This week was very busy with clinic calls and emergency procedures. On Monday, we had six calves come into the hospital needing to be de-horned, tagged, tattooed and the females needed a vaccination. The dehorning process may have looked painful but the vet would nerve block the area so that there wouldn’t be any pain. After their horns were removed, the students would tag them, tattoo them and vaccinate the females. These calves were going to a dairy sale so they needed the proper markings to show that they had their vaccinations and they were checked for diseases and extra ‘teets’.
VIDEO: Dehorning calf (viewer discretion advised)Skyler K W6g
The same day we had four lame horses and two of them ended up taking all day to figure out what was wrong. The owner was unsure of the area that was lame but she knew something was wrong. To figure out the area that was lame, we took three magnets that transmitted data to a tablet and placed them on the horse. One on the head, one on the right front ankle and one on the rise of the hips. This data would be compared to a horse that is not lame and it would be compared to the lame horse with nerve blocks. The students would compare and figure out where they thought would be a logical place to put the nerve block and they would test it. It was kind of like trial and error.
This is the fracture on the bull hock joint.
On Tuesday, which is usually surgery day we ended up having no surgeries! But I went and explored in the food animal department and I got to see an abscess being drained, packed and cleaned on a bull. It was very fascinating yet gross. We also did multiple radiographs on horses and cows. We had an Angus bull who came in walking on only three of his legs. The vets suspected that he has fractured or broken his hock bone. Unfortunately, he had fractured his hock joint. The owner decided to take him to be slaughtered.
On Wednesday, we scoped a horse’s urethra and bladder looking for possible reasons as to why she was having pain while trying to go to the bathroom. Then we had a horse come into the emergency area needing a colic surgery. We took the horse into surgery trying to find what was preventing the horse from going to the bathroom and unfortunately we had to euthanize the horse on the table. His condition was too bad to fix by the time he was brought in.
This is the surgeon removing the third eyelid to get to the eye to remove the entire eye.
Thursday was probably the busiest day other than Friday. We started off our day by going into surgery to remove an eye and a tooth. We needed to remove the eye because the horse was totally blind and she could have possible cancer in the area. After we removed the eye we had to get the tooth out. I thought a tooth extraction wouldn’t take that long, but it ended up taking an hour to get one tooth out! It was crazy!!
VIDEO: removing a tooth (viewer discretion advised)Skyler K W6d
After surgery I went into food animal and watched another abscess being drained and the vet accidentally hit a vein so there was a lot more blood than there should have been. After the abscess was drained and flushed out the vet put packing inside of the wound and sutured up the area. Next, I went back to the equine department and we had a horse in with a respiratory problem. The vet determined that the flaps in her larynx were not closing and opening properly which was causing her to not be able to breath correctly. The owners could not afford surgery so they took her home to put her down.
VIDEO: horse with respiratory trouble Skyler K W6e
We had another eventful yet sad day on Friday. We had a mare come in not able to go to the bathroom. We took a scope and scoped her urethra and as we entered her bladder there was a huge bladder stone causing her bladder to be very irritated. The vet said that she could have removed it by hand, but because of the size of the stone she would not have been able to. So they had the surgery team nerve block her and take the stone out so that she could go to the bathroom without being in pain.
VIDEO: Scope of horse’s bladder Skyler K W6f
Here is Bread Crumb, the cutest Miniature pony!
After that, a miniature pony came in because she wasn’t eating and she seemed depressed.(Cutest little pony I have ever seen). It took a little while to figure out what the problem was because we had to wait for her to pass a stool so that we could send it to the lab. We determined that the owner accidentally gave her too much butte (medicine for horses). They fixed her right up and sent her on her way!
We had a 2-year-old filly come in at 4:00 AM that morning because she was hit by a car. When I saw her, she was stitched up, but she was bleeding internally and the doctors were unable to fix it. The owner decided to have the doctors euthanize her there at the hospital. The doctors use what’s called “the pink juice” to euthanize the horses and they instantly fall. This was a very emotional moment for me because I can get attached to animals very quickly.
This internship has made me see the ups and the downs of becoming a vet. Still unsure if I want to become a veterinarian, I got to get the experience and see the everyday life of a veterinarian. I have also made good friends and met some amazing people down here in Stillwater, Oklahoma and I’m absolutely so thankful that Pinhead allowed me to go on this internship. I have learned to love Stillwater because of how friendly everyone is, Eskimo joes (famous for the cheesy fries), the beautiful campus and it feels like home!
Other than the humidity, Stillwater is great. My internship has come to an end and it’s bittersweet and I’m excited to return to the mountains!
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