It's good to be the king,er, the boss

[SiberianDVM]

I came in to work this morning: ZERO appointments on the book. I waited until 10AM, then....... I went to the golf course and played 18.
We had a big thunderstorm late last night (all 3 of my dogs got on the bed and shivered) but today was clear and breezy. Wind was blowing the ball every which way. Shot a 88 from the blue tees.

Just got back at 2PM, still ZERO appointments for today. I coulda played another 18.

Tomorrow and Saturday are booked solid, though.

[warbirdlover]

Must be nice to be self-employed and single...

When you go play 18 do you still have someone there to answer the phone and tell them you are booked up solid?

[JEFF4i]

Lucky...wait, I just played 18 and am leaving in an hour to play another,

[SiberianDVM]

Originally Posted by warbirdlover

When you go play 18 do you still have someone there to answer the phone and tell them you are booked up solid?

Sort of. I had my morning tech tell them I was at the Doctor.
But the friggin phone hasn't rung all day. I keep checking it to make sure it's working.

[Bravo]

We have a dual relationship with our vet...in addition to caring for our animals he is also a good personal friend. We've been taking our 8 yo Lab to him since she was a little pup and now the new little Bichon too...six months old now and really rules the roost!

He is one busy dude. EVerytime I go in there, the place is a beehive of activity. He does a lot of surgeries (nothing orthopedic but a bunch of neuters/spays and tumor removals) and tons of regular animal maintenance...I have long since stopped asking him to take a day off to go to the lake as he is hitting it hard all day. He works four hours a day on Sunday and takes only Mondays off. He has a hard time getting recent DVM grads to commit to his practice fulltime/longterm and usually has female grads who will work there for a year or so and quit. This leaves the primary demand on him...the practice (building) has been there for at least 50 years. He bought it out from a DVM who built it back in the early 60's and it is in a great location...I guess they just attract a lot of traffic and have a bunch of long term clients like us...

Tell me about your practice. How long has your office been in its location?

[SiberianDVM]

I opened it from scratch in March 1991. My mother was my first receptionist.

We are usually busy every workday (M-F 8-6, Sat 8-12) but today nobody loved us.

I do lots of wellness checks and vaccinations, spays and neuters, and some orthopedic surgeries, which is the part I like best.

The internet pharmacies have hurt us, like a lot of vet offices. People buy flea stuff and heartworm preventitives from places like Petmeds to save $5and wonder why vet care is so expensive. My rent was $900 a month in 1991. Now it is $2500 a month for the same building. That's why. The vet business will become large and corporate in the future, so I'm about ready to hang it up, except for humane society work.

My mother tells me the land we own will probably be sold to the developer soon. I hate to see it happen, but the money will probably enable me to retire early.

When I graduated vet school in 1988, my class at UGA was 50/50 men/women. Now the classes are 98% women. I really don't understand why this has happened. Who knows, it may be for the best.

I hope your veterinarian does take some time off every now and then. I haven't had a real vacation since ......... 1988. I took a week off right after graduation and went to the beach with my then fiance. Since then I take a day here and there, but I usually use it to go to a Continuing Ed seminar or training with my reserve unit. Today was a total aberation, although fun.

[warbirdlover]

Is there different "areas" of veterinary medicine, like small pets or farm animals? I mean it sounds like you don't go out and fix cows or large farm animals like that. There must be big bucks in that isn't there?

[Slingblade61]

That's what I was thinking....Equine Vet....a pick up and some tools, no rent
(of course an x-ray could be problematic).

[SiberianDVM]

There are specialty areas:

Equine
Dairy/Beef
Pigs
Dogs/Cats
Exotics (pet)
Avian
Zoo
Research
Food Inspection

There is very little money in Dairy/Beef, as farmers/ranchers know how to do the basics themselves, including vaccinations, deworming, pulling calves, and artificial insemination. Anything else is usually treated with BLAM! (i.e., the patient becomes dinner.)

Equine is basically 2 groups: those who treat racehorses (money) and those who don't. Horses are basically big colic machines. The more expensive they are, the more likely they are to colic. Colic means taking care of them 24 hours a day until they get better or become dog food. And they can kill you without meaning to. A sizable number of them would like to kill you. One of my classmates from vet school was kicked in the head 5 years after graduation. She was only 28 and left a husband and 2 kids.

Pig vets make good money, but you have to work for a large pig farming corporation. Not my thing.

For reasearch, you must have a PhD. Preferably in microbiology. The Army likes people like this. Tell you what they are working on?

Food Inspection: Easy money ($60-70,000 a year) for a Federal job. I have 5 offers right now, but this involves carcass inspection in slaghterhouses, so probably not for me. I quit eating meat years ago.

[warbirdlover]

It appears many dog lovers eventually quit eating meat. Guess that's why I don't have dogs, LOL. My wife's neices all are dog lovers and became vegetarians and not the half way ones either. Being a hunter I guess makes me immune. Actually I don't have dogs because I get too attached and I don't like losing "loved ones". I have cats (male and female). They're nutered and never go outside. They're both about 15-17 years old and healthy as could be. They just come up for a backscratch and walk away. No personality like a dog has. They also don't bark and you can leave them for a week with food, water and a cat box and not worry about them.

[SiberianDVM]

Personally, I think everyone should have to go by the you kill it, you eat it philosophy, with the added caveat of the only way you eat it is that you kill it. No more buying your dead cow, dead pig, dead chicken at the groccery store.

There would be a lot more vegetarians.

And there are a lot of peolpe who don't think about the fact that meat is a dead animal. To them, it's just yummy stuff in a package. Some of these same people get real upset when a bear eats a camper. WTF? It's just meat in a package!

[bames]

Originally Posted by SiberianDVM

Personally, I think everyone should have to go by the you kill it, you eat it philosophy, with the added caveat of the only way you eat it is that you kill it. No more buying your dead cow, dead pig, dead chicken at the groccery store.

There would be a lot more vegetarians.

And there are a lot of peolpe who don't think about the fact that meat is a dead animal. To them, it's just yummy stuff in a package. Some of these same people get real upset when a bear eats a camper. WTF? It's just meat in a package!

Could you imagine unregulated killing of farm animals? 1/3 of those lazy, wastefull people would die of E coli, listeria, and salmonella...actually, maybe that would add a little chlorine to the gene pool!

[SiberianDVM]

Originally Posted by bames

Could you imagine unregulated killing of farm animals? 1/3 of those lazy, wastefull people would die of E coli, listeria, and salmonella...actually, maybe that would add a little chlorine to the gene pool!

Not to mention shooting themselves instead of the cow or chopping a hand off instead of the chickens' head.

We are terribly spoiled today, but it's been creeping up on us for a long time. Is it any wonder that when a natural disaster strikes so many people seem helpless?

If terrorists really want to screw us up, they just need to attack our food production and supply. With only about 1% of our population actually knowing how to grow anything other than their lawn and shrubbery, we would all starve to death trying to plant steak seeds and bread trees.

[bames]

I know we've diverted way off subject but I'm very grateful that my father taught me how to get the meat off a fish, pheasant, deer, food from our garden etc. Although today we have little desire to kill a deer or about anything other than fish and pheasants I am going to take the time to teach my sons the same thing, as well as gardening (even though it is a pain in my butt). I know if I need to I can do it, not to mention that when you do it yourself you know where it has been and it actually tastes a whole lot better - especially walleye from those cold Saskatchewan lakes eh Rock!

[warbirdlover]

Wasn't there something going around once that plants actually feel pain and scream when you "kill" them?