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The Veterinarian
Just as the proper care of a
child demands the services of a competent
physician, so the proper care of a puppy demands the services of a
veterinarian. But while the physician readily inspires confidence
because most people are thoroughly aware of the rigorous training he
has received, the status of the veterinarian is somehow uncertain.
Veterinarians have not been accorded the adequate publicity that the
physician has received, and the result has been that in some circles
people still look upon the "horse doctor" with peculiar disdain. The
function lying behind this distasteful epithet is now quite obsolete. A
few words on the general field of the veterinarian may give a clear
picture of the modern veterinarian's job and may help to inspire the
confidence that he richly deserves.
The general public is not sufficiently aware of the manifold functions
of the veterinary surgeon. People in large metropolitan areas look upon
the veterinarian as the one to be called when their pets are
indisposed. In the more rural sections of the country he is regarded as
the guardian of livestock health.
The veterinarian performs these duties and many more. It is on his
judgment that meat is determined to be fit for human consumption, and
it is on his authority that the seal of government approval is
affixed. The inspection applies not only to meat proper, but to meat
products, poultry, and poultry products. The veterinarian is also the
inspector of milk, and it is through his rigid scrutiny that the
wholesomeness of this best of
all foods is maintained.
The Bureau of Animal Industry (now affiliated with the Agricultural
Research Service) of the United States Department of Agriculture is
composed largely of veterinarians, and it is through this agency that
the meat inspection force operates. In addition, it carries on
extensive campaigns that are vital to the maintenance of human and
animal health. The marked reduction in human tuberculosis has been due,
in large measure, to the bold efforts of veterinarians to eradicate
this disease among cattle. Bang's Disease of cattle, goats, and swine
is transmissible to man in the form of undulant fever, and much
essential knowledge of this disease in both animals and man has been
uncovered by veterinarians. Public-health veterinarians, working on
local and national levels, have made substantial contributions to our
knowledge of the prevention and treatment of communicable diseases in
both animals and man.
Leather in this country is of such excellent caliber because of the
veterinarian's control of ox warbles in cattle. Ox warbles are a type
of parasite that bore into the hide. Without this control the leather
would be full of holes. The extensive quantity of wool is assured by
the control of sheep scab. Sheep scab is caused by a mite which so
irritates the skin that the sheep bites out large chunks of hair,
leaving the skin denuded. It is apparent that without the control of
sheep scab much potential wool would be destroyed. In the army, the
Veterinary Corps, besides caring for animals, purchase, inspect, and
supervise preservation of all the food for the armed forces.
There are about twenty thousand veterinarians in the United States, of
whom just a few are women. But women are present in sufficient numbers
to have formed an American Women's Veterinary Medical Association to
safeguard their interests. Most female veterinarians are engaged in
research, teaching, and the treatment of the diseases of pets, though
there are a few who are engaged in rural practice in the care of
horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry.
The veterinarian teaches in agricultural schools. He is responsible for
the control of transmissible diseases over the entire nation and of
those that may be imported from other countries. He treats wild animals
in zoos, and elephants, camels, and other exotic domesticated animals
in the tropics. He is a research scientist, is affiliated with the
great scientific foundations all over the world, and has made
substantial contributions to the principles of medicine. He is a
scholar, the product of a long arduous university education, parallel
to that of human medicine. He is a member of learned societies. He has
been knighted and has otherwise been honored by kings.
Thus, in the food we eat, in the clothes we wear, and in many other
phases of our health, general welfare, and everyday activities, the
role of the veterinarian is apparent. Veterinary science will continue
to progress as the average citizen of the community recognizes its
inestimable value.
What especially puzzles most people about the veterinary profession is
how the veterinarian goes about treating and curing sick animals. How,
it is often asked, can a veterinarian diagnose an ailment? After all,
the animal cannot speak to him. The animal cannot describe its pains
and feelings or inform the veterinarian as to just how long the ailment
has been going on. This is not so great a disadvantage as it appears
to be. True, the animal cannot talk to the veterinarian, but by the
same token, neither can the animal give the veterinarian information
that is imaginary or misleading. And the further fact is that the
animal does talk to the veterinarian, but in a language that is
peculiarly its own. To be sure, the language is sometimes extremely
subtle, but most of the time it is pretty clear-cut; and the
veterinarian understands this language.
Let us take the dog as an example. The dog with a bellyache will arch
its back, and its eyes will show an expression of pain. If its ears
hurt, it will paw at them, rub them on the ground, or shake its head.
If there is any pain in its legs, it will go lame and favor the
affected limb. If its skin is irritated, it
will scratch itself. If pressure is applied over a painful area, it
will howl or growl. Endless examples of how the dog communicates its
troubles to the veterinarian can be given. The same may be said for
other animals, though to a somewhat lesser degree. Language in this
sense is nothing more than signs or symbols that take the place of
spoken language.
On his part, the veterinarian has to examine these signs as minutely as
possible, and tries to arrive at the exact source of the difficulty. If
he cannot make a diagnosis on the basis of these signs (or symptoms, if
you prefer the word), then he supplements the information the animal
has given him by using certain medical instruments, such as the
thermometer, stethoscope, or X-ray machine.
If even these do not help
him sufficiently, he resorts to laboratory procedures. Here he often
runs into trouble, and the root of the trouble is the question of
expense. Certain laboratory procedures which would be distinctly
helpful to the veterinarian are often so prohibitive in cost that the
ordinary owner simply cannot afford them.
But of course the veterinarian is still required to do his job. At this
point he must cease to be a scientist who relies completely on
observable and recordable data. He must become an artist because he
must determine what is wrong with the animal without further scientific
help. He must know it with his sensitivity as an artist rather than
with his brain as a scientist. And most veterinarians are artists in
this respect. So extensive is their experience with animals, that after
a while they get to the point where they simply know what is wrong even
when laboratory data are not available to them. It would be incorrect
to imply, however, that the veterinarian knows this positively. He
would be much happier if he could verify his diagnosis by laboratory
analyses. None the less, his percentage of correct judgments, in spite
of his limitations, is amazingly high. Naturally enough, being human,
he is entitled to a certain margin for error.
Even after the diagnosis is established, treatment must be given with
drugs that the owner can afford. The service of the
veterinarian must be worth the fee. If the fee for treatment exceeds
the value of the patient, then the animal is usually put to sleep. For
veterinarians who treat farm animals, the correlation between fee and
utility is very strict. For those who are engaged in the treatment of
pets, this correlation is somewhat relaxed because the pet has
sentimental value that cannot be measured in terms of money.
None the
less, even in the latter instance, the restrictions placed on treatment
are rather severe, and often the veterinarian must put an animal to
sleep even though he is confident that he could effect a cure if he had
the owner's cooperation.
Also, animals may sometimes react in unpredictable ways to different
drugs. The veterinarian has no way of knowing this beforehand. He must
be sure that the animal will not react unfavorably. With scientific
means often unavailable to him, he must simply be sure that nothing
will go wrong. Thus, in addition to his science, the veterinarian must
have a feeling for his curative measures that has nothing to do with
science.
The veterinarian must also be somewhat of a psychologist, because
mental abnormalities in the animal often are reflections of the
psychic disturbances of the owner. It is in this regard that the
smoothness and deftness of the veterinarian must be most manifest. With
diplomatic questions, posed under the guise of congenial conversation,
he must determine any peculiarities in the working of the mind of the
client that may assist him in analyzing the ailment of the animal. In
analyzing his client and patient, the veterinarian further demonstrates
his artistry.
These are some of the reasons why it is commonly said that the practice
of veterinary medicine is often more of an art than a science. But the
impression should not be given that the veterinarian is an artist
altogether. Large-scale production has brought most of the modern
drugs within the sphere of everyday usefulness. Efficient laboratories
have made many phases of scientific laboratory procedure economically
accessible to him. While there is no doubt that the veterinarian
is getting more and more scientific all the time, the fact remains that
all too often he must still rely upon his art.
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