Dr. Stacy Semevolos has been named Interim Head of the Department of Clinical Sciences. Semevolos is an Associate Professor of Large Animal Surgery. Her professional interests include large animal orthopedic surgery, equine osteochondrosis, and articular cartilage development.
New Head of Clinical Sciences
October 7th, 2013Cook Up Some Chili for Scholarships
October 7th, 2013
Registration is open for the 2nd Annual Vet Med Chili Cookoff sponsored by SCAVMA. Students and student organizations have a shot at $9,000 in scholarship money this year. There will be three $1,000 prizes for winning students organizations, five $1,000 scholarships for individual students, and another $1,000 for best theme.
Attendees at the cookoff will get a bowl of chili, all the fixin’s, and a beverage, plus 3 tickets to vote on their favorite recipe in exchange for a $5 donation.
Friends and families of cooks are encouraged to come stuff the ballot boxes!
The festivities take place on Saturday, October 26, 2 hours before kick-off, in the Magruder Hall lobby. Deadline to register for a booth is Oct. 16.
A big Thank You to our sponsors: The Oregon Beef Council., The Northwest Camelid Foundation, and Willamette Valley Animal Hospital.
Bag of Bones Provides Skill Building
September 23rd, 2013
Danielle Butler with the goat skeleton she built this summer.
Dr. Terri Clark’s mission to populate the CVM anatomy lab with every skeleton in the animal kingdom is one step closer to completion thanks to second-year student Danielle Butler. She spent most of the summer articulating a goat skeleton.
Butler started with lots of bones and no instructions. “I got a bag of vertebrae, a bag of ribs, a skull, a mandible, and a sternum,” she says. “The legs were already put together by a student last year.” Dr. Clarke provided her with a book on articulating a moose. “That helped a little bit,” says Butler, “and the student who built the llama last summer wrote some notes.”
The project also required carpentry skills that were new to Butler. “This was the first time I’ve really used a drill. All the ribs are attached with little metal spikes so I had to drill all those,” she says. “I used a super-tiny drill bit because I didn’t want to break anything.”
CVM jack-of-all-trades, Steve Lehto, helped Butler bend the heavy wire that ran through the backbone and also built a stand to support the goat. “He was a huge help,” says Butler, “I couldn’t have done it without him.”
Butler appreciates the importance of having skeletons available for students. “When we have lecture then we can go look at the skeletons. We used the horse and the ox a lot last year,” she says. “If you can get 3-D it’s always so much better.”
Having survived the first year of veterinary college, Butler is looking forward to getting into the lab this year. “I’m really excited for bacteriology because I love microbiology,” she says. “And I’m excited for parasitology; I’ve heard that is really interesting.”
As a Merial Scholar, Butler also worked this summer in Dr. Dan Rockey’s laboratory. “He has a new compound we’re testing, an anti-chlamydial and anti-gonorrhea compound,” she says. “We’re working with mice to see if it is toxic, and to get a pharmacokenetic profile. That’s been really interesting and has given me a lot of insight into lab animal medicine.”
Although interested in both lab animal medicine and radiology, Butler isn’t sure yet which career path she will choose. “It’s a little overwhelming. There are so many different things I can do, it’s hard to just pick one and go for it. I’m not there yet.” Fortunately, she has three more years to decide.
Familiar Faces to Star in Sound of Music
September 20th, 2013
In November friends of the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine will be able to see two college employees in a new light: a stage light.
Dr. Patrick Chappell, assistant professor of physiology, and Kelley Marchbanks, director of development, beat out dozens of hopefuls to land the starring roles in the Majestic Theater production of the Sound of Music. Chappell will play Captain VonTrapp and Marchbanks will play Maria.
Marchbanks has performed many times in community theater, including Sound of Music where she met her husband. She won the Miss Missouri talent contest and recently placed third in the Oregon State Fair singing competition.
Chappell did some musical theater in high school and college, and had a role in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Majestic “a long time ago.” He wasn’t planning to audition for this role, but while escorting his son to try-outs, decided to give it a shot. “I didn’t even follow the rules,” he says. “I was supposed to be prepared and provide sheet music, but I just sang whatever came to mind. They asked me which part I was auditioning for and I said ‘I don’t know, how about the dude who is my age?'” He was very surprised when they cast him.
Sound of Music begins November 7th with matinee and evening performances throughout the month of November. Tickets go on sale October 2nd. For more information, visit the Majestic Theater website.
Camelid Class Attracts Students From Across U.S. and Canada
September 20th, 2013
Laura Niman trims hoofs while Keri Clarkson soothes Angel Face, a teaching herd llama.
The OSU llama teaching herd provided good animal-handling experience for DVM students who attended this summer’s Camelid Medicine course. The teaching herd llamas are bigger than average because they serve as blood donors for the hospital. They are also on the older side and pretty clever. In order to practice hoof trimming and dental care, and administer innoculations, students first had to catch and restrain the wily camelids. It was a big change from dogs and cats.
“They are so fluffy, you just want to hug them, but they won’t have it,” says Kristen Hull, a fourth-year student from Mississippi State.
Hull grew up in the midwest and has experience with small ruminants and horses, but not llamas. “I plan to go back to Indiana to do mixed practice and we have a decent amount of camelids there. Not a lot of vets see them, so I thought the class would be pretty helpful and make me more marketable,” says Hull.
Nineteen students from across the United State and Canada signed up for the two-week class taught by Dr. Chris Cebra. Hull heard about the class through word of mouth. “I have a classmate who learned about it from a blog and he told me about it,” she says. Hull contacted Cebra and was pleasantly surprised by his response. “It was really easy to sign up for this class. I just emailed Dr. Cebra; no hoops to jump through, just come to the class. They even helped me figure out housing. Twenty people asked me if I wanted to stay with them; it was really nice.”
Partnership With Humane Society Celebrates Sixth Anniversary
September 19th, 2013
Almost 70,000 surgeries, and over 24,000 medical exams later, CVM is joining the Oregon Humane Society in celebrating six productive years of partnership at the Animal Medical Learning Center.
Every week, for six years, there have been at least three OSU veterinary students on rotation at the AMLC helping with the tens of thousands of animals that come through the shelter every year — including more than 4,000 animals transferred from other shelters throughout the west.
Over half of the animals at the OHS need spay or neuter surgery, and OSU students are in the hospital assisting Dr. Kirk Miller on most of them. The sheer volume of cases has allowed OSU students to solidify skills they learned at OSU and on other preceptorships.
“Thank you to everyone at OSU-CVM for your support of the OHS Animal Medical Learning Center,” says OHS Director Kris Otteman. “Looking forward to continued success in our partnership!”
