Hunter's Story

Honorable Mention, Experiences
Stephanie Halley, Michigan State University

It started with an “alternate” letter to Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine.  I was so close, yet so far from vet school I could taste it.  To beef up my application, I wanted more clinical experience and spent a year working at Clare Animal Hospital.  Before work on a snowy in December of 2010 my dog, a 13 year old golden retriever named Hunter, became weak, tired, and had tacky gums.  I took him to work where my boss, Dr. Paul McNeilly, palpated his abdomen and said it didn’t look too promising.  We shaved him for an ultrasound to get a better look at what was going on.  The diagnosis: splenic hemangiosarcoma.  The prognosis was grave and Dr. McNeilly didn’t anticipate him lasting too much longer.  The reason he was so pale and weak was because he was bleeding internally.

I had fully accepted his fate, vowed to make Hunter comfortable in my home, and was overwhelmed with haunting thoughts that if I had gotten into vet school I may have been able to help him sooner.  Days later I received a letter from Michigan State.  On my second application I was accepted but the feeling was bittersweet with my dog still sick.  Five months later, in May of 2011, Hunter was still alive and in good spirits.  The doctors at the practice couldn’t believe it and thought he might be strong enough for surgery if the mass hadn’t metastasized.  After taking radiographs, checking his blood, and getting a second look with the ultrasound Dr. McNeilly made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse and set the stage for my veterinary career.  If I paid for supplies, we would both scrub in and he would teach me how to execute a splenectomy.  After all, I was officially going to be a veterinarian! 

The abdominal incision was 15 inches long.  Upon first glance, you couldn’t distinguish anything in the abdomen.  With careful maneuvers we squeezed out the 6.8lb tumor which was compressing the organs against the dorsal aspect of the abdomen.  I’d like to think I played an integral part in the surgery, but I was mainly awestruck at the precision and efficiency of Dr. McNeilly’s technique to tie off blood supply and free the spleen from the abdomen.  Working with living tissue was exhilarating.  I realized that I am going to be the one saving lives in the next four years was suddenly pumped for school.  When it was time to close, Dr. McNeilly completed a few sutures and explained what he was doing before handing me the needle holders and guiding me through the motions.  My first sutures were on the surgery that saved my dogs life, which was an amazing feeling.

Hunter recovered over the next few weeks and slowly gained his energy and endurance.  Now a year and a half later, Hunter will turn 15 years old on November 15^th, 2012 and is in great health.  He has been my inspiration to study even when I don’t think I can cram any more information in my brain and just want a break.  The experience of the surgery itself helped me immensely through anatomy lab and put me way ahead of most of my classmates for hands- on experience.  Hunter was my palpation specimen for first year anatomy, a great learning tool for radiology wet labs, and pet-therapy stress reliever when I’ve had a discouraging day at school.   I can’t imagine what my first year of vet school would have been like without him and he inspires me to push through the debt and trials of vet school.  Thank you, Dr. McNeilly, for everything you taught me at your practice and inspiring me to work harder through veterinary school so one day I can save someone else’s furry companion.