A MY WITH THE "VET"

Chronicle (Levin), 23 August 1947, Page 4

A MY WITH THE "VET"

L. B.

A.)

IMPORTANT WQRK AMONG ANIMALS

(By

Recentiy I accompamed Mr- RLong, . the veterinary surgeon for the district, on his various calls to farmers with sick animals. Wading through mud, clambering over barbed fences, and serambling up a steep hill, we found the first patient, a cow. She was lying on her side in the mud and Mr. Long diagnosed her malady as hiilk feyer. As he prepared an injection of calcium gluconate, he stressed the importance of a veterinarian having ciean instruments. "When an animal is si.ck, it must have as much attention as a human being if it is to be cured." On the road jagain Mr. Long stated that the incidence of milk fever was not as high as it had been last season. "Milk fever is a subject of great concern to farm-

ers at this time of the year, ne said. The exact cause of milk fever was not known, but it had been discovered that the disoase caused a deficiency of calcium in the blood. • "It requires 401b of blood to make 11b. of milk. After calving the milk is always richer than at any other time," he added, "and this drains the calcium from the animal's blood. This condition is combatted with injections of calcium gluconate." As there was no case which demanded immediate attention, Mr. Long decided to call at the Levin Dairy Company's factory, to which he is attached. He explained that he left his itinerary for the day at the factory and at his home, so that any urgent calls might be relayed to him. At the factory Mr. Long has his dispensary. On the shelves are bottles, containers, and packets of all the drugs and medicines he requires. Turning chemist, Mr. Long must make up all his own prescriptions. Many people, he said, expected a veterinarian to get quick results when called in to attend a sick animal. They did not realise that animals had to have rest and treatment, and should not be expected to recover immediately. Asked if he encountered many diseases in this district, Mr. Long said: "It is the variations in diseases and treatments which keep a. veterinarian busy, because he must meet his own problems in his own special way." Veterinary surgeons were a most important factor in a country district, especially where prize cattle were bred. In diagnosis, preparation of the patient, performance of the operation, and post operative treatment, the careful, painstaking, methodical, and studied execution of minute details was consecrated as an absolute law by the experienced veterinary surgeon. The most important thing was attention to details.

During the afternoon we uravelled to severai farms where Mr. Long inoculated the herds against brucellosis. At one farm I saw a calf which weighed 1111b. when born. The average weight of a new born calf is 60 to 80 lb. Commenting on some of his experiences in New Zealand and Australia, Mr. Long said that he was pleased to note that the farmers were now notifying the veterinarian as soon as an animal became ill. Formerly they would have experimented with their own cure first, and when the janimal was dying called the local* "vet." An indication* of this was the fact that this year 18 out of 20 calves have been delivered alive. Some years ago, had a veoerinarian been called in at all, the calf would have in all probability been dead. Mr. Long recalled an amusing experience which happened when he first came to New Zealand. A Maori had called him In to attend to a^cow, which had milk fever. Sure that the animal was going to die anyway, the Maori watched him give the cow the usual injection. As is often the case, the cow stood up and walked away. The Maori's only comment was, "Py corry you bloomin' magician." I was impressed with the neeessity of a farmer having an ailing animal close at hand when it is being treated by a veterinarian. Too often the "vet" has to tr-amp right out to the back of the farm to attend to a sick animal.