Poultry Flock Medicine
Dr. Johnson prefers flock medicine over individual care. She is skilled at identifying husbandry problems that may impact flock health including parasites, diet, security against predators, environmental problems that may cause bumble foot, among others. In the event of disease outbreak Dr. Johnson can help identify the cause and suggest corrective measures. Dr. Johnson does not perform surgery on individual birds (apart from the occasional bumble foot) or provide medicine for individual birds. For birds with bumble foot, foot radiographs are available to determine the extent and nature of the wound.
Production Rabbits
Rabbits are similar to poultry in that excellent husbandry is integral to preventative care, which is more useful than medical care for individually sick rabbits. Dr. Johnson has compiled information from a variety of sources and wrote a manual on rabbit husbandry for some projects in rural, tropical Philippines. She has also worked to produce video tutorials for those projects. With this background, Dr. Johnson is skilled at identifying husbandry problems that impact rabbit health. She does not perform surgery on rabbits nor has she ever prescribed medicine for rabbits. However, she can and has provided acupuncture care for rabbits. The most common injury in rabbits is spinal dislocation, which usually paralyzes the rabbit. When the rabbit is immobile, radiographs for diagnosis are an option with Dr. Johnson’s large animal equipment.
Dog & Cat Consultations
Dr. Johnson does general medicine for many livestock species, but NOT dogs and cats. While she is willing to consult with livestock clients about small animal problems, she will not treat small animal problems. The only small animal vaccine that she carries is canine Lyme! She does NOT carry other vaccines, tests, or prescription medications for cats/dogs. All dog/cat owners are strongly recommended to visit a small animal veterinarian at least annually for routine care.
As of 2026, Dr. Johnson will also provide acupuncture care for dogs and cats. Working towards certification with Chi University, Dr. Johnson has passed all the required exams and just needs to submit written case logs at this point. The Chi University course bases acupuncture in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine. As such, any acupuncture session for any animal will include pattern diagnosis, which is different from, but aided by Western medicine that is only provided by your routine small animal veterinarian.
Finally, Dr. Johnson recognizes the difficulty of making end-of-life decisions about pets. She can assess the extent of pain exhibited by a pet in the owner’s home and discuss the challenges of nursing an elderly or sick animal. As a consultant she will charge her normal hourly rate for these serious conversations and in-home assessments. There will also be a house call fee, and if it’s last-minute, an emergency fee. With the exception of acupuncture, Dr. Johnson does NOT provide palliative care, but she may be able to help the owner follow instructions provided by a small animal veterinarian. Dr. Johnson does offer in-home euthanasia for cats and dogs, but the owner must have a disposal plan ready (either burial or cremation).
