Pfizer Summer Experience

By Valerie Koenig

Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine

Class of 2013

As someone who grew up in suburban Massachusetts, I never thought that I would get the opportunity to do much with cows. But between my undergraduate experience and my employment on a local dairy farm, I have spent a lot of time getting to know, handling, and working with lots of cows. This summer, I got the opportunity to go on a one-month externship through Pfizer Animal Health to a town north of Madison, Wisconsin. It was a four-veterinarian, all dairy cattle medicine practice, two male vets and two female vets. Not only was it great to get different perspectives on food animal veterinary medicine from the men versus the women, but it was also great to get the advice and expertise of the newer versus the not-so-new graduates. The bulk of what we did was the usual weekly, or biweekly, ‘programs’ (i.e. herd checks) at each of the various client farms, but there was so much more than that. Lucky for me, they ended up being quite busy in the weeks I was there so I was fortunate enough to see a variety of different things and get hands-on experience. I got to help with many DA surgeries, I got plenty of practice pulling calves when called out for dystocia problems, I palpated hundreds of cows and really got a good base for that skill, my calf blood sampling skills improved dramatically, I got to help with a few uterine prolapses and cecal torsion surgeries, and I treated many cows for milk fever, ketosis, and acute toxic mastitis.

            Overall, this was an incredibly valuable experience for me, both as a future veterinarian and as an employee of a farm. Also, it was great to experience another region of dairies other than New England. Not that dairy farming is that much different from region to region, but there are many more farms out in the Midwest, comparatively to New England, and the infrastructure present to support that many farms is much more developed and significant. Having worked at a few farms before, my experience was mainly limited to milking, handling, and a minor amount of medical care. On this externship, my medical skills were greatly improved and for that reason alone, this externship was invaluable. Going into this externship I was already considering being a dairy practitioner and this experience did nothing but to further that desire. Though at times it can be frustrating and tiring, I love the way it integrates medicine with agriculture, improving production, and the food industry. This externship was a great opportunity and I was very glad I was able to do it.