ourselves but they also have to understand we are trying to keep overhead low.
Kind of a double edged sword I guess?

This reminds me. One time My dad and I went to a place to preg check 100 cows. When we got there, the cattle were not penned and everyone was having such a good time. My dad was really pi**ed. Around lunch time they finally got everything penned. The owner came up kinda laughing and smartly told dad "Gosh you did'nt make much money this morning did you?" Dad replied "I don't know what the hell you are talking about, I have been charging you $200/ hr since I left the office this morning, How does that grab you?" You know at that point everyone was quiet an the nonsence stopped and that was one of the fastest set of cows that we have ever run and we never went back. Also paying promptly played a large role in whether dad would get out of bed to help you or not. Don't ride your vet to the end of the month if He/she goes out of there way to help you. Pay them that day or the next. If you ever cheat them out of a bill they are done with you. To quote my dad in his own words "I don't have to do a damn thing"

 

[Beefy]

dogs and cats are safer to work with. there are more of them. everybody virtually has a pet. people are willing to spend more on pets than livestock. there is just more money to be had without leaving the office.

but i mean lets face it, 90% of the problems you have with livestock dont require a vet to treat. 95% if youve been around the species all your life and got pretty good experience under your belt or know someone like that and stay on top of things. i would advise everyone who has animals to learn as much as possible about treating their own animals and if you have the money and a willing vet then more power to you. and if you or someone knowledgeable cant treat the animal alot of times the vet cant help either...

in fact i think a lot of vets are relieved to have competent people in the area who can treat their own animals b/c it means less house calls and more animals can be treated that need help.. It is great to be able to call in your vitals and know what and how to treat so that all you have to do is get the vets go ahead on prescription meds and run by and pick up the medicine at the desk. Its good to have that kind of relationship with a vet. We have one large animal vet in the area now but he only gets called out for freak occurences and he knows it and is cool with that. the other vet switched over to small animals only but will still see cows and horses if you bring them to town. (but come on, do sick animals who in many instances have never been on a trailer before really need to be traveling/stressing out like that?probably not.)

 

[frenchie]

You have a C-section to do on a cow 100 miles away. Drive time is costly but you charge $75 bucks and the client hits the roof.

.

Bez'

Your vet works cheap Bez.

Last c-section here cost over $350.00 .vet is 12 miles away.

 

[Vicky the vet]

You have a C-section to do on a cow 100 miles away. Drive time is costly but you charge $75 bucks and the client hits the roof.

.

Bez'

Your vet works cheap Bez.

Last c-section here cost over $350.00 .vet is 12 miles away.

That would just be for the drive. The section would be on top of that...

 

[Anonymous]

I would have to say the vet around here likes doing what he does. He never fails to at least call us back to help us treat what ever it is we are having a problem with. He also shows my 15 yaer old son how to do alot of things himself.