The Wide Variety in Ohio

           I’ve just finished off my seventh week here in Ohio and I am still loving it! I have seen such a wide variety of cases in just this week alone. I assisted in a standing splint bone surgery this week. The doctor performs this surgery standing, so the horse receives only sedation and local anesthetic. The surgery itself was very quick! The doctor uses a fork (yes, the same kind you eat with) and a small chisel to remove the section of bone, compare it to the initial radiographs, smooth off the remaining bone, places a drain, and closes. The horse then quickly wakes up and loads back on the trailer to head home.

I’ve also seen several wound cases this week. One wound exposed the entire cannon bone, stripping away a large amount of the periosteum and severing the extensor tendons. Surprisingly, the horse was still somehow able to place its foot fairly normally. When we initially saw it on emergency, we cleaned the wound, took x-rays to ensure that there were no fractures, and applied a thick bandage. This week I have also seen a large chest wound that extended along essentially the horse’s whole armpit region. This horse was lucky because there was no puncture into the chest cavity and the muscles were largely separated along the fascia plane. A drain was applied and the wound was closed with a combination of sutures and staples.

I have seen more wound cases, reproduction cases, general exams, prepurchase exams, lameness and several emergency colic cases. I am learning so much about how doctors handle the cases and work with owners to ensure that the horses have the best care while still staying in a reasonable budget. There are a lot of shadowing pre-veterinary students and veterinary students that come on their externship rotations, so it has been great to compare notes! Time is flying by here, I can’t believe that I’ve only got five more weeks left at the clinic!