Peterson and Smith Weeks 4-6

Hello again from Ocala! It's hard to believe I am already on my 6th week down here and 50% through the fellowship already. Over the past few weeks the clinic has entered the "slow season" according to the technicians. The case load has dropped a little and my posts will probably be more spread out from here on out. It appears that we may be done with having several foals in the clinic now and have migrated on to a surplus of colics (my favorite!).

Some highlights of the last few weeks are as follows:

• Watching Dr. Kent perform an enucleation! This was the first enucleation I've seen and thought it was really cool! The eye was abscessed throughout so the doctor had to take a different approach to removing it. After it was out, she cut into it to examine the eye and see the extent of the abscess. This surgery was done in one of the treatment room's stocks so it generated quite a crowd and the other working students and I found it really interesting.
• Foal presented for colic at 12 hours old. She passed meconium and normal manure, was nursing fine and despite about 10 minutes/hour of colic episodes, was an active and normal foal. After two days of intermittent colic episodes, the foal began resting quietly and was soon discharged. I was on night shift so I did not get to hear the full story on the foal, but I don't think they were able to get a definitive diagnosis. It felt like a puzzle and generated a lot of questions surrounding the case.
• One 48 hour span of almost filling up Clinic Stalls where all of the colics go. During this time, the clinic had two mares (one with a foal, one in foal) go to emergency colic surgery, a gelding that presented with a mild colic while the doctors were in surgery, and more that presented with other medical types of colic. I think my shift saw 4 or 5 come in on emergency in two days!
• A hawk that was hit by a car came to the clinic! A technician found him and we got to take care of the hawk for two days before he was able to be taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center. They took radiographs of him during the day shift and on nights we fed the hawk until he was able to be moved. I did not realize how big they were! The beaks were huge and it was an interesting change from seeing only horses for the last 5.5 weeks.

Having so many different horses in different life stages has been fun. I think my favorite part of this fellowship is seeing different horses from newborn foals to twenty-some year old retired Thoroughbreds. Growing up around Thoroughbreds definitely prepared me for this position. The one take away from the different age groups and how they present to the clinic is to make sure that you always treat the horse like you have not been working with it previously. When they settle into the clinic they may be the same or very different animals then they were when you worked with them the day prior.

At the end of this week I get to go home for a quick 4 day visit before coming back to begin my surgery rotation! I am really excited to be able to get into the operating room and see some exciting things. During our surgery rotation we are on call 24/7 in order to get the most surgery experience as possible. Unlike our day and night rotations, surgery is only one week so I will try and soak in as much as possible during my time there. When the surgery rotation is over, I am excited to be able to go ambulatory for a little bit of July and experience what it is like to be on the road.

Here's a bonus picture of the clinic's cutest neighbor :)