More Patients and Updates!

Hello! Here's what we have been up to!




Skunk is a paint gelding that was presented to us with a lameness issue. When we went in to exam Skunk, he had a slight ocular discharge coming out of his right eye. Upon further inspection, Skunk had a sand spur lodged in his third eyelid. Skunk was given a carbocaine injection above the eye so he could not feel Dr. Kellam pulling out the sand spur.

 

Here's a video of Dr. Kellam taking out the sand spur!

Zoey is a 7 year old chestnut Quarter Horse mare.  She was presented to us because she was very stiff at the canter with both hind limbs. The best course of action was to inject her hocks and fetlocks. We injected her with H.A., a steroid, and an antibiotic.

 

Surgical scrub before injections.

Sarah is a 12 year old chestnut mare. She came in from the pasture with a swollen left hind leg. We treated her with cryocuff cold treatment twice a day, surpass in the morning and poultice at night while being wrapped with standing wraps. Her leg has since gone down and looks back to normal.

Thanks for reading!

New challenges and experiences!

Hello! All the interns have been very busy this past month, here is a glimpse into our world!



Charlie Parker is an chestnut thoroughbred gelding. He received an injection of B12 in a acupuncture spot behind the ear. This is a natural supplement.

Astro is a dark bay TB cross. He has thoroughpin in his left hind hock.  Earlier, we drained the fluid out of the tibiotarsal joint, with a lot of success. This time around, we tried to drain it again, but no fluid came out. This will now be a permanent blemish.

Kali and Mia doing a surgical scrub.

Noodle is a 7 year old dark bay Selle Francais gelding. He sustained a bowed tendon while out in the pasture. The swelling has since gone down and performed an ultrasound on the affected left front leg. There was no tear in any soft tissue structures, which led us to believe that it was a strain.  He was not lame on examination. 

Bri doing a cross-sectional view of soft tissue structures in the leg.

Harley is a chestnut Quarter horse that had a laceration to his left front leg. The interns were able to practice their suturing skills by being watched over by Dr. Kellam.  He had seven sutures in total.

Cleaned with chlorohexadine scrub.

Kali and Dr. Kellam

After suturing.

A couple of days after the sutures.

Jeb is an chestnut TB cross gelding. He is an older guy who needed to get his teeth floated.  

Mia floating Jeb's teeth.

Bri feeling where she needs to be to float.

Thanks for reading!

Starting the Semester In Style!

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since I have updated the blog.  All the interns are back in action for the Fall 2012 semester of the Vet Internship! Dr. Kellam surprised all of us with our own lab coats with our names and St. Andrews University embroidered on them!

(From left to right) Alexandra, Keli, Mia, Kali, Bri, and Sami.

Close up of lab coat.

After the excitement, we also received new suture and needle drivers to practice our suturing skills. Dr. Kellam split the interns into groups  and made on-call weekend shifts for each pair of interns. 

On August 31^st, we had a different kind of patient come through the doors. Audrey Hayden had recently rescued a grey cat named Calvin. Calvin was here to be castrated.

September 3^rd was another long day due to pulling up vaccinations for the fall season.  Each of us received a stack of coggins to re-write so that we could take blood on Friday, the 7^th.

  

On September 5^th, we went to a privately owned barn to treat Della, a 33 year old mare, who has sarcoids in between her hind legs. There were multiple lesions all over her left hind leg. It is a hard area to access and she enjoys being itched because she cannot do it herself.  She was scrubbed with betadine solution, given I.V. banamine, and sedated with acepromazine.  Dr. Kellam injected carbocaine into the regions that would be debunked of sarcoid. 

On September 12^th, we looked at Astro for his prevalent thoroughpin. It was said that he has been like this all summer. Here are some videos at the trot and pictures to show the different sizes of the hock joint capsule.

   

                                                                 

<--Right Hind                  Left Hind-->

We must drain the fluid inside the joint.  After we relieve some of the pressure, a steroid and antibiotic will be injected at the site. Here is a video of the fluid coming from his left hind hock.

The same day, Lio is getting his fetlock and coffin joints injected to see if it will help with his soundness on his left front leg. 

His injections included H. Acid, a steroid, and an antibiotic. Both horses were left in for the night and had bandage wraps after injection.

Della was also having some problems on the 12^th. We went to look at her progress and the sarcoid came back after a week! Using the same procedure a week ago, the sarcoid was cut off again.

 Thanks for reading!

The Learning Doesn't Stop!

Greetings!


Only one week left until both IHSA teams leave for Nationals!


Last Saturday, Danny came in from the field with a laceration on the inside of his left front leg.  The area was clipped and scrubbed with chlorhexidine.  The interns on-call (Keli and Kali) were able to practice their suturing skills and suture up the laceration.

After the clipping and trying to disinfect the area.

After the sutures are put into place.

Wrapped the area to keep it safe from infection.

On Wednesday during night check, I noticed that Tony didn't look like he was feeling well. All the horses had to stay in because of the impending storms that night.  He had all of his hay from earlier in his stall that was untouched since dinner.  I looked in his water bucket and he had only drank half a bucket of water.  Earlier that day, Tony was ridden in the western clinic and worked very hard.  I saw him leaning his hind end against his stall wall, which looked suspicious. I tried to push his hind end off the wall, but he just took a couple steps sideways and went back to leaning against the wall.  These are usual characteristics of a horse that is foundering or is tying-up. Luckily, none of those things were happening to Tony.   There was a very soft but hot swelling on his right side, right below his hip joint.  This was the cause of his pain.  We decided to give him banamine and robaxin.  We also clipped the affected area of swelling and applied surpass on the area.  We looked at his mucous membranes and his capillary refill time. His mucous membranes were red and had little brighter red dots on them. His capillary refill time was slow and he didn't look like his usual self.  His pulse and respiration were elevated, but his temperature was normal. Dr. K decided to put in an I.V. catheter and supply fluids and DMSO to Tony to make him feel better.

Where Tony was standing against the wall.

He had marks on his hind end from resting against it and shifting his weight.

Deep tissue swelling around his hip joint.

Right side of hip 

Left side of hip

Asymmetrical in his hips. Right side is three inches shorter than normal left side. 

Red dots on his gums while his gums were red, not the normal pink.

Scrubbed and ready for catheter.

Catheter in place and being treated with IV fluids and DMSO

Wrapped the catheter just in case we needed to repeat treatment.

Tony is now doing fine and we will continue to watch his progress.

Thanks for reading!

Recoveries and New Treatments!

Hello!


The weeks of finals are slowing creeping upon all the students of St. Andrews University.  This means that all the horses and people are preparing their trip to Nationals at the Hunt Horse Complex in Raleigh, NC.

On Wednesday, April 11th, the interns went out to the barn to check on old cases and try some electroacupuncture on Royal.

We looked at the progress of Ozzie, the head shaker. He seems to be doing well with his treatment on Dexamethasone twice a day.  He is also being ridden with a net over his nose so that the no-see-ums or gnats cannot go into his nasal passageways.

Charlie Parker, with the hygroma on his carpus that we drained.  He has healed up nicely and now the carpus looks normal and he is able to be turned back out during the day.

Zoey is a new western horse that had a swollen eye when she came in from her field.  It was apparent that she was continuously rubbing her eye on her carpus because of the gnats.  She had slight conjunctivitis and was treated with triple antibiotic ointment. She will also wear a fly mask whenever she goes outside.


Royal got the 'Royal Treatment' with electroacupucture.  He is getting acupuncture once a week and he loves every minute of it! He is usually always in your face and wants to see if you have a cookie for him. But with the acupuncture, he becomes relaxed and stands in place, enjoying the feeling of "tai chi"

Sami carefully placing an acupuncture needle on Royal's back.

Dr. Kellam is handling the frequency and duration of the electroacupuncture.

On Friday, we all went out to the lesson barn to combat a bacterial infection called rain rot.  It is not as bad as it sounds and it is a usual problem do to dew poisoning.  The horses that had more rain rot were body clipped.  All horses were treated with a chlorhexidine scrub to take off the scabs and dead hair.  The scrub would soak in so the follicles would let go of the hair easier.  With constant watch over these horses and their infected areas, they should be cleared up in no time!

Body clipping Ben. Thanks Brianna and Sami!

More body clipping of Ben!

Kali scrubbing Busy wherever she sees rain rot.

Thanks for reading!