SAE Livestock Vet

Austin 1

Chambliss
SAE
April 1, 2014
Livestock Vet

There are different types of veterinarians throughout the world. Small animal vet, large animal vet, exotic animal practice, poultry medicine, livestock vet, and marine biology. Livestock vets care for cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and pigs. Basically what a vet does, is diagnose, treat, or research diseases and injuries of animals. It includes veterinarians who conduct research and development, inspect livestock, or care for pets and companion animals.

There are certain education requirements to become a livestock vet. High school and college is a definite requirement. "For a high school student that is interested in attending a school of veterinary medicine, a college preparatory course is a smart choice"(Ferguson's Career Guidance Center). Science classes such as biology, chemistry, and anatomy are advised to take throughout high school. The doctor of veterinary medicine (D.V.M.) degree requires a minimum of four years of study at a college of veterinary medicine. "Although many of these colleges do not require a bachelor's degree for admission, most require students to have completed 45–90 hours of undergraduate study" (Postsecondary Training). It is required to take a standardized test, such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or Veterinary College Admission Test (VCAT), depending on the school applied to. In order to specialize as a livestock veterinarian, it is required to complete a residency or internship program. The process of becoming a livestock veterinarian you may consider programs in food animals, large animals or programs about specific animals, such as cattle or horses. Both internships and residencies pay well and include supervised training, research opportunities and teaching experiences. "The annual wage for veterinarians was $84,460 and $40.61 per hour in May 2012" (Veterinarian Occupational Outlook Handbook).
Being a vet isn't just giving animals medicine. The usual routine for a large animal vet includes conducting health exams, giving vaccinations, drawing blood, prescribing any necessary medications, cleaning and stitching up wounds, and surgeries. Also assisting birthing, x-rays, and sometimes ultra-sounds. Another thing is, diagnosing diseases. Some of the most common diseases to look for in livestock would be blue-tongue, and foot and mouth disease,p "Blue-tongue is a disease of animals affecting most ruminants, including sheep, cattle, deer, goats and camelids; camels, llamas, alpacas, guanaco and vicuña" (Bluetongue) It does not affect horses or pigs. This disease is when mucous linings of the mouth, nose, and coronary band of the foot (the hairline at the top of the hoof) change. Foot and mouth disease mainly affects cattle, sheep, goats, and deer. It causes fever, blisters and chiefly in the mouth and feet. Both these diseases can be cured with vet care. Most animal diseases have treatments. Different ones may even have the

SAE Livestock Vet

Austin 1

same vaccine to fix/cure the problem. Vets research and compose a variety of medicines to see if they can create something new. Today's researchers use non-animal methods wherever possible, by using techniques such as computer research or conducting tests in cells grown in test tubes.
Cell cultures can help show whether a chemical or product is likely to be safe or useful. They are also used to make many vaccines. "Animals may be required at various stages in finding out what goes wrong in disease, in developing new treatments and in looking at the action of a product in its final stages of development in a real situation" (The need for animals in research).

There are some cases that animals die in the vets care. Most of the time the vet will not admit to it being their fault. Also sometimes vets can prescribe too high of a dosage of medicine to the animal and it can kill it. The majority of the time this doesn't happen. Animals do die in vet care for