Tag Archives: veterinary

What to do With a Runaway Horse

Nationality: Irish

Occupation: Horse Race Track Manager

Residence: Waterford, Ireland

Language: English

Text:

“O’Flangagan had a racehorse, the fastest racehorse in Ireland. Every race, the horse won by at least ten lengths, it was never close. But everytime the horse came to the end of the race, instead of crossing the finishing post, it would veer off the side and run off into a field. O’Flanagan was going mental with this horse, so he went to see Seamus, the town vet, he said “I’ve got the fastest horse in Ireland, but every time he gets near the winning post he runs off to the side into a field and the next horse wins. What am I ever going to do?” Seamus said “I am familiar with that problem and I have the solution for you, you must get a small lump of lead and put it in the horse’s left ear, that will solve the problem, guaranteed.” O’Flanagan asked “How will I get the lump of lead in the horse’s ear?” to which the vet replied, “With a gun.”

Context: Before my aunt told me this story/joke, she spent a while nervously laughing and going on about how dark it is. She owns two horses and leases two more, and her job is entirely built around horse races. Her reluctance to share this story shows her admiration for horses, as well as their admiration across rural Ireland. She, along with many of her friends, have had to put down sick horses, and from our conversation it seemed like telling this story reminded her of those experiences and helped her laugh about such a difficult experience.

Analysis:

This joke reveals a lot about the way in which horses are viewed; they are both loved and thought of as precious, but also can be incredibly frustrating and uncooperative, and are still seen as animals below humans. The idea of killing a horse because it ran a race wrong is ridiculous, but the idea of needing to shoot a horse to put it down is not. Combining a ridiculous reason for putting a horse down with the somber act of actually putting it down brings a sense of humor into a difficult situation, similar to other dark humor. The fact that putting a horse down requires this type of humor to cope shows how horses are treasured and loved in this rural area in the South of Ireland.

Car “Breeds” are Just as Important as Animal Breeds

Nationality: United States
Age: 24
Occupation: Veterinary Technician
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/05/2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main story: 

With the current 2020 outbreak of COVID-19, veterinary technicians (hereby referred to as vet techs) are still slated to go to work as animal care is finally looked at as essential by most all of the U.S. However, nobody outside of the people who work in the clinics are allowed into the clinic. Vet techs are doing patient intakes over the phone and then asking the owner of the patient what car they are in so when they exit the clinic to the parking lot to get the animal to be taken inside and treated they know which car to go to. Because of this, vet techs are also having to learn what different car makes and models actually look like on top of everything else. So this meme is relatable across all veterinary clinics as this is the standardized procedure. But the other joke in the meme is the reference to car models as “breeds”, obviously dogs and cats and horses have breeds within their species that vet techs all know. And now they are having to memorize a whole other form of breed. 

Background: 

The informant who made the meme is a veterinary technician. They are almost attacked by animals every day they go to work. However, no matter how crazy it gets with the animals, they maintain they could not imagine any other job. 

Context: 

The informant is a coworker of mine, I am also a vet tech. They sent the meme in our clinic’s group chat. 

My thoughts: 

I found this very funny and highly relatable. As a vet tech myself, I find myself on the phone with clients and asking them what car they are in and only half of the time actually knowing what their car looks like. The other half of the time I am googling on the computer on my way out their car make and memorizing it quickly so I do not look completely out of touch and incompetent when I walk outside looking for the owner’s car.

If a cow is bloated and sick, you have it chew on a rope

Nationality: American
Age: 65
Occupation: Consultant
Residence: Claremont, California
Performance Date: March 2007
Primary Language: English

My informant was raised on a farm in northeast Nebraska and, in his youth, he was active in maintaining the farm with his parents.  One day, about 50 years ago, one of the family’s cows became sick.  The cow became bloated and my informant’s father had to explain that cows are too stupid to know when to stop eating.  This particular cow had eaten too much alfalfa.  This situation can be especially problematic if the alfalfa is really fresh because, according to other farmers, it expands as it is digested.  If nothing is done, there is a significant chance the cow will die.

It seemed likely to my informant that this remedy may have originated when someone gave their cow something to chew on to help it cope with the pain of the bloating, and the cow recovered.  My informant believes that chewing on the rope might ease the stomach and allow the cow to burp and let out some of the air that has it bloating.  Also, this method has proven effective, because if the cow is dumb enough to binge on alfalfa to a point where it endangers its own life, it can surely chew on a rope for hours on end.

At the time my informant first heard of this remedy, he did not know of a medicinal cure for the bloating.  Considering the cows had to be fed, housed, and cleaned, uncommon problems like bloating went without a definite cure and farmers had to ask each other what to do in these situations, and in this way, folk remedies spread from farm to farm.