First-year large animal stuff

By special request from Aunt Nancy, here are some of the things we did involving large animals during freshman year:

• The first two years of the vet school curriculum are actually divided 50/50 between large animal and small animal medicine. So that means that in anatomy, physiology, parasitology, virology, radiology, etc. we learned a lot of general information that applies to all species, and then we learned specific information for both dogs/cats vs. horses/cows/sheep/goats/pigs/etc.
• In anatomy we dissected equine front and rear limbs. Obviously it would be a little difficult for each group to dissect a whole horse. :-) They had an embalmed horse, cow, and sheep that hung from hooks on the ceiling and could be moved in and out of the freezer so we could study their specific features. The anatomy professors dissected the "hanging horse" and the others so that we could see their insides.
• When we learned about the anatomy of the four bovine stomach chambers, they brought "Sassy," the fistulated cow, over from the VTH to the main campus. We all got a chance to put on the shoulder-length gloves and stick our arms as far as they could go into Sassy's side to try to palpate the different areas of the stomachs. That was a very weird experience.
• In neurobiology this spring, we learned in detail how to do a neurological exam on any species of animal, then practiced - first on dogs that our classmates brought into the cubes for the day, and then on two horses owned by one of the professors. She brought the horses over to main campus for the day and we stood out on the lawn between some of the classroom buildings, doing neuro exams on the horses. We got some strange looks from non-vet students.
• We took a 2-credit course this spring called Food Animal Production & Food Safety, designed to introduce students to the basics of production methods for different species of food animals - dairy, beef, veal, hog, layers, broilers, etc. Each week focused on a different production method. At the end we were supposed to take 2 field trips to give us the opportunity to actually visit 2 different types of production facilities. One of the field trips coincided with our snow day, so we only got to go to one facility. I went to a sheep farm that mainly raised sheep for fiber but also sold some for meat. It was really neat and the people who ran the farm were totally cool. If we'd had a second chance to go somewhere else, I would have liked to visit a dairy.
• The vet school offers a number of other extracurricular opportunities to participate in large animal stuff, which I didn't take advantage of due to my already busy class schedule plus the 6 or 7 other clubs I'm in. They have a Large Animal Emergency Team for which you sign up to be on call for an overnight or weekend shift. If they have a large animal emergency come into the hospital (e.g. a horse colic), they call you and you come help out with whatever you can do. There is also a foal care team that students can join. They let you know when they have a premature foal or a sick foal or an ICU foal in the hospital, and you go sit with it for a few hours to keep it company, make sure it's doing okay, help it eat, etc. These are mostly foals that need somebody with them around the clock. One of my good friends did both the LAET and the foal care team and she really enjoyed them. They both sound fun except for the part where they take place mostly during the middle of the night. :-)