Opinion
It is no secret livestock owners, farmers and ranchers have challenges accessing qualified veterinary care. The Veterinary Feed Directive put added requirements on available food animal veterinarians. Many equine and livestock veterinarians have used the telephone effectively for years. Now, new digital tools offer potentially more efficiency and effectiveness for geographically challenged veterinarians and their clients.
The VVCA shared 3 ways that virtual care can improve the treatment of equine and livestock animals:
- Veterinarians can advise existing clients of life-saving emergency measures to take in the meantime until the veterinarians can arrive on site or the animal can be brought in.
- Virtual care can also help determine if a physical visit is even necessary.
- Digital technology can enhance animal care by facilitating communication, diagnostics, treatments, client education, scheduling, and other tasks, allowing fewer veterinarians to serve larger physical areas.
Source: VVCA, Linked In, February 28, 2022. Link.
INSIGHTS: We believe using tele-everything technology has additional potential when used to engage animal owners in proactive prevention and stewardship discussions.
Reactive calls cannot be totally avoided. However, efforts in the last 30 or more years have proven disease prevention education works, reduces midnight farm calls and improves producer profit potentials.