Forum

"We receive hundreds of emails each week, we study on computers (likely with earphones in our ears), some of us have fully computerized notes, we navigate with our GPS, communicate with Skype, and do just about everything on smartphones. What do you think of all this technology in a vet student’s life? Making things easier or more complicated? Do you prefer to communicate and study electronically or would you be much happier unplugged?"

Stephanie Silberstang
Cornell University, '13

This past year I decided to try something new. I wanted to go paperless, or as close to paperless as I could. My main motivation was to reduce my carbon footprint on the world. I pursued this goal in many other aspects of my life including composting at home, walking and taking public transportation when possible and participating in a local farm share. In addition to becoming environmentally friendly, I thought it was important to embrace technology to prepare for the future of veterinary medicine that includes paperless medical records. However, my first step to pursuing this goal within my academic career was to not buy my course notes, which were hundreds of pages of printed notes. Instead, I decided to bring my laptop to lecture every day to view PowerPoint slides and to take notes digitally. This easy step saved me one hundred dollars!

Click to read more ...

From Davis to Nicaragua: Forging Partnership in Veterinary Care

David Kim
UC Davis, '14

About a year ago, Eric Eisenman, a fellow classmate, approached a few students, including myself, about forming a student-run project to provide free veterinary care to a developing country.  We had just attended a lunch talk given by Dr. Richard Bachman, who spoke of his experience with Oregon State’s IVSA program that organized international veterinary trips.  It seemed strange that UC Davis did not have a similar program, and we were all eager at the idea of starting something new.  The amount of work for our group, which we named International Veterinary Outreach (IVO), seemed daunting as we began the long process of becoming a 501(c)(3) as well as planning inventory, permits, and fundraising, but slowly, things started to fall into place.  Through a mutual connection, we were able to make some contacts in Jiquillio, a small fishing village on the northwest coast of Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the western hemisphere. 

Click to read more ...

Case Abstract

Paige Mackey
Oklahoma State University, '13

IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL EXPRESSION OF C-KIT PROTEIN IN CANINE CUTANEOUS PLASMACYTOMAS

*Paige E. Mackey (1), Catherine G. Lamm (2), and Gregory A. Campbell (3)

1 Department of Pathobiology, Center for Veterinary Health Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK; 2 Veterinary Pathological Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK 3 Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK.

Click to enlarge
c-KIT is proto-oncogene that encodes a tyrosine kinase receptor, KIT, that is expressed by normal cells as well as various neoplasms in both humans and animals. Most notably, c-KIT expression is used for diagnosis and grading of canine mast cell tumors. In this study, immunohistochemistry was used to determine if c-KIT expression occurs in canine plasmacytomas...

Click to read more ...

SAVMA Public Health/Community Outreach Grant Summary

Editor's note: The following is a trip summary from a veterinary student that received a grant from SAVMA's Public Health and Community Outreach Committee to participate in an externship in an underserved area.  If you are interested in receiving funding for your own externship, please contact the committee at savma.phcoc@gmail.com.  Applications must be received 45 days prior to the externship experience.

Lori Newman
Tufts V’13

I recently returned from a Rural Area Veterinary Services (RAVS) trip to San Carlos and White Mountain Apache Reservations in Arizona.  I participated in a field clinic providing vaccination and spay/neuter services for dogs and cats living on those reservations.  

RAVS was incredibly valuable for me. I gained experience in several technical domains, including placing intravenous catheters, performing intubation, administering injections, performing physical exams, and running anesthesia cases for surgery. I saw cases that I am unlikely to encounter at Tufts, such as puppies suffering from parvovirus and animals covered in ticks or sarcoptic mange. I learned that tick-borne diseases such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever pose a health risk to not only dogs but also people on the reservation. Several children have already died of this disease, and the tribe is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control to fight it.

Click to read more ...

The Future

Alicia Agnew
Virgina-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, '13

As third years, we are encouraged to practice writing out SOAPs for all case discussions.  I think that I can take it a step further and apply the SOAP principle to all my life problems, including that of what the h--- am I supposed to do after graduating?  Hopefully, a logical, medically oriented SOAP can solve the problem.

S: Subjective

Patient reports stress and nightmares in her sixth semester of vet school.  Most nightmares involve missing an exam or showing up unprepared at surgery where she then gets yelled at. Patient has received her block schedule for fourth year and is happy to have a perfect schedule, exactly what she hoped for.  She was recently married, and so now has limits to where she can find a job after school, and plans to move to Florida after graduating to join her husband where he is starting a job this summer.  This has increased her job finding stress as she will be far from family, and has to move a herd of twenty goats to Florida as well.

Click to read more ...