The history of veterinary science — from farrier to animal clinic

The veterinary nurse works today in a profession with high expertise: hygiene, asepsis, anesthesia monitoring, laboratory tests and record keeping. But most of this expertise is relatively new. To understand the profession, you must follow two paths: on the one hand the long history of veterinary medicine, on the other the far younger history of the veterinary nurse itself.

§When veterinarian meant horse doctor

Before there were proper veterinarians, sick animals were treated by those who already worked with animals: herders, farmers, blacksmiths, and so-called wise men and women. Treatment was based on experience, folk remedies, and superstition, and people knew neither bacteria, transmission routes, nor anesthesia. When cattle plague and other contagious diseases ravaged, entire herds could die because people didn't understand how disease spread.

The need for proper veterinarians was closely linked to the horse. The horse was the era's most important working and war animal, and large numbers of horses were lost to disease — not least in war. This was one of the direct reasons why systematic training of veterinarians began.

§The veterinary school in 1773 — the foundation of the profession

The world's first true veterinary school opened in Lyon, France in the mid-1700s, and the idea spread from there. In Denmark, the doctor and veterinarian Peter Christian Abildgaard established the veterinary school on Christianshavn in 1773 — at the request of Struensee. It was only the fifth veterinary school in the world and quickly became a professionally recognized institution, also abroad.

Initially the school was private but the state took it over shortly after. In 1858 veterinary education became part of the new Agricultural University on Frederiksberg and since then veterinarians in Denmark have been academically trained. This laid the foundation for a scientific veterinary medicine — built on anatomy physiology and later microbiology instead of household tips.

§The great shifts in veterinary science

Throughout the 1800s and 1900s, the treatment of animals changed fundamentally — in step with human medicine. The discovery of bacteria and understanding of transmission routes made hygiene and infection prevention meaningful; the development of anaesthesia made surgery possible without terrible suffering; and the introduction of aseptic technique reduced infections after procedures. At the same time, the focus gradually shifted: where the trade used to deal with agriculture's useful animals, treatment of the family's pet and companion animals grew into a large area in itself.

• 01Bacteriology Explained Why Hygiene and Clean Instruments Prevent Infection.
• 02Anaesthesia and later modern anaesthesia made pain-free operations possible.
• 03Aseptic technique — sterile equipment and sterile field — became standard in surgery.
• 04X-ray, laboratory analyses and later advanced equipment improved diagnostics.
• 05Focus expanded from livestock to also pets with clinics and animal hospitals as the setting.

§The veterinary nurse — a young profession

The veterinary nursing assistant profession itself is far younger than veterinary medicine. As animal clinics and animal hospitals grew the veterinarian needed qualified help to receive patients assist with operations take samples and care for admitted animals. Initially this help was trained informally at the individual clinic.

In Denmark the ornithologist Niels Kjærbølling opened a zoological garden in Frederiksberg Have in 1859 — initially a small menagerie on a modest area. It became the foundation for Copenhagen Zoo. Records from the late 1800s show that the garden in addition to musicians and an animal tamer also had employed actual animal handlers. The profession was taking shape but animals still lived in relatively narrow cages with bars.

§The craft today.

The modern veterinary nurse is the link between veterinarian, patient and owner. She performs hand hygiene and aseptic work, monitors anaesthetized patients, takes and handles samples, dispenses medication to prescription and records everything. It is an expertise built on several centuries of development in veterinary medicine — but has only really become an independent, formalized profession within recent generations.

“Veterinary medicine is old but the modern clinic is young. The veterinary nurse is the result of animal care becoming a profession in itself — not just a helping hand.”