June 16th
I had my first day at ‘work’ with one of the vets today! It was very cool. I arrived at the clinic at 8:15 and we started off the day by receiving the schedule for the day. The receptionist has a paper typed out with all of each vets appointments for the day with the location, the name of the horse and what they are having done. Then we had to re-stock her truck with the proper equipment depending on the jobs we had that day, including needles, medicines, and even x-ray machines. Our first stop was at a very large farm that has so many horses that they have an almost weekly appointment with the vet. We looked at around 5-7 horses, and were supposed to look at more but didn’t have time because we had another stop to get to. Some of the horses were just getting check ups from being looked at the previous week, one horse had x-rays done, and some just got shot or two. The three horses we didn’t get to, we were supposed to ‘float’ their teeth, which is just like going to the dentist, but for horses. The next stop was only two horses. One had an abscess, which is a build up of fluid underneath the skin that gets very sore and the second one had x-rays done. All in all, it was a successful day. I worked until 3:30, which seemed to be a fairly early day for the vet. I believe she enjoyed having someone along to help, because some of the jobs can get very tiring, especially when horses are acting up and with it being so hot. As of now, I am going once a week-usually on Mondays but she already offered me to come in on Wednesday to watch a surgery that is being done, but I don’t think I will be able to make it.
June 30-
Today was my second day working at the Equine vet clinic. I rode with the same vet as last time and we went to the same barn. This barn is a big barn and because it has so many horses they have a weekly appointment, where Dr. Carrie goes every Monday to re check horses she looked at before as well as update new ones whether it be with an issue they are having or just shots. We looked at just as many horses as last time, and did some of the same treatments. She did the ‘shockwave’ treatment on some horses, and even let me do some of it. It’s almost like a gun that shoots off shocks to help relieve pain and tension in the horse’s muscles. Most of the other horses just got shots, one had an eye injury and another was having lameness issues.
July 7th-
For the third time at the clinic, I rode with another one of the vets that works there, Amanda. We went to four different barns throughout the day. The first two places just had horses that needed shots (such as rabies, rhino flu, etc). The third was a case the vet had been working on for the past week or so. The horse had colic (which is like a bad stomach ache for the horse in which their intestines get stopped up). The vet had to go to the barn just about every day to tube the horse, and get medicines/fluid inside to start getting the intestines to function again. The final stop we did what is called a pre purchase exam. This is where a vet overlooks everything on the horse, from normal vital signs to each joint, ligament and muscle to make sure there is nothing wrong with the horse before someone buys it. When people decide to buy a horse this is a good step to take just to make sure you are making a good investment and not buying a lame horse.
July 14-
Today I went with Dr Carrie to Whitestone again and we just had a couple horses that needed shots as well as a recheck on a horse she had looked at the previous week. The horse ended up looking a lot better and was given the ok to be able to be ridden again.
July 28-
Today, I rode with Dr. Amanda and we had a junior from Colonial Forge with us that was along the ride to see what being a vet is like. We started off at a farm where we gave vaccinations to three horses, and pulled coggins off two of them. Coggins are forms that each horse needs done every year or so if you plan on taking them off your property to somewhere that they would be around other horses. It just states all their information (name, DOB, owner, appearance, etc) and verifies that the horse is safe to be around other horses and wont transfer diseases, illnesses, etc. Then we went to a big farm that specializes in Arabian horses to work on a horse that was having severe lameness issues. We spent a long time their jogging and lounging the horse (to see/determine where the lameness was coming from) and they decided to do what is called a nerve block. They start from the bottom of the hurt leg and numb the nerves in the first joint, then lounge it to see if the lameness is better. If not, then they move to numbing the next joint, then lounge, and repeat all the way until the horse is sound so they can determine what part of the leg is hurt. Once they figured out what part was hurt, they took radiographs of the leg to see the actual problem.
Aug 4-
Today was a short day with only two visits. I rode with Amanda and our first stop was the barn right next to the clinic. The horse there is a frequent visitor because she has a leg that swells up frequently due to a problem she has in that leg. Sometimes it is accompanied with a fever and the vet just has to come out to give her a shot to reduce the swelling/fever. The next stop was for a yearling that had been having lameness problems in her left hind leg. After examining her, the vet determined it was most likely due to joint tissue and ligaments that were just so weak the leg (stifle) joint was popping out of place. This is usually common in older horses that aren’t in work. The owner decided to take radiographs because it was possible that there was something else going on. After the x-rays, it was determined that the owner was to just hand walk the horse up and down hills every day for 30 minutes to build up the muscle in the leg so that hopefully it would fix itself.
Today we went to a large farm with two different barns, and a total of about 50 horses. This is another farm that has an almost weekly visit scheduled, and we saw around seven horses. We had to do a floating of the teeth, a couple lameness exams where we took x-rays and then a horse with an eye infection. All in all, it was a day where I had done everything we encountered before, and I felt comfortable with helping out. It was much different from my first day where I had to be told about everything because it was all so new, but now I just know what equipment the vet needs and what she needs me to do and when. It was really neat to be able to see how much I’ve learned and figured out throughout the summer.
