South African Wildlife Veterinary Experience

Dr. Kellam is leading a trip of six students on the Shimongwe Limpopo Veterinary Experience. They are working with the local wildlife veterinarians to assist sick and injured wildlife, learn about game capture and immobilization in the field, assist with translocation of various species, conduct blood sampling to ensure disease free buffalo breeding populations, and to learn the safety procedures related to the use of drugs used to sedate large game animals such as elephants and rhinos. There is lots more information on the organizations website or follow them on the African Wildlife Vets facebook page. 

Keli van den Heuvel giving a buffalo cow her reversal after a pregnancy exam 

Waking up the impressive Eland bull after his transport to a new enclosure 

Mia DiPillo administering a reversal injection to a young and excited sable bull after his examination 

Pre Vet Internship Series

Caring for Blocked Nasolacrimal Ducts

by Cami Glaff

 

Over the weekend, we were able to clear Astaire’s tear ducts. Often time’s horses will get obstructed tear ducts, which causes the excess tears to flow freely onto their face. They will have a consistent flow of ocular discharge onto their face, regardless of how often you clean the eye. Under normal conditions, tears will flow down the nasolacrimal duct and then drain from the nostrils. When those membranes become swollen and irritated, that is when we will see an excess of drainage onto their face. An easy fix to this is to have them flushed with sterile saline solution.

To do this, Astaire was sedated and we put a small tube up his nasolacrimal duct. Then we flushed each side with 30 cc of sterile saline solution so that the solution comes up from the tear duct in the eye so you know the blockage has been cleared. Many horses have to have the procedure done every few months to keep their tear ducts clear and healthy.

Pre-Vet Internship Series

We are starting a new regular feature written by students in the Pre-Vet Internship program. They will be sharing their experiences in the internship program as they work with Dr. Kellam to care for the horses at St. Andrews.

Quincey’s Eye Enucleation

By: Cami Glaff and Keli Van Den Hevual

 Quincey is one of our sweetest, most talented horses in our Hunt-Seat program. Before Quincey came to us, he sustained an injury in his left eye that created a good amount of scar tissue and left him partially blind. Last semester, he came in from the pasture one morning with a puncture wound right in the middle of that unhealthy left eye.

       

    Dr. Kellam determined that the puncture was fairly deep into the cornea. Because the puncture was located directly in the middle of his unhealthy scar tissue, we were concerned that the healing process would be long and not without difficulties.
            We treated him for a month; administrating antibiotics multiple times a day, in addition to banamine for the swelling and pain. One morning we came in to find that Quincey’s eye had rupture from a combination of the pressure and infection, and him itching the area.
            It was then decided that Q’s eye would have to be removed. In order for him to have a happy and healthy life Dr. K performed an enucleation of Quincey’s eye. It was a 5 hour surgery with 3 hours of after care. The experience was incredible; we were able to assist Dr. K in an important procedure. Being that up close to it all, we had the opportunity to see every little detail that was happening during his surgery. We also helped by monitoring Quincey health during the whole procedure. Seeing an operation like that from start to finish was amazing, we had the chance to fully appreciate the hands-on learning experience.
            After the surgery, it was very time consuming to look after Quincey while he adapted to having only one eye. We took shift at the barn that lasted 5 hours at a time, in order to monitor him safely. Of course Quincey did not want to help us out. He immediately starting rubbing his eye, and eventually rubbed some of his sutures out. This made our job more complicated; we had to watch him even more closely than we did before. Quincey eventually stopped rubbing, so that his eye could completely heal over without any more setbacks. He is currently fat and happy, and adjusting well to his new one-sided sight.