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[Thisfox]

We've got an injured dog running around the fort. His owner is a werewarthog, and is walled up in a series of rooms to one side of the fort, with her own pick, and she is smoothing and decorating walls when she isn't digging her own rooms. Seeing as she is infected, she is not allowed out, and unable to attend to the dog.

Now, I wouldn't usually ask, but the dog is also a war veteran: The dog killed several werewarthogs, including the husband and children of his Master, when the fort went mad a few years back. Doggie has a mushed up chest and leg. There are plenty of doctors, and a well stocked hospital. If I could have it healed, I certainly would. But I'm guessing there's nothing I can do, right?

Interestingly, because Master is walled up, the doggie can't even be put in a particular room to get humanely put down, as no dorf is willing to grab him by the collar and drag him to the location. I'm in an "it's not my problem" type of situation. The poor flickering doggie has been wandering around the library for a few months (a series of rooms dug a year after Master got walled in, so definitely not places that smell of Master or anything). My current theory is that I can wait until it happens into a room near Master, wall it in, and then have Master burst through the wall to give doggie comfort. But will that mean doggie will die of starvation if I do that?

[PatrikLundell]

The only veterinarian knowledge dorfs have is a scholarly one, with no actual practice. Either animals heal by themselves or they eventually die (I once had some grazer injured by a were, and it took a lot of months for it to deteriorate and die). As far as I understand, you could use DFHack to heal it (I believe there are such commands).

Unless you've modded dogs to be grazers they don't need food. As far as I know you can't butcher pets, but it ought to be possible to pasture them (I use the damned cats that adopt dorfs for invader lookout services by locking them up in single tile rooms with a grate beneath to look into entrance tunnels).

Bricking the dog into a room and letting Master burst through the wall to comfort it will solve either the dog or Master problem when the Master turns, unless the Master bricks up the wall to separate her from the dog before turning after a brief reunion.

[Thisfox]

Interesting. In all this time, I always assumed dogs ate meat, the way cats eat vermin, and that some dorf was feeding them (not unlike the way sick dorfs get fed and watered).

I last played a few years ago, and at the time people were discussing whether doctors would soon be able to be trained by giving them sick animals to diagnose and heal, similar to the method of training doctors by repeatedly giving your dorfs small injuries. Evidently that possibility got shelved.

I realise the reunion would be brief, but it would be nice to allow them to see each other. I might still manage that.

[GhostDwemer]

Interesting. In all this time, I always assumed dogs ate meat, the way cats eat vermin, and that some dorf was feeding them (not unlike the way sick dorfs get fed and watered).

Cat's don't actually eat vermin, Just as in real life, cats hunt vermin and then leave the corpse for you to find and dispose of. Cats kept walled off won't ever die from lack of food.

[Fleeting Frames]

I last played a few years ago, and at the time people were discussing whether doctors would soon be able to be trained by giving them sick animals to diagnose and heal, similar to the method of training doctors by repeatedly giving your dorfs small injuries. Evidently that possibility got shelved.

Dfhack for 43.05 has a plugin/script to do that, if you're interested.

[Skorpion]

I last played a few years ago, and at the time people were discussing whether doctors would soon be able to be trained by giving them sick animals to diagnose and heal, similar to the method of training doctors by repeatedly giving your dorfs small injuries. Evidently that possibility got shelved.

Presumably Toady thought of the player implications. And, namely, what they'd do to get all these sick and injured animals.
Otherwise, you don't train a doctor by making them a vet.

[Thisfox]

I last played a few years ago, and at the time people were discussing whether doctors would soon be able to be trained by giving them sick animals to diagnose and heal, similar to the method of training doctors by repeatedly giving your dorfs small injuries. Evidently that possibility got shelved.

Dfhack for 43.05 has a plugin/script to do that, if you're interested.

I fear I play vanilla, due to a lack of DF-hack knowledge, and a mac laptop as my gaming machine. Last I checked DF-hack wasn't really all that mac-oriented, and I've got a steep learning curve to deal with as it is.

[Urist McVoyager]

I last played a few years ago, and at the time people were discussing whether doctors would soon be able to be trained by giving them sick animals to diagnose and heal, similar to the method of training doctors by repeatedly giving your dorfs small injuries. Evidently that possibility got shelved.

Presumably Toady thought of the player implications. And, namely, what they'd do to get all these sick and injured animals.
Otherwise, you don't train a doctor by making them a vet.

The second point is the one that matters. I know from personal experience that you'd do the same things on dwarves to get the training ahead of time.

[Thisfox]

I last played a few years ago, and at the time people were discussing whether doctors would soon be able to be trained by giving them sick animals to diagnose and heal, similar to the method of training doctors by repeatedly giving your dorfs small injuries. Evidently that possibility got shelved.

Presumably Toady thought of the player implications. And, namely, what they'd do to get all these sick and injured animals.
Otherwise, you don't train a doctor by making them a vet.

The second point is the one that matters. I know from personal experience that you'd do the same things on dwarves to get the training ahead of time.

Well, I know I've trained dorf doctors and the military at the same time with marginally dangerous danger rooms, so I see the point, but honestly, vets make not bad field medics. Ask one. They know the basic anatomy, diagnosis, medicine and surgery which is useful for curing any large mammal, not just the non-sapient ones. We're not talking modern medicine here anyhow. Or do you consider a human to not be a mammal? Or a dorf, or an elf not a mammal, for that matter?

[mikekchar]

Well, I know I've trained dorf doctors and the military at the same time with marginally dangerous danger rooms, so I see the point, but honestly, vets make not bad field medics.

In many countries vets are licensed to practice medicine on humans.  Many places (every country I've every lived in -- which is a fair number), schooling for vets takes longer than for doctors.   I was really surprised when my friend, who is a vet, said that she could prescribe me medicine if I couldn't find a decent GP.