MSPCA-Angell Pathology Externship

By: Jolene Carlson

Purdue University, Class of 2011

I participated in one three week off campus block at the Mission of Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA)—Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston, MA during June & July 2010.  MSPCA-Angell is a private, non-profit organization founded in 1868, making it second-oldest humane society in the United States.  Angell Animal Medical Center is a fast paced world class emergency hospital in Boston, MA.  I worked in the Pathology Department with Dr. Pam Mouser and Dr. Patty Ewing, both ACVP boarded pathologists.  During my time there, Angell clients were allowed to submit their deceased animals for a free educational necropsy performed by me with oversight from Dr. Mouser.

My activities consisted of reviewing the biopsy and cytology cases that came in daily.  The samples would come from cats, dogs, and some exotic pets such as birds.  I would be quizzed on tissue and cell identification, and would verbally describe the lesions on the submitted slides.  With complicated cases I would perform literature searches and look in various pathology textbooks to narrow down our diagnosis.  My one-on-one interactions with Dr. Mouser gave me the opportunity to understand how a pathologist approaches a case.  She taught me to look at the slides before reading the history of the patient to prevent approaching a case with preconceived notions. 

I wrote up gross necropsy and histopathology reports for the necropsies I performed.  My most interesting necropsies included a bird with vegetative endocarditis, a dog with an oligodendroglioma, a guinea pig with gastric dilatation volvulus, a puppy with a patent ductus arteriosus, and a dog with an adrenal cortical tumor.  All the cases we necropsied were then presented in pathology rounds to the Angell staff to encourage them to recommend necropsies to their clients, as well as encourage the residents and interns to rotate through the pathology department at Angell.

A slide box of various biopsy samples was also set out for me to work through on my own and then go over with Dr. Mouser.  Many of these samples were skin with various lesions including demodex, histiocytoma, mast cell tumors, dermatitis, trichoblastoma, dermoid cyst, and a number of other exciting cases I had never been exposed to.

I was also given opportunities to familiarize myself with the hospital.  I spent half a day with the histology technician learning how to process all types of samples that the hospital received in-house.  I watched how the tissues were processed beginning with grossing the biopsy tissues from a formalin jar to trimming them into the cassettes and ending with the staining and cover slipping of the slides.  On another day I participated in emergency medicine rounds and watched several dentistry procedures to give me a feel for how the hospital operated.

Dr. Mouser and Dr. Ewing were two of the best mentors I have ever worked with.  I love their passion and enthusiasm for pathology.  I cannot say enough about the time spent on the microscope with them; they were great at asking me to identify the disease processes and tumor types.  Dr. Mouser had this ability to eloquently describe the cells, almost giving each of them their own personality.

This experience was one of the best ways to see diagnostic pathology in action.  I could follow cases in a full circle.  My interaction with interns and residents gave me the ability to follow these cases beginning with the first fine needle aspirate then the biopsy, treatments, surgeries, and subsequent samples.  I would read the cytology with Dr. Ewing and we would have our top differentials for the case that I would review a few days later on histopathology.  This provided the whole picture of how rewarding this career can be as key team player aiding my colleagues and their clients in deciding the next step in the animal’s treatment by giving them an interpretation of a disease process or tumor type.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with these wonderful pathologists who truly have a unique position as mentors working in diagnostic pathology in a nonacademic facility.