MSD Animal Health and XLVets Ireland’s ‘Day in the Life of a Vet’ series captures the busy reality of life as a vet in four different veterinary practices.
Last week, through the Instagram feeds of both MSD Animal Health and XLVets Ireland over the course of four days, each veterinary team offered first-hand insight into the demanding workloads in each practice.
Viewers got the opportunity to follow a host vet each day to gain an insight into just what a typical day looks like for a vet in practice.
They also got to learn about the vet’s practice, be introduced to the team and learn about different disease threats to watch out for at this time of year.
Paddy Morrisey of O’Connor & Julian Vets had a busy day lined up, with cases ranging from scanning mares and cows, to a suspected LDA, to performing knockdown disbudding.
Paddy provided insights into the advantages of disbudding for both animals and farmers, and highlighted some of the common challenges for calves this spring.
Michael O’Connor also of O’Connor & Julian Vets based in Cashel, Co. Tipperary, said:
“The phone never stops ringing. In the mornings, we book in dogs for appointments, operations and so on; we’d then have farmers coming into us for day-to-day things like mastitis tubes, dealing with sick calves, etc. I also plan tests and head out for testing – it’s never dull here.
On day two, we met Kieran O’Mahony and the team at Glen Vets which is a typical mixed animal practice in rural Ireland and also Ireland’s oldest veterinary practice.
O’Mahony said: “The predominance of our work is large animal-based, mostly dairy and a little horse work and about a third of our work is companion animals.”
He continued: ” We’re just coming into the season where cows will be coming back in-calf. Everything is on a go-slow on account of the bad weather and that has made things a little tricky, but scanning is an essential element of our work at this time of year.”
In Co. Clare, Killaloe Veterinary Clinic’s mixed daily practice deals with livestock and companion animals on a daily basis.
Footage from the practice’s work included a farm visit to administer IV fluids to a calf that Tadhg diagnosed with cryptosporidium.
“Cryptosporidium is an infection that currently we don’t have a vaccine for, but MSD has a vaccine on the way and that’ll be very welcome,” Tadhg said.
Kevin O’Sullivan of Glasslyn Vets, which has four clinics in north and west Cork, took viewers through the BVD booster vaccination of heifers, as well as carrying out a procedure for a teaser bull.
This, he said, is then used to pick up cows that are in heat so that they can be AI’d.
“We used to do a lot more of them, but with the advent of collars, there are less and less of them happening but where farmers don’t have collars, it remains a useful aid,” he added.
To catch up on the series, check out the highlights on MSD Animal Health Ireland and XLVets Ireland on Instagram MSD Animal Health Ireland (@msdanimalhealthireland) • Instagram photos and videos and XLVets (@xlvets) • Instagram photos and videos.
