Sheep Rock, LLC: Veterinary Consulting

14/04/2025

Screenshot these pics in case of emergency if you own livestock in CT! You do not need a VCPR (established relationship with me) to get emergency services after hours or on the weekends. However, you DO need to wait if my regular clients, or clients referred by my neighboring practices, need me first. Please read carefully because I can do a lot of things, but I won’t do all of the things! Read now, save time, and be organized with your farm’s emergency plans. This represents a very slight change from the January ‘25 pinned post so I’m posting anew just in case.

14/03/2025

Coming off the heels of a super intense week, I’m tired and I’ve got no educational stories for you, no inspirational poster quotes, no PSAs, no sales pitches, and no hills to die on. All I’ve got, happens to be all I want, which is this view and a big old jug of iced tea. Happy Friday

12/03/2025

Located in Roxbury, we are a mixed animal veterinary practice serving greater Litchfield County, Connecticut.

28/02/2025

Does avian flu have your farming Facebook groups in emotional tatters? Do you find yourself confused by rabies vaccination in goats year after year? Does lambing and kidding season always leave you with infectious disease questions and 47 different answers? Bring your homestead planning questions, your 4-H kids, your commodity production concerns, and your favorite chicken to this town hall style zoom meeting. I’m a private practice owner with poultry and livestock experience, state and federal experience, my own farm, and my own opinions, and id like to clear some things up.

28/01/2025

Check out this special drop we rushed out just for you on bird flu, HPAI, H5N1, some basic virology ins and out, what you need to know about bird flu if you are a cat owner, a chicken owner, a cattle owner. We answered listener questions and tried to cover as much as possible. Remember I’m also putting out a minimum of one video a week with information. This is available on any podcast app. I was fresh off the norovirus when we recorded and said two incorrect things- can you find them?

Surprise! Season 3 Preseason Episode dropping….now! It’s an important one, and for us to say an episode is important, that must mean it’s super important.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vet-med-for-idiots-by-idiots/id1734510582?i=1000685892380

https://linktr.ee/vetmedforidiotsbyidiots

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vet-med-for-idiots-by-idiots/id1734510582

https://open.spotify.com/show/2Igg9VRX7JCspWObpc7Jxm

https://linktr.ee/vetmedforidiotsbyidiots



https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/animal-health-and-welfare/animal-health/avian-influenza/avian-influenza-virus-type-h5n1-us-dairy-cattle

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/commercial-backyard-flocks

There was one specific to h5n1 that the cdc was running but due to an executive order updates were halted to that webpage

I implore you to look into your state’s Department of Ag and Dept of Public Health for more information and state specific actions.

21/01/2025

In the last few days since CT reported their first H5N1 case I have been calling and taking calls, answering questions and helping folks polish up their plans. I even recorded a podcast ep fielding listener questions (more on that later) but the one consistent thing I get asked in every conversation is “so how are you going to manage going from place to place?” The early 2024 epidemiology study of H5N1 in Michigan identified that visitors to a premises pose the largest risk to bringing the virus onto the farm. Whether that’s the milk truck, the neighbor, the feed delivery, an employee who works here and also works there, or yes, the vet - truck tires and footwear from farm to farm are the culprits. Here are my plans and it’s nothing new or crazy, just common sense and discipline. My biggest worry is that I stop at a lot of farm stores on my routes to grab chocolate milk and for now, sadly, I need to cut that out.

09/01/2025

Tonight, let's chat. I have a bunch of information and I'm ready to help you figure out what it all means for you.

What does it mean if the vaccine isn’t approved for a certain species? What is a rabies license or a certificate? What happens if an unvaccinated farm animal bites a member of the general public? Is rabies prevalent in Connecticut? How often does an animal like a cow get rabies? What the heck does any of this mean to you? Let’s figure it out.

07/01/2025

If you own livestock in CT, or even NY or MA, screenshot these pics in case of emergency. You do NOT need a VCPR (established relationship with me) to get emergency services after hours or on the weekends, but you WILL need to wait if my regular clients or clients referred by my neighboring practices need me first. Please read carefully because I can do a lot of things but I can’t do all things! Read now, save time and be organized for later!

18/12/2024

What does it mean if the vaccine isn’t approved for a certain species? What is a rabies license or a certificate? What happens if an unvaccinated farm animal bites a member of the general public? Is rabies prevalent in Connecticut? How often does an animal like a cow get rabies? What the heck does any of this mean to you? Let’s figure it out.

12/11/2024

Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue (TLAER) training by Dr. Rebecca Husted in Morrisville NY hosted by the Cornell Cooperative Extension. I have waited two years for this course and it fully lived up to the hype. The course participants included several veterinarians and veterinary technicians, a state trooper, a few farmers, many fire fighters, an Office of Emergency Management agent, a couple animal control officers, and I’m sure I’m missing some folks. Dr. Husted delivered us education on how to prevent and handle large animal disasters from barn fires, mud rescue, water rescue, tractor trailer accidents, entrapments, and more. From incident reporting and response, personnel command and management, scene procedure, extrication and removal, this course satisfies National Fire Protection Association 2500 Ch 9. And thanks to Dr. Husted’s range of credentials in animal physiology, military operations, veterinary technology, specialty rescue and heavy rescue, and being a fire fighter herself, we received a very elevated, highly technical, well-rounded education on all things Large Animal Emergency Rescue. .gimenez1 Tlaer, Incorporated

31/10/2024

The second time I joined Vet Med For Idiots By Idiots it was alongside Fernandez Veterinary Services’ Dr. Laura Fernandez. Along with Dr. Kent, us three doctors and our obligatory Johnson start to debrief what clinical year of vet school was like. Though we were careful not to identify schools or personnel, we hold absolutely zero punches about what we experienced in terms of treatment of students. This behind-the-scenes glimpse at student life in a veterinary teaching hospital is meant to be a foil from what you might be used to seeing on social media - the smiling white coat and stethoscope portraits in front of the school, the countryside calf photo a la James Herriot, the feel-good surgical case. If you want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly, this is for you.
As you listen, we ask for you to keep in mind that this was almost a decade ago and many student work policies have changed. Simply put, we are already old (not as old as Kent) and things are already different now.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vet-med-for-idiots-by-idiots/id1734510582?i=1000665964476

This week’s episode has been a requested one-listeners wanting to know what vet school, and especially clinical year, is like. It’s tough yet rewarding.

https://linktr.ee/vetmedforidiotsbyidiots

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vet-med-for-idiots-by-idiots/id1734510582

https://open.spotify.com/show/2Igg9VRX7JCspWObpc7Jxm

25/10/2024

On Tuesday 10/22/24, the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab, in conjunction with the UConn College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, as well as the UConn Office of Emergency Management hosted a Tabletop Exercise to test our state’s preparedness for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza cases in dairy cattle on our Connecticut farms. 60 personnel were invited, achieving representation for the CT Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, the CT Department of Agriculture, the USDA, the CT Department of Public Health, the area fire departments, police departments and EMS, the UConn Animal Care Department, and then there was little old me representing the private practice veterinarian in the field. This four hour exercise required full participation from every agency and person in the room as we ran through 3 situational modules. I still cannot believe I had a seat in this room and I was fully engaged in an effort to represent all of my private veterinary colleagues - to advocate for us as well as to gather information for us. The action throughout the room was impressive and the exercise was tough but I feel confident in our state’s ability to respond. My understanding of when each agency becomes involved at which points has deepened and while we hope we don’t necessarily need that information, emergency preparedness means staying current and knowing the key players.
I was happy to attend and thrilled to get right into the mix, lucky to even be invited.
What kind of questions does this bring up for you? Would you or your company want to do a tabletop exercise for an infectious disease outbreak? Or maybe a disaster response like a barn fire?

14/10/2024

Ok, so I have been keeping a secret for about half a year now. I have recorded three episodes with Vet Med For Idiots By Idiots and each one has been so much fun. Probably too much fun.
You can find the first episode we did together, dated July 1 2024, and titled "Large Animals, Large Pe..." on any podcast app. Please be warned, this show is half vet med, half knuckle-headed crass comedy, so this is NSFW (not safe for work) material.
However, if you can tolerate the low brow jokes, this episode is about what food animal medicine is, and what it is not, how I have practiced it and what I do when my career gets benched, and how I ended up where I am today. You also get a very immediate deep dive (uncomfortably deep) into what it would have been like to live in a house with Kent and I during vet school. We were roommates, and long story short, we have never been married.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/large-animals-large-pe/id1734510582?i=1000660850821

It’s VM4IBI after dark! Okay, so not really, but this episode, aimed at large animals, does talk about a few animals’ naughty bits. Dr Erin .rock.vet joins us and tells us about the fun, the dangers, and the life involved with being a large animal vet.



🐂

11/09/2024

News from the office of the state veterinarian:
First confirmed case of EEE in a domestic animal for 2024 in Connecticut

Food animal farmers:
Please be aware that turkeys, chickens, goats, sheep, camelids and people are also vulnerable and this year’s mosquito pressure is significantly higher than previous years.

HARTFORD, Conn. — The Connecticut Department of Agriculture reports the state’s first case this year of Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) in a domestic animal. EEE was detected in a 23-year-old unvaccinated gelded horse from Fairfield County. Upon examination the horse was exhibiting neurologica...

31/07/2024

Hey look it’s me!! Here’s my favorite part of this article:
“I feel invested in the agricultural businesses here and am continually impressed by the collaborative nature of the island’s farming community,” she added.

I love visiting the farm stores, like Morning Glory Farm, and seeing the whole line up of local cheeses are farms that I have been lucky enough to work alongside and support. My job is to help farmers dial in their animal health processes to make business more efficient and productive and everyone happier and healthier. Your success is my success.

Getting reliable health care for some large animals on Martha’s Vineyard has become so difficult that one veterinarian living in Connecticut has built up a significant list of clients, making routine trips to the Island. For the past year and a half, Dr. Erin Masur of Sheep Rock Veterinary Service...

08/06/2024

For the next few months, I will be stepping in as the interim state veterinarian while the Dept of Agriculture seeks a permanent replacement for Dr. Jane Lewis. I am confident that my clients, both the fellow doctors and the farmers, understand that this role takes priority as we prepare for H5N1 converging with New England’s show and fair season. Clients have been directly informed of changes in my availability and when I expect to resume normal availability. I’m grateful that we recognize that this is a necessary part of protecting Connecticut’s agricultural industry, and keeping our agriculture commodities safe, during a vulnerable time.

(HARTFORD, CT) – Agriculture Commissioner Bryan P. Hurlburt today announced that Dr. Erin Masur, DVM, has joined the Connecticut Department of Agriculture (CT DoAg) as interim State Veterinarian within the Bureau of Regulatory Services. Dr. Masur succeeds Dr. Jane Lewis, DVM, DACVPM who was appoin...