For people who've been to or worked at the NBC - what do you think we are missing as applicants by only hearing about it and not actually walking around it since they've cancelled that tour? Just curious. I'm not sure about my feelings about Penn and I thought maybe seeing the NBC might sway my opinion a lot.
They just updated the website this summer, so definitely check that out
http://www.vet.upenn.edu/veterinary-hospitals/NBC-hospital
Honestly, I don't think you're missing too much by not being able to walk around. Yes, it's really cool to see some of it, but the students and faculty involved in the interview process will be able to give you a lot of information and really, its reputation speaks for itself. The equine caseload is around 6000 per year, and that's just the hospital- doesn't include field service. The local horse community is incredible- there are a number of hunts in the area, a large h/j circuit, a great eventing community (with riders like Boyd Martin and Phillip Dutton in the area!), and plenty of people who keep horses for pleasure. We're also relatively close to a number of tracks, and a significant portion of our patients are racehorses. I personally know of owners who have shipped horses in from Canada, Florida, etc because of the clinicians and resources we have here.
Other things that are unique about NBC:
- We have a recovery pool for our orthopedic surgery suite. It doesn't get used much, but it's a unique capability.
- Moran- designated building for colic & isolation, and top of the line.
- Havemeyer Equine Behavior Lab ( http://research.vet.upenn.edu/Default.aspx?alias=research.vet.upenn.edu/havemeyerequinebehavior) We have a herd of feral ponies used for behavioral research. They also take several each year and use them for a surgery block, and then adopt them out.
- Hoffman- Our reproduction center. They do a lot of cool things here and even keep a recipient herd for embryo transfers.
- The farrier shop- Pat Reilly is our resident farrier. He sees outside horses and also works on inpatients, works with clinicians on cases (laminitis, canker, corrective shoeing, etc), and is generally awesome at what he does. Students get to go on a rotation with him, which is a great opportunity.
We also have a designated building for NICU & ICU, high speed treadmill, a brand new indoor (mostly used for lameness exams) with fancy hi-tech footing. We have 4 surgery suites: general, special, standing, & orthopedic.
Basically if you want to go equine, this is the place to be. If you're interested in other large animals, I can't tell you as much. We do have a barn in the main hospital that is designated for food animals. Our hospital caseload is definitely lower, but we do have the Marshak dairy and the swine unit. The dairy industry is fairly large in the area, so our food animal field service is pretty active.
I hope this novel has been helpful for some people! If you have any specific questions, I can try to answer them
