Of course, last time I said that I ended up posting on all sorts of interesting subjects
Maybe I'll finally get the motivation to post on the bone, muscle, and tendon conditioning subjects that were reader requested a couple weeks ago.
BUT - if you don't hear from me for a week or so, you can feel good knowing that I'm probably studying.
Or playing with Tess.
Or writing posts for Tess's blog.
Or working out.
Or eating cookie dough.
Or randomly organizing my bike bags.
Or doing boot fittings.
All of which I did this weekend, while I was suppose to be "studying".
See - this is why none of you are going to pay me as a veterinarian when I get out of school, because you know what I REALLY did during the most important/relevant block to equine medicine!!!!!!!! (muscle, tendon, bone, and locomotion). Do you REALLY want someone to treat your horse that doesn't currently know the difference between the ulnaris lateralis m. and the common digital flexor m.?
I didn't think so.
I don't even know if those muscles EXIST on a horse.
I do know that the common digital flexor m. flexes the digits and in the dog divides for the number of digits (4) below the carpus.
And the ulnaris lateralis m. abducts the limb. I think.
Maybe I won't fail this exam after all.
But you're not going to treat horses! You're going to do NON HORSE food animals, right?
ReplyDeleteAnd even if you can't remember all the tendons, you're still going to be my first/second phone opinion on my horse's maladies. :)
I keep telling myself I won't treat horses, and I have all sorts of REALLY good reasons not to.
ReplyDeleteBut.....I think I'm leaning towards a mobile rural practice (eventually owning my own!) and I'll need to do some horses to pay the bills. So I can't totally space out. On the other hand, it seems like endurance has prepared me well enough that I'll learn what I need to know without any real issue....
Oh man, you know you're nuts right? Being a mobile vet has got to be the physically hardest and monetarily least rewarding career path. With that said, I LOVE my mobile vet and gladly pay whatever she charges, and if you set up shop near wherever the hell I'll be living, I'd use you! There's definitely a huge need.
ReplyDeleteI know :(. But there's nothing else that fits as well with how I want my lifestyle - the control, owning my own business, flexibility etc. Plus, it sets me up for doing part time teaching at the community college, and doing relief vet work for other mobile practices. So.....that's the working plan for right now.
ReplyDeleteSo, you REALLY REALLY want to move up to the rain state when you get out of Vet school, right???? My local vet (whom I adore) is turning 72 or 73 this year and I think he may have started to contemplate retirement.
ReplyDeleteSo, we will be in dire need of a good vet, and since I KNOW you are going to be an awesome vet, I say, you should come HERE!!!!
(We have some nice endurance rides too :) )
CJ - I actually might consider it. There's a lot of endurance up there, the living costs are less, and there are some AWESOME endurance people up there. As well as a fabulous regional club. I'm sure there's ways to beat the rain right? A nice barn, covered arenas, and a bottle of vitamin D?
ReplyDeleteDefinately bring your Vitamin D and your rain gear!
ReplyDeleteI actually haul-in to arenas in the winter and alternate between that and riding the sand/dredge spoils which are nearby.
If you like rural living, Castle Rock is about an hour north of Portland, Or and 1 1/2 hour south of Seattle, right on I-5.
We have access to some beautiful trails! Also, we do have a local chicken plant which employs some veterinarians (Foster Farms).
Gave you an award!
ReplyDeleteLiz - thank you! I'll go over and pick it up :)
ReplyDeleteI'll come and visit you if you live in Oregon. But really, you'll have to stock up on high intensity halogen and quartz lights so you won't sit in a warm recliner with the blankets pulled over your head and a bucket of ice cream on your lap.
ReplyDelete"...sit in a warm recliner with the blankets pulled over your head and a bucket of ice cream on your lap."
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful idea!
Pa
OK guys. Just attended a talk last night from a local vet who does mobile avian practice. Now I'm really really interested in setting up my own practice. It sounds like you can dictate your own rules and if you are good enough, and have a niche, you don't necessarily HAVE to do emergency calls at night. I asked how she handled it and she said she takes emergency calls over the weekend, but used a referral hospital for evening and night emergencies. I could always take part time work as a "fill-in" vet at a local hospital or emergency clinic if I needed to. I could even set up a small satellite clinic and do mobile for a set part of the day and then have some appointments. This vet works on her own, and has a part time assistent at the clinic. Sounds like a sweet set up...... PhD or working my ass off making house calls (and having a ton of fun)? Decisions decisions decisions....
ReplyDeleteHeh, I'd think pet avians would be a great field to avoid night calls. But a really unrewarding one - don't they act fine til they have advanced pneumonia and then they fall over dead despite everything we can do?
ReplyDeleteYeah, all my vets I've used seem to have an on-call service that they rotate on and off of. I'd think if you found a good group, it would be ideal.
A satellite clinic sounds like a ton of extra overhead, unless you could find another practitioner willing to split it with you. He does s/n clinics M W F, you do horse stuff T Th Sat...
Yeah - I agree about the overhead. What I'd probably do is be strictly mobile until the volume of calls got to the point where I could afford the satellite clinic and/or had a large enough client based that it paid to be more efficient in my calls to justify that overhead. I need to think about how to handle the hospitalization stuff - not a big deal if I'm mostly doing food animal,but if horses are in that mix, it is.
ReplyDeleteSusan McCartney is vetting ROM again. She's my totally-mobile vet - you should ask her a few questions! I suspect she just refers people to Comstock, but I don't really know.
ReplyDeletegood idea! will do - you may have to remind me of how fabulous that idea is once i'm at ROM.
ReplyDelete