A bit of an oddball question, but here goes: name some movies in which a veterinarian acts as a surrogate for a doctor. An example is the scene in The Getaway where they find a veterinarian as the only source of medical care out in the desert.

My theory is it borders closely on a cliché and it's been done many, many times.

Was it also in The Stand? I think I remember it being in the book, not sure about the miniseries.

One I know for sure is Three Fugitives with Nick Nolte and Martin Short

Didn't Robert DeNiro take one of his men to a vet after the street shootout in Heat?

Baby Boom

I haven't seen Terminator 3 since the "sneak preview" a night or two before it's theatrical release but doesn't John Connor hit up a vet clinic to get some meds?

Also, is it just me or is "veterinarian" the most mispronounced word of all time?

If you hear someone talk about checking a book out from the "libary" you'd look at them like a retard but I'm constantly hearing otherwise intelligent and educated people talk about "vetinarians".

A Day at the Races

Didn't this happen in Babel?

I'm pretty sure the OP meant military vet.

I'm pretty sure he didn't.

Yeah, if he was referring to "The Getaway" he's definitely referring to a veterinarian.

Why someone would want to seek out someone who saw military action for medical assistance is beyond me.

I think the word I'm looking for is "PWN3D".

My sister is a veterinary surgeon. She says that vets (at least surgeons) have the same training and knowledge about treating people as "human doctors" do, so the cliche is not really a stretch as far as storywriting goes.

Dr. Doolittle with Edie Murphy?

That's the inverse, where a human doctor does a veterinarian's job, which is actually far less believable.

Here I am, finishing up my second year of medical school and looking forward to years and years of working 80 hour weeks and I find out that a vet knows everything I do and can treat about 18 other species?

I'm out. They can have the malpractice insurance premiums and you can have their expertise treatment.

In K9 the opposite is done, with a dog going to a doctor...why do i remember that?

Doesn't this happen in Bird on a Wire? I could be wrong. It happens for sure in an episode of League of Gentlemen (Dr. Chinnery performs a sex change on Barbara), but that's not a movie.

Yes.

Oddly enough, The Stand is the first thing that popped into my head as well. Alas, I have only read the book (which definitely did feature a vet acting in this capacity) but have never seen the miniseries.

So, there are actually some people out there that are going to call you Dr. Phattyphat69?

Probably. But frankly even if it has only been done once or twice in film history, it would still be a cliche because the idea is so trite to begin with.

And yet I can easily imagine some current Hollywood screenwriters who would think it was quite a clever way to go with a scene.

Man On Fire

Prison Break anyone? (the tv show)

True. There is another version of this as well with Dentists instead, like in A life Less Ordinary. Not sure if the Dentist thing has been done more or not.

The thing is, what bothers me about it is that it is inconsequential in the story as to whether the person providing medical care was a doctor or a veterinarian. Like in all these movies, the misunderstood hero / outlaw-just-trying-to-get-his-kids-back lives in a world where it's easier to find a doctor than to find a clinic. And when he finds a vet, everything is OK. Maybe the screenwriter couldn't make it through pre-med and was mad at the world and wanted to show everyone that human doctor = hamster doctor. But the result is that there's never complications from the surgery or care and 90% of the time we never see the vet again. It's a stupid scene that never has any relevance.

The only time this has been done where there was more of a tie-in was the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer takes the dog pills for the cough. That at least had a deft touch.

I always thought the reason they used vets instead of doctors was because doctors have to report gunshot wounds.

Most of the time in these scenarios, they are being treated by vets because they're on the run, committed a crime, etc. and they can't run to doctors.

Of course when you think about it, it still just as silly. A vet would be just as likely to turn someone in as a regular doctor. and in most of these cliche cases the vet is a friend of someone on the run so not likely to turn them in. So changing the character to a doctor friend wouldn't matter.