On the road again

As an avid reader of those books about traversing across the country with no real agenda I have always enjoyed the freedom of being on the road. I love to get in the big diesel truck packed with all the meds and equipment and leave for the day – never knowing exactly what I will encounter. Often, usually when the very shy Chicago sun is out, I think to myself ‘What a great day to be an Equine Veterinarian!”.

I did not always feel this way. When I left my ambulatory job in the early 90’s, I swore that I would never ever, ever, ever practice ambulatory medicine again. I would only work at the racetrack or in a hospital. Ambulatory work can be exceedingly frustrating and difficult if you happen to find yourself in the wrong circumstances. One particular case always comes to mind – I had been working at the racetrack and on the farm and also covering the small animal clinic that my boss owned – he was out of town and left me in the middle of springtime colic season to cover everything. A client that we rarely saw kept calling me to tell me that their horse was colicking and wanted me to come out. I told them I could not get there and luckily it did not sound too urgent – they called two days in row and finally my boss got back and I told them I would go see the horse on my day off – they assured me this was necessary. When I got to the farm there were two horses eating grass in a field. Being out of school only a year I assumed I must be too stupid to figure out which horse was colicking. Somewhat embarrassed, I asked the client and she pointed to one of the horses that was calmly grazing about an acre away – OK I said figuring maybe this horse had not pooped – has the horse made any manure I asked – well the client did not know as they had been in the field. So I decided that this horse would get treated and we walked out and caught it. We brought it to a pen as there was no stall just a sort of pen with a roof – we decided to oil the horse and had it sort of backed into a corner and proceeded to do so – well about halfway through the oiling procedure the horse who had been struggling broke his ancient leather halter and proceeded to race into the field with a tube full of oil up his nose and no halter on. Now we were having some fun!

I think that was about the time when I made the commitment to never do this again.

I am happy to say that not all ambulatory experiences are so frustrating. I am glad I got a chance to revisit this part of my career as being ‘on the road’ is one of the things I enjoy the most.