Digital Art

Look at these amazing digital art pieces submitted by Maegha Singh from UC Davis! Thanks for sharing, Maegha!

Up Close and Personal

Shout out to Elvina Yau from Cornell University for these amazing photographs!

A Growling Lion

A Coalition of Cheetahs

Dik-Dik at Dusk

"If you hear hoofbeats, don’t immediately think zebras!"

Have a laugh with Lili Becktell from Cornell University… I think we all have been there!

I enthusiastically began the summer by diving headfirst into a series of equine externships all over the USA.  At my second externship of the summer, I was working with a clinic that serviced mainly upper-level hunter/jumper clientele. This particular day, we were performing our weekly visit to a large show barn in the area, where on any given day the veterinarians would evaluate and perform joint injections for up to 30 horses.  One of the clinic owners, the current intern, the barn owner, and I were watching horses go when the next patient arrived: an unassuming grey mare that was very visibly lame. I was very nervous and wanted to make a good impression, so I began to note in my head all of the things I was seeing (Namely: “OK—the horse is lame—check.”). The intern began her physical, at which point I was asked to retrieve the hoof testers from the truck. I ran quickly across the property and back only to arrive, winded, to the sight of the two veterinarians and the barn owner impassively standing in a line and observing me.

           “Lili, why don’t you take a look at that mare and tell me what’s causing her lameness?” encouraged the head veterinarian.

           I immediately wondered if the jog across the farm in the heat hadn’t caused me to black out somewhere, and when they inevitably found my body and revived me I’d be babbling something about being asked to evaluate a lameness with only two years of vet school under my belt. When the expectant silence didn’t go away (and no one came to splash water on me), I realized that this was reality. In front of everyone, I, Lili Becktell, was being asked to evaluate someone’s lame horse. Yikes.

           Swallowing my fear, I performed what may well have been the most beautiful, thorough, graceful musculoskeletal exam of my life. I imagined angels singing, birds chirping, my professors (dressed in togas) descending from Cornell-colored clouds, holding OSCE clipboards, praising me. Except—I couldn’t find a darn thing wrong with the horse. Not one. I prodded, poked, shifted her weight, palpated, checked all the feet, and finally looked up at the head vet, stumped.

           “I’m sorry, but I just don’t know what’s going on. She doesn’t seem sore anywhere,” I said, eyeing the horse. She eyed me back, annoyed to be out of her stall.

           The head veterinarian smiled kindly, put his hand on my shoulder, and pointed to the foot I’d just put down.

           “Ah, yes, well. She’s missing a shoe.”

           And that, everyone, is how I learned the old veterinary adage: “If you hear hoofbeats, don’t immediately think zebras.” Unless, of course, the zebras are missing a shoe.

Belize Zoo Experience

Laci Taylor, Cornell University

This summer I had the opportunity to participate in a one-week experience at the Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center through a course at Cornell called International Experience in Wildlife Health and Conservation. The course is a partnership with Cornell and the Belize Zoo in Central America. As an aspiring wildlife veterinarian, I found the course to be highly rewarding as it was unlike any other offered in the core veterinary curriculum. 

The Belize Zoo was started in 1983 by Sharon Matola to educate the people of Belize and tourists alike. One of the most interesting aspects of the Belize Zoo is that the entirety of its animals arrive as orphans or rescues and all of its animals are native species, many of which are at risk for extinction. Through educational programming, the zoo aims to dispel some of the negative stereotypes and myths engrained in Belizean culture that cause the public to intentionally harm or kill animals. One such myth is that the sighting of certain species of owls means that death is coming for someone close. The educational component of the zoo ultimately contributes to the preservation of many local endangered species populations.

While at the zoo, I worked with a wide variety of species ranging from spider monkeys to jaguars. Alongside some of Cornell’s veterinary faculty and the Belizean zookeepers, I was able to attend lectures, practice physical exam and clinical skills, take and analyze lab samples, as well as observe and assist in anesthesia and dentistry procedures. In just one week, I learned to insert my first catheter, participated in a dental extraction and gave preventative vaccines to a jaguar, ran diagnostic testing and bloodwork on a howler monkey and performed an ultrasound on a puma, amongst many other wonderful clinical experiences! One of my most memorable experiences was assisting in the dental procedure on one of the zoo’s jaguars. Before I wanted to be a veterinarian, I wanted to be a dentist, so this was an especially impactful opportunity. As a rising second year, I hadn’t yet learned about dentistry in the curriculum so assisting was a great hands-on introduction. During the procedure I learned about simple vs surgical extraction. The extraction on the jaguar was a surgical extraction which meant that the removal of the tooth required creation and elevation of a flap, and removal of bone. I watched the dentistry resident use many different dental surgery tools to remove the periodontal ligament from the tooth and I was able to loosen the last bit of periodontal ligament, ultimately “delivering”, or removing, the tooth!

When we weren’t working in the Belize Zoo Veterinary Clinic, the team immersed itself in the history, culture and traditions of Belize. One such experience was a trip to Xunantunich, an ancient Maya archeological site in Western Belize consisting of four major architectural groups. Additionally, we traveled to San Ignacio, Belize to a marketplace where farmers, traders and vendors from all walks of Belizean life gather. 

My desire to make a global impact as a wildlife veterinarian drew me to this opportunity and participating only reaffirmed this desire. The course at the Belize Zoo allowed both students and faculty to broaden their veterinary experiences by providing veterinary care to zoo animals all while learning about Belize’s conservation efforts. It is a course I highly recommend!

AVMA Government Relations Student Externship Blog

Check out this blog post from Michael Dupor, University of Wisconsin, sharing his experience completing the AVMA Government Relations Student Externship Program!

If you’re like most Americans, you probably think of Washington D.C. with some mixture of frustration, disgust, exasperation, worry and resentment. For this bright-eyed veterinary student/policy nerd, however, Washington D.C. represented a one-of-a-kind opportunity. An externship where I could understand the process and meet the people that shape policy in our country, and to help give veterinarians a voice on Capitol Hill.

I am in my fourth year at the University of Wisconsin, on a food animal track. I plan to enter food animal practice after graduation. Given that, it may seem odd that I decided to take a break from my busy schedule of palpating and cutting DAs in rural Wisconsin to spend a month in a suit and tie in Washington DC. My interest in this externship was piqued by a lifelong passion for public affairs and policy, and specifically a desire to learn more about agricultural policy.

I learned a ton about policy during this externship. Specifically, I spent time taking notes in Congressional hearings, reading proposed legislation and appropriations requests, meeting with members of Congress and their staffs, and attending policy seminars and panel discussions. I also had the chance to sit in on several AVMA committee meetings. There, practicing veterinarians from across the country and a variety of fields debated what positions the AVMA should take on upcoming legislation, with topics ranging from pesticide use to lab animal welfare to student loan debt. 

I spent a lot of time discussing the shortage of rural veterinarians and encouraging support for programs to strengthen the Veterinary Medical Loan Repayment Program. The program helps food animal veterinarians working in underserved rural areas pay down debt, and, incidentally, is a program I am hoping to take advantage of. I enjoyed the opportunity to meet with several of my state’s legislators and other farm-state representatives to discuss the importance of veterinarians to a robust rural economy.

I also had the chance to meet veterinarians in a wide variety of careers. Members of Congress, colonels, lobbyists, researchers, administrators, policy analysts, public health workers, disease investigators and trade experts are just a few of the roles that veterinarians working in public practice can fill. It was fascinating to see the doors that a veterinary degree can open for you. Most of the people I met loved what they did and were thrilled to be able to share their stories with a curious student. One of the qualities that impressed me most about the politicians, scientists, policymakers and veterinarians that I met over the course of my externship was their commitment to service (yes, even the politicians). Most shared a desire to be a part of something bigger than themselves, to ensure that policy is based on good science, and to ensure that government is directed in a way that benefits all Americans.  

The other thing that stuck out to me was the different paths that they had followed to get to where they were. Some entered government right out of school, others transitioned after decades in practice, and some never left practice, preferring to work on policy as a volunteer. Nonetheless, all these veterinarians have realized the value of their experience and education in policymaking and the importance of our profession having a strong voice on Capitol Hill. What it really showed to me was that there are so many ways to be involved in shaping the decisions that affect the future of our profession and country, and that it is never too late to get started.

Given some of today’s heated partisan bickering, it is so easy to become jaded or just tune politics out. It is important to remember the countless clever, passionate, hard-working people who ignore politics and work tirelessly behind the scenes that make up our government. But it is also important to remember that our system of government places an incredible amount of faith and responsibility in its citizens. None of this works if people like you and me don’t step up and make our voices heard. We need more leaders with flexibility, animal and public health knowledge, and the ability to think independently and critically. As veterinarians, we are uniquely suited to fill that need, in non-profits, in community and professional organizations, and in government at all levels. I encourage everyone reading this to consider ways in which you could put your passion, interests and skills to use helping strengthen our profession, communities and nation. And if you are a student reading this, there’s a pretty cool externship out in DC that is a great way to get started.