Helping cattle is a muddy, bloody, poopy business, one vet says with a chuckle.
“You don’t realize it until you’re at the checkout line at the grocery store,” says Airdrie cow-beef veterinarian Cody Creelman.
The vet goes out to treat cows and beef, with the vast majority of the visits in Airdrie, Cochrane, Hanna and the Red Deer area.
But today, after eight years in the profession, the veterinarian is known for more than just practising his craft.
He uploads his day-to-day veterinarian activity on YouTube, giving his viewers a peek of what he does for a living.
Just like any other cattle vet, Creelman goes out to look at and treat cows, but he carries along a camera or a GoPro.
“It’s to capture everything I’m doing, so it’s very messy and quick, because first and foremost, I’m a veterinarian,” he said.
Then he makes sure to take the time to provide a synopsis to let his viewers know what happened, the prognosis and the pharmaceuticals he used.
“Then I take the footage, and once my family goes to bed at night, then I sit there in front of my laptop and put together a story.”
That has resulted in 333 videos as of Wednesday, titled “calf resuscitation,” “this thing stinks to high heaven” and “crazy eye surgery,” among hundreds of others.
The 34-year-old said videos that deal with injuries, pregnancies, calving or orthopedics can be graphic.
“There is certainly a graphic aspect to medicine in general. Doesn’t matter if it’s animal or human medicine … but that is my life and I want to be transparent about animal agriculture and veterinary medicine.
“And sometimes there’s poop, and sometimes there’s blood, and sometimes there’s puss, and that’s just part of the job.”
His social media journey started when Creelman decided he wanted to grow his business and decided to dive into digital marketing. Around 2015, he started uploading vlogs on YouTube and Facebook.
Today, the veterinarian has more than 40,000 subscribers on YouTube. Together on YouTube and Facebook, he has 20 million views from Canada, the U.S., Scotland, Australia and Budapest, among other places.
His viewers include farmers and the cattle community who enjoy the educational component. Then there are veterinarian students who learn more about the industry through Creelman’s eyes, as well as the general public, who enjoy his contributions.
The cow doctor also sells merchandise with a silhouette-style logo of a veterinarian conducting a rectal palpation on a cow.
mamta.lulla@reddeeradvocate.com
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