I am Mikah Wareham and my internship this summer is taking place at Outlaw Equine, which is a medical and rehabilitation facility for high-end horse athletes. Outlaw is located in Decatur, TX, just outside of the Fort Worth and Dallas area. I have been put on the ICU team and will work in this department full-time with the other technicians and students. As of now, I am working four days a week with 12-hour long shifts, which is allowing me to get a feel for the time commitment this job requires.
My first two days went by in a blur. I quickly learned the names of the different ICU patients and how to work the treatment chart on the computers, which all have a very strict time schedule. After getting to tag along for rounds of morning treatments at the different barns, the technicians let me immediately jump in and help with many different things like administering fluids to foals, giving salt water drips to horses who had been in surgery, watching an ultrasound of the lungs, getting to help perform an endoscope procedure (sliding a meter long cord up the nose, towards the back of the cheek, and down the trachea to look for abnormal mucus or spots) on horses with the strangles disease, watch breathing treatments take place, and I got to give a soapy anemia to a foal who had sand in her stomach. All of these tasks were very hands-on and fast-paced and, in some cases, a little intimidating since the technicians and other interns were already in a veterinary program or about to be, which meant their knowledge range was much higher than mine. However, they are very welcoming and helpful, and I am extremely grateful to be working alongside them as I traverse these new waters. I am enjoying my time here and think it will be a great experience over the next six weeks!
The catheter on this foal’s neck is how we administered her daily fluids or drew blood for testing.
The device on her face acts like an inhaler for horses. The light-sensitive medicines are placed in the cup, which the horse then breathes in to help with their lungs or to place them in a calmer state.
Though I am working in Decatur, my living accommodations are actually in Springtown, TX. I am staying in a friend of a friend’s pool house. It is situated in a very nice area and the pool house itself is the perfect place for a high school student to be staying on an internship. I have gone out to eat at Casa Torres, a popular Mexican restaurant on the outside of Decatur. I ate here with a family friend who gave me advice on the roads, the best places to eat, and where I could go for daily outings on my days off.
This is the adorable pool house I am staying in.
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