The Horse:Your Guide To Equine Health Care provides monthly equine health care information to horse owners, breeders, veterinarians, barn/farm managers, trainer/riding instructors, and others involved in the hands-on care of the horse.
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23 February 2016 THE HORSE TheHorse.com it for you, by following fourth-year vet- erinary student Hayley Rasmussen-Ball of Washington State University's (WSU) College of Veterinary Medicine through a typical day. Toward the end of four years of under- graduate study, culminating in a bachelor of science degree, Hayley applied to three veterinary schools, competing for a cov- eted spot to undertake another four years of specialized study to achieve a doctor- ate in veterinary medicine (DVM). Currently, 30 universities in the United States (and 19 in other countries) hold accreditation by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). Hayley is attending WSU as part of the inaugu- ral veterinary school class in a regional program offered by Utah State University (USU) in Logan, where she spent her first two years as part of a class of 27. In the fall of 2014 Hayley and her USU class- mates began attending WSU as part of a class of 130, a group that will continue on through the next academic year until graduation this spring. Hayley's first three years of veterinary school involved general all-species stud- ies, including normal anatomy, physiol- ogy, histology (study of cell structure), pharmacology, and nutrition. Her second year branched out into abnormal medi- cine, including bacteriology, virology, and systemic and clinical pathology. Third year added species-specific classes to the fold, such as small animal medicine and surgery, clinical pharmacology, equine medicine, agriculture animal medicine, and two electives (Hayley chose equine lameness and equine medicine II). Now in her fourth year, Hayley continues to study all species and electives of her choice (equine, of course!). This particular day marks the end of Hayley's two-week equine medicine rota- tion and her first day as one of several students in large animal overnight rota- tion at WSU's Veterinary Teaching Hos- pital. She has also completed rotations in equine surgery, equine reproduction, small animal referral medicine, and small animal soft tissue surgery, along with three off-site externships in Southern California equine hospitals. Monday 6:30 a.m. — My responsibility: to hand over my current patients to the next student after my overnight rotation. They include a gorgeous Warmblood gelding suffering from loss of coordination, a sweet Welsh mare that had a unilat- eral mastectomy due to severe mastitis (infection of her mammary gland), and a colicky Quarter Horse gelding. I was able to give all basic care to these horses during the two weeks they were my patients. I'd deliver medications, change bandages, clean wounds, walk horses, draw blood, and partake in most diagnostics with the clinician in charge. When changes in their health status oc- curred, I'd have to come up with ideas and talk to the clinician in charge to be sure we had the right set of diagnostics to move forward. The time with these horses has been rich with learning opportunities, and I've gotten to know their idiosyncracies and habits. It's always hard to move to a new rotation when I haven't discharged my patients yet, but I know they'll be in good hands. 9:00 a.m. — Fit in a ride on my 13-year-old Thoroughbred gelding before I run errands. He's not too happy about leaving his breakfast, but he works hard for me and I feel a lot more relaxed after riding. Joker and I have our first real lesson next weekend, and I want him to be on his best behavior, so I'm hoping to find enough time this week to ride him. After owning him for 10 months, we are ready for challenges beyond trail riding. 11:00 a.m. — Knock out errands and grab a quick lunch on the run. 3:00 p.m. — Attempt to take a nap. 3:30 p.m. —Realize that it'll be impos- sible to sleep during the day, especially when it's 95 degrees outside and my husband and I don't have air conditioning in our rental house 2 miles from campus. I'll have to figure out how to black out all the windows and will bring a fan into the bedroom for tomorrow. 5:00 p.m. — Time for orientation and rounds, during which clinicians cover what they expect from us and review cur- rent in-hospital patients. Our shifts for the next two weeks run from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m., beginning on Monday evening and ending Saturday morning. We then have a "short shift" that begins at midnight Monday and ends at 8 a.m. Depending on how busy the hospital is and how comfortable the other students are with handling horses and procedures, we may be able to split some shifts so we work eight hours instead of 15; however, if an emergency arrives, we all must be present for intake and to care for in-hospital patients. Each of us will give a presentation at the end of the rotation on our subject of choice within equine emergency medicine. 7:00 p.m. — Start treatments. This takes about 45 minutes. My patients include: ■ A horse with a fracture of the middle phalanx (short pastern bone) that has broken into more than two pieces, PHOTOS COURTESY HAYLEY RASMUSSEN-BALL In the "offce," the vet students can do paper- work and keep an eye on their patients. Hayley happily (if not exhaustedly) commutes to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Washington State University, in Pullman, each day.