Are you afraid of the dentist?

Posted September 2, 2016

Another week on the large animal service has made this small animal girl realize that large animal medicine can be A LOT of fun! I got to experience what it is like to act as an equine dentist for the day and use some pretty neat tools – but, before I get into the fun stuff, a quick lesson on horse teeth.

Horses have 40-42 adult teeth but the neat thing is that the teeth along the sides of their mouth...

Riding with large animal vets closes out externship

Posted September 1, 2016

My time is Eastern Ontario has come to a close. I’ve just finished another two weeks riding with the large animal vets and will be travelling to Ravena, New York to The Equine Clinic at OakenCroft for two weeks of solely equine practice. While I have been able to see some equine appointments, the majority of the calls that Vankleek Hill Veterinary Services receives have to do with cows. While most of the calls are for routine pregnancy checks or farm visits another common call is for a cow ‘off feed’ or with a ‘twist’.

Biosecurity protocols vital at livestock shows

Posted August 30, 2016

What do livestock shows and daycares have in common? Both are full of young, stressed individuals that are just waiting to infect each other with some sort of disease! This week, we had a four-month-old goat come into the hospital, in respiratory distress. After we quickly stabilized her, we learned from her owner that this goat had been to a show on the past weekend. Just like a toddler coming home from daycare, this...

Whatever floats your… teeth?

Posted August 19, 2016

Kelsey and I recently finished week four at Dundas Animal Hospital, and with that we are officially halfway finished our externship – I can’t believe how fast the time is flying! This week I had the opportunity to spend some more time with the large animal vets. The theme of this week seemed to be equine preventive care, which was right up my alley! We spent a...

A long and winding road

Posted August 16, 2016

Becoming a vet can be a long and winding road. As a veterinary student I have spoken at high schools, given tours for ‘take your kids to work day’ and been a representative at the Ontario Universities Fair (OUF) in Toronto. I have no problem giving out my email and helping out students who aspire to be veterinarians. Before I was accepted at the OVC I was lucky enough to have a current student help me...

A Sticky Situation

Posted August 9, 2016

Last week was a long week. Our three-day holiday weekend was filled up with dogs with heat stroke, sick horses, cows with ruptured bladders, dogs with quills, cats with urinary stones, the list goes on and on. Since then we’ve been playing catch up trying to deal with our regular appointments as well as save all of the emergencies that have swept in through the seemingly revolving clinic door. By this afternoon we were beat. Tired, hot and ready to go home, when suddenly our waiting room was filled by a group of six people all gathered around a tiny kitten found in a scrap yard...

Why Would Anyone Want a Pet Pig???

Posted August 9, 2016

Yesterday, as I sat in Dr. Melanie Gagnon’s truck on our way to our first call of the day, I asked her “why would anyone want a pig as a pet?” She explained to me that they behave very much like our canine companions and are extremely intelligent animals – oh, and they are sooooo cute. I wasn’t sure if I completely believed her, especially about the cute factor, but off we went to meet our patient, Kevin.

Pet pigs are often still larger than your average dog,...

Cool cases during a hot weather week

Posted August 5, 2016

It’s been a hot week up here in Eastern Ontario! The temperatures are well into the 30s with the added bonus of humidity and not a drop of rain in sight. I’ve been coming home in the evening just exhausted from being in the heat all day and I’m not the only one who the heat is taking its toll on – our patients are feeling it too! Our dairy producers have been trying to keep their cows cool by using large fans and sprinkler systems. Many stables are...

Finessing communication skills in two languages

Posted August 4, 2016

One of the things that I mentioned in my original post about doing my externship in Eastern Ontario close to the Quebec border was that I was worried about the French language barrier. My mother (an optometrist) originally practiced in Hawkesbury her first year out of school and told me that one-third of the population speaks English, one-third speaks French and English (but would prefer to speak French) and one-third speaks ONLY French. On the files at the Hawkesbury Animal Hospital (HAH) we usually mark in the file which language the clients prefer...

Quill emergency

Posted July 29, 2016

Rex’s morning didn’t go exactly as planned. When his owners let him out for his morning pee and sniff around the yard, they certainly weren’t expecting anything exciting or out of the ordinary. But less than five minutes after letting Rex out, a great howling, painful cry echoed across the backyard and the knee-high Labrador/Corgi cross came bolting into the house shaking….and covered head to toe in quills.

While certainly not a dog’s proudest hour, being on the wrong end of a porcupine conversation is actually fairly common, especially...