Our country vet Dr. Hans Christ

Today the blog is dedicated to a person who is very important for the farms in our valley: Our country vet Dr. Hans Christ. Always on the go quickly and smartly in his white doctor’s car, he stands by the farmers in problem cases, for vaccinations and inseminations. If you hear the honking in front of the house, it means quickly – children to the side – and up into the stable, Dr. Christ is here.

Dr. Hans Christ, born in 1958, is a true Viennese from Döbling and a doctor of veterinary medicine. He has lived for years in the beautiful Salzburg Gastein Valley and is completely absorbed in his profession, his love for animals, and the books he writes; in the meantime, he has published crime novels alongside humorous vet stories.

In his cheerful stories, he tells exceptionally funny and bizarre episodes from his everyday professional life. And there are many of them. A cow that ate women’s underwear or a parrot that became an alcoholic due to adverse circumstances.

Among the reviews on the internet, I was able to find the following feedback:

For everyone who loves animals and has a sense of humor, a very entertaining, enjoyable read, in which thoughtful moments also have their place. Dr. Christ, the author, describes his everyday professional life as a country vet in the province of Salzburg and, alongside the many animal and interpersonal contacts described with a great sense of ironic humor, there are also critical approaches regarding pure conventional medicine and various bureaucratic hurdles in the everyday life of a veterinarian. Everyday scenes from Dr. Christ’s private life and his student days also appear and round off this wonderful read.

After my question about when he wanted to become a vet, a smile came over his mustache and the answer came promptly “already at 5 years old”. However, he originally wanted to become a small animal surgeon; through a job in Styria, however, the love for large animals and the interest in alternative medicine grew. As the organic farming representative of the Chamber of Veterinarians, he noticed that one “gets stuck” with conventional medicine for certain things and he was dissatisfied with some results in the treatment of animals. Through an acquaintance with a professional colleague, self-study, and many training courses, he noticed that certain treatments work very well as a supplement with homeopathy – the first success stories, he knows them instantly, “were the Apis globules, which the farmer of the treated cow then immediately tried out on himself as well.”

He is a specialist in homeopathy and acupuncture. It can happen that a cow is prescribed inhalations or vinegar wraps, or for pus abscesses, you have to do hot potato wraps daily.

It often cannot be avoided that antibiotics must be prescribed, but as a supplement or for minor complaints, he works a lot with home remedies and homeopathy.

Dr. Christ is an excellent diagnostician; he also doesn’t mince his words when it comes to the fact that a treatment for an animal no longer “pays off” or that release for the animal would be the better option.

I would describe our vet as impulsive, entertaining, and very animal-loving. Since our vet is always in a great hurry, it can also happen that every now and then a farm cat takes a seat in his car and after half an hour a phone call from his wife follows – “please pick up your cat, she is in my husband’s car and he has no time to bring her back himself”…

His special love is for dogs; if his car comes “racing” around the corner, as can often be the case with Dr. Christ, our Nelly already tears off to the stable and pants and jumps on him with joy. So he surely knows every farm dog by name and the dogs know the vet too. No matter how big the emergency, there’s always a treat from the car for the dog and a few strokes must not be missing either.

Dr. Christ sees himself as a connoisseur who likes good and funny conversations in the tavern; he likes to read and write in his spare time and enjoys watching exciting soccer matches. He thinks nothing of the much bureaucracy; he is a practitioner who wants to act quickly and unbureaucratically, and the welfare of the animals is his top priority.

I also believe that there are not many veterinarians who take the time and drive to farms where there is not currently an emergency or an insemination to be done in the stable, but where illness or suffering has found its way into the people’s lives. So I know from my own experience and from several other farms too, that in cases of human suffering and strokes of fate, he often came into the farmhouse and asked about the people and thus helped carry the suffering a bit psychologically. That makes him human and shows strength. Dr. Christ liked Willi, our farmhand, particularly well and after he learned of his illness and his treatments, he visited him and brought him a crate of beer and entertained him with a few funny episodes from his everyday life. One does not forget such small gestures; especially in today’s times, humanity has often fallen by the wayside and only the schilling counts (insiders know why I write that) – ahh I mean Euro.

The Gastein farming community is very happy to have such a vet with us in the valley. And anyone who wants to take a bit of farm life home from their own vacation should take a look at the books.

Your farmer Katharina