Re: Sick Black Rock

Amy Blankenship wrote:
" Jill" <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6bc2uoF3aritrU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Amy Blankenship wrote:

Which area are you defining within "here" ?
I know of plenty who pay much more within the USA for breed lines
they are interested in -- for utility and otherwise.
I have had offer after offer from people prepared to pay hundreds
of dollars worth of blood testing to get eggs exported from here to
there, with the chances of getting a few stock birds.

I'm sure those people have enough birds to make it worth the while
of the vets in everyone's local area to know poultry really well ;-)

surprisingly they were folks with 10 - 20 birds mostly, looking to
improve their bloodlines.

Which is not enough to support a vet.

<sigh>
Not individually, they were an example of people who are interested enough in domestic poultry to be prepared to spend considerable amounts of money.
While few go to such extremes, they are not alone.

As I have said, parts of the US may not be as far alone the backyard domestic poultry keeping explosion as we are here, but it is certainly increasing.
The topic started with a UK based circumstance, which was described first, with some experience of various parts of the US too.


Most of those would appreciate access to good veterinary advice and
knowledge.

So they should go to vet school, since the economics just aren't
there right now for a vet to learn about chickens in most areas.

Vets already learn about poultry, they cover just about all species.
Mind you that depth and breadth of cover is one of the particularly attractive features for the overseas students coming here.
There is even more being included now, especially over here as the Animal Welfare Bill settles in, which involves the vets in everyday animal - livestock and pet - basic welfare.
Vets are perfectly capable of taking the knowledge they have and making it useful to the domestic keeper.


Who said anything about calling a vet out?
People take animals TO vets.

In my area, it costs exactly the same to have the livestock vet come
out as to go to him.

Your experience is not one that I have heard of from students we have had here from all over the US.
Its certainly not the same as here.


It was cheaper before gas prices went up. And
I guarantee you if you take your chicken to the vet he won't get the
whole story about what is going on with the flock.

That depends on how good your vet is, from what you say, I would not swop you.
I am glad of the vets we have, we are personally fortunate to have ones who work effectively with goats, sheep, cattle, horses, pigs, poultry, a wide variety of small pets and exotics.
And are on call 24 hours of the day -- I know this is now getting rarer even here and am very very grateful we have who we have.
They are always learning, always interested, but confident in their own skills to know when to ask for help.
They make mistakes but are damn good in general


And any health issue that affects one can affect others, or indicate
management issues that can help others.
And I am talking about the vets accessing the knowledge that they can
already, and that the demand from the thousands of similar poultry
people create.
Not that ONE person is going to trigger this.

That is my point. If you have one person in each area who is
constantly dragging his birds to the vet every 5 minutes, that is
STILL not going to be enough for it to make it worth the vet's while
to study up on poultry.

The basics are pretty basic and are less than most vets would bone up on some remote surgical procedure out of passing interest.
When there are thousands upon thousands of new poultry owners ready and willing to pay then YES its worth it
They treat Budgies -- and there are fewer of them in any one practise


Depending
on the area, they may need to know about sheep, goats, llamas,
alpacas, rabbits, and who knows what. If they get one call a month
for poultry and 100 calls a month for horses, where do you think they
will concentrate their time?

If you have a vet who closes off to the other species they have learnt about it, its a shame.
I do know you are far from unique, it seems that the US is split by almost species specific vets and those who do what they were initially trained for, all species.
OVer here there is an increasing trend towards practise speciality but the shame (for our agricultural community) is that this is to the pet side and NOT the livestock area.
These are the ones who will eventually catch on to poultry as pets.
But it is getting more and more difficult in some places in the country to get a good cattle vet.


It is, if you live in that area.
A few companies will have an in-house vet but most of the units will
use the local veterinary practise.
Obviously in areas where there is a high concentration of one
species then it tends to attract specialists interested in that one.

Poultry is one of the top agricultural products in my State. But I
can tell you MY vet isn't one of the ones that the big poultry
companies use.

From your posts, I would not swop you for personal vets, its hard for you.

--
regards
Jill Bowis

Domestic Poultry and Waterfowl Solutions
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine Nursery
Seasonal Farm Food
http://www.kintaline.co.uk

.

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