On the other hand–boy, could he wrap a cat!
One very narrowly-tailored specialty is the marine mammal vet. The sea parks, with the trained seals (actually, sea lions) and dolphin shows, will typically have an in-house vet who specializes in that. And, like the various wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centers, there are marine mammal rescue and rehab centers. (There is one near Sausalito, a little north of San Francisco.) There, they had some kind of working relationship with Marine World (the dolphin show place), and their vet volunteered for some of our cases too, and we got meds from them.
I believe there was a similar arrangement in Southern Cal, with a marine mammal rescue center there working with either Marineworld and/or Sea World. They often had talks or papers about these subjects at their annual symposiums.
He’s saying that the vet might require them to sign a form stating that they DECLINE treatments. Sort of like signing out of the hospital against medical advice.
Require in the sense of “will not provide treatment of any kind, write it so in the records, and dismiss the patient”. In many cases, there is more than one treatment available for condition X, and veterinarians are taught to offer the best current treatment first. If the owner declines that, then the veterinarian offers other alternatives, but there is a need for stating that the best choice was offered and declined, and put that in the records. Hence, if the alternative treatments/diagnostics fail/give wrong info/do not give the desired results, the vet can point out that he/she was going by the owners express wishes, not his/her own doing. Because the vet never knows who will go to the state licensing board and accuse him/her of negligence.
Also the “not providing treatment at all” or “how much treatment to provide” is another ethics discussion in veterinary medicine. One recent course I had to attend (to keep my state license I had to go to ethics/professional development course, amongs other things) had the scenario with the “Good Samaritan”. Animals are property (albeit a super-property different from a car or computer), so it doesn’t work out like in humans and bring more complications than humans. That was a big issue and debate and no good consensus was found.
Re: The issue of holding on to the pet, I’ve heard of situations where the veterinarian keeps the pet until part of the payment for services rendered has been paid (ie, so that the owner does not walk without paying for any of the treatment the animal received). No, I do not know the legality of that and no, I am not involved in that, and no, I won’t say my opinion of that. But there is that.
Exactly.
A dude I knew in the late 80s went on to specialize in fish medicine, first in industry then academics.
Hmm. Remind me of that, please?
It was one of Herriot’s particular skills. When he started as a vet, you’ll recall, small animal was only a very small part of their business (his gregarious compatriot Granville, the small-animal expert, was something of a novelty). But Herriot actually liked cats and had a good reputation among the local cat owners. He became very good at restraining cats, particularly wrapping the cat up in cloth. In one of the books he comments, that people to this day say about him, “Herriot might be a bit old fashioned, but boy can he wrap a cat.”
Ah, thanks. Meow!
I thought it was that he might be limited in many respects, but boy could he wrap a cat, though I may be mis-remembering. And being able to get a good wrap on a cat isn’t a skill to be sneezed at, either.
KarlGrenze thanks for the insight.
You mentioned “if you went back to practice”- does that mean you have found something else to do?
Also, I am told that vets who work in cities and treat dogs and cats make a decent living, whereas those who work in the country filing horses teeth (or whatever) do it a bit tougher. Is that around correct?
And finally- how do you go checking something like a Rotty? That would scare me to death.
My specialty does not deal with animals directly (pathology). I have coworkers that do relief work and/or work part-time in clinics and also do the specialty work. While part of me wishes to go back to practice, I fear that here, at least, that the market is too saturated (college town with its own veterinary school). Also, although board-certified, I’m still at school.
In general, most veterinarians make what is considered a decent living. The main problem (particularly for the newer classes, including mine) is that student loans have increased while the pay has not increased accordingly. Veterinary educational costs are comparable to human medicine, but veterinarians do not get the same paychecks as doctors.
From what I remember hearing, in general, small animal vets that go to work straight out of school get paid more than equine or large animal vets starting out. But, over time, the equine vets tend to make more money than the run-of-the-mill small animal veterinarian (unless he/she is the clinic owner).
Any vet hired by industry (cattle, poultry, swine) usually makes a higher starting salary than private clinic small animal vets.
Government veterinarians (USDA, state agencies, CDC) make more or less the same as small-animal veterinarians starting out, but they may not get as much of a pay raise over time (for once, they do not own any business). They do get better benefits, including in some cases partial repayment of loans. Ditto for veterinarians in the military (hey, someone has to treat all those military working dogs).
Your last question is amusing. When I was a student, I did a rotation in the local animal control (I like shelter medicine). The other student with me and I had to, amongst other things, do the physical exams on all these dogs that came through… We had one young woman who was doing some sort of janitor/tech help. And after my friend and I had done an exam on one of the mutts (including opening the mouth, checking the teeth, looking into the ears, etc.), the woman was in awe and surprised of what we did. For us, it was nothing, for her, it was amazing that we were not scared to work around claws and teeth.
Short story: We have situational awareness, we are taught, but a big component on that is not being scared. In many cases, the veterinarian is not the only person in the room, there are techs (bless them) that also are well versed in handling the animals. And for really fractious animals, either a short exam or help from magic drugs (depending on situation) works.
Personally, I’ve always been scared around horses. Even dead ones. I’m amazed equine vets can get close enough to examine those beasts. Give me the rotty any day (or snakes)!
Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?
And on our east coast with tending sick horses we have the rather nasty Hendra Virus.
In of my records of old stomp, somebody in the background complimented one of the other players “you whipped a cat on it.” Still no idea what it means, but I say it to some musician friends.