Dr. Burns is AMAZING!!!

If I learned one thing today it is that Dr. Burns has more knowledge than anyone I've ever met before. My favorite thing about her is that she LOVES to share this wealth of knowledge with others for the betterment of everyone. SHE IS AMAZING! Dr. Burns is probably one of the best clinical teachers I could imagine existing.

Today we examined a 32 yr old mare (with PPID ["Cushings" <-- but not really) with non-weight bearing lameness in her left front limb. She's been previously laminitic and had a series of other problems. She is essentially the poster child for "Cushings-like-syndrome" in horses. We ended up blocking her foot to isolate the lameness, but were only moderately successful in exact identification. Because there are likely other issues occurring concurrently, we gave her some pain meds, wrapped the legs, and headed to the next appointment. She will get digital rads tomorrow.

Next we vaccinated 2 horses that are incredibly lucky horses. As Sam said... if she were a horse, she would want to have this lady as the owner. I agree. The lady was reading with her mare when we arrived, and picked up that again as we were leaving. Her 20 year old gelding looked like he was about 10 at most. She fox hunts (which I found out today is not actually hunting foxes at all) with him, and he is quite fit and healthy. It was a routine stop, but the horses were beautiful and very well loved.

We saw a colic appointment in the afternoon - it was my first colic. As we were trying to identify the mare with complications, she laid down in the field and looked at her side. Perfect. There was our colic case. We brought her in, and I sedated her. We ran a nasogastic tube to check for reflux, which was absent in quantities outside of normal limits. I gave an IV injection of Banamine and we told the owner how to handle the feeding and to call if there were any problems.

One horse needing spring shots was left. We gave the vaccinations and headed back to the clinic, getting back around 5 or so. It was a really fun, educational day. I love Dr. Burns and am really happy I had the opportunity to pick her brain as long as I did today!