How Vet Lists Work

Use PULSE or DC305Closed DairyComp 305 - VAS Dairy Management Software to create your vet lists with a special VETLIST command. For DC305 lists, adding the \K switch to the commands sends them to PULSE. The flexibility of the system allows you to schedule the vet lists to generate on days the veterinarian is scheduled to visit, or to generate and send them on an as-needed basis.

You can then process your lists in the mobile app and monitor them in the web version of PULSE. See the topics below to learn more:

Deciding which animals need to be presented to the veterinarian on herd check day can be a laborious task, particularly in large herds. Animals need to be grouped and examined for a variety of reasons — post calving checks, pregnancy checks, problem animals, and other reasons.

For these reasons, VAS has designed a unique setup of veterinary parameters in our DC305 Vet Lists feature so that you can decide which animals need to be checked and when, saving valuable time as well as increasing efficiency on the dairy. The vet list is a special form of worklist that is generated in DC305 and synced to PULSE, where you can then process it in the mobile app. See Complete Tasks (v1) or Complete Tasks (v2) for more information.

DC305 creates vet lists by going through the cowfile, checking each animal record with the vetcode conditions, and determining if that animal needs to be seen by the veterinarian. A list of animals is then established with a specific veterinary code and descriptive reason (VETCClosed Reason for vet check) for veterinary examination.

Using a "veterinary code table" as a guide, DC305 searches through the cowfile to determine if any of the veterinary codes should be put in the animal's record for an examination. The DC305 VETLIST command sets a code based on the conditions of each vetcode. For example, veterinary code FRSH will be set for all animals whose RPROClosed Reproductive code code (RCClosed Reproductive code) is 2 (FRESH) and DIMClosed Days in milk is greater than 25. Similarly, PREGClosed Pregnant will be for animals whose RC=4Closed Reproductive code = 4 (BRED). Used to identify animals that have been bred but not do not qualify for open or pregnant status. (BRED) and DSLHClosed Days since last heat is greater than 40. See Vetcodes for more information on the standard DC305 vetcodes.

NOTE: See the additional notes below about veterinary codes and how they are set in order within the table:
  1. It is important to remember that the DC305 VETLIST command sets and resets veterinary codes. An exception is VCClosed Vet code=1, which manually flags an animal for a veterinary check and is not reset.
  2. The DC305 VETLIST command sets veterinary codes by first looking at the animal's record and seeing if a veterinary code exists. If there is no veterinary code present, the program examines the items in the animal's record to see if they meet any of the conditions in the veterinary code table (such as days in milk and RC=2Closed Reproductive code = 2 (FRESH). Used to identify animals that have recently given birth ("fresh"). or FRESH), or in the command abbreviation (such as PENClosed Pen number=2-4).
  3. Three events can set veterinary codes directly; these are CHECK, which sets the veterinary code to 1 (CHCK), and either HEAT or BRED when they occur on a pregnant animal, which sets the code to 6 (ABT?Closed ABT? is the code for "Abort?" Often if a dairy sees a pregnant animal showing signs of heat they may breed her. When this breeding is entered in DairyComp the animal remains pregnant, but this flag is set so that the veterinarian can determine if she is still pregnant to the original breeding or if she has aborted and should be updated to another "bred status.").
  4. The veterinary code is set to the first one that meets the criteria in the numbered veterinary code table.

To the first point, extraneous veterinary codes will produce errors in the vet list if they are left uncorrected. This can happen if animals are missed or the DC305 VETLIST command is mistakenly run. It may become necessary to clear veterinary codes by entering VC=0 FOR VC>1 VC<>6 and other useful criteria for animals containing unwanted codes.

Basically, veterinary codes are left alone if they already exist. They will be in an animal's record if they were set by the events CHECK, BRED, or HEAT or if they are left there as rechecks or missed animals from the previous veterinary examination. If no code is present, the DC305 VETLIST command looks at the animal's record to try to meet the criteria set in the veterinary code table.

IMPORTANT: Only one veterinary code can be assigned to each animal, and this is done on a "first come, first served" basis. Either the code already exists or, using the veterinary code table, the first criteria met will determine the code for the animal. For example, let's say an animal has been bred 43 days ago and has a heat interval of 8 days. The veterinary code 3 (PREG) will be set in her record since PREG is above CYST in the veterinary code table.
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