Farm Vet

The biggest challenge being a farm vet is the unpredictable weather, treating a sick animal in the dark, and rain, in the middle of a field without shelter, but not every day is like that. 

Being a vet is not just about being intelligent, you need to possess the right motivation to make challenging but crucial decisions. 

As a vet Amanda ensures the well-being of individual animals, but also entire herds and flocks. This contributes to a healthy and sustainable food chain, benefitting the livelihood of farmers.  

After Amanda completed her GCSEs, she completed A-Levels in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and economics. Then attended university to gain a veterinary degree, which took five years. Prior to university Amanda acquired various animal related work experiences; including shadowing at a small animal hospital, a sheep farm, horse stables and petting zoo. 

During vet school Amanda completed a minimum of fourteen weeks of pre-clinical and clinical placements during our holidays to give real-life ‘on the job’ experiences.  

The team comprises of eight vets, one vet technician, and three administrators. Each vet has a car and equipment, including everything needed to examine and restrain animals, medications, bandaging materials, and sterile surgical kits. Amanda ensures her car is regularly restocked for any emergencies. 

Amanda works from 8am to 5pm weekdays and takes on a weekly night on-call. Staff rotate being on-call over the weekends, since they provide a 24-hour emergency service to all their clients. Sometimes this means requiring us to work through the night and weekends. 

The busiest time is the Spring calving and lambing season. A typical day begins with being on a farm, doing health planning visits, involving taking blood or stool samples. These samples help to investigate infectious diseases or mineral deficiencies that can affect health and growth. We create vaccine protocols to prevent future diseases. Then there are emergency visits, to tend to sick or injured animals. We also attend birthing related complications, such as difficult calvings or lambing’s that may need a caesarean. 

At the office and laboratory, we conduct diagnostics on the samples collected through the day. We also perform postmortems to determine cause of death.