To Be A Vet

By Hugh Jones

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On the surface, the hospital resembles any human one–there's the reception desk, and beyond, medical records. Stroll down the hallway past examination rooms, emergency, intensive care, xray, ultrasound, the lab. But the patient holding area is a bit different: row upon row of stalls and chutes. The patients don't complain about the food, except for a bull with an attitude. His hind leg is bound in a cast, but a front leg pounds the floor menacingly as he ducks his head, brandishing his horns. Alas, even veterinarians have problem patients.

This is the College of Veterinary Medicine's teaching hospital at Oklahoma State University, where animals come to be cured and humans come to learn the curing. What does it take to enter the school and emerge as a veterinarian? Brains and dedication. Students face rigorous classes, years of study and a few angry bulls along the way.

Dr. Michael Lorenz will guide you through the maze. As the veterinary college's associate dean of academic affairs, he has a hand in everything involving the students: recruitment, admissions, curriculum, academic standards, advising, scholarships and awards. Like several on the staff, he knows the program from the ground up, as an OSU graduate.

"If you want to go to this veterinary college, you have to commit to one thing, working with all animal species," he says. "As you might expect in an agricultural state, there's a strong emphasis on food animals–dairy and beef cattle and swine. So if the student says, gee, I'm only interested in dogs and cats, our response is if you don't pay attention to the food animals and equine stuff, you may not make it through the program. As they progress, we allow them to select animal species they're most interested in through electives."

There you are. You may want to specialize in birds, but you will encounter the bull...so to speak.

OSU's veterinary program, established in 1948, is one of 27 such colleges in the U.S. Together, they turn out over 2,000 vets a year. OSU contributes over 70. To understand what they go through is to gain respect for the profession. When the rest of us graduate with a normal bachelor's degree, they're just getting started.

"It takes seven to eight years," says Lorenz, "three to four of undergraduate education, then four years in the veterinary program. That will get them a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. Then they have to pass state and national exams to be licensed to practice."

Postgraduate training for higher degrees or board certification will tack on a few more years. But starting way before that, high school students should be focusing on English composition, mathematics and the biological and physical sciences. In addition, the college seeks those well educated in the social sciences and humanities. Applicants to the program aren't required to have a B.A. or B.S., but it is preferred. There's no particular major an undergraduate must pursue, but the applicant must complete certain prerequisites, such as chemistry, physics, biology, animal nutrition and genetics. Applicants are interviewed and their backgrounds evaluated. In other words, it takes effort to get in and stay in.

Once in, the real fun begins with courses in anatomy, infectious diseases, diagnostics, general medicine and surgery, pathology, pharmacology, anesthesiology, dermatology, cardiology, immunology, toxicology, neurology, radiology–lots of ologies.

Lorenz believes it's fundamentally more difficult to become a veterinarian than a physician, "In acquiring the right education, the knowledge base and skills because of the multiple animal species involved." So how do they deal with that?

"By teaching veterinary medicine in a comparative way," he says. "We teach principles that can be applied across multiple species. Our dean is a small animal surgeon, but he's also recognized as a national resource on marine mammals. How does a dog surgeon become proficient in marine mammals? The comparative approach."

Dr. John Kirkpatrick, director of the teaching hospital, agrees. "It's impossible to train veterinary students without it. For them to spend all their time studying one species isn't practical. They have to look at the animal without the hair or hide."

And, Lorenz adds, the human is brought into the comparison. "In my specialty of internal medicine, I ask students to understand and draw analogies between disease processes in people and in dogs and cats. That's not done well in human medicine. Physicians wouldn't think of diagnosing and treating a dog or cat. Veterinarians aren't as limited, which doesn't mean we're going to work on people. Obviously not, but we take more from human medicine and apply it to animal species than human medicine takes from us. That's becoming a concern, especially with diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans and vice versa. Public health people are acutely aware of the need for veterinarians, because they use the comparative approach."

This is something students may want to consider after graduation. While the majority go into private practice, Kirkpatrick points out, "There's a broad horizon of opportunities. They can work in government in areas like public health. There's military service and industry, zoo and wildlife management. And, of course, teaching and research."

It's clear, teaching appeals to these two, and there's plenty of ongoing research at OSU. The faculty conducts research on many fronts, including food animals, horses, companion animals and wildlife, also in the biomedical field and in the use of lasers in surgery and medicine.

Dr. Paul LeMars, with fourth year students, Lauren Johnson and Jenny Longbottom take a look at Calvin Thomas' American Eskimo, Isis, who has dry eye syndrome.

Even in private practice, one can choose different directions. There are four basic types of vets: food animal vets, equine, small animal (and there, they may branch further to concentrate on animals like exotic wildlife) and the mixed practice.

In their fourth year, students do rotations through the animal disease diagnostic lab and through all clinical sections of the hospital. There, they work with faculty veterinarians, clients and patients, all under the watchful eyes of Kirkpatrick, also an OSU graduate.

"This is a teaching laboratory," he says while giving a tour of the facility. "Our primary objective is to train veterinarians, but we also provide services. For instance, we're a referral hospital for veterinarians in the state and surrounding states. If they have questions about a case, they send them up. If they have a case where they've done all they can, to the extent of their abilities or equipment, they refer to us. We serve as another set of eyes and ears, and we can provide much greater technology than most practices."

Indeed, he shows the many diagnostic tools at his command, including xray, a CT scanner that can scan everything from dogs to horses, ultrasonography (ultrasound for us laymen), the lab and an electro diagnostic department for detecting neuro-muscular problems. Once the problem is found, there's surgery, radiation therapy and laser therapy among others.

In the holding area, we pass pens holding typical patients: cows, horses and Mr. Bull (we hurry on). But over here is a goat and over there a llama.

"Oh, yes, we see them all," he says, smiling. "Naturally, we see a lot of food animals. In fact, we get the second highest number of cattle in the country–thousands of cattle, horses, swine, goats, dogs and cats. But we also see pocket pets, reptiles, birds, even a hippo."

Kirkpatrick proves what is already evident. The hospital is a valuable resource for the state, for agriculture and for ordinary pet owners. The hospital provides clinical service for the public with fees comparable to those of other vet practices.

Lorenz and Kirkpatrick have similar origins: Oklahoma natives, raised in agricultural settings, OSU alumni. And they possess the same goal, to mold future veterinarians.

"I enjoy teaching," says Lorenz. "I like the atmosphere of academics, the relationships with colleagues and the resources that are available here. A patient can come into our hospital, and I can walk down the hall and find an expert in an area that helps me with that patient.

"I've always had a strong affinity for pathologists." He pauses and looks over his glasses. "People laugh and ask is that because all your patients die? No, I just think they and clinicians often think alike. They are the final answer. If an animal does die, they can tell you why."

As for the classroom, Lorenz thinks good teachers are, perhaps, born with the instinct rather than made.

"There has to be something within that drives them to want to excel in teaching. I see the energy, an undefined motivation to push students to think hard about how they learn. They set high standards, and they're content experts, able to take all this complex information, organize it, condense it and weave it into an interesting and understandable story. You have to be good at crafting the story and presenting it in a way that won't be forgotten."

For Lorenz, the results are his reward. "It's seeing a former student years later or getting a Christmas card that says, when I have a really hard case, I think of you. For good teachers, that's the reward, because we're not going to get rich doing this. We could go into industry or other jobs and make more money, but we get a lot of satisfaction from what we do with young people."

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Dr. John Kirkpatrick, OSU Teaching Hospital Director

Dr. Michael Lorenz, OSU Veterinary College Dean of Academic Affairs

checking out a pair of ferrets
Deanne Whissen, 4th yr. student and Dr. Paul DeMars give Cocoa Nut and Cocoa, two lively ferrets, a good report.

Dr. Ron Mollet confers with OSU through a Telemedicine Referral Center.


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