Being a mixed practice, cattle work still makes up a large portion of our professional time. The majority of our bovine work is seasonal for our cow-calf producers with issues with calving and fertility testing in bulls in spring and pregnancy diagnosis in the fall. The industry has moved away from the traditional ’emergency’ based medicine toward a more herd health oriented system where the focus is less on the individual and more on the overall health. We now spend large amounts of time discussing protocols for things like vaccination, parasite control, nutrition, and fertility with our clients and examining records to determine areas where we can maximize profit potential.
We also have members of our staff that have special interest in specialized areas of bovine medicine such as embryo transfer, ultrasound, and feedlot medicine. After hours, our doctors are all able to handle the traditional emergency type calls such as dystocia during calving, prolapse of the uterus and neonatal care.
The bulk of our bovine obstetrical cases are seen at the clinic and we ask our clients to bring them in if at all possible. This cuts down on problems associated with trying to cover a very large call area and ensure that necessary equipment for the call is available at all times. Certain cases are still seen on-farm. Cows with uterine prolapse are generally seen on farm and the bulk of our breeding soundness and pregnancy diagnosis cases are dealt with on-farm.