Why should you call a Vet

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I have had more than my fair share of bad luck and vet bills.I do not recall ever regreting I called a vet.Maybe that I hadn't done it sooner.I suppose it all depends on which side of that barbwire fence you are on.What each of us can go to bed at night and wake up next morning and live with.For one older farmer I know pretty well.He told me I would never make any money in the cattle business if I always dealing with a vet.He has a point.Most my calls were to euthanize.The vet even told me he wish the next time it would be a cureable or treatable case,for just once.Think this has been hashed on here many time before.Money vs Ethics.What some will do just to make a little money at the expense of the poor animal.With my cattle no doubt I will call a vet if I can not take them to one.
They all have names not just numbers.Yeah it is pretty tough trying to walk down that barbwire fence :shock: .
 
For us this is a tricky question that is evaluated on a case by case basis. My wife has a degree in Animal Science so is very knowledgeable about large animal anatomy. We keep syringes, needles, Pen, horse wormer, bandgages, etc. on hand all of the time and have used them, unfortunately, quite often this past year mostly on the horses. The last cow we had a problem with retained part of the placenta, after a week of pen shots she was doing better, but two weeks later she started going down hill again so she went down the road. We could have called the vet, spent tons of money, and still had a sick cow, but we cut our losses and sold her for cull. I must tip my had to our vets :cboy: because they are great for answering questions on the phone for us, letting us try a treatment, and then either we call them back or they will call us a couple of days later and see what the prognosis is. We use a large animal vet that is about 40 miles away for serious items and a vet that's only 10 miles away for smaller stuff. The farther vet we used exclusively, but then we moved and it got pretty expensive for them to drive 40 miles to give us health papers for a horse or cattle show.
Any way, back to the topic at hand. I guess it all comes down to your experience and what you are comfortable doing. We've successfully doctored horses with punctures in their sides, cows with abcesses in a hoof, and sick calves. There are two procedures that are automatic vet calls and that is to geld horses and to stitch up an animal. Gelding is a little more in depth than I like to get and we don't keep stitching supplies on hand, which we could I guess but don't need them very often. Ok I'm starting to ramble so I'm going to finish. If you have any questions or immediate concerns, call the vet.
One more thing. Make sure you know what course of action is comfortable for you before the vet gets to your place. Case in point, we had a young vet come out a couple of years ago because we had a mare that would conceive, but wouldn't stay bred after the first month or so. I had done some research, my wife was in school at the time and had talked to a professor about the mare, and we had come to our own conclusion about this mare's ailment. This newly graduated vet came out and he examined her and wanted to do this $250 evasive tissue testing that would prove the microbial...blah blah blah. I lost focus and only heard $$$$$$$. We told him no, that there had to be something less costly and equally effective and he came back with "There's a $50 uterine culture we could send to CSU." Yes, lets do that and if it's inconclusive then we can spend a little more money. Long story shortened, my wife and I were correct with our research, the mare ended getting sold to a little girl in Nebraska and we all are happy in the end.
 
Our vet has cut back on her cattle work. She's been at it for a long time, but has been getting discouraged by people not calling her until the cow is almost dead, has had a dead calf hanging out of her for several days, dealing with diseases that could be prevented with a good vaccination program, etc. And then people don't want to pay the bill. The cow died. Why should they pay for that? She'll still work on a few people's cattle, but has put out the word that she's not making calls for cattle problems anymore. She said she'd still work with our cattle. Though we mostly use her for BSEs, calfhood vaccinations, TB tests, etc, I sure hate it that she's cutting back. But I can understand her decision, too. We have another large animal vet clinic in the area, but don't like the way his people have handled our cattle in the past.
 
ArrowHBrand":l13nscmp said:
For us this is a tricky question that is evaluated on a case by case basis. My wife has a degree in Animal Science so is very knowledgeable about large animal anatomy. We keep syringes, needles, Pen, horse wormer, bandgages, etc. on hand all of the time and have used them, unfortunately, quite often this past year mostly on the horses. The last cow we had a problem with retained part of the placenta, after a week of pen shots she was doing better, but two weeks later she started going down hill again so she went down the road. We could have called the vet, spent tons of money, and still had a sick cow, but we cut our losses and sold her for cull. I must tip my had to our vets :cboy: because they are great for answering questions on the phone for us, letting us try a treatment, and then either we call them back or they will call us a couple of days later and see what the prognosis is. We use a large animal vet that is about 40 miles away for serious items and a vet that's only 10 miles away for smaller stuff. The farther vet we used exclusively, but then we moved and it got pretty expensive for them to drive 40 miles to give us health papers for a horse or cattle show.
Any way, back to the topic at hand. I guess it all comes down to your experience and what you are comfortable doing. We've successfully doctored horses with punctures in their sides, cows with abcesses in a hoof, and sick calves. There are two procedures that are automatic vet calls and that is to geld horses and to stitch up an animal. Gelding is a little more in depth than I like to get and we don't keep stitching supplies on hand, which we could I guess but don't need them very often. Ok I'm starting to ramble so I'm going to finish. If you have any questions or immediate concerns, call the vet.
One more thing. Make sure you know what course of action is comfortable for you before the vet gets to your place. Case in point, we had a young vet come out a couple of years ago because we had a mare that would conceive, but wouldn't stay bred after the first month or so. I had done some research, my wife was in school at the time and had talked to a professor about the mare, and we had come to our own conclusion about this mare's ailment. This newly graduated vet came out and he examined her and wanted to do this $250 evasive tissue testing that would prove the microbial...blah blah blah. I lost focus and only heard $$$$$$$. We told him no, that there had to be something less costly and equally effective and he came back with "There's a $50 uterine culture we could send to CSU." Yes, lets do that and if it's inconclusive then we can spend a little more money. Long story shortened, my wife and I were correct with our research, the mare ended getting sold to a little girl in Nebraska and we all are happy in the end.

I can't believe you culled a cow for a retained placenta? How do you know that was the problem? Retained placentas should be given Lutalyze and or ECP, if that does not do the trick they often clean in about a week, if they don't you should have by all means had the Vet out or taken it in to get it infused. Maybe she had a uterine tear, but those are often quick deaths, days not weeks.

GMN
 
Brute 23":3lku4cu6 said:
Earl Thigpen":3lku4cu6 said:
I guess that's one thing that gets me about newbies posting on this board - people asking advice about sick animals. Don't ask advice here, get the animal to a vet! Nobody here has seen the animal, you don't get all the symtoms and most of the time they don't have any way to handle an animal sick or not.


Ya that is funny to me also. I got on my soapbox to some one on here about that one time. :D

I guess you two are saying the boards are worthless for health advice and nobody has been helped by the boards?

Newbies especially?

I may or may not be a newbie, but I will not hesitate to come to the boards if it is not a minute by minute emergency.

Nothing suffers needlessly here, but there will not be a vet bill on top of a dead critter if I can help it.
 
ALX.":2vtirqsz said:
Brute 23":2vtirqsz said:
Earl Thigpen":2vtirqsz said:
I guess that's one thing that gets me about newbies posting on this board - people asking advice about sick animals. Don't ask advice here, get the animal to a vet! Nobody here has seen the animal, you don't get all the symtoms and most of the time they don't have any way to handle an animal sick or not.


Ya that is funny to me also. I got on my soapbox to some one on here about that one time. :D

I guess you two are saying the boards are worthless for health advice and nobody has been helped by the boards?

Newbies especially?

I may or may not be a newbie, but I will not hesitate to come to the boards if it is not a minute by minute emergency.

Nothing suffers needlessly here, but there will not be a vet bill on top of a dead critter if I can help it.

Did I say that. I've read my post again for the third time and I just can't see where I said that.

Folks asking for advice (most of the time newbies) for a sick animal after two or three days of watching the animal struggle and when given the advice (maybe wrong advice) they don't know how or where to put a thermometer, have any way of penning the animal, no trailer, no vaccination equipment, no knowledge of where to stick the needle or how to read the amount of medication to use based on animal weight, etc, etc, etc.

Many times the advice for curing a sick animal comes way too late. What I'm suggesting is that if you have a sick animal go to a vet. Don't wait two or three days for someone here to give you advice that may or may not be right.

Read the intro to this board. The Cattle-Today fathers state very clearly that animal health questions should be directed to a vet - not here.

There's some pretty cattle smart folks here but if I had my choice between taking the advice of someoone here and a vet's advice about animal health issues I would choose the vet - anytime.
 
Earl Thigpen":5douc976 said:
Don't ask advice here, get the animal to a vet!

Pretty straight forward statement. Now you can try to justify it with all sorts of special situations, but generally you are discouraging people asking for help.

I used to agree with your statement about always taking vet advice over any other. I am not as committed to that ideal any longer.
 

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