Veterinary Science in Tamil Nadu, India

By: Jennifer Eberly

Class of 2012, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

I am a third year food animal veterinary student at Virginia Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, and this summer I had the opportunity to spend 6 weeks in India on an infectious diseases externship. It was a wonderful, eye-opening  (and sweltering!) experience, and I could not begin to detail all of my experiences in one short entry. I would just like to describe two of my experiences however, one negative and one positive, because I feel they typify the best and worst of my experience with veterinary science in India.

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Jax and Hud

By: Cheryl Kolus

Class of 2012, Colorado State University

They look like they're having the time of their lives! Don't forget to take your dogs out for a romp today.

Africa and Honduras, all in one Summer

By: Tamaya Trejo

Colorado State University

As a student you tend to forget that there is a world outside of veterinary school. In the summer of 2010, I took two trips to Zambia, Africa and Agalta Valley, Honduras through Christian Veterinary Missions. We spayed/neutered dogs and cats, castrated horses, consulted farmers on the most prevalent diseases in their herds, gave small animal rabies vaccinations, and dewormed both small and large animals. These trips were some of the best professionally relevant experiences of my life.

My travels overseas helped me understand the leadership role of a veterinarian in a foreign country. The veterinarian leading the team needs to be a great communicator. The Africa trip consisted of 6 people while the Honduras trip consisted of 14 people. Since we came from all over the states, the first time we saw each other was at the airport. All of our communication was conducted over emails and telephone. We had local contacts in both Africa and Honduras that organized our transportation, meals, and translation needs. Our team leader was in communication with the local contact before the trip which helped us prepare for the animal issues we took care of, and also helped us get an idea of what supplies to bring in our suitcases.

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Creativity time!

By: Allison Braun

Class of 2013, The Ohio State University

"In the Sulky" Oil on canvas, mixed media

 "Paddock Pals Laddie and Napoleon, 2007" Oil on canvas

 

IVSA UPenn Thailand Trip 2010

By: Steven Fernandez

Class of 2013, University of Pennsylvania

The International Veterinary Student Association (IVSA) University of Pennsylvania chapter took on the challenge this past year to organize a trip with a contact from a Thai veterinarian and practice owner of Vet4 Polyclinic in Bangkok, Thailand. Our IVSA UPenn chapter was unaware that this veterinary practice is a well-known and respected clinic in all of Thailand. Vet4 was the first clinic in Thailand to start hydrotherapy for dogs and third to do total hip replacements. Hundreds of emails later throughout the entire academic year, IVSA UPenn sent 14 veterinary students and one local veterinarian to Bangkok, Thailand to start their hands-on training 9,500 miles away.

The trip consisted of 5 clinic days where the students were able to do full spays and castrations from incision to closure at no cost to the owners. We held a series of wetlabs using cadavers weeks in advance to prepare for surgery thanks to the help of our IVSA faculty advisor and surgery residents. Throughout the year we fundraised as much as possible to reduce the cost of the trip and we received lots of donations to offer better medical care for our patients. We brought extra luggage filled with IDEXX Snap tests, injectable Metacam (courtesy of Boerhinger-Ingelheim) for pain management, sterile surgery gloves, lots of frontline (courtesy of Merial), and sterile drapes (courtesy of GEPCO). Students learned how to keep their patient under anesthesia using basic drugs that were available to us. One of the major challenges with outdoor surgery was the incredibly high temperatures dogs had while recovering. Nonetheless, animals did recover and were sent on their way once they were able to walk.

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