The Changing Face of D.V.M.

I went to one of my old high school football play-off games a couple weeks ago.  As we were sitting on the bleachers wrapped in blankets, with our winter coats and gloves on, my grandmother turns to me and says; “You are really slacking on the blog posts these days aren’t ya????.” Touche Gram, Touche. 

Well here is my defense…  We are well into fall and winter is right around the corner. This time of year is always a bit slower for multiple reasons. The weather is much cooler. Cows LOVE when it doesn’t get above 50 degrees.  The farmers have harvested all the crops and they are properly stored and “cooking” in the bunker silos.  The food supply for the cows is much more consistent, which in turn results in a more consistent life for cows, and therefore they are happy and healthy.  I’m not cutting multiple DA’s a week and the cows having calves for whatever reason, seem to have an easier go of it.

This "slow" time of year also seems to bring about multiple opportunities for different drug companies, veterinary organizations and veterinary clinics to host a continuing education meeting.  I recently attended one at the Sagamore Resort in Lake George, NY.  It was sponsored by Zoetis Animal Health, a popular drug company formerly known as Pfizer.  Whenever drug companies offer to put you up, it’s always worth taking the opportunity. Lake George is a gorgeous part of the region as it is, but this was the view from my top floor hotel room, and a view of my marble lined tub.  Drug companies don’t usually skimp on accommodations.  And I can guarantee you that this is not a place I would have paid for on my own… yeah, I’m part Dutch and cheap, when it comes to certain things.

The title of my post this week is “The Changing Face of D.V.M.”  It’s a bit of a play on words, because everyone with a D.V.M. degree is very aware that the environment of the job is changing.  The cost of a veterinary degree is skyrocketing and starting salaries rarely keep pace. Those of us in Dairy Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) seem to be feeling the changes a little closer to home.  

When I started writing this blog almost a year ago, it was because my friends and family would hear some of the crazy stories I had, and say “you need to write a book.”  Well, my position hasn’t changed, and I have no interest in writing a book.  I never read the James Herriot series and I know that may surprise you.  It was my life growing up on a farm that sparked my interest in veterinary medicine, not heroic stories of a country vet.  Now, as I go through my days and think about what I’m going to write about in my next blog, I do struggle to find the cool or crazy stories of cases I’ve seen or dealt with.  As a profession we don’t run from farm to farm seeing 20 individual sick cows a day.  The dairy industry has changed and changed quite dramatically from the times of the early James Herriot novels.

 Even in the small animal world, veterinarians focus on preventative medicine; vaccinations, good nutrition, exercise, regular checkups and blood work to PREVENT diseases from creeping up.  It is very similar in the Food Animal world.  Now, as I’m sitting in this conference in Lake George, words like “PREDICTIVE Medicine” and “Consulting” are being tossed around in common dialogue. We have reached a point in this profession where I’m not a James Herriot and never will be. We have blood tests that can detect pregnancy (what has previously and continues to be most dairy veterinarians bread and butter), lay people doing surgeries, and having the knowledge to diagnose and treat sick cows, and the list goes on.  As a profession, we now have the technology that we can use to predict those animals that area going to get sick, or that population of animals that is at an increased risk of having issues and are not running around to treat these animals after they become sick.

  

Our conferences focus on designing and evaluating ventilation systems for calf barns, developing new services so clients see the value in a “need” for veterinarians and their knowledge, dealing with new rules and regulations from the FDA when it comes to antibiotics, and evaluating and implementing new reproductive programs to get cows pregnant on a farm, just to name a few.   It’s pretty rare that I’ve been to a conference in the last several years that tells me how to specifically deal with a specific disease one dairy cow has.  

So, yeah, I’ve been slacking on the blog posts lately because I’ve already talked about the most common diseases I deal with as a dairy veterinarian. It’s not that I haven’t been working, it’s just I’ve been spending time in the “preventative” realm of my job; monitoring, evaluating and consulting.  Although I do see the occasional weird case, it’s not like I have crazy, weird cases every day.  It’s even pushing it to find a weird one in a month! For most veterinarians, we prefer NOT to see lots of sick cows. It means we, my clients and I, are actually doing a good job at the PREVENTATIVE portion of my job!