1946-2000 ERA OF RESPECTABILITY, PROFESSIONALISM AND CHANGE
By Dr. Leo L. Lemonds
After World War II, the number of new veterinary graduates and the intensity and techniques of livestock production in Nebraska, expanded rapidly. There was an acceleration of the trend towards partnerships and group practices among veterinarians. Multi-person clinics became common and more large and small animals hospitals appeared especially in areas where the nature of livestock growing production and distances involved made it feasible to reduce travel time and provided a flow of surgical and obstetrical patients to permit maximum use of the veterinarians skills.
In rural areas, the pickup with the mobile veterinary clinic complete with refrigeration and hot & cold water, helped increase the efficiency of making rural calls. Later during this period the completely mobile small animal clinic for making house calls began in Lincoln and Omaha.
However, even at the present time, except for the Lincoln and Omaha areas, most of the out-state Nebraska veterinary hospitals are true “animal hospitals” with facilities geared for both large and small animals. The group practice generally provided veterinary services in a more advanced and refined form. It has enabled practice businesses to be more attractive and efficient, to provide laboratory and restraint equipment and to induce supervision of lay personnel in nonprofessional services.
During this period, Nebraska practitioner laboratories became equipped to investigate in depth and detail, the bio-chemical considerations to fit the “new look” in livestock production. In dealing with the large units of food animals reared under unnatural conditions and on un-natural feeds, the practitioner turned to the laboratory requesting metabolic profiles, nutritional analysis and pathogenic identification to fit the new requirements. Gradually the Nebraska practitioner must keep pace into an era of computer-managed, science-dominated livestock production.
Following World War II there has been the emergence of practitioner specialization. Nebraska veterinarians in ever increasing numbers have joined an increasing number of highly successful specialty groups such as the American Animal Hospital Association; American Association of Bovine Practitioners; American Association of Equine Practitioners; American Association of Swine Practitioners; American Association of Sheep and Goat Practitioners.
The rate of change in agriculture during this period in Nebraska was so rapid that it was difficult for many practitioners to understand what was happening and to make proper adjustments. The return in numbers of the pleasure horse was a source of joy and revenue to those veterinarians who loved the horse. Meanwhile, the pet animal practice became an integral part of almost every practice.
More veterinarians, especially in the larger Nebraska towns recognized the need to specialize exclusively in small animals. The dog and cat’s life had changed from the barn to that as a member of the family in the house. The veterinary service for small animals has now become sophisticated with radiology equipment, all kinds of new anesthesia weapons including a variety of inhalants, a wide variety of diagnostic equipment notably the blood chemical analytical units, specific agents treating illnesses and immunologic vaccinations to protect against a wide range of diseases.
The concept of bigness in animal production became a real shaping influence on food animal practice, often not in concert with professional philosophies of animal health. Thus, while family farms and the traditional requirements remained (even though becoming much larger), there were the new huge cattle feedlots and large swine-production units with a different philosophy of animal health – one in which treatment of the individual animal was not regarded as feasible.
This meant a search for a new role, one in which the veterinarian would initiate and plan programs of preventative medicine, an approach with much of the actual animal manipulations delegated to the producer. The large animal practitioner in Nebraska reacted to these changed circumstances by developing and experimenting with various approaches to provide his training and capabilities in the form most useful to the livestock producer.
Initially, programmed herd-health ventures ranged from simple gimmicks to sound programs representing major innovative thrusts. After the period of trial and error and adjustment, it seems probable that a form of programmed veterinary medicine will survive and grow. Another program being put into effect to ensure healthy livestock at this time by the Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association is a preconditioning plan of selling calves that have been castrated, dehorned and vaccinated prior to being sold that will help to reduce stress and disease.
Also confronting the farm animal practitioner was the awareness that high labor costs led to more mechanization and confinement-rearing livestock. This, in turn, presented the practitioner with a changing spectrum of diseases, different from those to which he had become accustomed under pasture-rearing conditions. As animals lived in a more and more completely man-created and man-controlled environment, there was an ever-increasing host of bizarre metabolic, nutritional and psychological problems.
The importance of genetics and the influence of intensively selecting breeding animals reflected itself in the practitioners concern for animal health. In the dairy cow, for example there were many vague metabolic and nutritional disorders associated with the great volumes of milk produced by highly bred cows. In feedlot beeves and in hogs, the singular rate of body weight gains imposed new and hard to under-stand disorders.
Concurrently there was a change in the distribution of the livestock population in Nebraska. The dairy cattle population diminished rapidly. Feedlots of cattle, often gigantic in size, began to appear sometimes in areas where there was nothing before. Likewise, large climatically controlled confinement hog operations appeared almost everywhere.
In 1967, the hog cholera control legislation, which prohibited the use of the live hog cholera viral vaccines, left many Nebraska veterinarians with a career decision to make. Long-time large animal practitioners with roots deep in the community were reluctant to relocate. Some embraced small animal practice or simply phased themselves out of the profession.
Later, the farm animal practitioner was encumbered with new concerns as he sought to use the most effective drugs in food-producing animals. Because drugs can produce residues in meat products, possibly with carcinogenic properties, this required certain new compromises in treatment to keep the veterinarians and the producer – client in compliance with drug residue and environmental quality control regulations.
Non-treatment drugs, those given as growth stimulants and disease preventatives, became a greater factor in the altered environment and the veterinarian because of his training, found himself pressured to be concerned with therapeutic agents quite removed from animal therapy.
Another of the changes in the Nebraska veterinary profession was the arrival in the 40’s of the first woman and black veterinarian, Dr. Ordella Geisler of Lincoln and Dr. A. B. Pittman of Omaha. There are now many women and black veterinarians in Nebraska and they continue to play an ever increasing role in Nebraska’s veterinary history.
Throughout their history Nebraska veterinarians have shown tremendous ability to reshape and redirect their activities to conform to changing needs and times. Some changes have been subtle and nearly imperceptible, others have been dramatic. While there remains many gaps to be filled in Nebraska’s veterinary history –some lessons from our past may provide some guidance to the future as each individual Nebraska veterinarian plays their role in its history.
Bibliography:
A Century of Veterinary Medicine in Nebraska
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Showing posts with label Veterinary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Veterinary. Show all posts
Friday, November 21, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Nebraska Veterinary History Part V
1919-45 RETRENCHMENT, DEPRESSION AND A WORLD WAR
By Dr. Leo L. Lemonds
Within this period or era of Nebraska veterinary history, there was an early period of retrenchment for the profession, a depression and a World War. In 1925, Dr. V.A. Moore wrote, “There has never been a time in the history of veterinary medicine in America when there was a like, or even an approximate succession of events which seem so to threaten veterinary medicine as those which have been recorded in the last few years.” (Jr. AVMA, July 1, 1976, p.58) This period had the agricultural depression of the early 1920’s financial panic of 1927-28 and the economic depression of the dry 1930’s in Nebraska.
The “veterinary depression” of the 1920’s may have been the greatest impetus to the advance of small animal medicine in veterinary medical practice history in Nebraska. It was also during this period that many dog and cat hospital facilities were built, usually in conjunction with large animal facilities. In 1928 the method of immunizing against distemper with the Laidlaw-Dunkin vaccine and in the 1930’s the first tissue vaccines for immunizing cats against feline distemper also gave impetus to small animal practice.
The character of the horse population had changed drastically in this era. Such factors as the movement of tractor harnessed power to the grain fields had simply wiped out the wagon hauling horses’ enroute from the barn to the field. The trolley car in the larger cities such as Lincoln and Omaha no longer used horses. Later – the automobile and truck removed the frayage horses that hauled coal, beer and other goods in most Nebraska towns.
Then came the modern road building era which helped bring farm products, along with the railroads, into the growing cities. Along with the improvement in roads, there also developed an improvement in communications through the telephone. This often expanded the boundaries of a veterinary practice.
The 30’s with its severe depression hit Nebraskans hard. Not the least of which was the veterinarians of that period. Many practitioners left to work for the state and federal Bureaus of Animals Industries in tuberculosis and brucellosis eradication and meat inspection programs. Many remained with the bureaus – others came back home when the economy improved. Some just simply stuck it out in their home towns as best they could – often taking food and other goods as pay.
The assignment to the veterinary profession of the responsibility of livestock auction markets helped many of the large animal practitioners to survive. Later in this period, farm flocks of poultry began disappearing and poultry production was the first of the industries to move into huge-mass production units mostly in southern states. In general, poultry practice was subtracted from the farm animal practice scene.
Then at the end of this era and after World War II, from a dye (Prontosil) a host of chemical compounds was spawned including the sulfa drugs. From nature’s garden, many substances were divided and fractionated. From animal tissues, extracts were characterized and the architecture of complex body molecules unraveled in the highly productive search for new agents of therapeutic value. Products of bacteria and fungi were meticulously reaped and the miracle of antibiotics such as penicillin became a reality.
As the Nebraska practitioner systematically discarded the liquids and powders which he formerly used, he also had to divest himself of a similar amount of presumptive diagnosis and symptomatic treatments. Complex drugs did not necessarily make the job simpler and easier. The greater the drug, the greater must be the comprehension and skill of the user. Each new drug had a spectrum of features demanding understanding and respect.
Finally some of the more specific things that made farm practices easier at the end of this period, were such things as epidural anesthesia (spinal) for cattle, the sophisticated calf-pullers and by the early 1950’s the 2-way radios in almost every practice.
The 2-way radio greatly increased the efficiency of veterinary practices and literally replaced the use of the old party-line telephone. For the busy practitioner, warm meals became more common.
Following World War II, the Nebraska veterinary profession reached its greatest peak in respectability and professionalism. The post-war era was to be a great period of fulfillment for Nebraska veterinarians.
Other articles of interest
College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University
A Brief History
By Dr. Leo L. Lemonds
Within this period or era of Nebraska veterinary history, there was an early period of retrenchment for the profession, a depression and a World War. In 1925, Dr. V.A. Moore wrote, “There has never been a time in the history of veterinary medicine in America when there was a like, or even an approximate succession of events which seem so to threaten veterinary medicine as those which have been recorded in the last few years.” (Jr. AVMA, July 1, 1976, p.58) This period had the agricultural depression of the early 1920’s financial panic of 1927-28 and the economic depression of the dry 1930’s in Nebraska.
The “veterinary depression” of the 1920’s may have been the greatest impetus to the advance of small animal medicine in veterinary medical practice history in Nebraska. It was also during this period that many dog and cat hospital facilities were built, usually in conjunction with large animal facilities. In 1928 the method of immunizing against distemper with the Laidlaw-Dunkin vaccine and in the 1930’s the first tissue vaccines for immunizing cats against feline distemper also gave impetus to small animal practice.
The character of the horse population had changed drastically in this era. Such factors as the movement of tractor harnessed power to the grain fields had simply wiped out the wagon hauling horses’ enroute from the barn to the field. The trolley car in the larger cities such as Lincoln and Omaha no longer used horses. Later – the automobile and truck removed the frayage horses that hauled coal, beer and other goods in most Nebraska towns.
Then came the modern road building era which helped bring farm products, along with the railroads, into the growing cities. Along with the improvement in roads, there also developed an improvement in communications through the telephone. This often expanded the boundaries of a veterinary practice.
The 30’s with its severe depression hit Nebraskans hard. Not the least of which was the veterinarians of that period. Many practitioners left to work for the state and federal Bureaus of Animals Industries in tuberculosis and brucellosis eradication and meat inspection programs. Many remained with the bureaus – others came back home when the economy improved. Some just simply stuck it out in their home towns as best they could – often taking food and other goods as pay.
The assignment to the veterinary profession of the responsibility of livestock auction markets helped many of the large animal practitioners to survive. Later in this period, farm flocks of poultry began disappearing and poultry production was the first of the industries to move into huge-mass production units mostly in southern states. In general, poultry practice was subtracted from the farm animal practice scene.
The greatest shaping influence on farm practice during this era began to occur just before mid-century as the pharmaceutical industry made available to the practitioner so many “miracles” in bottles, tablets and syringes.
The farm animal practitioner of the early 1900’s has been conducting his lonely farmyard struggle with his art and an assortment of available drugs. In his effort to treat pneumonias, septicemias and indeed all infectious diseases, he had to depend on substances which today might sound more like an incantation than ingredients for a prescription – iodine, mux vomica, gentian, ginger, pilocarpine, aconite, camphorated oil, strychnine, copper sulfate, magnesium sulfate, zinc oxide, petrolatum, chloral hydrate and autogenous bacterins.
Then at the end of this era and after World War II, from a dye (Prontosil) a host of chemical compounds was spawned including the sulfa drugs. From nature’s garden, many substances were divided and fractionated. From animal tissues, extracts were characterized and the architecture of complex body molecules unraveled in the highly productive search for new agents of therapeutic value. Products of bacteria and fungi were meticulously reaped and the miracle of antibiotics such as penicillin became a reality.
As the Nebraska practitioner systematically discarded the liquids and powders which he formerly used, he also had to divest himself of a similar amount of presumptive diagnosis and symptomatic treatments. Complex drugs did not necessarily make the job simpler and easier. The greater the drug, the greater must be the comprehension and skill of the user. Each new drug had a spectrum of features demanding understanding and respect.
Finally some of the more specific things that made farm practices easier at the end of this period, were such things as epidural anesthesia (spinal) for cattle, the sophisticated calf-pullers and by the early 1950’s the 2-way radios in almost every practice.
The 2-way radio greatly increased the efficiency of veterinary practices and literally replaced the use of the old party-line telephone. For the busy practitioner, warm meals became more common.
Following World War II, the Nebraska veterinary profession reached its greatest peak in respectability and professionalism. The post-war era was to be a great period of fulfillment for Nebraska veterinarians.
Other articles of interest
College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University
A Brief History
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Nebraska Veterinary History Part IV
1900-1918 ERA OF THE HORSE DOCTOR
By Dr. Leo L. Lemonds
From 1900 to 1918 most Nebraska veterinarians could be pictured as large animal practitioners. Until automobiles and roads became more reliable, those in rural Nebraska still traveled dirt roads by horseback, buggy or cutter. There were some creditable animal hospitals developing in a few towns and interest in doing some small animal practice began following World War I and the demise of horses for farm horsepower. The tractor was here to stay.
However, by and large, an office in a livery stable was still common. There were few partnerships. The solo practitioner was the usual and the totality of veterinary medicine was what he could do with his hands, his back, and his little black bag. His treatments were often secret and jealously guarded although the components were usually commonly known.
During every disease epidemic – notably equine encephalomyelitis, hog cholera, tuberculosis, infectious abortion and others there were all kinds of unscrupulous persons taking advantage of the situation with magic remedies that would cure anything. The food animal practitioner in Nebraska has a long history of competing against non- professional interests with a system of standards hostile and inferior to his own.
It was during this same era that another development occurred that was to reshape the character of many large animal practices, the production of anti-hog cholera serum. A demonstration at the Kansas City Stockyards was brought about in 1909. Shoats were injected with live virus alone or with anti-serum concurrently. The serum – treated pigs remained healthy while the others died. Soon after the conclusion of this experiment, the development of commercial hog serum companies began at Kansas City. From this point, many practices in Nebraska’s heavy swine producing areas became principally concerned with the administration of great volumes of hog cholera serum and virus. However, in retrospect, it may be seen that this activity may have caused some damage to the total usage of the practitioner. Many did not even own a stethoscope.
Small animal medicine began during this period in Nebraska, but was still an adjunct to large animal medicine, primarily equine medicine. Only a small number of veterinarians gave any considerable portion of their time to small animals and a few hospitalized dogs and cats. Most well-qualified veterinary practitioners did not feel complimented when their horse-owning clients requested them to give attention to ailing dogs. In such instances, attention given to a dog or cat was usually gratuitous.
In the period just prior to 1900 and during the early part of the 20th century the Department of Veterinary Science at the University of Nebraska developed many scientific breakthroughs including the production of blackleg vaccine and hog cholera anti-serum.
From the standpoint of the graduate veterinarian in Nebraska the passing of a licensure law in 1905 marked the beginning of the end of non-graduates practicing veterinary medicine. While the “grandfathers clause” permitted many to continue practicing with a permit, they could no longer attach the title of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine to their names.
Bibliography: A Century of Veterinary Medicine in Nebraska By Dr. Leo L. Lemonds
Further readings:
Dr. O.M. Franklin
Horse Doctor — Compliment or Insult
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Nebraska Veterinary History Part III
NEBRASKA VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
By Dr. Leo L. Lemonds
The year 1896 has been accepted as the official beginning of the NVMA (Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association). However, from the pages of the American Veterinary Review, it is clear that the NVMA was active for several years before 1896. As early as 1888, the NVMA had a meeting and adopted a constitution and by-laws and elected a set of officers. At that meeting Dr. Julius Gerth Jr., adequately stated the objects and purposes of establishing the NVMA.
Again in 1891, the American Veterinary Review gives reports on three NVMA meetings that year. The first meeting in January never mentions the 1888 original organization of the NVMA. Again it adopted a constitution and by-laws and elected a set of officers. This group also discussed having only graduate veterinarians as members of the NVMA and to obtain legislation favorable to professional veterinarians. The earlier meeting that put out a call to veterinary surgeons to meet, apparently included reputable or established non-graduates also.
At this time it is not known whether the 1888 and 1891 groups failed to keep going or for what reasons the 1896 meeting claimed to be the first official meeting. It may be that the first charter was then granted and that legally that was the first years of the NVMA.
The following report on the 1888 NVMA meeting taken form the June, 1888, American Veterinary Review:
"Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association
Pursuant to a call issued some time since, a meeting was held at the Paxton Hotel for the purpose of forming an organization of the veterinary surgeons of Nebraska. The following gentlemen were present: Drs. L.H. Simpkins (Kearney), WS.M. Osborn (Fremont), C. Brittel (St. Edwards), M.A. Bailey (Albion), A.W. Carmichael (DeWitt), W.S. Brayton (Beatrice), G.R. Young, Richard Ebbitt, H.L. Ramacciotti (Omaha), J. Gerth Jr. (Lincoln)."
The meeting was called to order by Dr. Julius Gerth Jr., who was made temporary chairman. In taking his seat Dr. Gerth stated that the object of the proposed Association was to promote a fraternal feeling among the members, elevate the standard of the profession by scientific discussion and intellectual intercourse and that by organization it would bring the profession into notice and add to it more responsibility and give it more dignity and honor. He thought the profession a very important one, and that organization was necessary to keep it from retrograding.
Bibliography:
By Dr. Leo L. Lemonds
The year 1896 has been accepted as the official beginning of the NVMA (Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association). However, from the pages of the American Veterinary Review, it is clear that the NVMA was active for several years before 1896. As early as 1888, the NVMA had a meeting and adopted a constitution and by-laws and elected a set of officers. At that meeting Dr. Julius Gerth Jr., adequately stated the objects and purposes of establishing the NVMA.
Again in 1891, the American Veterinary Review gives reports on three NVMA meetings that year. The first meeting in January never mentions the 1888 original organization of the NVMA. Again it adopted a constitution and by-laws and elected a set of officers. This group also discussed having only graduate veterinarians as members of the NVMA and to obtain legislation favorable to professional veterinarians. The earlier meeting that put out a call to veterinary surgeons to meet, apparently included reputable or established non-graduates also.
At this time it is not known whether the 1888 and 1891 groups failed to keep going or for what reasons the 1896 meeting claimed to be the first official meeting. It may be that the first charter was then granted and that legally that was the first years of the NVMA.
The following report on the 1888 NVMA meeting taken form the June, 1888, American Veterinary Review:
"Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association
Pursuant to a call issued some time since, a meeting was held at the Paxton Hotel for the purpose of forming an organization of the veterinary surgeons of Nebraska. The following gentlemen were present: Drs. L.H. Simpkins (Kearney), WS.M. Osborn (Fremont), C. Brittel (St. Edwards), M.A. Bailey (Albion), A.W. Carmichael (DeWitt), W.S. Brayton (Beatrice), G.R. Young, Richard Ebbitt, H.L. Ramacciotti (Omaha), J. Gerth Jr. (Lincoln)."
The meeting was called to order by Dr. Julius Gerth Jr., who was made temporary chairman. In taking his seat Dr. Gerth stated that the object of the proposed Association was to promote a fraternal feeling among the members, elevate the standard of the profession by scientific discussion and intellectual intercourse and that by organization it would bring the profession into notice and add to it more responsibility and give it more dignity and honor. He thought the profession a very important one, and that organization was necessary to keep it from retrograding.
Bibliography:
Monday, September 29, 2008
Nebraska's Veterinary History Part II
NEBRASKA’S EARLIEST GRADUATE VETERINARIANS
by Dr. Leo L. Lemonds
It may never be known when and where the first graduate veterinarian stepped foot within the boundaries of Nebraska. However, on the basis of data now available, Dr. W.A. Thomas of Lincoln may have had that honor. He later became State Veterinarian in 1904.
Dr. Thomas, in May of 1937, wrote the following: “I came to Lincoln April 1, 1881, and located a veterinary practice of medicine, as far as I know the first to locate in the state. I found men here and in other localities treating diseased animals. These men were called horse doctors, three in Lincoln, one in Firth, one in Valparaiso. There were men who castrated animals who were experts in the work, often charging farmers less than the charge of a veterinarian later on. In those days many farmers treated their own livestock as best they could."
“In those days every well-to-do individual had a horse and buggy or spans of fine horses, also a cow in the city. Every town had a livery stable; Lincoln had several, many of them were of a barrack construction of boards, fire-traps. The livery stable I think did its part in the distribution of glanders in horses with which the state was saturated at that time.”
“In the summer of 1881 there was an outbreak of anthrax in cattle in Lincoln – 52 died of the disease, all dairy cattle. Franklin brothers were the heavy losers; others who had one or two cows – lost them. This outbreak occurred on the bottom land in the vicinity of Gooches Mill. The animals were all skinned and buried on the bank of Salt Creek. With the history of the disease in the Orient we would expect an annual visitation of the disease which never occurred. I attribute its non-occurrence to the repeated inundation to which the land was subject at that time, there being no marshy land; the land at the time was open pasture.”
While graduate veterinarians arrived rapidly in the 1880’s following Dr. Thomas of Lincoln, the need for veterinary education was recognized much earlier. In 1860 the University of Nebraska was to be established and provided that an agricultural college be started at an early date with, among others, a professor of Veterinary Surgery. However, it was the fall of 1872 before the opening of the Agricultural College was a reality. It was the summer of 1886 before Dr. Frank Billings was hired as the first veterinarian on the staff.
The summer before Dr. Billings’ arrival, Dr. Julius Gerth Jr., appointed by the state legislature, became Nebraska’s first State Veterinarian on July 8, 1885; he resigned October 1, 1888.
by Dr. Leo L. Lemonds
It may never be known when and where the first graduate veterinarian stepped foot within the boundaries of Nebraska. However, on the basis of data now available, Dr. W.A. Thomas of Lincoln may have had that honor. He later became State Veterinarian in 1904.
Dr. Thomas, in May of 1937, wrote the following: “I came to Lincoln April 1, 1881, and located a veterinary practice of medicine, as far as I know the first to locate in the state. I found men here and in other localities treating diseased animals. These men were called horse doctors, three in Lincoln, one in Firth, one in Valparaiso. There were men who castrated animals who were experts in the work, often charging farmers less than the charge of a veterinarian later on. In those days many farmers treated their own livestock as best they could."
“In those days every well-to-do individual had a horse and buggy or spans of fine horses, also a cow in the city. Every town had a livery stable; Lincoln had several, many of them were of a barrack construction of boards, fire-traps. The livery stable I think did its part in the distribution of glanders in horses with which the state was saturated at that time.”
“In the summer of 1881 there was an outbreak of anthrax in cattle in Lincoln – 52 died of the disease, all dairy cattle. Franklin brothers were the heavy losers; others who had one or two cows – lost them. This outbreak occurred on the bottom land in the vicinity of Gooches Mill. The animals were all skinned and buried on the bank of Salt Creek. With the history of the disease in the Orient we would expect an annual visitation of the disease which never occurred. I attribute its non-occurrence to the repeated inundation to which the land was subject at that time, there being no marshy land; the land at the time was open pasture.”
While graduate veterinarians arrived rapidly in the 1880’s following Dr. Thomas of Lincoln, the need for veterinary education was recognized much earlier. In 1860 the University of Nebraska was to be established and provided that an agricultural college be started at an early date with, among others, a professor of Veterinary Surgery. However, it was the fall of 1872 before the opening of the Agricultural College was a reality. It was the summer of 1886 before Dr. Frank Billings was hired as the first veterinarian on the staff.
The summer before Dr. Billings’ arrival, Dr. Julius Gerth Jr., appointed by the state legislature, became Nebraska’s first State Veterinarian on July 8, 1885; he resigned October 1, 1888.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Nebraska Veterinary History Part I
From the time of Nebraska’s first settlers until almost 1890, the self-proclaimed animal doctors – hoss doctors, cow-leeches and quack “veterinary surgeons” – were the only ones a farmer could turn to for help with ailing livestock.
A farmer could rely on his own expertise, usually a mixture of superstition and common sense, but in this new land he was encountering new conditions and problems. Infrequently, if he could read, this expertise was no more than what he could find in the text of a common-use, homecare encyclopedia book on animal diseases or the farriery art. His stock roamed freely outside the fences Nebraska law required around the crops. In their roaming they mingled with livestock of other homesteaders and under such conditions, maladies could spread through a whole community like a grassfire. It also was the common practice for livestock to winter on the range, foraging for themselves and having only an occasional haystack for shelter. By spring, a good share of them were almost starved.
While this might sound callous now, farmers did care for their livestock. It was important as the family livelihood, transportation, farmpower and as a source of food. The primitive and brutal treatments the animal doctors used were familiar ones to the farmer and he thought them necessary to bring about a cure. Remember, it was still the time of many quack doctors for humans and animals. It was the era of many useless patent medicines that were advertised widely in newspapers and farm journals, claiming quick cures for practically everything, including maladies not heard of.
People, in general, were so ignorant about medicine for themselves or their livestock, that they were superstitious of its powers and the qualifications of its practitioners. The general opinion was that certain individuals were meant to be doctors and had been endowed from birth with the necessary ability and touch. Why, then, did they require any special education? Had there been scientifically trained veterinarians available, farmers probably would have gone to their village medicine man anyway, certain that a college-trained veterinarian would be far less knowledgeable than a man who had been a stable-keeper, skilled horseman, blacksmith, teamster, groom, plowman or physic monger (a rural druggist or chemist). They assumed men from such backgrounds were bound to know all about horses, and therefore would be more qualified as horse doctors in the most-used treatments of “bleeding, burning, blistering and physicing.”
Bibliography:
A Century of Veterinary Medicine in Nebraska
By Dr. Leo L. Lemonds (1982)
Links:
Dr Frederick Humphreys
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