My grandfather was a dairy farmer. He weathered the ups and downs of agriculture for many years and was always eager to share his wisdom with those of us who pursued a life in agriculture. One piece of advice, in particular, has been on my mind lately. Grandpa would tell me that when times are tough and money is tight you always make sure to pay your vet and the feed mill because no matter how hard things get you need those folks to keep coming in order to keep the farm running. (And as a former employee of an ag lending company I have to add my own caveat that the mortgage payment is also important...)
There have been a lot of social media posts lately seeking to bring awareness to the high suicide rates in the veterinary profession. The causes are many and complex- far more than I can relate here- but some often mentioned are the challenges of caring for animals that can't be cured, crippling student loans from vet school, long hours, and difficult clients. Many of these concerns I can't do a thing about. But I can certainly control how I interact with our vets and that goes far beyond just making sure that our bills are paid on time.
We're blessed to have excellent working relationships with three vets- partly a consequence of dealing with multiple species spread over two different counties- and this week I had been in touch with all three of them by Tuesday, including an emergency farm visit to tube a colicky mare. I am beyond grateful for the knowledge and skills our vets possess and their willingness to guide me through care for our critters or offer a bit of reassurance when we're dealing with problems on the farm.
So how do we repay our vets for their excellent care? I certainly don't have all the answers but here at AKH it looks a bit like this... For starters, we do try to always send the vet home with a check in hand and without arguing over the bill. Large animal vets are few and far between, and they certainly aren't getting rich treating farm animals, so the least we can do is to compensate them for their time and expertise! We also seek to be respectful of their time and availability. This can get a bit tricky... vet calls are expensive so we don't want more than we need, but some things just can't be diagnosed and treated without an exam. My initial call to the vet often goes something like this "Hi Doc! My pony seems a bit off today. I've noticed that xxx is happening. I've tried xxx to help her out and the results were xxx. I'd love any advice you might have for what else I should try, or if you think that we should set up a visit for you to check her out." As a side note, it helps to be educated about general horse health so that you can provide as much information up front (temperature, heart rate, etc) for the vet to best understand the situation. Although we often communicate with our vets via text message (and they have a pretty good idea of what treatments we are capable of performing on-farm) I leave the door open for a farm call if they feel that would be helpful. It's also great to give the vet a heads-up if someone is feeling off rather than waiting until 10 pm to call and expect them to drop everything and head your way. Emergencies do happen, but when there's the ability to communicate early and often it helps everyone with planning their days.
In the end, mutual respect goes a long way towards a good working relationship. I was a bit surprised once at our vet's reaction to how well one of our horses responded to treatment, until she pointed out that very few of her clients actually take her advice and give the horse the supplement she leaves! I'm not perfect at this and I certainly don't advocate the horse owner throwing their own brain out the window when caring for the animals in their barn. But we do pay the vet an awful lot to know their stuff, so we had better take their advice seriously, ask questions when we have them and seek to do the best we can for those in our care.
How about you- what practices do you have on your farm to promote good relationships with your horse care team?
Grandpa Woods in his 90s still putting in time on the tractor!