Operators To OWNERS

Welcome back OTO'ers!

Today IN OUR 50TH EPISODE!!.. we will discuss how we as veterinarians can have an impact during the COVID-19 crisis.  We will discuss how human medicine, government and social services have failed to clearly communicate the need AND reasons for current intervention strategies and the impacts this is having on their success.

We will also discuss how our unique training and experience as vets makes us ideal conduits for this education for our clients, producers and the general public.  

By combining our expertise in scientific translation and protocol delivery with our current marketing systems, such as flyers, social media, email and text sequences, we can begin to position ourselves at the forefront of this crisis as knowledge sources and educators.  By doing this we can add value and build our "know, like and trust" NOW which will pay dividends after we get through this pandemic!

Tune in today to learn how you can use you current marketing structures and medical skills to positively impact your clients and society TODAY!

Thanks for joining us for 50 episodes of veterinary professional development!  Carry on OTO'ers!

Drinking water intake of newborn dairy calves and its effects on feed intake, growth performance, health status, and nutrient digestibility

Full Article: https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(18)31058-0/fulltext

OTO Short Notes Available at otovets.com/cuttingedge

Article Overview:

Objective: Examine water and feed intake, growth performance, health status, and nutrient digestibility of Holstein heifer calves offered drinking water from birth (W0) as compared with those offered it at 17 d of age (W17), when fed an ad libitum volume of milk.

Location:  Iowa State University

Methods: Thirty Holstein heifer calves, balanced for parity of the dam, birth weight, and birth week, were randomly assigned (n = 15) to W0 or W17. Calves had free access to drinking water and a starter ration, offered in 2 separate buckets, until they were 70 d of age. Calves were bottle-fed with pasteurized whole milk 3× per day (2.0 kg/feeding until d 14, and 3.2 kg/feeding thereafter). Calves were partially weaned (33% of the milk allowance 1 × per day) at 42 d of age and completely weaned at 49 d of age. Drinking water intake, starter intake, milk intake, ambient temperature, and the fecal consistency were recorded daily. Body weight, hip height, hip width, heart girth, and body length were measured weekly. Blood (drawn from a jugular vein) was analyzed for hematocrit and haptoglobin concentrations at 14 d of age. On d 69 and 70, total fecal output of individual calves was measured and analyzed for chemical composition to determine apparent total-tract digestibility of nutrients

Outcomes: When offered from birth, newborn calves consumed 0.75 ± 0.05 kg/d water aside from the water they received from ad libitum milk allowance during the first 16 d. Once offered, W17 calves drank more water (59%) than W0 calves during the preweaning period. Starter intake of W0 and W17 calves was similar, but W0 calves consumed 0.285 kg/d more milk and tended to achieve greater body weight and heart girth compared with W17 calves during the preweaning period. Offering water from birth versus offering it later did not affect the number of days with diarrhea, intensity of diarrhea, or blood hematocrit and haptoglobin concentrations of preweaned calves. Despite a similar starter intake, W0 calves had greater hip height, body length, apparent total-tract digestibility of acid detergent fiber and neutral detergent fiber, and feed efficiency than W17 calves postweaning (50 to 70 d of age). When followed up to 5 mo of age, W0 calves had greater body weight than W17 calves. Provision of drinking water immediately after birth could improve growth and development of calves pre- and postweaning, potentially by stimulating rumen development, thus increasing nutrient availability.

You can view the short notes at otovets.com/cuttingedge.

The complete article can be found at https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(18)30792-6/fulltext.

The abstract of the article can be found below:

Objective: Describe veterinary practitioners' communication patterns during dairy herd health and production management farm visits.

Location:  Calgary, Canada. University of Calgary

Methods: Fourteen veterinarians in Alberta and Ontario, Canada, were provided with action cameras (Hero3 black edition; GoPro Inc., San Mateo, CA) and recorded 3 to 7 farm visits each. The resulting 70 audio-video recordings were analyzed using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. Additionally, demographic variables were obtained from study participants to investigate associations of these variables with communication patterns. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated for communication units, and multilevel negative binomial regression was used to compare communication patterns between demographic groups. Additionally, the relationship-centeredness of interactions was evaluated and compared between groups using linear regression models.

Outcomes: Communication patterns varied considerably among recordings of the same veterinarian interacting with different clients. However, most veterinary talk focused on farmer education, counseling, and building a relationship, whereas especially open-ended questions were rare. When discussion revolved around health issues of an individual animal, veterinarians used less social talk but focused more on biomedical information gathering. Veterinarians' age and sex and the length of the veterinarian–farmer relationship had limited association with communications; however, if the farmer and veterinarian were both male, the conversation was more relationship centered. Communication of veterinarians with previous communication training was very similar to that of those without training. Detailed description of veterinary practitioners' communication patterns on dairy farms will contribute to establishing the importance of communication as a clinical skill and is critical to identifying unique aspects of veterinary on-farm communication.

Today's Thoughts from the Truck episode will teach you step by step how to approach picking a topic, researching that topic, picking your target platforms and selecting your content type with the ultimate goal of creating your first content map.

I will talk about what a content map could look like as well as give you exact examples of the types of maps I utilize or would like to utilize in my veterinary practice and Operators to Owners.

So, tune in today to get real world examples not just guru talk on how to begin your own marketing campaign! 

Today's Thoughts from the Truck episode will begin our month long journey into veterinary practice marketing.

I'm going to talk about basic marketing techniques that can be used by a one year associate, established associate, new owner or seasoned veteran!

We will discuss the importance of having a marketing strategy and how it helps you develop your KLT or Know Like and Trust relationship with your clients.  

I will also give tips on resources for educating yourself on basic digital marketing techniques.  

Finally, we will wrap the episode up with an overview of the type and amount of content you could be seeking to generate for your business or personal veterinary brand!

Carry on OTO'ers!

Today’s Thoughts from the Truck episode titled will discuss the concerns and benefits of becoming a practice owner.  As a current practice owner I am concerned by the reported 5% drop in practice ownership that the AVMA reported in 2018.

This is why I asked the veterinary community two BIG questions this week:

1) What was the #1 reason you bought your veterinary practice.

AND

2) What was the #1 thing stopping you from buying into a veterinary practice?

Today, I will discuss the results of these discussions and talk about how you can avoid or address some of the concerns that come with practice ownership.  Join me today for a community driven episode aimed at educating you about the challenges and benefits of practice ownership!

The complete typed summary of this episode and article can be found at otovets.com/cuttingedge.

Find the full article at https://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.241.11.1514?journalCode=javma.

Effect of nutritional plane on health and performance in dairy calves after experimental infection with Cryptosporidium parvum

Published by Theresa L. Ollivett, Daryl V. Nydam, Thomas C. Linden, Dwight D. Bowman and Michael E. Van Amburgh

Objective: To evaluate the effect of nutritional plane on health and performance of dairy calves after infection with Cryptosporidium parvum.

Location:  Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. June 2008 to August 2008

Methods: Calves were assigned to a higher plane of nutrition (HPN; 0.30 Mcal intake energy/kg of metabolic body weight using a 28% protein-20% fat milk replacer) or conventional nutrition (CN; 0.13 Mcal intake energy/kg of metabolic body weight using a 20% protein-20% fat milk replacer). Calves were inoculated with C parvum oocysts at 3 days old. Fecal and health scores, oocyst counts, weight gain, dry matter intake, and hematologic variables were measured for 21 days. Data were analyzed with nonparametric and regression methods. Results-Body weight (day 1), serum total protein concentration (day 3), and PCV (day 3) were not different between groups. Oocyst shedding was not different between groups. The PCV was higher in the CN group (40%), compared with the HPN group (32%) at the end of the study. Fecal scores (FS) improved faster in the HPN group (median, -0.1 FS/feeding), compared with the CN group (median, -0.06 FS/feeding). The HPN calves had better average daily gain (ADG) than did CN calves (median, 433 g/d vs -48 g/d, respectively). Feed efficiency (ADG:dry matter intake ratio) was better for HPN calves than CN calves (median, 131.9 g/kg vs -31.4 g/kg).

Outcomes: After a pathogen challenge, calves maintained hydration, had faster resolution of diarrhea, grew faster, and converted feed with greater efficiency when fed a higher plane of nutrition.