I have an idea. I don’t know how relevant, feasible, and practical it is, but I nevertheless want to investigate it. Perhaps you can help. Read on, and let me know via comments or email.

Due to a lack of veterinarians in rural areas and an shortage of veterinarians overall I am thinking it would be great to have a  Video Podcast along the lines of Veterinary Medicine for Farmers. This wouldn’t involve major surgery or serious complaints, but basic on the farm procedures which farmers can perform to alleviate or delay the need for qualified veterinary care until absolutely necessary without complicating, or neglecting the animal until a vet can arrive.

Some of the episodes might be about breech births; worming via bolus, paste and shots; vaccinations; selecting the right medicines to give and when to use; Farm first aid for large animals and creating a kit for emergencies; treating mastitis, milk fever, ketosis, bloat and other basic livestock ailments; proper castration methods, etc. The idea is to provide a basic guide to help the farmer make choices and take better care of their livestock, not to replace vets in general. In point of fact, most vets I know these days don’t have the time or energy for making some of these basic farm calls. Neighbors of mine recently lost a calf because it was a breech and the vet couldn’t come till the following day.

I pulled breech twin lambs  earlier this spring relying only on my memory from reading about it in a book a long time ago. It worked out, and I was able to do it although I had never done so before, but it would have been nice to have a visual reference on how to go about the whole, gory procedure and make sure I was doing it right. Sure many farmers do these sorts of things daily, but they must have been shown how by a vet at some point.

My idea is to make this simple enough, and broad enough–if possible–that smallholders and diverse farmers like myself can feel confident handling all their stock’s basic medical needs when a vet isn’t available. Sure I know about injecting wormers in sheep, but how does that translate into my cattle, or swine? Are the lung worms coughed up by my sheep likely to be picked up by the cattle grazing the same field a month later? Will the same vaccinations work for all species?

Of course there would have to be info on the difference between sheep care and goat care, llamas, hogs, cattle–beef and dairy, and perhaps livestock dogs. Conventional practices could be portrayed with organic or holistic alternative mentioned along side.

I know there are books available which cover these topics, I own some. The idea here is to present it visually so connections can be made. So tell me, am I crazy? Is this possible even? Would people want it? I have an idea on how to produce it, fund it and host it, now to find a vet or vets who would be willing to provide the expertise. . . .

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