Common Medical Practice: Animals Getting Hit?

[shaq786]

I just recently started shadowing in the large animal hospital here at UGA.

And we have a cow and goat that live together in one stall.

I have noticed this week the nurse has hit the goat right across the neck twice. Hard enough for it to be loud enough. The goat didnt do anything to warrant it. I wouldnt want getting hit in the neck like that either.

I noticed the cow got slapped in between the eyes (on its face) because he was trying to follow the goat out of the stall. But I figured thats ok, it wasn't that hard even though you could slightly hear that one.

Then today they were getting ruminants from the cow. She hit the cow two or three times with a thick rope, loud enough for every one to hear it. She did this in front of 3 vet school students and 1 person who is just regular staff in the barn. And 2 other vet tech nurses nearby heard that noise.

I know the goat and cow belong to the school but is this pretty common and acceptable in your profession?

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[Bill59]

No I don't think hitting patients is acceptable. If that ever happened to one of my patients we would have a problem.

I suspect it's not because they are trying to be mean, it's just they haven't been taught enough basic behavior to know how to deal with the situation effectively. It's like getting a broom out when a horse won't load -- some people just think that's the way to do it but don't realize it's counterproductive.

The way to deal with it is education and training. And if that doesn't work, a firing or two usually takes care of the problem.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

As much as I agree with Bill, remember....large animals are LARGE. A big smack on a cow's butt that may seem loud barely doesn't hurt the cow (trust me, I've worked quite a few through school) while such a blow would truly hurt a dog. It may seem like "ouch!" but to be honest....it isn't really. It may wake em up and get them going, or stop them doing something, but it takes a lot of force to really hurt a horse or cow with your bare hands.

However, I don't think it's acceptable to use physical force on an animal for no reason. Why were they doing it? Was the cow being aggressive during a procedure and they were disciplining it? Sometimes if a cow acts up, a smack or two will stop them so no one gets hurt (you AND them) - because cow's don't understand "leave it" commands The way you put it, it sounds like they were just going around hitting animals for no reason. That's bizarre. There has to be more to this story.

Anyone who smacks or pushes an animal *for no reason* should be fired, PERIOD.

But in some situations, if other forms of encouragement fail, giving a cow a firm tail twist to get them in the chute or giving a horse a whopp on the butt to get it moving is fine IMO...no different than tugging on a dog's leash. The smacking on the face in between the eyes isn't that bad, we have to do that all the time when we're working herds through chutes to make sure they don't get out/escape, pile up, overcrowd, get themselves hurt, etc.

I thought you were a pharmacy intern?

 

[almostglue]

I have noticed that the treatment of large animals is rougher than small animals, but I think the size of the animal needs to be considered. I don't think it's appropriate to just slap a large animal maliciously, but like WhtsThFrequency said, cows and horses are big animals and they don't respond to commands. Now I wasn't there and I know you saw what you saw, but if you're not familiar with large animals, perhaps you misunderstood the intent and intensity of the nurse's actions? Or maybe she's just a bad nurse and should be fired for mistreating the animals. Who knows.

I do have to say, I just graduated from UGA and on my barn rotations I didn't see any kind of behavior like that. Sure we may have slapped a horse on the butt to get it into the stocks, but nothing malicious for sure and perfectly within the bounds of appropriate actions (like pushing on a dog's butt to make him sit down or giving his collar a jerk (although behaviorists would disagree with the latter and that's a whole nother discussion)). Hopefully things haven't changed that much since I left...

 

[HopefulAg]

Hitting for no reason is not acceptable.

Hitting to curb a behavior depends on the circumstances. Foals get thumps on the nose when they start nibbling, for instance. It's either that or have them do severe damage when they get larger.

 

[LVT2DVM]

shaq786...as a current UGA student, I have been informed that our hospital BULL (Norman) does have a history of being very aggressive towards the staff. While I personally agree that physical aggression towards an animal should never be acceptable, I believe there is a specific reason for this type of "restraint" in this animal and in this situation.
However, since I dont know specifically why, I would suggest during an appropriate time (ie not while the staff is trying to do something else) you respectively inquire about why that method of restraint is used. That may clear things up.
UGA-CVM does not tolerate abusive treatment of any animal, under any circumstances. I would hope no veterinary teaching hospital ever would.

 

[breenie]

Hitting for no reason is not acceptable.

Hitting to curb a behavior depends on the circumstances. Foals get thumps on the nose when they start nibbling, for instance. It's either that or have them do severe damage when they get larger.

I knew folks that would tug gently on the whiskers when a foal got nippy. Getting your whiskers pinched is unpleasant enough to usually dissuade eating of fingers.

Like stated, beating up animals is never appropriate. First day I worked a dairy job, I had a cow come after me a bit and was head butting me. I didn't really know what to do, but a slap would have been enough to curb the behavior without being damaging to the cow. Horses seem to take slaps a lot more emotionally. I like the "threat" of force a bit more (ie, stomping your foot, wiggling your foot like you might be kicking) because they are fully capable of understanding body language and intent. Force isn't always necessary-- we're the smarter species, after all.