[PalominoMorgan]

Just caught this on National Geographic. He's a vet in Weinman (?), Michigan. I don't work on a dairy anymore, but this is like sitting in my living room watching my Animal Science degree and former life on TV. He does small and large animals. Anybody else watch it? I DVR'd it and am going thru the episodes.

[Brooke]

I'm enjoying it. My boys raised 4H animals and we bred sheep for many years, so it brings back lots of memories. i have to wonder what those 'city folk' must think when he reaches into the wrong end of a cow for a preg. check. Or returns a prolapsed uterus to it's home. lol

[JanM]

I love it. However, it is good they don't just show the good outcomes either. I love the whole Pol family, and Dr. Brenda is a hoot. I got such a kick out of the mean dog (Miniature Schnauzer) who bit the groomer, hadn't been clipped for a year, and was so bad they had to totally sedate him to work on him, and found out his injuries were caused by hair mats! The town they're located in is Weidman, in the central Lower Peninsula of Michigan. I wish I knew the whole group in real life. I assume the son (Charles) is the one who came up with the show since he's from LA, and can come home so often, but that's just a guess. I was very upset when I discovered this show a few weeks ago, and found out the channel (National Geographic Wild) was one that Directv was in dispute over the payments, but that was resolved and I can keep watching it. In fact I loved they had all four episodes last night, and that was great.

Next Saturday they are rerunning all four episodes in the morning, and none at night-I wonder what's up with that since they are showing Dog Whisperer reruns instead, and a show about a woman with 700 cats (she runs a sanctuary).

[spirithorse22]

Did anyone see the episode with the horse who broke it's back, or bled out internally?

The second I saw that horse on the ground, I thought, any horse person who euthanize that horse. I was really surprised that he didn't. The horse died later that night, apparently.

Did anyone see the cow w/ the dead calves?? I thought it was eye roll worthy that the farmer complained that he'd have to sell the cow now that Dr. Pol gave her antibiotics. Hmmm...let's see. The cow had two DEAD calves inside, which were already decomposing. He had to cut them into pieces to retrieve them. He saved your cow's life. Antibiotics are not the spawn of the devil. I thought it looked like Dr. Pol didn't have a whole lot to say about the "organic" thing.

Ok, and the woman who thought she'd done a good thing by buying a puppy mill dog??

Seriously. I couldn't be a vet. I'd be neutering a lot of people.

I do really like the show though! I love that he uses common sense things that are cheaper (wish more of the medical field outside of large animal vets did this!) than their medical-use-only counterparts. I really like it and hope that it reaches a large base. He and that dog whispering guy are two of the few common sense people left on television...

[danceronice]

I love Doctor Pol. But then I always have. He treated our first foal for mange (our little bay pony mare who'd cart you anywhere as long as you weren't in a hurry had two babies for us and she and her next daughter after we sold her are still carting around our neighbor's GRANDkids), he sewed my old OTTB's forelock back on the day we found out Benny REALLY hated having his ears clipped (reared in the crossties, whacked his head on the ceiling, snapped the cross-tie releases and ran around the barn a few times bleeding from where he hit himself--after that it was a vet visit whenever he needed trimming!), and he and Dr. Brenda used to do our barn cats as farm calls when the horse was living here, and they're the ones who made Tripod a tripod (cats just turn up at my parents', and this one arrived friendly but three-legged lame with an infected bite, so the leg came off.) He also is one of the few people who can hold my giant fatcat down and get an oral syringe in him without a fuss (last summer Jet got into something he shouldn't while I was visiting and we had to make an emergency visit.)

spirithorse: The guy wasn't complaining, just stating a fact--she has to go. They're a business, they can't keep an animal around they can't breed or sell any of the meat from. We get our holiday turkeys from them ("small" is ca. 20 lbs, the "medium" doesn't fit in our oven!) and it took several years just to get their land clean enough to get USDA grazing certification. Choice is sell her off to someone who doesn't care about organic certs or let her die, that's how USDA regs work. He gets more for selling organic animals (and turns out SPECTACULAR turkeys-they're huge and tender) and people claim to want organic meat and produce. That's what you have to do.

I wasn't really surprised he kind of let the horse be--it wasn't in any pain, they clearly weren't really ready to admit it was dying. Also not surprised he didn't suggest hauling it anywhere. Most people around here aren't going to afford dragging every critical case to Lansing. Doc knows his patients--with me/my parents, with a horse, if he thought MSU was worth it, he'd suggest it, we could pay, while he knows also we're not going to huge lengths for barn cats as we just...acquire those (he's even the one who pointed out there was a stretch where all seven had names ending in Y, so we couldn't call the kitten our dog found on the road "Kismet" even if it was suitable, it would break the pattern!)

[JanM]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pol-Ve...912927?sk=wall Here's the link to the practice's Facebook page. Apparently there were only four episodes for now, and I'm hoping there will be more.


Danceronice-I love that you have so much insider information! Everyone on the show seems so nice, and so caring. I love that Dr. Pol doesn't pull punches, like with the puppy mill lady. And my heart broke for the K-9 policemen who's young dog turned out to have lung cancer that had metastasized, especially since he said the dog wasn't just a work partner, but a family pet also.

[danceronice]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pol-Ve...912927?sk=wall Here's the link to the practice's Facebook page. Apparently there were only four episodes for now, and I'm hoping there will be more.


Danceronice-I love that you have so much insider information! Everyone on the show seems so nice, and so caring. I love that Dr. Pol doesn't pull punches, like with the puppy mill lady. And my heart broke for the K-9 policemen who's young dog turned out to have lung cancer that had metastasized, especially since he said the dog wasn't just a work partner, but a family pet also.

Lol, well, I'm 33, the practice was 30 last year, we bought this place when I was six...Doc Pol's been our vet for a long time! I completely believe the dogs with the porcupines--that aired a couple days after Mom mentioned she and Dad had seen a porcupine cross our road and climb up a tree in our yard! (Our dog is smart enough not to bother them...)

I felt so bad for the tribal police guy! What a horrible thing to hear about such a young dog--I worry about Puff, but he's 12 and looks his age now. You don't expect that.

And if anything the waiting room as seen on the show doesn't begin to convey what it's like--you see everything brought in. Last time mom and dad had one of the cats in (since the old OTTB died, no farm calls, and I HOPE if I bring Lucky up he won't need any ER calls!) there was a turkey in the waiting room. Another time dad heard the guy with the highland cattle come in.

Oh, and the show didn't mention but Doc does, or did, breed Friesians. Funnily enough when I was working for the parks on Mackinac Island I ran into two ladies out riding their Friesans, I mentioned my family vet bred them, and she said "Doctor Pol?" and pointed down at her gelding! (Dad passed when he offered him a gelding last year, though. Mom says too much hair. )

[PalominoMorgan]

I was really heart broken about the K-9 working dog. That sucked. I cried about the bay horse, just because the little girl was sitting there holding his head. The owner even said that would be the first horse they lost. There is always that tiny chance that the swelling would go down and he'd be able to get up, but it was a tiny tiny chance. I wasn't surprised when he passed. Oh, and I was very sad that the little white pitbull/American bulldog puppy didn't make it. My first thought though was why wasn't he crated? But, that's just me. No way I trust a 10 month old puppy alone in the house, nor an older dog around the puppy no matter the breed. So sad he didn't make it. Life sucks. On that note, it is refreshing that they do show real life and not all happy endings.

As a former AI technician though I have to smile at Dr. Pol and the comments about how he just closes his eyes and "sees" with his hand. I totally did that when I bred cows and when I was a herdsman. Came in handy during dystocias, being able to "see" the calf with your hand and get it moved around to the right spot.

Oh, and the trick about the wicker basket as a cast... that was a new one to me and I thought I knew almost all of the herdsman tricks. Will keep that one in the noggin in case I ever need it for a friend or neighbor.

[danceronice]

When Old OTTB has his last seizure (this is before EPM was everyone's favorite neuro-symptom diagnosis) Doc Pol came out, Dad says (I was away) and did a similar thing--kind of figured this was it, debated suggesting we put him down (Dad says he thought about asking, but didn't), but figured the horse wasn't in any pain and there was a chance if it was 'the possum disease' he'd come out of it. (HYPP wasn't a possibility, not being a stock horse.) And he did a no-charge follow-up, too. Still remembers the horse, too, even though he really does have a zillion patients, it seems like.

Hey, if anyone needs an old wicker basket, I've got one and no calves/sheep/goats to splint...

About the only animal we've really NEEDED to take to a vet in town were the parrot and parakeet species, since they don't do much exotic avian species.