Vets are a vital part of our meat and poultry industries

Sabi the former feral will be greatly missed, writes Ilona Hanne.

OPINION

April 27 this year was World Veterinary Day.

No, I hadn’t known that either, until I read an article in the NZ Herald’s Country section telling me exactly that.

Since the World Veterinary Association introduced the concept in 2001, World Veterinary Day has fallen on the last Saturday of April, with the aim of publicly celebrating and thanking vets throughout the world.

I hadn’t known there was a special day for vets and, ironically, I was at the vets twice in the week leading up to it.

The first time was to take one of our former-feral cats for a check-up becuase she was dramatically losing weight. The second time, the day before World Veterinary Day, was for the same cat to sadly make her final vet visit and for us to say our final goodbyes to her as she was put to sleep.

Why am I mentioning this in a column about vet appreciation day? Because, while our visit was undoubtedly sad, the care and kindness from the vets involved were certainly appreciated by the adults amongst us as well as the very sad 12-year-old.

It was undoubtedly a hard day for our family, but it must also have been hard for the vet, who had to not only put a clearly beloved pet to sleep, but be in a room packed with a lot of emotion. (Let’s politely all pretend it was only the 12-year-old who sobbed — needless to say, it wasn’t.)

Rewind two days to the first visit. A different vet who faced an equally hard job. First, telling people their beloved pet didn’t have long left to live and, second, advocating for that furry patient rather than the humans in the room.

I remember many years ago, my wonderful animal-loving granny being firmly told by her vet “we don’t keep animals alive for humans”.

In a nutshell, that’s what that first vet was telling us. And while I understood the theory, the practice was harder. Hence the 48-hour grace period to give the 12-year-old (and us) a chance to say goodbye. It would have been 24, but Anzac Day fell in between.

While both vet visits are burned into my memory and I am sure they weren’t easy for either vet, I’m also sure they each faced many other tough tasks and conversations on those days, and every day they go to work.

Their job is unquestionably tough, and then add to that the fact their job is so important. Animal health equates to human health — their work impacts the meat and poultry industry, and that also means their work has a direct impact on many people’s livelihoods.

We don’t have subsidised vet care, so they also face pressure in that space — animal owners sometimes have to make financial decisions on possible treatments, and it’s often the poor vet who has to explain why the options cost the amount they do. Note to pet owners: pet insurance is your friend.

Vets are also in short supply, especially in rural towns and districts, hence initiatives such as the voluntary bonding scheme to bring vets to places like Stratford. That means the vets we do have tend to feel under pressure to work long hours or extra days.

All this pressure must make it pretty tough for our vets, but that didn’t show in our recent visits.

Both vets gave all their time and care to us and, more importantly, Sabi the former feral. They gave us the information we needed, the time we needed, the tissues we needed and, in the case of the 12-year-old, a small keepsake vial of Sabi’s fur that he didn’t know he needed, but has slept with by his bed every day since.

So to all vets everywhere, thank you. You deserve a day to be celebrated by all of us, whether we are pet owners or farmers, whether it’s our cats you are caring for or the chickens behind the eggs we eat, we all rely on good vets doing good work.