Issue 3

Readily Available for Follow-Up

The definition of "readily available for follow-up" under AMDUCA has the potential for a wide variety of interpretations. Under DBP, the recommendations to address this definition include the following:

• The dairy operator can expect to call the practice phone number 24 hours a day and be contacted by phone by a licensed veterinarian who can discuss the problem.
• In a multiple practitioner practice, this would be whoever is on-call during night or weekend hours or the prescribing veterinarian during regular clinic hours.
• In the case of a solo practitioner, arrangements would need to be made for another veterinarian to take calls if the regular practitioner is not available.
• For acute medical conditions (e.g. anaphylaxis), it is often not reasonable to expect that the prescribing veterinarian/practice can attend to the individual animal in time to make a difference in the outcome. For this reason, the prescribing veterinarian may take the prudent course and prescribe a small quantity of emergency drugs (e.g. epinephrine, antihistamines, or steroids) to be stored at the dairy and used following telephone consultation with the veterinarian.