Veterinary Experience Research Articles

Impact of gender and race-ethnicity on reasons for pursuing a career in veterinary medicine and career aspirations

To determine the impact of gender and race-ethnicity on reasons applicants to the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine decided to pursue a career in veterinary medicine and their career aspirations. Retrospective cross-sectional study. Personal statements from 694 veterinary medical school applications submitted in 2008. Personal statements were read by investigators to identify the turning point for each applicant's decision to pursue a career in veterinary medicine and each applicant's intended career path. Veterinary practice experience and animal ownership were the most frequently stated reasons for pursuing a veterinary career; differences were not identified between males and females. More Caucasian applicants than underrepresented minority (URM) applicants stated veterinary practice experience and more URM applicants than Caucasian applicants cited animal ownership as a reason for pursuing a veterinary career. Many applicants did not cite a specific career path within veterinary medicine; applicants who indicated a career path most often cited veterinary practice. More females than males stated an interest in equine medicine, and more Caucasian applicants than URM applicants indicated an interest in mixed animal practice. More URM applicants than Caucasian applicants indicated a desire to pursue specialty training. Results suggested that veterinary practice experience and animal ownership were important factors influencing applicants' decision to pursue a veterinary career, but many applicants had not selected a specific career path. Opportunities exist to influence the decisions of individuals to become veterinarians and the selection of specific career paths within the veterinary profession.

Development of perioperative care for pigs undergoing laryngeal transplantation: a case series

Pigs are ideal animal models for airway surgical research, facilitating the successful translation of science into clinical practice. Despite their ubiquitous use, there is a paucity of information on the perioperative care of pigs, especially for major procedures. In a series of experiments to investigate laryngeal transplantation, we combined veterinary and medical experience to develop protocols for perioperative management of pigs, including high dependency care. Novel airway management methods were developed. A pain scoring system was used to direct analgesia use. Fluid balance and electrolytes were monitored closely. Recent animals received a central venous line via the femoral vein two days prior to transplantation to facilitate blood sampling and drug delivery. Intensive monitoring and airway management were required to ensure a successful outcome. Methods for optimal perioperative care are proposed. These results will help future groups wishing to use pigs in airway research, will reduce numbers of animals used and improve animal welfare.

Lethal Injection for Execution: Chemical Asphyxiation?

BackgroundLethal injection for execution was conceived as a comparatively humane alternative to electrocution or cyanide gas. The current protocols are based on one improvised by a medical examiner and an anesthesiologist in Oklahoma and are practiced on an ad hoc basis at the discretion of prison personnel. Each drug used, the ultrashort-acting barbiturate thiopental, the neuromuscular blocker pancuronium bromide, and the electrolyte potassium chloride, was expected to be lethal alone, while the combination was intended to produce anesthesia then death due to respiratory and cardiac arrest. We sought to determine whether the current drug regimen results in death in the manner intended.Methods and FindingsWe analyzed data from two US states that release information on executions, North Carolina and California, as well as the published clinical, laboratory, and veterinary animal experience. Execution outcomes from North Carolina and California together with interspecies dosage scaling of thiopental effects suggest that in the current practice of lethal injection, thiopental might not be fatal and might be insufficient to induce surgical anesthesia for the duration of the execution. Furthermore, evidence from North Carolina, California, and Virginia indicates that potassium chloride in lethal injection does not reliably induce cardiac arrest.ConclusionsWe were able to analyze only a limited number of executions. However, our findings suggest that current lethal injection protocols may not reliably effect death through the mechanisms intended, indicating a failure of design and implementation. If thiopental and potassium chloride fail to cause anesthesia and cardiac arrest, potentially aware inmates could die through pancuronium-induced asphyxiation. Thus the conventional view of lethal injection leading to an invariably peaceful and painless death is questionable.

That First Impression

This paper discusses the avian patient and the unique requirements for their veterinary hospital experience. It emphasizes the need for exceptional customer service that is provided by a well trained and helpful staff. The use of the computer to provide information for the client and help the veterinarian and the entire staff in managing the case is explored. Additional recommendations for supplemental income through product sales are discussed.

New chemotherapy agents in veterinary medicine.

Several anticancer drugs have been added to the therapeutic armamentarium in recent years. Some of these agents are traditional drugs with a long history of use in human oncology. Increased sophistication in clinical trial design in veterinary oncology has allowed the incorporation of agents previously viewed as excessively toxic. Other agents have been developed more recently. This article summarizes the veterinary experience with two older alkylating agents, lomustine and streptozocin, and newer compounds ifosfamide and gemcitabine. The published literature regarding veterinary use of these agents is limited, and the reader is advised to contact a veterinary oncologist for current guidelines when contemplating use of these agents.

Anthelmintic resistance in human helminths: a review.

We briefly review reports on drug resistance in human helminths and compare the factors which contribute to the development of anthelmintic resistance in livestock and man, i.e. high treatment frequency, single-drug regimens, targeting and timing of mass treatments and underdosing. Conclusions are drawn from the mistakes in the treatment and control of livestock helminths. The advantages and inconveniences of current methods for the detection of drug resistance in helminths of livestock are discussed and some suggestions are put forward to standardize the tests for the detection of resistance in human helminths. Finally, based on veterinary experience, some recommendations are made to reduce the risks of development of drug resistance in human helminths. The dramatic and rapid spread of resistance to all major classes of veterinary anthelmintics should be a warning against too strong a reliance on drugs in helminth control programmes.

Application of admissions criteria to applicants with practice versus non-practice career goals in North American schools /colleges of veterinary medicine.

The study was intended to determine whether North American veterinary schools/colleges apply admissions criteria differently to applicants with practice versus non-practice career goals. A written questionnaire with seven queries on admissions criteria was sent to the associate deans for academic affairs at each of the 31 North American veterinary schools/colleges. Questionnaires were completed and returned by 25 of the 31 institutions. The responses were summarized and individual comments were compiled. For veterinary and animal experience, similar amounts but different types of experiences were acceptable to most institutions for applicants with practice versus non-practice career goals. The required pre-veterinary course work was not different for the two groups of applicants. The backgrounds of mentors providing written evaluations were often allowed to be different for the two groups of applicants. The responses expected in applicant interviews were different for the two groups for queries related to veterinary and career experiences and knowledge of specific career areas but were similar for various basic qualities and skills expected of all applicants. Although institutions vary, North American veterinary schools/colleges tend to apply admissions criteria differently to applicants with practice versus non-practice goals, except for pre-veterinary course requirements.

The veterinary experience

Veterinarians have three decades of experience with the use of α2-agonists. Xylazine, synthesized in 1962, was the first α2-agonist to be used as a sedative and analgesic, first in cattle and later in many other species. The major side-effects were bradycardia and a biphasic blood pressure response with moderate hypotension following an initial hypertensive episode. In the 1980s, new α2-agonists with a much higher potency and greater specificity at central α2-adrenoceptor sites were introduced: detomidine, romifidine and medetomidine. These drugs showed side-effects similar to those of xylazine but had a longer sedative and analgesic action. Alpha2-agonists have proved to be safe agents for analgo-sedation and muscle relaxation in healthy animals. In combination with opioids or mono-anaesthetics, they can be used either to induce a profound sedative-analgesic state or to enhance general anaesthesia while reducing the anaesthetic requirement and smoothing the recovery phase. The availability of α2-antagonists such as atipamezole has increased safety and allowed remarkable versatility in veterinary anaesthetic management.

Measuring the effects of problem-based learning on the development of veterinary students' clinical expertise.

To investigate whether repeated exposure to simulated clinical cases, as employed in problem-based learning (PBL), accelerates the development of clinical expertise in veterinary students. In 1995 all 122 second-year students at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine were organized into 24 self-selected groups to complete four computer-based case simulations in veterinary neuroanatomy. A scoring rubric of four categories (poor, neutral, good, and excellent) was used to assign quality classifications for physical examination questions selected by the students. Each group's diagnostic efficiency was calculated for each case on the basis of these classifications. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) using a one-factor repeated-measures procedure was employed to examine the cumulative effects of the case simulations on diagnostic efficiency. Post hoc procedures involved the use of contrasts to determine the trend of diagnostic efficiency with repeated use of case simulations. A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was calculated to determine the strength of the relationship between the change in diagnostic efficiency for each group and the selected group characteristics, total hands-on veterinary experience, and average grade-point average (GPA). Because six of the 24 groups did not perform a physical examination in one of the cases, a rating of zero was given when no physical examination was done; the data were then analyzed with and without the six groups included, and compared. The ANOVA yielded a significant result for all 24 groups (F(3,69) = 2.75, p = .0491) and for the 18 groups that performed physical examinations in all four cases (F(3,51) = 3.03, p = .0377). Significant linear contrasts were also found for all 24 groups (F(1,69) = 7.21, p = .009) and for the 18 groups (F(1,51) = 4.25, p = .044). Improvement in diagnostic efficiency could not be correlated with GPAs and was only somewhat correlated with the total amount of prior clinical experience reported by the students. Study findings suggest that there is a significant relationship between the repeated use of case simulations in PBL and the accelerated development of clinical expertise.

Canadian Muskoxen in Central Europe - A Zoo Veterinary Review

This paper summarizes 29 years of veterinary experience maintaining a herd of muskoxen at the Tierpark Berlin-Friedrichsfelde, Berlin, Germany. The transplanted muskoxen acclimated to the zoo enviroment without fatalities. However, a few striking changes were seen. They exhibit a high sensitivity to sudden changes in weather conditions (especially falling atmospheric pressure); there is a tendency for their qiviut to become sparser with time; rutting and subsequent calving occur later than in their native habitat. Details of medical conditions in both calves and adults ate given along with information on hematology and immobilization.

In Search of Imperial Recognition: The Australian Veterinary Experience.

Historical Records of Australian Science publishes peer-reviewed articles and book reviews on the history of science and scientists in Australia and the southwest Pacific, biographical memoirs of deceased Fellows of the Academy, and an annual bibliography of the history of Australian science