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A hospital, a home and a hub for learning

The Veterinary Medical Center, which services a range of animals from cats and dogs to zebras and lions, is also a center for learning for students looking to go into veterinary medicine

February 18, 2015

The MSU Veterinary Medical Center offers a wide range of services to animals. 

Photo by Sergio Martínez-Beltrán | The State News

Not a single siren can be heard when entering this hospital. As strange as it sounds, there are no ambulances that serve this medical center.

Once inside the facility, peculiar patients walk around. Some have cancer, others need physical therapy and a few of them come by to donate blood to fellow patients. All of that can be seen at MSU’s Veterinary Medical Center, which services a range of animals from dogs and cats to horses, zebras and lions.

Although some might underestimate the level of activity within the veterinary hospital, others, like MSU College of Veterinary Medicine professor Laura Nelson, said the intensity is always high.

“One of the things that I like about working in an university is there is no typical day,” Nelson said. “Some days, about 40 to 50 percent of the time I am on the clinical service.”

Nelson, who is also a surgeon at the hospital, said when she is not performing soft tissue surgery, she can be found attending to her furry patients in their regular appointments.

“The specialty I have is not specific to soft tissue orthopedic surgery, but in this setting at Michigan State I do soft tissue surgery,” Nelson said. “That encompasses everything that is not a bone or joint, essentially emergency surgery, surgery of the gastrointestinal tract, oncological cancer surgery and management of wounds and traumatic surgery.”

Nelson, who has been at MSU for six years, said besides performing surgeries she also teaches.

“Part of my role is not only to do surgery but teach surgery to residents and also (to) veterinary students who are going through the required rotation,” Nelson said.

“There is no typical day”

But major surgeries are not the only services provided by the hospital.

Cozmo, a cat brought into Veterinary Medical Center by a veterinary student, donated blood Feb. 12.

In a process that can last around 10 minutes, veterinary technicians assisted Cozmo in the donation of his blood. According to the most recent yearly blood use report, 64 units of feline packed red blood cells and eight units of feline plasma were used in 2011.

Veterinary technician Rose Wahl said having cats donate blood is necessary but isn’t something people know much about.

Cats have three blood types, including type A, which is the most common blood type and comprises probably 95 percent of cats, Wahl said.

Wahl said there are different reasons for cats to need blood from Veterinary Medical Center.

“Sometimes it is a chronic anemia from a chronic disease such as leukemia, renal failure ... brain surgery,” Wahl said.

Kristen Flory, marketing and communications director for the College of Veterinary Medicine, said the hospital has attended a variety of animals, including a male lion treated for epilepsy that was brought in by the personnel of the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids.

“Horses are a little different because we call them companion animals. We don’t consider them pets, but we also don’t consider them livestock,” Flory said. “Horses are expensive animals. The treatment is expensive.”

Fulfilling a passion

Although some students might not work with faculty when working toward individual degrees, at Veterinary Medical Center, the students and faculty work together for the improvement of a pet’s life — sometimes even saving one.

Fourth-year veterinary medicine student Jill Dutkowski works at the hospital doing rotations.

“I’m on my internal medicine rotation, so we deal with a lot of endocrine disorders as well as pancreatitis,” Dutkowski said. “A lot of the complicated cases are what we deal with on this rotation.”

When working on rotations, Dutkowski has the opportunity to work directly with residents and clinicians, as well as faculty.

“We meet with the client, we do a physical exam on the animal, and we kind of get a thorough history, and we take everything that we’ve collected and we present it to the resident or the clinician that is on duty,” Dutkowski said. “Then we formulate a list of rule-outs as well as a plan to move forward and we go together back to talk to the client.”

Dutkowski said students have to do 21 three-week-long rotations in order to graduate.

“We also have three three-week vacation blocks that we can do whatever we want or we can schedule externships on those,” Dutkowski said.

Dutkowski’s passion for animals started way before her college years.

“I have always wanted to be a vet since I was 5 years old,” Dutkowski said. “Originally I fell in love with cats and dogs, mice and rats, and toads and everything.”

But now Dutkowski has a passion for larger animals.

“I started riding horses when I was about 13 years old. ... I’ve kind of become horse crazy,” Dutkowski said. “Now I’m really into equine medicine.”

Dutkowski, however, is just one of the many passionate doctors who work night and day to help different animals.

Andrew Carver is a resident at Veterinary Medical Center. He also teaches.

Carver, who is doing a residency in emergency in critical care, is a clinician in the emergency room and the intensive care unit. He attends to walk-in patients, critical care referrals and also instructs third- and fourth-year veterinary students.

Carver said the hospital had 14 specialists who work with local and statewide referrals.

He said the great thing about MSU’s hospital is that it is a 24/7 year-round facility.

Carver said working in Veterinary Medical Center has allowed him to do what he loves the most: practice medicine.

“For me, the big part of veterinary medicine it was not only just the science behind it. It was definitely the passion for animals,” Carver said. “To be able to go to a field where you can not only apply science and medicine but to be able to help other pets and important members of other people’s family — it’s been phenomenal.”

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