Honorable Mention, Life as a Vet Student
Amanda Fischer, Cornell

My first year of veterinary school I never would have guessed that I would be writing an article for the Vet Gazette, let alone from a lab bench (when I should be in clinics).  The tale of my love affair with bench work started when I was an undergraduate at Cornell. In my manic attempts to diversify my resume for veterinary school, I applied for an undergraduate research assistant position.  I interviewed with John Parker, BVMS, PhD for the chance to work at the Baker Institute for Animal Health.  He told me there were other applicants, so when I was hired I felt like I’d won something.  It was the first job I’d applied for on my own.  Once I started, most of my time was spent predictably re-stocking laboratory supplies, but my project is what kept me interested in research.

If anyone reading has done immunofluorescent staining you know how infuriating and rewarding the process can be.  The first time I looked at feline cells that I had successfully stained for feline calicivirus protein, I was enthralled.  I could have stared at those cells forever. I was looking at virus infected cells and was looking at the virus! In the cells! I was seriously impressed with myself.  I tried to continue working in the lab, but there wasn’t funding for me to stay because he had a veterinary student working during that summer.

Fast forward to veterinary school, where I assume it’s common knowledge that the best way to make money over the summer is to conduct research.  With our level of debt, it’s hard to say no to stable income and housing you’ve already paid for.  I participated in Cornell’s Veterinary Investigator Program (VIP) my first summer.  I actually got paired up with Dr. Parker, which was great because I could pretend like I already had an idea about what I was doing.  I greatly enjoyed my incredibly frustrating project where I made no significant findings after 2 months.  The fact that this didn’t deter me from continuing to go to lab and find projects to work on speaks volumes about my personality.  I hope that my persistence will come in handy as a doctor.  But for now it’s serving me well in terms of keeping me gainfully employed as a student.  I also spent my second summer in the Parker lab, as a second year VIP participant.  It was around that time that I learned about an interesting opportunity to take a year off from veterinary school to do research full time...

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The Weight of a Heart

Winner, Life as a Vet Student and Overall Best Entry
Lea Mehrkens, UC Davis

Today I held a dog’s heart in my hands.

I did not hold a dog’s beating heart. I did not massage said heart back to life. This heart was from a dog who had been dead for five years. By the time I found this heart, it was an old, preserved specimen in a library of macabre, floating organs. It was one jar unceremoniously stacked amongst many. The label read, “Bernese Mountain Dog. 5 years, 2 months. Female.” I winced when I read the word “female”. This dog was a male. He was my dog.

I don’t know why I expected to recognize it right away, why I thought that there would be some reflection or semblance of the dog I loved and grew up with in that heart. There wasn’t. In fact, the only reason I found it was because I recognized my own name on the jar’s label. This was a shock in and of itself; as a first year veterinary student, you really don’t expect to find your name on a jar nestled in the depths of Pathology.

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Externship with the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission (ALPC)

Entry, Experiences
Justin Padgett, Auburn

There is little doubt after completing a Veterinary Pathology course that the field lies at the heart of all things veterinary medicine. Whether the specific discipline be public health or internal medicine, the skills learned and required  in anatomic and microscopic pathology act as “iron sharpening iron” to enhance any DVM’s skills in a chosen trade. Pathology requires a keen knowledge of gross and microscopic anatomy, a meticulous understanding of diseases and their routes of infection, and a detailed knowledge of the body’s responses to pathogenic stimuli.  It is for these reasons that I seek out any opportunity to spend extra time in the pathology laboratory and witness disease processes firsthand. I had a chance to pursue this goal this past winter break when I participated in an externship with the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission (ALPC).

I was made aware of the opportunity to spend time with the ALPC through the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP) website.  The ACVP site is a great resource for any student looking to match with hosting pathology institutions that range in orientation from government to industry and research to zoo animal.

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SAVMA Travel Grant Winner

Shannon McCook, Tufts University

This is a scholarship awarded by SAVMA's Education and Professional Development Committee.  If you are interested in applying for this scholarship, check out the details here

The 2012 SAVMA Travel Grant really helped to ease the financial burden of my trip to the Comparative Ocular Pathology Laboratory of Wisconsin in August of 2012.  I have always planned to become a pathologist.  Having developed a keen interest in ophthalmology during my third year vet school course work, this externship experience was a natural fit for me.  August was a fantastic time to be in Madison - the weather was perfect and the people were warm and welcoming.  I stayed with the director of the COPLOW, Dr. Dick Dubielzig, and his wife, Doris.  During my stay at the COPLOW, I participated in daily resident histopathology training rounds and attended afternoon necropsy rounds.  I participated in mock exam sessions for the American College of Veterinary Pathology Board examination, which were incredibly helpful in planning for my future as a pathology resident.  I had the opportunity to view ocular histology sections from many different species of animals from invertebrates to primates, including a jumping spider, May fly, Cock-eyed squid, wasp, ostrich, western lowland gorilla, hippopotamus, Russian tortoise and a white rhinoceros.  To round out my comparative ocular pathology experience, I was able to attend weekly Ophthalmology rounds at the UW Medical School and sit in while they read out human biopsy cases.  All in all, it was a truly fantastic experience.  Many thanks to SAVMA for making it possible!

Primate Research Center Externship

Entry, Experiences
Keiko Petrosky, Tufts 

During my externship at the New England Primate Research Center Division of Comparative Pathology and Primate Resources at the Harvard University, I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Andrew Miller, a veterinary pathologist who is an expert in experimental and diagnostic pathology. Along with four Kyoko Okabe (Osaka City University) and Keiko Petrosky (Tufts University), both STP Travel Award winners.summer students in the department, I attended gross and histology rounds, observed a necropsy, and interacted with residents and scientists. Dr. Miller also lead us through mystery slide readings, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology slide readings, and slide examination of classic lesions in the non-human primate.

 

The highlight of my summer was working with Dr. Miller directly on a project to describe more thoroughly lesions found in the brains of SIV-infected rhesus macaques. For this project, I worked closely with a histologist to learn immunohistochemistry and to perform this task independently. I was also able to attend the Society of Toxicologic Pathology Annual Symposium that was held in Boston with Dr. Miller and the veterinary pathology residents at Harvard, where I interacted with students from all over the world!

Fun activities included an ice cream social and a pool party with Gregory Miller’s lab (no relation). The NEPRC is located in an idyllic forest, worlds away from the nearby residential and industrial areas of the city of Southborough. I saw a white-tailed deer en route to the NEPRC, and Dr. Miller illustrated bracken fern toxicity during rounds by going outside and harvesting a frond! Dr. Miller and his team make pathology entertaining and after my experience, I would highly recommend that anyone curious about veterinary pathology, non-human primates, or research in general spend some time at the NEPRC.