Stravinsky Girl 2007, a two-day-old chocolate brown thoroughbred foal, pranced around Tuesday morning in a hay-strewn stall at the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Large Animal Clinic. The wobbly young foal shares the stall with her mother in the Intensive Care Unit. The foal’s owners brought the foal to the clinic because she was sick. She wore a blue bandage on her back left leg and a tan bandage wrapped around her neck. Despite her unsteadiness, the foal stood near her mother and nursed. A group of the clinic’s technicians and the Equine Critical Care Team, a group of 52 students, take care of sick horses at the clinic daily. The team members work every spring, when many horses bare young foals, to ensure the horses’ health and safety. The team members, who work four-hour shifts, are responsible for several tasks. They report to on-duty technicians and assist the foals physically if they are having difficulty standing or walking independently. They check the foals’ temperatures, heart rates and breath rates. They are also responsible for checking intravenous lines and pumps. Ann Chapman, visiting assistant veterinary medicine professor, said the team worked exclusively with foals in the past and began working with older horses this academic year. She said the school wanted to give the students a broader variety of opportunities. Rachel Helm, second-year veterinary student and team leader, started working with the team two years ago. She said she had little experience with taking care of horses before she began her job. “I wanted to get some exposure to it before I start my third year,” she said. Helm said she was nervous the first time she worked at the clinic because she was worried something would go wrong, and she would not know what to do. She said her experience at the clinic will help her after she graduates. She plans to work with a variety of animals, including large, small and exotic animals. Matthew McGeachy, pre-vet animal science junior, works in the Equine Laboratory where he assists doctors with their research projects and in the general care of the research horses.
McGeachy said he decided he wanted to become a veterinarian after he graduated from high school. “Ultimately I would like to be an equine surgeon, but right now I am just working on getting into vet school,” he said. McGeachy said he had a night shift from 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. the first time worked at the clinic. “The foal that I was assigned to wasn’t walking very well so he couldn’t stand to nurse,” he said. “My job was to feed him and try to get him to stand up.” McGeachy said he had to hold the foal up with a sling. “The second time I went into the stall and he tried to stand by himself,” he said. “He actually was able to stand long enough to figure out where to nurse. By the next time I had a shift a few days later, he was up and eating. He left to go home the next day.” Chapman said Southern horse breeders admit their horses into the Large Animal Clinic for several reasons like wounds, ultrasounds and X-rays. “You name it,” she said. “We see all kinds of emergencies.” Chapman said foals stay at the clinic anywhere from two days to three weeks depending on the reason they were admitted to the clinic. She said the horses receive 24-hour patient care after they arrive at the clinic. She said breeders admit horses as old as 40 and as young as two hours. Helm said it is difficult for many people if a foal’s health is out of the veterinarian’s hands and it dies. “Some of [the foals] don’t make it, and that’s hard,” she said. “You’re sitting with them, and you’re doing everything you can, but they’re not strong enough.” Chapman said the veterinarians do not usually give the foals names after they are born. The veterinarians call the foals by their mother’s name plus the year they were born. Chapman said horses usually bare foals in the beginning of the year, so they will be the same size for racing season.
—–Contact Angelle Barbazon at [email protected]