Being a Good Vet
Maybe I am hankering for days of yore in more ways than one since I believe we may have been happier, better vets when we were ‘Jack of all trades’ in our profession. Whilst this brought inevitable challenges to our skill and at times we had insufficient experience in certain areas, it seems that the specialisations that are popping up everywhere can have a downside, namely lack of business in a world that finds many of the services unaffordable. It is increasingly concerning that new vet graduates may not find employment because there are too many of them for the market. The cost of training to become a veterinary professional are very high and it is now estimated that a female vet graduate will take 37 years to pay the debt incurred. You need a strong determination to undertake this prospect.
The lure of specialisation is strong in certain areas and whilst we all want to be the best we can be, at the end of the day there needs to be enough work for us all. Fortunately animals are not being hit by cars so much these days owing to reformed dog and cat local laws and regulations so arguably there is less call to orthopaedic surgery for trauma for example. Most veterinary orthopods these days spend their time perfecting or reinventing cruciate surgeries, hip replacements and deformities brought about by poor management and breeding which is in itself is an indictment. If we bred and fed these animals better then these surgeries would also probably be less common. In fact, recent research and current understanding is that desexing dogs contributes to bone growth disorders, cruciate ligament rupture and bone cancer rates.
I have a personal conflict that rages in me everyday about how to fix the world without fully acknowledging that all of us are doing the best we can.
Some of us are aware of the bigger picture whilst others are valiantly providing excellent services in the hope that their livelihood and expertise will be sustainable in a world gone mad.
A surgical specialist in my city is offering preventative, low invasive endoscopic surgery (gastropexy) in healthy dogs considered to be at risk of gastric dilation volvulus (GDV). This is because the emergency centre sees cases of fatality when owners cannot afford life saving emergency surgery. I was surprised that my first reaction to this news was one of anger and I have been trying to work out why I may have this emotive response. Then I remembered that it is no use getting angry with anyone or anything because we are all under the influence of circumstance doing the best we can with what we know and the skills we have. This vet is a very good person and a highly trained professional offering a valuable service to owners of deep chested dog breeds.
It is tragic that many of these dogs die in distress from gorging themselves on unnatural cooked cereal based commercial diets and twisting their stomachs and this vet is doing what he can with his skill to prevent this from happening in predisposed dogs.
Whilst it still remains a bit of a mystery as to why this occurs in each case, I happen to know that we can reduce the incidence of this condition in the vast majority of cases by simply advising that owners feed a raw meaty bones whole food natural diet to their dogs on an ongoing basis and stop feeding kibble altogether.
I have since been trying to find out why I struggle so much with accepting situations like this that others don’t think much about and I realise that it started when I woke up.
I remember reading Yogananda Paramahansa’s Autobiography of a Yogi many years ago and whilst it was undoubtedly the most exciting book I have ever read, also made me angry. To some extent I have been intermittently angry ever since. I am not angry with anyone or anything but ignorance itself. I realized that we had largely been duped for centuries by our refusal to pool our common wisdom as humanity. This book reminded me of some of what we all know and need to regain. We could better utilize our abilities, our innate wisdom, logic and knowledge without criticising each other or doubting ourselves. I find it hard to accept that there is a heavy veil of ignorance under which all of us exist and those who are awake are striving very hard to lift from the world. My anger arose from the failure to pool our combined common sense and resources to the greater common good.
Human progress is not all about the newest, latest and greatest inventions, discoveries or techniques but by best combining what we already know with what needs to be changed; ourselves.
We need to create a sustainable, peaceful world in which we are all content to live. I try every day to attain my own inner peace largely through my practice of meditation and some days are more successful than others.
Do You Want To Change Yourself?
Do you want to change the world?
Then change yourself first.
Do you want to change yourself?
If so, remain completely silent
Inside the silence-sea.
Try not to change the world. You will fail. Try to love the world. Lo, the world is changed. Changed forever.
We relinquish
Anger
To establish peace.