Observe, describe, photograph: preparing a useful report for the veterinarian

This lesson is part of Farm health technician specialisation. It opens to every registered student, from free registration. Levels 1 to 5 and the tracks remain readable by everyone.

The veterinarian of the area receives dozens of messages every week saying "they are dying" or "they look strange". He almost never receives any saying "38 ruffled out of 200 observed in the western third, orange droppings with mucus 9 out of 20, rattles in 6 out of 50 listened to, pale comb 3 out of 3". The second message saves him a day and saves you birds. In level 9 you learned to examine a dead bird and fill in an observation sheet. This lesson trains the farm health technician to observe a live flock with method, to speak the exact language the veterinarian understands, to photograph so that the image is useful, and to write the fourteen-heading report at the scale of a three-house farm.

• ✓Observe a live flock with a method that gives numbers: zones, sample, counting
• ✓Describe with the exact vocabulary of the health technician, without concluding
• ✓Photograph and film according to a named protocol, at farm scale
• ✓Write the fourteen-heading report for one or several houses and prepare the veterinarian’s visit

1. Observing a live flock: the method that gives numbers
2. Describing: the language of the health technician
3. Photographing and filming: the farm protocol
4. The fourteen-heading report at farm scale
5. Preparing the veterinarian’s visit
6. Going further

• •Observe = six zones of 40 m² per house, 30 to 35 birds per zone (about 200), white card for 20 minutes in an affected zone and a normal one, five birds caught; every sign is counted, located, dated.
• •Describe = exact words without judgement or diagnosis (ruffled, open beak, orange droppings with mucus, pale comb); never the words that conclude (diarrhoea, coccidiosis, bronchitis); Observed, Orientation, Conclusion: none.
• •Photograph = the six rules of level 9 plus a file name house-day-date-series, an identical series per affected house, three context photos; the images go after the report.
• •The fourteen-heading report describes the whole farm in heading 2, repeats headings 3 to 10 per affected house, mentions the healthy houses in one line, and asks questions in heading 14.
• •Prepare the visit: registers and curves out, fresh birds in the cooler and sick birds isolated, washable table in the shade, labelled samples, clothing at the anteroom, order of visit with the suspect last, owner present.