Veterinarian

“ Notwithstanding these uncertainties, and the doubts which may arise between one and the other, it is the duty of every Veterinarian to acquire as perfect a knowledge as possible of DIAGNOSTICS; for although his incessant inquiries may not render him an infallible guide in every case without exception, it will afford him the gratification of a distinguished superiority over those who have neglected to avail themselves of the same advantages. ”

“ The successful veterinarian soon acquires the faculty of obtaining information in a manner best adapted to his client,—either by direct interrogation or by subtle means of suggestion, and in this way he draws out evaded facts essential to his diagnosis. In time he learns to make allowance for misstatements made to shield the owner or driver and to hide the facts of apparent neglect or abuse that the subject may have experienced. ”

“ Article 55
⁠A licensed veterinarian can conduct diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases and writing out veterinary prescriptions only after he has been registered. But where Article 57 of this Law provides otherwise with respect to people who provide veterinary services in rural areas, the provisions there shall prevail.
⁠Licensed veterinarians and people providing veterinary services in rural areas shall participate in prevention, control and elimination of animal epidemics as required by the local people's governments or administrative departments for veterinary medicine. ”

“ Nevertheless, the more knowledge and understanding an owner of animals has of the principles of surgical operations and manipulations, the better for all concerned. In the first place, such an owner will appreciate more fully the skill of the qualified veterinarian, and, in the second place, he will be the better prepared and equipped to render assistance to his suffering dumb dependents where no practitioner is accessible and in cases of emergency. ”

“ The parts which have been restored to their natural position must be kept there, without disturbance or agitation, until the perfect formation of a callus, and it is here that ample latitude exists for the exercise of ingenuity and skill by the surgeon in the contrivance of the necessary apparatus. One of the most important of the conditions which are available by the surgeon in treating human patients is denied to the veterinarian in the management of those which belong to the animal tribes. ”

“ In man the entire heart and connecting blood vessels are so open to examination that the physician can pronounce with the greatest accuracy not only concerning the existence of disease, but also its precise locality and nature. In the quadruped no such facility is open to us, and veterinarians have too generally refused to face the difficulty, preferring to ignore heart diseases, or still worse seeking to cover their ignorance by the assertion that such affections rarely exist. ”

“ In short, the dietetic cause is by far the most common, and, in prosecuting inquiries as to the starting-point of an attack, the veterinarian's attention should be directed in the main to that particular. ”

“ People who are graduates of universities after having received two- or three-year education specialized in veterinary medicine or received the relevant education at a still higher level may apply for attending the examination for qualifications of licensed veterinarians; those who pass the examination shall be issued the qualification certificate of licensed veterinarian by the administrative department for veterinary medicine under the State Council ”

“ As in human pathological experience, however, there are instances when inscrutable diseases will deliver their fatal messages, while leaving no mark and making no sign by which they might be identified and classified, so it will happen that in the humbler animals [Pg 309] the onset and progress of mysterious and unrecognizable ailments will at times baffle the most skilled veterinarian, and leave our burden-bearing servants to succumb to the inevitable, and suffer and perish in unrelieved distress. ”

“ The pups should be born inside two hour intervals, and if this limit be passed the mother needs attention. The drugs used, however, are so strong and so poisonous and an operation is so delicate that it is invariably better to call in the veterinarian's skilled aid. ”

“ Glanders is preëminently an industrial disease, attacking persons of the following occupations: hostlers 42, farmers and horse owners 19, horse butchers 13, coachmen and drivers 11, veterinarians and veterinary students 10, soldiers 5, surgeons 4, gardeners 3, horse dealers 2, policeman, shepherd, blacksmith, employe at a veterinary school, and washerwoman, 1 each. ”

“ Veterinarians who have had considerable experience with the disease among animals regard the human affection as by no means uncommon in countries where foot-and-mouth disease prevails, but the disturbance of health is usually too slight to come to the notice of the family physician. ”

“ That concern may be less compelling in the veterinary context, and in any event other methods approved by veterinarians—such as stunning the animal or severing its spinal cord, see 6 Tr. 758–759 (Apr. 20, 2005) —make clear that veterinary practice for animals is not an appropriate guide to humane practices for humans. ”

“ Veterinarians, who are commissioned officers, are assigned to the cavalry, field artillery and quartermaster transport trains, and also have charge of such veterinary hospitals as may be required at permanent posts or in the field. ”

“ Veterinarians are unanimous that horses are affected with spavins, splints, ringbones, etc., from being shod and from travelling on hard roads, and they are almost equally unanimous that a tendency to these malformations is transmitted. ”

“ A number of veterinarians are contract labor, called relief veterinarians. These vets contract out on a daily or weekly basis to fill in for doctors at various clinics when someone takes a vacation or during seasonal business increases. ”

“ The manipulation is thereby made easier for the surgeon, and, it is claimed, safer for the patient. The possibility of danger attending these methods has led many veterinarians in Europe, and in the United States as well, to prefer the operation with the animal in the standing posture. ”

“ Diagnosis and Treatment of Disease
Some diseases are not difficult to diagnose. Those resulting from wounds or knocks are easily located, and their treatment readily outlined. Others, however, are not so easy. Something is observed as wrong, the animal acts strangely, does not take to its food, is fretful, stands or walks unnatural—what is the matter? The stockman must ascertain the trouble, and the quicker the better. ”

“ However, cattle showing any weakness, or the above symptoms, should be
tested for tuberculosis by a competent veterinarian who has had the
privileges of a veterinary education and experience in the
administration of tuberculin.
TREATMENT: It is not advisable to treat tuberculosis. Thus far, medicine
has failed to relieve the affected animal, or kill the bacillus of
tuberculosis in a living animal. The infected animals should be disposed
of on account of tubercular cows giving birth to tubercular calves, the
milk being unfit for human consumption, unless it is thoroughly
pasteurized. ”

“ Medicinal treatment is of little benefit and should be given a secondary place. In fact, dosing the animal with medicine, especially if large doses are given, may do more harm than good in the treatment of this disease. ”

“ The rare instances in which animals can be seen by the veterinary surgeon in the earliest stages of disease, and when this would prove most amenable to medical treatment; delay, generally due to the inability of those who have the care of animals to perceive these early stages; the fact that animals cannot, except in a negative manner, tell their woes, describe their sensations or indicate what and where they suffer ”

“ The substantial advances in veterinary pathology, bacteriology, hygiene, surgery and preventive medicine point to a still greater rate of progress. The schools in every way are better equipped, the education and training—general and technical—of students of veterinary medicine are more comprehensive and thorough, and the appliances for observation and investigation of disease have been greatly improved. ”

“ With advancing knowledge of veterinary medicine the subject of prophylaxis is steadily assuming a more important place, and especially in the classes of enzootic and epizootic diseases. Indeed for the fatal infectious diseases of animals one can fairly estimate the medical intelligence of the people by the extent to which therapeutic treatment is still allowed. ”

“ In combating with the diseases of animals, the veterinary surgeon has more to contend with than the regular physician, and, in fact, should possess a knowledge and habit of observation even superior to the former ”

“ Veterinary science has also made great progress from that time down to the present, and in particular, in the last half century, the structure of the horse—injuries and diseases to which he is subject, and the treatment of these, have been investigated, in this country and abroad, with much diligence and success, both in colleges and in societies devoted to the cultivation of veterinary knowledge, and by practitioners, whose education and experience render their observations worthy of great respect ”

“ These few practical directions and suggestions are not intended to take the place of the veterinary surgeon, whose skill and experience are often of the greatest value in dealing with cases of a serious nature, but just to give inexperienced persons some idea what to do, in case of emergency; as, in all cases of illness or accidents to animals, immediate treatment is often most important. ”

“ We advise calling a Veterinary Surgeon and having him perform the operation as soon as possible, as the disease is usually curable if properly handled and it cannot be transmitted to man or to the other animals. ”

“ A neat little glass instrument (the Medicator) is put into the medicine, and takes up the requisite dose—a few drops—and at the proper moment, is placed in the mouth of the animal and discharged; in an instant the dose is given, and an amount of labor is thus saved to the owner, and of suffering to the animal, which is by no means trivial. Hundreds of animals annually die, or are rendered valueless from disease and drugging, that may be saved and promptly restored by the use of the Case of Veterinary Remedies. ”

“ No time should be lost in filling up the ranks of the veterinary surgeons, and in giving them assistance, for when the numbers are complete they will have at least 100 such animals each to attend to, and these not trifling cases, but terrible sore backs, the last stages of lung-disease, and the local plague. ”

“ To mechanical therapeutics pertains the whole domain of surgery. Medicinal therapeutics has to do especially with internal medicine. Each of them, however, encroaches more or less on the other. Modern surgery is essentially aseptic or antiseptic, and antisepsis is secured by medicinal agents. In medicine when cups are applied we adopt an essentially mechanical treatment. Both methods then must remain open to physician and surgeon. Another and no less important branch of treatment which is open to physician and surgeon alike is diet and general hygiene. ”

“ Nothing on this point is more worthy of consideration than the evidence in veterinary surgery, given before the Royal Commission by Mr Hobday, one of the very foremost veterinary surgeons in this country (Reports of Evidence, vol. iv. Q. 16284-16523) . The opponents of all experiments on animals are apt to believe that dogs and cats must be bound and fastened on boards, and then have the anaesthetic given to them. That is not the case. They can take the anaesthetic first, and then be put in position; just as we, for many of the operations of surgery, are bound in position. ”

“ Every advance made in human medicine affects the progress of veterinary science, and the invaluable investigations of Davaine, Pasteur, Chauveau, Lister and Koch have created as great a revolution in veterinary practice as in the medicine of man. ”

“ From the preceding account, it is evident, that the light of science has shone conspicuously, in Europe, on the domestic animals, in relation to their treatment, both while in health, and when laboring under disease. In the United States, we have no institution for the cultivation of this branch of knowledge. The press, however, has been prolific in the production of works treating on the various branches of the veterinary art; and many persons, by their aid, have rendered themselves competent to administer to animals in cases of disease, in a rational manner. ”

“ In the veterinary schools, surgical studies, at that time, were not made on the dead carcase, but on the living animal; so that the wretched victim, generally a horse, served as a subject, while yet alive, for all the operations which the veterinary surgeon is called upon to perform. ”

“ In 1907 the bureau consisted of ten divisions, employing the services of 815 veterinary surgeons. It deals with the investigation, control and eradication of contagious diseases of animals, the inspection and quarantine of live stock, horse-breeding, experiments in feeding, diseases of poultry and the inspection of meat and dairy produce. It makes original investigations as to the nature, cause and prevention of communicable diseases of live stock, and takes measures for their repression, frequently in conjunction with state and territorial authorities. ”

“ The Medicine and Surgery of the Lower Animals.—Poisons and Animals.—Observation amongst Savages.—Man in the Glacial Period.
There is abundant proof from natural history that the lower animals submit to medical and surgical treatment, and subject themselves in their necessities to appropriate treatment. Not only do they treat themselves when injured or ill, but they assist each other. Dogs and cats use various natural medicines, chiefly emetics and purgatives, in the shape of grasses and other plants. ”