I spent the last three days shadowing an equine lameness vet down in Oregon, about an hour south of Portland. It was a very big change of pace from the wildlife business. I hadn't been around horses in over a year, and just getting out into horse country made me feel happy. Walking into the barn and smelling the horses made me feel like I was home again, as cheesy as it sounds.
At Paws we are assessing animals for their ability to be returned to the wild and live. We get in lots of orphans, and birds with broken wings and legs, and other very obvious injuries - if they will recover and live, we treat and care for them.
At the vet in Oregon - he treated mainly top level competitive horses for often very minor injuries. The riders/owners where very in-tune with the horses, and might come in with a complaint like - my horse is consistently a few seconds slower on the barrel course than he should be, I think something is wrong. Then we'd go through a routine that was at least 30 minutes just to figure out what part of the animal was bothering it (If they could talk, the vet said it would cut out about 3/4 of their work). Then they'd get treatments to help return them to their tip top shape. So the two clinics are about as opposite as they can be - not even mentioning the size of the animsl they treated (small baby squirrels and raccoons vs domestic horses).
I enjoyed being there a lot - one of the best parts was that everyone there seemed so happy, and helpful and wanted to be there. I don't think there are many businesses out there that are completely like that. It was a bit of a relieve working with domestic well trained animals - and being allowed to pet them and talk to them, and tell them how handsome they are. (As I mentioned, talking to the wildlife is not allowed, even if they're cute). The only frustrating part was how subtle the work is - because I was not skilled enough to see what they all could see.
for part of the diagnosis during the exam - the vet would flex different parts of each leg, then trot the horse down and back, and rate the amount of lameness out of 5 caused by the flexion. The first day they all looked pretty much the same to me. We didn't get in any horses who where obviously lame - it was always subtle. By the third day I was getting better, and learning some tricks, but I think it will take a lot of work and practice to really feel confident.
I think once I get confident - I would really enjoy the work - because its basically just a big problem solving game. First figuring out what area is bothering the horse (we trot them in soft ground, and hard ground, after flexing before flexing, circles and straight lines etc). Then they figure out whether is bone, or soft tissue etc that is causing the pain in that area. Then how to treat it. And all the while balancing cost of diagnosis/treatment etc. The clinic had some very high end technology - a digital xray machine, a bone scan, ultra sound, shock wave etc. And they're getting a MRI this summer!
This horse clinic is definitly not the usual for an equine vet - but it was a very interesting experience. I will probably be going back later in the summer to follow people around again. I could write a ton more about what I saw - but sport horse lameness just does not lend itself to as many cute stories as Wildlife :). Though they did have two ponies and a little goat named pancake who followed them around. and a cat named frank who loved being held - I spent a lot of time letting him perch on my shoulder. Domestic animals sure are nice :).
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