Veterinary

[Alonsua]

Hi there,

yesterday I started building a new organization (aka Millenials) which main goals are about ending the world hunger by using transgenic products. Since it is a subsidiary of another organization, I started giving this one primary contact skills like this:

Agribusiness! (14) (Products: Fish products, Flour and Grains, Fruit and vegetables, Herbs and Spices, Meat & Poultry, Nuts and seeds...)

Animal Handling (Bovidae, Phasianidae, Salmonidae and Suidae) (1x4), Driving (Heavy Wheeled) (1), Expert Skill (Hydrology) (2), Farming (1), Fishing (0.5), Freight Handling (1), Gardening (0.5), Geography (Physical) (2) and Veterinary (2)...

Only to realize that I did not know how the skill "Veterinary" is actually supposed to work. When "healing" humans, Biotech states clearly that you first go with a test of Diagnosis, then you can go all the way Electronics Operation (Medical) and/or Chemistry for a total maximum bonus of +4 and try Diagnosis again. Then you can go to Surgery in order to operate or Physician to prescribe treatment... How do you act when it comes to Veterinary though? Is the skill "Veterinary" supposed to cover all of it? Is it just the "Physician" skill for animals?

Thanks.

Ps. Does anybody know which skill would cover processing food, such as Smoked/Marinated/Dried fish?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Alonsua

Ps. Does anybody know which skill would cover processing food, such as Smoked/Marinated/Dried fish?

That's a straight-up use of Cooking.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Bruno

That's a straight-up use of Cooking.

Some Times, It also Falls under Housekeeping and Survival as well.

Smoked and Dried fish is basic "Storage" of Fish. as such falls under those skills.

Cooking is Banquet Cooking, not day to day cooking [unless you the cook for the High Hall] Most Marinated Fish dishes would fall under this as they were more about making Dried Fish more pleasant after being taken out of storage (and falls under the fancier aspects of the Cooking skill)

[Anders]

From looking at the skill, I'd say Veterinary is Physician for animals.

[Alonsua]

With a bit of luck and some help on the side I have come to the conclussion that processing food comes to Chemistry, with an optional specialty "Chemistry (Food)". Now there is still the question about Veterinary... Shall it be "Physician" for animals or cover all of the medical process?

Anders votes for the first answer, what do the rest of you think?

Thanks for answering :)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Some Times, It also Falls under Housekeeping and Survival as well.

Sure, I'm fine with that, but fore the more functional purposes.

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Smoked and Dried fish is basic "Storage" of Fish. as such falls under those skills.

However smoked and not dried fish is mostly a flavor enhancer; you can smoke fish in a kitchen in under 30 minutes. It's not the same as fish smoked for days as it dries, but it's not supposed to be.

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Cooking is Banquet Cooking, not day to day cooking [unless you the cook for the High Hall] Most Marinated Fish dishes would fall under this as they were more about making Dried Fish more pleasant after being taken out of storage (and falls under the fancier aspects of the Cooking skill)

Meat gets marinated to change the flavor and texture, not to rehydrate it. Rehydrating salted/dried meat certainly is a thing (vital!) but that's not "Marinating". Marinating starts with wet meat (which may have been rehydrated from dry meat but usually isn't) and uses acids and/or enzymes to change/break down protein bonds, as well as giving a chance for flavor-enhancers to penetrate the meat. Pineapple is commonly used because it tastes nice, is acidic, and comes with meat-tenderizing enzymes that it uses in self defense against herbivores (raw pineapple breaks down my mouth :P)

There's a number of fish dishes that use acidic marinades alone (usually citrus juice) to denature the proteins, rather than combining with heat. The technique is also applicable to land animals, but so under-used that I suspect there's a food safety issue.

[whswhs]

My opinion is that Veterinary is intended to substitute for all medical skills: Diagnosis, First Aid, Pharmacy, Physician, and Surgery. Most of these take physiology modifiers if you apply them to nonhumans, which are -5 for most normal animals; Veterinary avoids such modifiers, and in fact it defaults to both Physician and Surgery at -5, which exactly matches the physiology modifier. I'd also note that the default to Surgery suggests that you can use Veterinary to perform surgery on animals.

I might exempt Pharmacy from this argument; Veterinary doesn't default to it, and it doesn't take physiology modifiers, and in practice a lot of veterinary prescriptions can be filled at a human pharmacy—you just have to get a pill cutter to adjust the dose for smaller animals. I'd certainly allow the supportive technical skills like Electronics Operation to transfer over without penalty, though you might need someone with Animal Handling to help get the animal to cooperate. (Our third cat was designated an "aggressive patient" by our vets!)

[Anders]

Although there really should be a physiology modifier for Pharmacy as well. There are a lot of medicines that work differently on animals. Cats in particular are very sensitive to a lot of medicines (paracetamol, or tylenol, for instance, is extremely toxic to our feline friends.)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Anders

Although there really should be a physiology modifier for Pharmacy as well. There are a lot of medicines that work differently on animals. Cats in particular are very sensitive to a lot of medicines (paracetamol, or tylenol, for instance, is extremely toxic to our feline friends.)

Cats are particularly vulnerable because they're hypercarnivores. More omnivorous animals benefit from being able to process at least some plant toxins, so it's important for e.g. a dog to have somewhat more robust generic filtering in the liver and kidneys without organ damage. My geriatric cat is on a pain killer that is officially for dogs; use in cats is off-label but a long established standard practice - but at half dosage by weight compared to a dog. My 10-lb cat gets less than a teacup chihuahua because the chihuahua's dose would be lethal.

There's other places that indicate that Pharmacy should at least require a Biology or Veterinary check or something. Birds metabolisms are much more alien to humans than a dogs - parrots can be killed by eating avocado. Reptiles more so, fish even more so, and a pet tarantula basically doesn't get medical care because nobody knows what to do with it. The most advanced anaesthetic for spiders is putting them in a box filled with CO2 until they pass out (which blows my mind).

Even places that specialize in care for one specific reptile (e.g. alligator sanctuaries) can have a lot of trouble providing help beyond the basic "stitch up holes, set broken bones, pull broken teeth, keep away from other bullying animals" level of care - there just hasn't been a great amount of development of medications that you can give to an alligator.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Anders

Although there really should be a physiology modifier for Pharmacy as well. There are a lot of medicines that work differently on animals. Cats in particular are very sensitive to a lot of medicines (paracetamol, or tylenol, for instance, is extremely toxic to our feline friends.)

Yes, but you can approximate that by saying that Pharmacy is the skill of compounding medicines, and Physician/Veterinary is the skill of prescribing them.