The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: sophie_aj on October 02, 2012, 08:10:58 pm
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Hello,
I am a new member based in Edinburgh as I am on the Graduate Veterinary Medicine Programme. I am a budding "future" smallholder to speak. I have already made a few posts as I was looking for goats milk for my soaps which thanks to this great community I have already made links. I really enjoyed the show on Sunday too.
I am particularly interested in anything vet-related and particularly I'd be interested to find out what sort of issues smallholders face when encountering veterinary treatment for their livestock and if they wish that vets could support them better then (let's disregard money for a moment) what they would like to see from vet support.
So yes, hello from Sophie
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hello from alloa
i don't have a smallholding as such just pets, they cost enough at the vets...
but we won't hold it against you i'm sure you will be a very useful person to have around :-)
welcome
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Hi, sophie and welcome :wave: . From what I've noted on here, there is a distinct shortage of vets who know much about goats. I have experienced that in the past but now am lucky enough to have a great vet who does know goats but many other members are not so lucky.
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Hi Sophie,
For us, the problem is that our four nearest vets won't touch livestock, so we end up going some distance away to find the nearest practice that deals with large animals (and this is in a rural area too!).
HTH!
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From what I've noted on here, there is a distinct shortage of vets who know much about goats. I have experienced that in the past but now am lucky enough to have a great vet who does know goats but many other members are not so lucky.
Yes that does appear to be somewhat lacking from our teaching :( but I'm hoping to find a good goat vet connection to learn from myself. Also I might be able to organise talks from somebody good to increase the level of goat knowledge in the vet school itself. Great tip!
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Hi and welcome.. I think you'll be busy on here :roflanim:
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Hello, nice to see you here! :wave:
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Hello and welcome from Carnoustie :wave:
I have to say our vets are very good - it's a big practice and they do small, large animals and equines, so all our lot are with one practice. There are four that specialise in large animals / equines.
They are always willing to answer questions and explain what they are doing and why (see video of our sheep C section :thumbsup: ) and will give you wee amounts of stuff if that's all you need.
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They are always willing to answer questions and explain what they are doing and why (see video of our sheep C section :thumbsup: )
Hi Rosemary could you point me in the direction of the sheep C-section please :)
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Lamb born by cesarean section (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHwP7X-B8Ho#)
thats the c-section on u-tube
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:thumbsup: Thank you!
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Welcome to the forum, :wave: I am sure you knowledge will be a great help :)
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Ooh the video was helpful :thumbsup:
Sophie - welcome :wave:
Our local vet practice is very good with smallholders in many ways - they will always open large packs of products and dispense smaller quantities to us. Giant packs of most products if you don't have all that many animals are expensive and most has to be wasted if you stick with the use-by date.
When we first came to the area this practice was a bit scatheing about our 'funny wee sheep' but the vets soon realised we are serious about them. They now appreciate the special qualities of primitives and have educated themselves about them. They are always helpful even if they think our questions are stupid - they let us know though ;D
Initially too we had the 'it's not worth treating - it's only a sheep' attitude. We breed pedigree breeding stock of several minority breeds, so they have a value beyond simple finance. That attitude has changed now especially as more smallholders set up in the area, and the practice is adapting to help them.
So a bit more in vet school about the non-commercial side of farm livestock keeping would be helpful.
Our practice treats all sizes of animals and they have a price tariff for small animals and one for farm livestock which fortunately is far more reasonable.
We in turn are loyal to our practice, buying our meds there, seeking advice and always using them for all our animals, great and small.
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That was a fascinating video.
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Hi Sophie
welcome :)
Our vet seems very clued up on goats so I guess we've been lucky. Unfortunately our disbudding this year seems to have gone a bit wrong and our kid has scurs that are thick and growing awkwardly. Was reluctant to put him back under anaesthetic but its looking like we have no choice now :(
Glad you found some goats milk. I make a bit of soap myself too.
LIsa
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Hi Sophie, we're just half an hour down the road from Edinburgh, about 4 miles from Lauder if you fancy a cup of tea - we keep 3 different breeds of primitives, pygmy goats, geese, hens, ducks and domestic pets and it's always good for a laugh here! You can contact me by personal message here on TAS if you fancy a visit, most welcome. :wave:
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Hello Sophie :wave: and welcome from Durham where there are no vets who can help with poultry matters ::) left that knowledge at vet school I guess. ( good job I am in this line of employment, may see you when you see practice if you come to Newcastle ) know many a vet student from Edinburgh ;)
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Welcome Sophie :wave: from north Cumbria
We are commercial but very traditional, low input, hill beef and sheep farmers, who 'smallhold on the side' - house cows, a few pigs, rare breed / fleece sheep, ponies, choox.
I think of our local vets as having a small animal practise on the side of an agricultural practise. They are very modern and up-to-date, and very hot on training and supporting farmers in ways beyond just veterinary care. For instance, they are very pro-active in helping us access grant funding, especially where targeted at animal welfare. They often have students with them, usually I think from Edinburgh (many of the vets, including the senior partner, are Scottish.)
The practise is perhaps a little light on practical expertise in pigs, especially free-range pigs. As the last vet I had to my pig said, it's hard to be current when there aren't very many around in the practise area - so I'm not sure what could be done about that.
Our vets strike an excellent balance between allowing farmers to make commercial decisions without being made to feel guilty and recognising that even hardened weather-beaten Cumbrian farmers may often make decisions based on criteria other than financial. (Check my tagline. ;))
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:wave: Hi Sophie, Main problem I am finding is a vet with knowledge of chickens/ducks - get most of my information of the interenet/forums as our local vets do not have a clue - we are rural based as well suppose they are geared for larger farm animals and pets! Best poultry vet I have found is in Devon area!! Bit far from Wales!
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hello from cornwall! :thumbsup:
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And hi from Aberdeenshire...
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Hi from Cumbria :wave:
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Hi Sophie, we're just half an hour down the road from Edinburgh, about 4 miles from Lauder if you fancy a cup of tea - we keep 3 different breeds of primitives, pygmy goats, geese, hens, ducks and domestic pets and it's always good for a laugh here! You can contact me by personal message here on TAS if you fancy a visit, most welcome. :wave:
Might just take you up on that!
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Hi and welcome Sophie
Agree with Sally about the lack of vets who know about non-commercial pigs, the original practice i was with had very little interest in livestock and when they sent me a vet who squealed as much as the piglets she was jabbing it was the final straw ::) , we changed to a practice further away but more experienced in large animals, sadly their pig man had buggered off to NZ so back to square one.
I have a young lady who comes to help out once a week with my small herd of pigs she's doing her A'levels at the mo hoping to get into vet school, i've advised her that she should emphasise she wants to work in large animal practice as it might help her get in as i think there will be a shortage of good large animal vets in the very near future, it is what she wants to do and she says i have fired her enthusiasm for specialising in porcine medicine which is virtually non existent (most of my older stock if they fall ill have to have horse meds as theres nothing piggy available!)
Smallholders keep a wide variety of stock and i guess you have to be a jack of all breeds ;D
All the best
mandy :pig: (North Yorkshire)
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:wave: :wave: :wave:
Hello from Somerset!
My wish?
I wish I was allowed to vaccinate my own rabbits the same as I can my goats and sheep. I could help far more and improve welfare if I could vaccinate everything upon entering my holding. instead I have to book an appointment, stress the rabbit by subjecting it to another car journey etc etc :-\
Poor things have to go through so much :bunny:
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Thanks guys to all who have said hello. It's really interesting to hear your views. You might be pleased to hear that I get very excited about all farm species especially outdoor reared eg. piggies
There is certainly an emphasis in learning intensive systems in vet school - but I am really keen to gain knowledge of extensive systems too. :)
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The nice thing for many 'hobby' farmers is that you don't have the pressure to be intensive, you can do what feels right each year and work accordingly. Hope you are enjoying your studies, I have known a few vet students over the years and a few who left because they didn't like it - much the same as any occupation I expect.
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Hello again Sophie :wave:
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Welcome Sophie :wave: from north Cumbria
We are commercial but very traditional, low input, hill beef and sheep farmers, who 'smallhold on the side' - house cows, a few pigs, rare breed / fleece sheep, ponies, choox.
I think of our local vets as having a small animal practise on the side of an agricultural practise. They are very modern and up-to-date, and very hot on training and supporting farmers in ways beyond just veterinary care. For instance, they are very pro-active in helping us access grant funding, especially where targeted at animal welfare. They often have students with them, usually I think from Edinburgh (many of the vets, including the senior partner, are Scottish.)
Sorry to be a bit nosey Sally, but can I ask which vet surgery you use?
Beth
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I think of our local vets as having a small animal practise on the side of an agricultural practise. They are very modern and up-to-date, and very hot on training and supporting farmers in ways beyond just veterinary care. For instance, they are very pro-active in helping us access grant funding, especially where targeted at animal welfare. They often have students with them, usually I think from Edinburgh (many of the vets, including the senior partner, are Scottish.)
Sorry to be a bit nosey Sally, but can I ask which vet surgery you use?
Beth
Capontree
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Hi Sophie, we're down in the Borders between Galashiels and Peebles and keep free-range rare breed pigs, Portland and Scotch Mule sheep, chickens & bees. We use a Vet practice in St Boswells and they're very helpful, supportive and knowledgeable. It helps that in my "day job" I'm a consultant in anaesthetics and intensive care: I'm really enjoying my own graduate veterinary medicine training from them ;)
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I think it would be very useful if vet schools arranged for students to visit smallholdings prior to or early in their courses as they would be able to get far more 'hands on' far earlier than on the course. eg a soon to be vet student came to us because we were hand shearing and she was able to get hands on experience of handling the sheep, and of the shearing and foot trimming which gives a great feel of the animal, unlike the 100 miles an hour zip off and away on a commercial farm.
I think it would also increase the numbers of large animal vets as they would get the 'bug' with our more manageably sized beasts and then would have the confidence to tackle the monster beasts on commercial farms. Given esp that most vet students are now women not men.
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Good idea, L&M.
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Interesting idea. I can see issues why the vet schools don't sort this out but it is emphasised to try and gain a breadth of experience. I guess part of the problem is that most vet students wouldn't give second glance at smallholdings. HUMPH.
Re - sheep -lambing is a big focus, so sheep handling is probably not the biggest problem vet students encounter after intensive lambing placements. Lack of cattle handling and horse handling is an issue for some.
I however would be very up for hand-shearing sheep! Where abouts are you :) ?
How to get vet students to "get the bug" for large animal work. Really not sure about that one. It so much depends on your motivation. There are a number of students who really are sure what they want to work in and others that are not sure.
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Lack of cattle handling and horse handling is an issue for some.
Lack of pig knowledge is an even bigger problem :( , vets who know anything at all about pigs are rarer than hens teeth. So i think LM's idea is a great one, variety is the spice of life. ;D
Mandy :pig:
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Lack of cattle handling and horse handling is an issue for some.
Lack of pig knowledge is an even bigger problem :( , vets who know anything at all about pigs are rarer than hens teeth. So i think LM's idea is a great one, variety is the spice of life. ;D
Mandy :pig:
And goat knowledge is scarce from what I've heard. We use a big practice and we do have a vet who is experienced with goats but only one. Fortunately, we've never needed him when he's been on holiday but have on his day off.
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Hello from Aberdeenshire. I also make soaps for retail. My range includes donkey and goat milk soaps.
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Hello from Aberdeenshire. I also make soaps for retail. My range includes donkey and goat milk soaps.
Cool that's exciting. I'm busy designing exciting new labels at the moment!
So to sum up all smallholder's comments.
Better knowledge is required with goats, cattle, horses, pigs, ducks... to name but a few :idea: I have an idea. Send them all back to vet school. Ha ha. No, that is pretty rubbish! I guess it just depends on the individual vet at the end of the day.
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Hello from Aberdeenshire. I also make soaps for retail. My range includes donkey and goat milk soaps.
Cool that's exciting. I'm busy designing exciting new labels at the moment!
So to sum up all smallholder's comments.
Better knowledge is required with goats, cattle, horses, pigs, ducks... to name but a few :idea: I have an idea. Send them all back to vet school. Ha ha. No, that is pretty rubbish! I guess it just depends on the individual vet at the end of the day.
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It takes ages to get the labels right. I managed to get an Artist to design a logo for me but my word it takes ages. Not only that but the insurance the safety assessments the paperwork it's endless. I make lip balms body butters scrubs bath bombs etc etc. It's good fun though.