Consulting in Feedlot and Exotic Animal Medicine

Abstract

A while back I had a client who I believe crone from Texas. He called me about a bull in his herd which had been through a traumatic experience. The bull had half of his ear missing. I told him how to treat it and he is-about 120 miles from me so I did not want to make the trip for this one individual. About three days later he told me his colt, Fida, was in pretty bad shape with a large abscession on his side. He was worth $7,000 or $8,000 and I thought I had better get there and take a look at him and the "guy that he got in the fight with." This man had to be from Texas. Who else would have an elephant running with cows? The exotic animal practice really started as a hobby for me and 95% of my practice is feedlot. I own my own feedlot and my own commercial herd. I guess if anything, I get a psycological boost out of my exotic animal practice. I go back to the feedlot with new vigor. You read about this in the January 15 issue of the AVMA Journal. We had the first case of rabies in a champanzee. We also had two human transmissions and, if you want to go through a period like that, that is enough to shake you up for a .while and it feels good to go back on a feedlot where nobody is biting you! Every now and then you will go out and when you have to necropsy an elephant you do not mind necropsy examination of feedlots any more. Your attitude certainly changes! Not too long ago, I was called to a feedlot in Florida by a veterinarian in general practice. They had already suffered a death loss of 15% in a lot of 40,000 head. It has gone up since then.