Mixed Vs. Small animal

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

Thomas Johnson — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:58:40 GMT

I worked in mixed practice for 3 years after qualifying, then for another 3 years in 95% small animal (some equine work and probably 10 farm animals in 3 years), then I went back to mixed practice for 18 months. 2 months ago I moved to 100% small animal work.

My main reason for moving was that I felt that while I was keeping up to date and offering a good service to the small animal clients, I wasn't doing the same on the large animal side. I think this was partly due to the balance of work, about 75% small animal, but personally I think there was too much for me to know and to keep up to date with. I therefore decided to concentrate on the area I was better at.

Therre are obviously other vets who manage to keep up to date with both large and small animal work. I also suspect there are some vets in mixed practice who are happy to have one area that they are better at/enjoy more, and another where they do the basics and pass anything more complicated to a colleague within the same practice.

I do miss the relationships that you can build with farming clients, and getting out of the practice on a sunny day! but I am happy with the decision I made.

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

Tim Cheyne — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:54:08 GMT

If you really want LA practice, especially cattle, have you considered working overseas as an embedded vet in a large dairy herd? I spent ten very satisfying and interesting years as Chief Vet for a thousand head dairy herd (Holstein Friesians) and I still miss that job although it is now physically beyond me. It is hard work, yes, but you are very much your own boss and the pressures are different to LA work in UK.

A stroll down to the clean well-lit calving pens on a pleasantly warm evening; check the cow(s) about to calve; assure the night staff that all is well and you will check again in an hour or so; do so in time to see one or more newborns being licked clean by their dams. In UK, having driven twenty miles on a cold winter evening to a cow not quite ready to calve, I did not want to revisit, and neither my boss nor the farmer would welcome a second visit, so a Caesar was the main option.

Abroad I did only five caesars in ten years mostly for oversize calves in heifers. Given time, of which I had plenty, even most heifers produced live calves on their own; a few needed corrective manipulation plus, perhaps, gentle traction. I never needed the two strong Irishmen advocated by Professor Geoff Arthur although, at my first calving a member of the night staff disappeared to return with a throbbing dumper truck and a length of stout chain. Puzzled I asked “What is that for?” Equally puzzled he replied “To pull out the calf, of course.” Believe me, he never, ever, made that mistake again!

Tim.

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

Alan Tevendale — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:20:17 GMT

I remember those days well as a student but I certainly feel that times have changed especially over the last year or so. With cattle prices actually being quite healthy at the moment it's worth a farmer actually spending some time and money on their stock. It's also worth noting that the casualty slaughter systems in place are actually far more strictly enforced than in times gone by.

Our young assistants now are seeing far more and gaining good experience both on the whole herd medicine side and with individual animals.

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

Laurence Webb — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:10:08 GMT

[quote user="Hannah Wynne Richards"]My opinion is that the pleasure went out of cattle work in 1996-the OTMS scheme meant that farmers had the full market value for every sick cow-so it was no longer worth treating-just sign the cert for casualty slaughter[/quote]That's the year I qualified. Although I had a small animal bias I never got a decent chance to develop my large animal skills in mixed practice as visits that cost more than a shot of oxytet generally resulted in writing a ticket instead.

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:42:25 GMT

Started in mixed work, now 85% SA 15 % equine I would love to go back to mixed-if I could like Bob turn the clock back. My opinion is that the pleasure went out of cattle work in 1996-the OTMS scheme meant that farmers had the full market value for every sick cow-so it was no longer worth treating-just sign the cert for casualty slaughter. Poor milk prices alsosqueezed out the smaller farmers-and with these massive herds, cattle medicine has gone the way of pig/poultry work-not for me

Wynne

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

Bob Russell — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:02:47 GMT

I generally found the farmers great to work with but things have changed so much in the New Forest since I moved here over 20 years ago. I feel privileged to have seen the area being worked by lots of small scale farmers in a very traditional way. We had a number of dairies where the cows would walk in off the forest for milking then amble back out to wander around, making friends with the tourists before wandering back in for evening milking.

Unfortunately I have seen this dwindle to nothing, making the New Forest a much poorer place. I moved out of large animal work as many locals did the same!

Decide what interests and challenges you and go down that route. If you like LA but feel you are not supported consider moving to one that does!

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

Michael Woodhouse — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 09:39:57 GMT

Myself I love the large animal work and quietly suffer the small animals. Farmers are so much nicer to deal with that pet people. It's not that often you get dragged out of bed, and assuming you do your own OOH then it's more likely you'll be called at 1am by a pet non-emergency than a farm one. I can't think of many cases where I've been dragged out of bed for a cow that didn't need a vet.

We're a small practice and the small animal work is needed, but if I could drop it tomorrow I would. I just like living in this part of the world.

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

Bob Russell — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 09:23:11 GMT

I spent a long time in mixed practices and felt I was getting nowhere fast in either side of practice. I vowed years ago that if I felt as bad leaving a successful calving as badly as I did going to it (woken in the middle of the night etc) then I would stop.

I did get to that stage so I did finish in mixed practice.

I miss some aspects of it but generally looking through rose-tinted spectacles. I find it quite hard enough trying to keep up-to-date with SA work without doing the same for LA. I am very impressed by those that do manage it!

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

Julian Earl — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 10:26:02 GMT

I'm never sure which is the harder of the two sides really: staying inside, following cases through more thoroughly, more operating but never getting outside. or getting in to my car, switching the radio on, getting to a farm where you chat about this and that with someone you get to know while doing the fertility work. Then back in the car to drive somewhere else. There is also the satisfaction of the tough physical job, but on the other hand we do the least farm work in the summer.

I think it is just a different mindset about how you want to use your skills but the days are gone, or going, where you can be equally up to speed on both farm and small animal work. Few people seem to want to pursue a career in mixed practice nowadays.

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

Vikki Halliday LLB — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 21:24:47 GMT

I did.

Started in mixed, then large, then more mixed, and now.......100% small.

My decision was made after my little girl was born, cos toddler's don't make the best EMS students on a calving.

No regrets whatsoever. Would quite frankly recommend it.

No more 2am calvings, no more frozen/trodden on toes, and the option (occasionally), to practice the kind of investigative medicine and surgery I trained for, not just consign the recipient of my treatment to the knacker wagon when the bill goes abouve a certain level.

Go for it, lets face it, you can always go back if you really hate it.

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

emma o'connor — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 18:47:47 GMT

I was lucky to get support when doing a mixed job , however my time was really split about 30% LA to 70% SA, and as such just picked up all the odds and sods, especially as I would generally only be on visits half a day. I also had enough of the attitudes from a small number of our large animal clients when faced with the young female vet rather than the male partners who did the majority of the LA work. For this reason after about 2 years I asked to move to 100% SA within the practice and have not looked back since. Would you be looking at changing practice, as if you don't get much support on the LA side, would you get it on the SA side in the same job? I also found it easier to improve on my small animal clinical skills once I made the change, as a new graduate I did feel very stretched trying to develop both LA and SA medicine. One downside however comes in the summer when I do miss driving about the New Forest on a lovely sunny day and instead get stuck in the practice, on the plus side winter is great, nice and warm indoors whilst the LA vets come back wet through and frozen.

Good Luck with whatever decision you make.

Re: Mixed Vs. Small animal

Sara Ramsey — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 18:37:14 GMT

I'm in small animal practice, I think one of the main things you might notice is the sheer difference in numbers of patients (with separate problems as opposed to flocks/herds!) you'll see each day. If you work in a busy practice with fully booked surgeries and 10 minutes consults you can feel a lot of pressure to stay on time and do what you can in a much shorter amount of time. Gaps betwen surgeries are then spent doing lab work/forms, ringing owners etc.

However you do usually stay warm, dry and relatively clean. Using a dedicated OOH also has huge work/life balance benefits.