large animal practice

Re: large animal practice

Sue Cox — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:15:37 GMT

[quote user="Phrin SVN"]

I have come to mixed practice after many years in purely SA referral practice.

The transition has been hard - LA mixed practice vets have very different ideas when dealing with SA patients.....

BUT

Much as I miss the completely aseptic theatre, capnograph, seperate species waiting areas, etc etc, etc that comes with SA practice, I love the interaction with the farmers, and I love my current colleagues to bits!

[/quote]

awww shucks phrin! we love you too!!!

Re: large animal practice

Elvira — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:45:53 GMT

I've always worked in a mixed practice and here it is rare for nurses to go out on farm/horse calls with a vet, however we have a lot of vet students throughout the year so they invariably go instead. I've been out to a horse castration and a farm call (by default because the vet needed me for a pts call afterwards!). That's in about 4 years!

Re: large animal practice

Phrin Vernon RVN — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:44:55 GMT

I have come to mixed practice after many years in purely SA referral practice.

The transition has been hard - LA mixed practice vets have very different ideas when dealing with SA patients.....

BUT

Re: large animal practice

Anne Whipple RVN — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:20:38 GMT

I also work in a mixed practice and always have. I had no LA experience, aside from some horsey stuff, before I started working here, but learned a lot fast. If you can educate yourself about routine vaccinations, parasite treatments, etc you'll help yourself out a lot and can be quite useful to the practice since you can do a lot of client education.

I'm lucky in my practice to do a lot of work with calves in springtime (i/v fluids, etc), but not all practices do that stuff in the clinic. I don't do a lot of call outs, aside from the odd C-section and TB testing, but am looking to do more!

I think you do need to be prepared to adjust your mindset if you're only used to working with SA- the clients and patients are a lot different, or can be. Not necessarily any worse, just have different priorities.

Good luck! It's definitely good fun...

Re: large animal practice

Sarah S — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:39:39 GMT

Hi,

I currently work in a mixed practice and the nurses don't really do much with the large animal side apart from ordering large animal stock and dispensing to farmers. Occassionally we get the odd lamb or horse come to the practice but the vets usually deal with them. The hardest part of working in a mixed practice is trying to understand the farmers. Before I started here, I had NO experience of farming apart from visiting them so at first I couldn't understand a word of what the farmers said to me. They just assume that everyone understands what they want and whats wrong with their stock but you soon pick it up and get to know the regulars. I enjoy seeing the odd large animal come into the practice and learning the terms but I don't fancy making my way through a muddy field anytime soon unless i'm at T in the park!! :)

Re: large animal practice

pugwon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:36:40 GMT

Hi, Even if you work in a mixed practice a lot of the staff will have very little to do with the Large animal side, but this will vary from practice to practice. As some one else said a lot of nurses are not interested, and usually the vets use the farmer for help but again this will vary. In all the mixed practices I have worked, the nurses have only had Large Animal contact by helping with TB testing, caesarians and farmers coming in to collect drugs and the odd calf/lamb brought into the surgery (and all this is only occasionally!).

If you show willing though, some practices will be happy to let you become more involved and get Large animal experience. Our vets are brilliant and will let me do a lot but noone else in the practice has any interest in LA work. I do Blood sampling, vaccinating, help with caesars and TB tests, and am learning foot trimming and disbudding, and of course the inevitable MASSIVE amount of paperwork that comes with farm work! But I love doing it, Farmers are very different to 'pets owners' and (mostly?) are lovely to deal with and you can have a lot of fun/banter. Unfortunatley, there are no specific (or none I know of) course for VN's doing Farm work, I know a while ago there was talk from the RCVS of doing a farm animal VN qualification but I think there is not enough people to make it worth running. Other than that it may be worth trying a local agricultural college for basic livestock handling/care courses etc.

Sorry rambled a bit, but I love LA work and I wish there was more for us to do. Hope this helps!

Re: large animal practice

Tracy Windler RVN — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:02:46 GMT

The one thing that springs to mind....TB Testing! Not sure how local it is, depending on outbreaks, but our vets did at least one a week when I worked in mixed practice. The nurses took turns in going with them. It was fab in mild weather and we had great banter with the farmers, but hot weather and cold weather were a nightmare!

I was really keen on large animal work and because I volunteered, I got to be involved in stomach tubing calves, sheep caesareans (in the back of a trailer!) and de-horning cattle. I loved it.

I'd recommend getting more experience, I had done quite a lot of large animal work at college doing animal care before I did veterinary nursing, so I was confident around large animals.

In my experience, the pay in rural/mixed practice is lower, as the tunrover can be lower and nurses can be under-used/valued. Only bad side to it!

Re: large animal practice

hollye4532 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:15:34 GMT

thanks so much for sharing all your different experiences! Cheers! xo

Re: large animal practice

Mac Feather — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:57:39 GMT

I loved farm work but thats prob due to my background. I last worked in a mixed practice 14 years ago and even then the amount of farm work was tailling off.

Re: large animal practice

Sal the 1st — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:56:51 GMT

I have worked in mixed practice in the past. Nice in the summer if you disregard the flies and maggots, has the potential to be really horrible in the winter. we used to book about half dozen visits a day (there was one vet that used to do all the LA stuff if he got chance). Practice used to do a lot of 'white meat work' and our boss used to insist that every member of staff even reception should experience a chicken shed at least once during their employment with him.

I liked mixed practice - our vet used to make full use of us. - but I will never ever forget the pure evil of pygmy goats , we had 3 breeders and their beasties were all evil personified, there is only one animal more scarey than a ferret for me and that is a pygmy goat

Re: large animal practice

Kim Buckley — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:57:26 GMT

We have a separate farm department so don't really get involved unless animals are bought to the farm office (which is next door to the small animal hospital).

However I've had to help with a few lambs with broken legs, help with ducks who had been attacked and we even x-rayed a week old calf the other week (which was interesting!). I think the hard thing with farm work is that at the end of the day it's down to money so you will see cases that can be quite easily saved but it's not worth it for the farmer.

Oh and I had to go to a farm to put a dog to sleep. The vet only took me because she'd not got an IV in a dog for so long and was afraid of not being able to get it! lol

Re: large animal practice

loobylou — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:43:44 GMT

I worked in a mixed practice for 7 months and only had contact with large animals twice! Once when a walker found an injured sheep and carried it to the practice and once when a young calf was brought in to the surgery for a check up.
The only time the nurses went out with the vets was to help with TB testing but that wasnt very often.
I found mixed practice to be completely different to small animal. The vets had such a different attitude towards cases and I personally didnt agree with some of the treatment. That is probably more due to me having trained in a small animal hospital and less the vets being 'bad'!!

Re: large animal practice

bongo — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:00:29 GMT

well i worked in equine practice for a couple of months and have an equine degree also so they horsey side of stuff i have experience in anyway but the cow stuff you just pick up as you go along and our vets are mostly really helpful and explain stuff to you because they understand that to us large animal work can be a bit alien.

i wouldn't bother with a course unless its something that you want to persue further than just working in mixed practice because the amount we go out wouldn't make it worth our while.

Re: large animal practice

hollye4532 — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:55:42 GMT

thanks so much for replying. I think i would really enjoy it. I am used to doing overnight shifts in work at the moment as part of my rota, although our practice wouldnt be open to clients, i would just look after the inpatients that we have staying at the practice each night. I think it would be a new and exciting challenge for me. Just want to hear other peoples opinions on large animal practice, whether it be negative or positive. I want to move out of the city once i qualify and move out to the countryside. Is it easy enough to pick up the knowledge needed for large animal as my veterinary nursing course is only domestic. Do you think it would be beneficial to do a large animal course? Or can a nurse pick it up as they go along, or would they not get to use it enough for the course to be of use? Sorry about all the questions, just very curious. lol

Re: large animal practice

bongo — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:43:45 GMT

I work in mixed practice and occaisionally go out with the vets. a lot of the nurses arent too keen on the large animal side of things so if you make it known that you are interested in it you would probably be more likely to get picked.

we rarely go out with the vets tho, the main thing we go out for is cow caesareans, horse castrations etc. we do also do on call duties on the weekends for large animal emergencies.

i have to say I do enjoy going out to the farms because its something a bit different but it can be quite physical work and you need a decnt pair of overalls and wellies!