https://modernfarmer.com/2024/12/where-have-all-the-vets-gone/ Farm. Food. Life. Sun, 22 Dec 2024 18:46:38 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.3 https://modernfarmer.com/2024/12/where-have-all-the-vets-gone/#comment-77119 Sun, 22 Dec 2024 18:46:38 +0000 https://modernfarmer.com/?p=166629#comment-77119 I was raised on cattle ranches and farms in Wyoming, Montana & Colorado. In the ’40’s we had no vet. In the ’50’s the nearest one was 60 miles away in Bozeman. Many times we tried to make the animal comfortable because we knew we couldn’t help them.
In the ’60’s I worked for a vet on weekends. He complained a lot about the people who owed him money and he knew they didn’t have any.
We saved a lot of animals from dying but other times we had to let nature take it’s course and try to comfort them as they suffered. It just about killed me to pet them, talk to them and watch them die.
In later years I spent time visiting with a terrific young ranch lady who had just opened her vet clinic. She told me euthanizing animals even when they were so sick was just gut wrenching.
The last time I talked to her she said she was hanging up her spurs here in Nevada and moving to the Dakota’s. I took her my copy of “The Short Grass Country”, hugged her and wished her well.
I will soon be hanging up my spurs forever and some of the memories still bother me.

]]> https://modernfarmer.com/2024/12/where-have-all-the-vets-gone/#comment-77116 Sun, 22 Dec 2024 17:01:13 +0000 https://modernfarmer.com/?p=166629#comment-77116 Stop vaccinating animals and the bird flu and such goes away

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