Vet Times

Tag: Cattle

  • Sustainable pet ownership

    Sustainable pet ownership

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    Pet owning is carbon costly – not just in terms of veterinary care and treatment, but also due to their diet and the products we buy for them. But if we look at the bigger picture, we may find that pets could, in fact, reduce an individual’s carbon footprint due to the type of lifestyle…

  • Unable to escape

    Unable to escape

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    As I scrubbed flea tablet-induced cat vomit from the floor for what felt like the hundredth time, I thought maybe I should just learn my lesson and do battle with spot-ons instead, no matter how much my cats scowl at me for days afterwards. Or, worse still, I could try a collar, but I suspected…

  • Dishing the dirt on anal glands

    Dishing the dirt on anal glands

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    It’s strange that the second thing people always say when they hear you’re a vet (the first is generally to inform you how much money you’re earning) is “oh my goodness, do you have to stick your arm into a cow?!”, as if it is the most disgusting thing another human could possibly do. That…

  • Resilience training

    Resilience training

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    I went on a resilience training session this week. I’m going to preface this by saying that I am very lucky that where I work allows us access to “soft skill” and managemental CPD – it’s not all advanced ultrasound and cattle lameness, you know! I’ve made peace with the fact I suffer sporadically with…

  • Farming EMS in the news

    Farming EMS in the news

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    I’m not from a farming background, and nobody I knew was agriculturally inclined when I decided to pursue production animal medicine. My family wondered why I would bother “messing about with cows” when I could comfortably work a four-day week petting kittens (their somewhat confused perception of small animal vetting). There were some not-so-subtle hints…

  • Head versus heart

    Head versus heart

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    For those, like myself, who started off wanting to be a vet from a very young age, it was most likely with the sweetest of intentions: wanting to take care of animals (particularly the cute ones), wanting to help people – just wanting to make everything okay. More than a decade on, I’d like to…

  • Thank you for everything (so far)

    Thank you for everything (so far)

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    I’ve talked before about how being a vet student is tough, and how getting into a place on a vet course is maybe tougher still – and I won’t lie to you, the studying, the extra hours put in after school, the weekends (if not weeks) spent knee deep in mud or muck (or a…

  • Why am I a farm vet?

    Why am I a farm vet?

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    I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about purpose lately… I suspect, as a lot of veterinary students prepare for finals and graduation, they’re probably wondering what theirs is, too. They’re only a handful of years into this career and they’ve probably had to answer “why did you want to be a vet?” thousands of…

  • Tackling anti-animal agriculture attitudes

    Tackling anti-animal agriculture attitudes

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    It’s that time of year where we often move swiftly from a period of excess to one of reflection. We become a little more mindful of things we would like to change about our habits and ourselves. Some give up alcohol, some hit the gym, while many give up meat and animal products – either…

  • Public health: the less recognised role of vets

    Public health: the less recognised role of vets

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    Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as “mad cow disease”, hit the news again after an isolated incident was reported in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. In the 1990s, this disease resulted in the mass culling of hundreds of thousands of livestock, devastating the farming community and causing ripples throughout the British economy. Soaring meat prices, a ban on…