Day 2: Collecting a Stallion

Today was all sorts of wonderful! For starters, I came prepared and dressed appropriately for today's ride-alongs. Yesterday it somehow didn't occur to me that I would be outside all day and scrubs and a rain coat would not protect me from the 40 degree weather. Today, my down jacket was barely needed in the shade (a welcomed change). Also, I got to ride with Dr. Jury today. I knew Kristin when she was in vet school at Ohio State, as she is a fellow Oatie (the endearing term for OTS members). She is currently doing an internship at OSU in Equine Ambulatory, and does a great job of teaching students!

Our first appointment of the day was to collect a stallion. For anyone not involved in veterinary medicine or the breeding animal world, you may wonder what "collecting" means. It's the politically correct way of describing the process of manually collecting the semen from an animal, typically done for artificial insemination and breeding purposes. We collected in my Equine Production class in undergrad, but it has been 5 years since I last collected from a stallion. We prepared the AV (artificial vagina), brought in a teaser mare to get the stallion prepared, and Dr. Jury collected from the stallion. The picture to the left is my classmate, Sam, holding the AV. In the background you can see the stallion's "girlfriend for the day" (the dummy he mounted for collection).

From there, we went to check on a coronary band laceration that occurred sometime last week. Sam and I got a TPR (temperature, pulse, and respiratory rate) on the horse and cleaned up the wound. Dr. Jury taught the barn owner how to properly wrap the horse's leg and administer the SMZ (Sulfamethoxazole), and we were on our way to the next stop!

Our next appointment was to look at some "broken horses". A broken horse is one that is lame, typically having issues in the feet and lower limbs. Dr. Jury had Sam and me identify the lame legs and I was correct in finding the lameness both times (yay)! Sam and I also used the hoof testers to see if we could detect any apparent pain in the hooves. I treated the first horse with a sweat wrap, something that was new and fascinating to me. First, I covered the affected portion of the leg with a poultice. Next, I covered that evenly with a thin layer of plastic (in this case, a palpation sleeve cut to fit). After that, I used a sterile combine cotton wrap to wrap the leg. To hold the cotton in place, I used a layer of Vet-Wrap and finished off the top and bottom of the wrap with Elastikon to ensure no debris could enter the bandage. I have included a picture of the wrapped leg. To protect the horse's identity, I have omitted her face and name.

When we returned the hospital, Sam and I restocked the truck. After that, we examined the semen from the stallion we collected this morning. Unfortunately, we only put extender in the semen to be used for AI and didn't put any in the semen to be examined! While it was still quite interesting to see, all of the sperm were dead!

After collecting the last of our items from the pharmacy and central supply, we were able to head home to enjoy the sunshine! I made it home today in time to give both of the dogs baths and allow them to dry in the sun! I also took a brief nap outside, read some of the book Kara lent me (How Doctors Think), and read up on the nerve blocks we covered in our group session this morning. I am riding with Dr. Schmall tomorrow...