PHOTOGRAPHY

Submitted by Emma Ruesch, University of Minnesota

"Divided Attention"

STUDENT EXPERIENCE: URUGUAY AND BRAZIL

Mary Clarke Worthington, North Carolina State University

"My international externship took place in Montevideo, Uruguay and Porto Alegre, Brazil with their public universities (Facultad Veterinaria and UFRGS respectively). This externship was a solo trip self-designed as part of my schools “Special Topics in Theriogenology” rotation, which proved to be an excellent way to push myself out of my comfort zone.

My first two days in Montevideo started with a conference with talks from vets from all over South

America on a wide range of topics including field C-sections, dystocia anesthesia, subfertility in stallions, and metabolic disease in pregnant mares. The rest of my stay was split between reproductive management (ultrasound, collection, AI, embryo transfer) at a local military breeding farm and the hospital managing post-partem complication mares and injured foals.

While at UFRGS I was able to assist with collection and semen analysis for the university stallions, as well

as do daily reproductive tract ultrasounds on their teaching mares. Additionally, I spent one day with a local reproduction specialist visiting several large breeding farms where we would complete ultrasounds, lavages, collections, embryo transfer, and AI. I also toured the school’s swine reproduction lab, and a local bovine genetics center.

I learned so much during this externship and saw a wide variety of cases with an equally wide range of

resources with which to manage them. Everyone at FVet and UFRGS was so welcoming and encouraging of me as a total outsider, that it gave me a lot of faith in the bonds that tie us all together as veterinarians. I was able to practice my Spanish language skills, form valuable new relationships, and see different approaches and perspectives to reproductive case management. I am incredibly grateful for the funding which made this amazing experience possible."

UC Davis SCAAEP - EPDC Grant Award Winner

The student members of the Student Chapter of AAEP at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine (Equine Medicine Clun) biannually participate in dental days for local rescue organizations.  This fall, October 6-7, 2013, the SCAAEP (Equine Medicine Club) at UC Davis went to the Glen Ellen Vocational Academy (GEVA foundation) in Santa Rosa, CA on Saturday and Sadie’s Bright Haven Horse Rescue and Sanctuary (Sadie’s Haven) in Sebastobol, CA on Sunday.  Each day fifteen students, ranging from first year to third year veterinary students, performed wellness exams and dental exams on these rescued and retired horses. 

For the past five years the SCAAEP has participated in dental wet labs to provide dental care to local horse rescue and sanctuary groups in northern California.  Every fall and spring EMC visits GEVA foundation in Santa Rosa, CA.  The tradition was established by former EMC officer Dr. Maureen Kelleher and has been continued through today with her assistance and teaching.    GEVA is a non-profit organization that provides homes for injured, retired, and abused horses or horses that just need a home.   This fall Dr. Maureen Kelleher joined EMC for a day full of dental exams and dental floats on 17 horses. Dr. Prutton demonstrating the proper technique for using power float to correct dental malocclusions at GEVA.

This fall, we had the opportunity to work with Sadie’s Bright Haven Horse Rescue and Sanctuary in Sebastobol, CA.  This is the first time EMC has worked with Sadie’s Haven and it was a wonderful opportunity to provide routine wellness exams, dental exams, and dental floats.  The purpose of Sadie’s Haven Horse Rescue and Sanctuary is to provide safe, loving and experienced care and shelter for equines that have been neglected, abused or abandoned. It also offers educational tours and provides day camp programs for the community, with special consideration for underprivileged children and teens.   The horses at Sadie’s Haven were between the ages of 20-35 years old, which provided an excellent opportunity to review geriatric equine dental care and see a wide range of dental abnormalities.  Also, several horses had heart murmurs, lameness and Equine Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (Cushing’s disease).   Students participated in discussion and review of principles of sedation and dental care for geriatric patients. 

 The purpose of the EMC Dental Days is two fold:  One, to provide an opportunity for Equine Medicine Club members to gain hands on experience with wellness exams, routine dental care and review dental anatomy.  Second, to provide wellness and dental services to equine rescue organizations within our area. We work with local veterinarians, UC Davis residents and rescue groups to foster relationships for students, residents andStudents using a power float to correct dental abnormalities on a rescued horse at Sadie's Bright Haven. referring veterinarians.  Dr. Tere Crocker from North Coast Equine Mobile veterinary service participated in the

dental day in addition to UC Davis Large Animal Medicine Resident Dr. Elsbeth Swain at Sadie’s Bright Haven.  Dr. James Prutton and Dr. Alison Harvey from the UC Davis Equine Medicine Service joined Dr. Kelleher at GEVA.  Students have the opportunity to work with local veterinarians as well as doctors from the veterinary school. 

For each dental each group of students had several goals.  One, to review dental anatomy and routine dental technique for dental examination and floats.  Prior to beginning each wet lab, dental pathology was reviewed such that students could think about the mechanism of how an abnormality occurred and how to correct it.  Each horse had a dental chart to describe the findings and treatment.  Each horse also had a complete physical exam sheet and any additional procedures such as sheath cleaning or deworming were also noted.  Each student was required to propose sedation plans for each horse and discuss the mechanism of action for the drugs used (Detomidine, Xylazine, Butorphanol), before sedation was dispensed for each horse.   Proper equine restraint, proper use of the speculum and appropriate technique for monitoring a sedated horse was emphasized for each case.   First, second and third year veterinary students participated in all of the above activities.

Following both days of dental wet labs SCAAEP was invited back for spring dental exams, floatations and wellness days at both GEVA and Sadie’s Bright Haven.  Sadie’s Bright Haven is very excited to work with UCD veterinary students and provide learning opportunities.   SCAAEP plans on working again with Sadie’s Bright Haven in the spring in addition to the Grace Foundation and GEVA. 

In My Huntsman’s Forgotten Left Pocket

Entry, Creative Corner
Blair Snively, Mississippi State University

It is so bitter even the sun

can’t melt the frost on the sod fields or flats

of ice in the depressions below the frozen

hills. I long for a taste of tawny port to burn

the chilled air from my lungs.

Reynard is here.

I know he is, because I can hear him

laughing. Laughing at those silly hounds

who work the line of four buck deer instead

of the scent woven by his musky red tail.

Blaze, taut under my oiled saddle, awaits my cue

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Dangers at Both Ends

Winner, Foot in Mouth Category
Jenny Heath, Mississippi State University

An unrelated, yet adorable, picture of our story's hero holding a cotton top tamarin monkey while on externship in Jackson, MS.It was a dark and stormy night in the equine corridors.  The time…3 A.M.

An exhausted vet student is trudging outside in the darkness. She is trying to reach the outer grounds of the complex, set on her mission. (Yes, this is already playing out like Jurassic Park in my mind. Just go with it.)

As she finally reaches the top of the hill, a long line of dim musty stalls greets her. It is very dark and deserted, the kind of quiet that you can only find in the dead of night, when even the owls have started to sleep. Thunder rumbles in the distance, and the animals themselves seem to sense the impending danger that looms on the horizon. They jitter and snort, stamping their hooves and tossing their manes in a nervous frustration.

The student walks cautiously, every nerve in her body suddenly hyperaware of her surroundings. She is alone, tired, and unexpectedly frightened here in the shadows. She fumbles for the light switch on a long metal post. It clicks up with a loud snap, and after a moment there is a fluttering and flickering of light above her. The bulbs are dim as they try to warm up, and she peers through the faint rays into the pitch black courtyard beside her. There is nothing but stillness. Occasionally a rusty gate creaks in the wind that is blowing in from the distant storm. The eeriness is astounding, and the student shakes herself a little, trying to rid the nervousness that has begun to seep into her bones much like her equine companions.

Have a painted a scary enough picture for you yet? Hmmm? Well get ready cause it’s about to get REAL.

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