Best Vet Schools with Equine Focus?

[Tegan05]

Do any US vet schools stand out in terms of large animal facilities and equine case load?

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[CurrySpice]

Penn has a great equine program. Cornell & Davis are rated highly as well, although they're crossed off my list. Minnesota just built a new equine center, but I've heard that it's caused some faculty problems ($ allocated to building rather than salaries), not sure if that's been resolved yet. Tufts has a decent equine program, but a relatively low large animal caseload (as told by the admissions rep during my pre-interview. They will, however, help you get experience during internships etc). I've heard good things about Edinburgh (scotland) and their equine caseload.

 

[spicykimchi]

CSU is huge on equine, aren't they? My Equine Science teacher got his Masters in Equine Reproduction there and he, like, adores the school.

 

[jlm179]

🙂

 

[spicykimchi]

Wow, that's a surprise. Any ideas on why this is?

 

[LivestockDoc]

No. I would say no to CSU for equine. I got my b.s in equine science there. I worked at the VTH for a year and a half and it turned me off vet school......

Interesting to hear that. I worked at their VTH in both the small animal side and an area on the large animal side. Very bad experience in both cases. So much so that, even tho' it's my IS school and I was accepted there, I have no intention of attending.

 

[spicykimchi]

Forgive me but what does VTH stand for?

 

[LivestockDoc]

Veterinary Teaching Hospital. CSU wants everyone to call it the Veterinary Medical Center (VMC) now that they've updated the public waiting area (big whoop..zzz), but everyone still calls it VTH anyway.

 

[light10]

Just curious LSD and jlm173 if you could maybe - in the vaguest way possible, of course - elaborate on what you didn't like about the VTH? e.g. attitude, organization, bureaucracy, training approach. Totally understand if you don't want to though.

As far as equine schools, I'd also say Penn and Cornell for sure. Minnesota is certainly climbing although I don't think in the same league yet. I feel like I've also heard good things about Davis, NCSU, Georgia and K-State for equine as well. But sometimes "what you hear" just depends which school's enthusiastic alumni you encounter more often 😉. I know equine vets from quite a number of different schools who are all great. I did hear from a former resident that UGA sees the largest # of colic surgery cases of any vet school in the US but other than that I don't know much about caseloads - its a good question, though.

 

[eventualeventer]

Another plug for UC Davis. A few years ago, they had the second-highest equine caseload in the country after Penn (I don't know how the schools stand now since everyone has been affected by the down economy). Students are welcome to go down to the barn, which is two buildings over from where we have classes, and observe anytime, and there is a colic team and foal team where you get on call shifts and get to go watch them work up cases or sit with the foals. The equine clinicians and residents were SUPER nice to me when I went and observed. In addition, there is a Veterinary Emergency Response Team where you learn how to deal with rescues of all kinds, including airlifting horses (I think Pomona2006 has been up in a helicopter on a training run, she could tell you more about that). Dr. Madigan (also very nice and approachable) is the state's go-to guy for airlifting horses; he did after all invent the Anderson Sling!

OK, I'm a little biased towards my school. 😉

Iowa recently built brand new large animal facilities and has a decent caseload. I was impressed when I interviewed there. They don't have the aqua-treadmill, indoor arena and force plate gait analysis system that Minnesota has, but they have a larger caseload, which is more important, IMO.

I believe Texas A&M also has a fairly large caseload, but I don't know much about them.

Michigan was another that I applied to; I know the state has been hit especially hard by the economy, so I don't know what their current caseload is like, but before that the horse industry was growing quickly and I had heard good things about their equine program.

 

[twelvetigers]

I remember hearing on of the oklahoma school was the best equine school.

Huh! There are definitely lots of horses here. You'll get a good, solid education in equine medicine at most (if not ALL) US schools (plus several in other countries) so really... I don't think it's worth focusing on too much.

 

[jlm179]

Interesting to hear that. I worked at their VTH in both the small animal side and an area on the large animal side. Very bad experience in both cases. So much so that, even tho' it's my IS school and I was accepted there, I have no intention of attending.

Did you go to CSU for undergrad as well? Glad that I am not the only one that was turned off. I never worked on the small animal side so I have no opinion on that.

 

[Tegan05]

Interesting to hear, thanks everyone!

Any input on Purdue or Oregon State?

 

[idahoequestrian]

Interesting to hear, thanks everyone!

Any input on Purdue or Oregon State?

I'm not sure about Purdue, but Oregon State does not have a huge equine focus. They don't have a separate equine program, but just a Large Animal department with a majority of equine cases. They have a great facility though, and I was pleased when I visited. Their class size is small too, which is something to take into account. Also, if Oregon State doesn't have the class you want in a certain specialty, say equine ophthalmology, they let you travel to other schools to take that class for the price of Oregon tuition, which is cool.

What about Washington State?! They have an excellent equine program with outstanding faculty. I have visited multiple times and have been very impressed. They have a good caseload for the region, and are well thought of. Can you tell it's my top choice? 😀

Also, you might want to check out the University of Florida, which I've also heard (from an equine internal medicine vet) is an excellent school.

 

[Minnerbelle]

Not really interested in engaging in a CSU debate (I mean, CO students will forever apply to CSU, and IMO the more OOS people who are discouraged from applying, the better the chance for the people who REALLY want to attend given the dismal state that is OOS admissions at CSU).

I dunno much about clinical training for Equine med at CSU, since frankly, I don't care (I'm definitely tracking small animal, and yes you do track at CSU, and though I was apprehensive about that at first, but am becoming more and more grateful). But I would echo what TT said. You'll get a great equine ed pretty much wherever you go, and I think your personal involvement, and motivation to find opportunity for YOURSELF is going to matter far more than the institution you attend. I mean, which vet school doesn't have opportunities for interested students to get involved or have foal watch/foaling teams? I'd say rather than picking where to apply based on equine ed, apply broadly and then assess each school that you get accepted to weighing EVERY factor that is important to you. Are there any schools out there with abysmally low equine caseloads?

And to the CSU undergrad who was turned off by idiot vet students, please do realize that you'll find idiots in every vet school. Perhaps they're not really idiots, or maybe they are, but you have to appreciate that people come from very diverse backgrounds and have very diverse career goals. It seems like to an extent you do understand that, but I see this "oh my god, I saw a vet student who didn't know ________, they shouldn't be in vet school. I know much more deserving people" attitude a lot, and it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine. When I go around and have to do anything on a horse, you bet I'm going to seem like I don't belong in vet school. I would work hard and try as much as I can, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a heck of a lot of help (btw, isn't that what support staff is there for anyway? I'd actually be put off as a student if some pre-vet was being super judgmental of me when I'm simply trying to learn). I grew up never having touched a horse and don't really plan on being BFFs with them in the future either, but that does not mean I won't make a great small/exotic animal vet or a veterinary researcher (with some book knowledge on horses and food animals). I think the beauty of vet school is that it's an opportunity for everyone to consider their vast career potentials and try something new if they so desire. I'm confident that if even I really really wanted to become an equine vet, I would be able to find opportunities at CSU to become prepared to practice.

And livestockvet, I'm sorry to hear that you have no intentions of attending - I was looking forward to seeing you in next year's first year class! Oh well, that's just CSU's loss... but there really is no reason to attend anywhere you don't want to. But who exactly is pushing the VMH idea? I've never heard of the term...like seriously, ever... and I work in the VTH (albeit in a clinical research lab). And our hospital id tags still say VTH too. Maybe it's the hospital administrators trying to push it on the hospital staff, and it hasn't spread to clinicians or any other part of the vet school? ... but you'd think they'd try to push it onto first-years during orientation when the hospital director comes and has the opportunity to indoctrinate students if they really wanted to. Not saying that what you're saying isn't true at all. It might very well be. I've just never been exposed to it, or my 2nd year roommate.

One thing I do know is that like others above have said, CSU is well known for their equine reproduction research, so if that's something you're really interested in, CSU might actually be a place to easily gain experience in the field. They have a whole separate campus (~3 miles down the road) full of horses that they lease from some guy in Texas for it. I'm not sure if the campus is exclusively there for equine reproduction, but I went for a mare AI wetlab and it was an amazing experience. CSU is also known for their animal cancer center... but I think that's kind of like the general "equine focus" thing... you can get just as great an experience in cancer research wherever you go just because it's such a common and broad category. So yeah, if there's a very specific thing that one school is known for that you really want to get involved in (like vet forensics in FL?) I can see singling out a particular school for that... but otherwise I dunno if it really matters. Great students will excel no matter what they do or where they go... and mediocre students will kind of suck no matter where they go.

Just my 2 cents, and now off my soapbox.

 

[CurrySpice]

Another thing you may want to consider is whether the equine center is a part of campus. Penn is in downtown Philly, so the equine center is a good 45 min drive west. It's smack in the middle of some wealthy horse country, hence the high caseload, but you may have some trouble getting to it. I shadowed at the large animal center for a week a while ago and loved it's location (I live halfway between the large animal center and main campus), but the distance may limit student opportunities.

Any Penn students want to chime in on their experience with the separation from campus?

I'm really excited that Edinburgh is condensing their campus outside of the city, but I'm curious how that will affect the caseload. I've heard you get some crazy emergency cases in the city!

 

[eventualeventer]

At VA Tech, most of the action is at the Equine Medical Center, which is at the opposite end of the state more than 4 hours away. I have heard that the main campus caseload is pretty low. You get some rotations at the EMC as a 4th year, but it's not like you can waltz up there for foal team/observation/etc during your first 3 years. FWIW, a friend who did vet school at VA Tech and a residency (equine internal medicine) at Davis felt pretty strongly that the students at Davis were much better prepared to go out in to practice in terms of hands-on experience and exposure to a higher caseload. That's just one person's opinion, though.

 

[LetItSnow]

... at the risk of sounding dismissive, I will suggest that the best equine vet school is the one that you get into. 🙂

 

[LivestockDoc]

I mean, which vet school doesn't have opportunities for interested students to get involved or have foal watch/foaling teams?

Oregon?

And livestockvet, I'm sorry to hear that you have no intentions of attending - I was looking forward to seeing you in next year's first year class! Oh well, that's just CSU's loss... but there really is no reason to attend anywhere you don't want to. But who exactly is pushing the VMH idea? I've never heard of the term...like seriously, ever... and I work in the VTH (albeit in a clinical research lab). And our hospital id tags still say VTH too. Maybe it's the hospital administrators trying to push it on the hospital staff, and it hasn't spread to clinicians or any other part of the vet school? .....

Well, then again, having no intention of attending doesn't mean I definitely won't end up there! Lol. I won't commit anywhere until I know I can find housing.

I know a bunch of people in your class. Perhaps we already know each other? It's so strange to me to know people by their SDN names and then to later meet them in person, and have to associate real names with them. I suspect that wherever I end up in the Fall, I may be accidentally calling all my SDN friends by the screen names I've associated with them for so long. I know I will definitely answer to LSD!

Yeah, that whole VMC vs VTH was kinda silly. I know we were told about it in the pre-vet club last year...that they wanted the hospital to be called VMC from now on. It seemed to never really catch on last year with the vets and staff who have been calling it VTH forever, and I haven't heard much about it this year. I suspect the admins have just given up.

I agree with you, Minnerbelle, that one shouldn't form a strong opinion about the VTH (VMC be damned! 😛) based on experiences with vet students. I personally had positive encounters with vet students when I worked there, but even if there had been some snarky ones, they're only there temporarily, so no biggie. And, like you said, for heaven's sake, they are there to LEARN, and not everyone has had experience with the variety of species one encounters at a teaching hospital. I have met quite a few CSU vet students from 1st year's to 4th year's, and I can't think of a single one I didn't like right from the start. Quite a few of the undergrads I worked with were a different story!

I have visited the separate equine facility only once. I must say, I was very impressed. I enjoyed meeting some of the people who work over there, and the facilities themselves are very nice. If equine repro were my area of interest, I would have CSU very high on my list. Very high indeed.

Great students will excel no matter what they do or where they go... and mediocre students will kind of suck no matter where they go.

👍

 

[jlm179]

Sorry I didn't mean to offend. I love CSU its my alma mater! I got a fantastic education there. There were plenty of awesome vet students that I met as well. Like I said that was over 5 years ago now, so things have changed I am sure. CSU is a great vet school. The reproduction program is fantasic! I spent a whole summer out there!😀 If repro is your interest than I would recommend CSU for sure. Its an amazing program out there!

I know plenty of horses that went through there and the vets did a great job. I am not sure why it rubbed me the wrong way, but thinking back it was probably more because I worked there and you know how that goes. It probably would be different if I was a vet student.

As for the name thing, that changed while I was still working there! So at least 6 years ago, but its still the VTH to me.👍

Again sorry, if I got into CSU I would go. Fort Collins is an amazing town! I miss it so much!

Its the only vet teaching hospital that I have been in a lot, so I have no idea how it compares to the rest.

 

[StartingoverVet]

Another thing you may want to consider is whether the equine center is a part of campus. Penn is in downtown Philly, so the equine center is a good 45 min drive west. It's smack in the middle of some wealthy horse country, hence the high caseload, but you may have some trouble getting to it. I shadowed at the large animal center for a week a while ago and loved it's location (I live halfway between the large animal center and main campus), but the distance may limit student opportunities.

Any Penn students want to chime in on their experience with the separation from campus?

I'm really excited that Edinburgh is condensing their campus outside of the city, but I'm curious how that will affect the caseload. I've heard you get some crazy emergency cases in the city!

Of course if the equine center was part of the main campus it would be nice, but honestly it doesn't seem to matter all that much. The 1st 2.5 years during didactic teaching most of the time is spent in classroom on the main campus in philly. Horse lovers do have wet labs frequently out at New Bolton Center (NBC) on the weekends. They don't seem to be deterred by the distance at all in my experience. And there is plenty of carpooling so a car is not necessary. For clinicals, those who are going to do Large Animal generally live out at NBC (I believe they can get free apartments out there as well) and only infrequently have to come to the main campus so it works out fairly well.

Admittedly it is not PERFECT, but it seems to work awfully well.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Agreed.

VMRCVM's equine medical center in Leesburg is FANTASTIC. But the caseload at the actual school in Blacksburg is quite low. When I was rotating through equine in fourth year, we had many only a couple patients a day. The residents and clinicians there, however, are wonderful people. And equine trackers do rotations at the EMC.

Someone mentioned Texas A&M. Now admittedly, I'm on the other side of things (necropsy lol) but from the number of horses we get (at least one a day) I imagine the caseload is quite high.

 

[flyhi]

I'm really excited that Edinburgh is condensing their campus outside of the city, but I'm curious how that will affect the caseload. I've heard you get some crazy emergency cases in the city!

It should not affect the caseload at all, since the LA/equine hospital has always been out at Easter Bush. At least for a long, long time. The small animal hospital has been out there too. Just moving the teaching facility for all years out there next year. Should be great!

 

[BlacKAT33]

Of course if the equine center was part of the main campus it would be nice, but honestly it doesn't seem to matter all that much. The 1st 2.5 years during didactic teaching most of the time is spent in classroom on the main campus in philly. Horse lovers do have wet labs frequently out at New Bolton Center (NBC) on the weekends. They don't seem to be deterred by the distance at all in my experience. And there is plenty of carpooling so a car is not necessary. For clinicals, those who are going to do Large Animal generally live out at NBC (I believe they can get free apartments out there as well) and only infrequently have to come to the main campus so it works out fairly well.

Admittedly it is not PERFECT, but it seems to work awfully well.

I agree with this. Penn's great facilities and high case load are because it is not in the city. I mean, you can't have it both ways! lol The distance isn't a big deal. I'm not LA but all my friends who are always carpool down there if there is something exciting like a wetlab. When you do rotations for longer periods during clinicals you have the option of staying in apartments on the new bolton campus for free. IMO all of the positive things about our LA center make up for driving farther.

 

[sumstorm]

OK, I know next to nothing about our equine focus area, but our horses are just outside the cafeteria. Not kidding; we like to watch the foals while were having lunch. I do know that we have a focus area in equine, that there are certain selectives (like equine dentistry) that are required and certain hospital rounds. There is an equine elective you can take each semester. We also have colic team and foal team. I have participated in both of those so I know a bit more about them.

Lots of wetlabs during lunch, after classes, etc. I have participated in pregnancy checks, joint injections, gait analysis, rads, Sx (and remember, I am not in equine focus area....I just think it's interesting to learn something I've never done before.)

Oh, we have mandatory labs on horses each semester as well. handling, phys exam, injections, control, hoof testing, etc. also, in first year anatomy you have to learn palpations of anatomical land marks on a live horse and it is part of our practical testing. Also, second semester your anatomy group works on a horse ~1-2d/wk.

Sorry I don't know more about caseload and such. I do know we regularly have equine rounds...but it isn't my focus area. I know folks are saying it doens't matter if you have to drive a while....but I have to imagine that it's hard to drive to those hospitals to see the really fascinating case that just came in, or to get there at the drop of a hat if you are on colic team and it's your night to be on call, or that you can't pop down the the Sx suite to observe if you get out of class early. So not saying 'better/worse' just that there are some advantages to having the LA hospital just on the other side of one of the classrooms.

 

[GellaBella]

I know nothing about Penn's equine program so I won't comment on that, but I will say that they do grand rounds here and they are often teleconferenced in from New Bolton Center so you can see and hear about the cases from the comfort of the Philly campus. Although, of course that means you're not right there with the horses, but I do think that's a nice alternative to getting up early and heading out there on a cold, wintery Friday morning 🙂

 

[OnceBitten]

I have never heard anyone complain about Mizzou's equine caseload and we generally always have a good number of cases when I'm working in the ICU (especially in summer, less so in the winter). The actual reason I would recommend Mizzou for this, though, is that we get to spend 320 hours doing preceptorships of our choice throughout our 3rd and 4th years, and you could spend all of them with equine practices, as well as with other veterinary teaching hospitals, if you so chose. We also have the choice to do 2, 4, or 6 extra weeks of equine medicine as an elective on top of the required 6 weeks during our normal rotations, which could give you up to 12 weeks spent in equine at our school alone. In that way, you can tailor the program to be heavily equine (or anything else) oriented, which I think is pretty neat.

 

[sumstorm]

Although, of course that means you're not right there with the horses, but I do think that's a nice alternative to getting up early and heading out there on a cold, wintery Friday morning 🙂

LOL. It's NC....even the cold weather isn't generally that bad! Actually, the hospital itself is attached, so there isn't any need to head outside in the cold (unless you are helping with gait analysis, etc) but even then, I have yet to wear more than a sweatshirt and some light gloves to do those sorts of things. Admittedly, to work with the CVM's horses, you would have to go to the horse barn or the fields; again, the 2 min walk to the barns isn't bad, and the farthest turn out pasture is a comfortably slow 7 min walk. I have only had one day when I was really uncomfortable outside (and we have LA class work outside at least every other week) and it was a sleeting, cold, freezing rain day and we were doing a dairy herd evaluation in our dairy. To give an idea of this context, when you sit in our cafeteria, right outside is a deck for eating (about wide enough for a table with four seats), then a green area about the same size, then a knee wall, then 2 paddocks, then the horse barn. We use the imaging entrace for school (we'll switch to the library entrance when the new hospital opens)....if you come in that entrance, you just turn left and you are in the equine/LA area. It's fun to walk through and see what cases are there before you head to class. Even the unloading area is inside with large doors that are kept closed most of the time. First year lockers are just opposite of the unloading area.

I think the real advantage of having the LA hospital attached to the vet school....we don't have to worry about going outside, but if rounds presented talk about inflammation and crepitus in the stifle, here you can actually feel it. No matter how good the communications link, currently you can't feel what the Dr. is feeling. Our rounds literally walk the unit. Again, I'm not equine focus, so I don't honestly know how important it is to feel/touch/hear in person all 4 years. We do have quite a few horse owner's as well. I have been told it is failry unique for a vet school to have all it's large animal stuff on campus; our school is in a city, but surrounded by pasturelands with sheep, goats, cows, pigs, chickens, and horses, all of which are part of a farm system that is primarily self-supporting.

I found our caseload for last year: 1900, with 4-7 presenting daily, ~12 in hospital daily and 1-2 Sx's performed daily.

 

[BlacKAT33]

I think the real advantage of having the LA hospital attached to the vet school....we don't have to worry about going outside, but if rounds presented talk about inflammation and crepitus in the stifle, here you can actually feel it. No matter how good the communications link, currently you can't feel what the Dr. is feeling. Our rounds literally walk the unit. Again, I'm not equine focus, so I don't honestly know how important it is to feel/touch/hear in person all 4 years.

I think what gellabella means is that if you want to learn more about it one morning, but are too lazy to go there, you have the option of the teleconference. If you really want to go then you would have planned your carpool out ahead of time. Most of my LA friends have consistent carpools set up and I don't hear them complaining much about the drive.

Also, it's not like you never get to feel anything. This is just for the first year when it is optional if you want to volunteer or see something. Next quarter (first year) we go out there a couple days, or maybe one day i'm not sure. For second year we have the new clinical curriculum where you go out there for a certain number of days. Then in our true clinical years we have a large block of time. It is really just what you make of it. I'm not a LA person so there isn't much else I can say. Just wanted to make it clear that you have the option of feeling/touching/hearing all that you want, it is up to u!

And like I stated before, of course everyone would prefer their LA unit to be right next to them for convenience. But in the city its just not possible. Personally for me, I love the city. and I love that penn has a high caseload in both SA and LA. I'm willing to deal with the distance to get all of these things. Of course, I know there are other people who would disagree, so it just depends on the person.

 

[flyhi]

neva mind...Black beat me to it

 

[StartingoverVet]

Sumstorm, sometimes you are just needlessly argumentative (perhaps not purposely). This was not a discussion of Penn vs NC.

I responded to a poster's question with the caveat that of course it would be more convenient if the LA and SA were together but it works out fine otherwise. NBC is an over 600 acre campus with 70+ buildings devoted mainly to horses. If you are interested in equine then having that available is certainly something to consider vs the travel issue once in a while. Perfect no, but like I said, the equine people don't seem to care. It is like horse vet student heaven.

And really, do you want to compare caseloads? Then fine. Penn has 7000 horses a year treated at NBC and 9 surgeries a day.

 

[sumstorm]

My apologies...I just thought with an equine unit farther away, it would be difficult to get out there on a daily basis. I could be absolutly wrong (as I have said) and I wasn't comparing case load, just listing ours, since I had found it.

I know I have a hard time getting out to our remote zoo vet sites (by remove, I mean anything 45 minutes away, with some about 3.5 hours away.) Our schedule just wouldn't allow me to go out to our nearest offsite location and make it to classes. So if we have an interesting case pop at the zoo, I'm in classes (either 8 or 9am), the earliest I will get out might be 3:30pm (one day a week) and several days a week I won't get out till 5:30pm, or 6:00pm. So realisticly, I can't even make it to our offsite during working hours. I didn't realize that Penn's schedule was open enough to allow for routine visits.

It wasn't argumentative...and I noted several times that it is an outside perspective looking in, and I am basing my comments on the fact that as a non-equine focus, I get to put my hands on horses far more often (nearly daily if I wanted) than I do my own focus, simply due to offsite locations. Hence why I wasn't comparing caseload (just sharing it because I didn't find it readily available in the NCSU CVM info)...just saying that I do believe there is something very nice about having the school intact.

I'm amazed that I can actually write that I don't know how important that is for horse folks, and multiple individuals will jump down my throat that I have no idea what I am talking about. I keep being reminded of why I leave these forums for months, only return when someone emails me a question, and then end up leaving again. My apologies to the Penn-we's for apparently stepping on toes for stating that I personally feel there is some advantage to having an equine unit on campus. I really could care less whether anyone interested in equine attends here or not, I am not in equine (though I do have to go through the equine rounds for zoo med), and obviously I am wrong to suggest there is any advantage to having a LA hospital on campus. I wish our zoo med stuff was on campus, but I am apparently in a bizarre minority.

 

[ATX00]

If you want to know about caseloads, http://www.virmp.org/ is a good place to look -- just pick some sort of large animal internship/residency at the school you're curious about, and it will give you the numbers.

For example, Texas A&M sees ~7100 LA cases per year, about 70% of which is equine, with 3-5 surgeries per day. Most schools also have this info on their websites, but a lot of times you have to look at internships/residencies to get the numbers, rather than the DVM applicants section.

 

[BlacKAT33]

sumstorm-maybe if you reread the way you chose to word your post it will come off more argumentative. i specifically copied the part of your post that i felt i had to "defend" because you said "[at NC] you can actually feel it" and "currently you [penn students] can't feel what the Dr. is feeling". This is a strong statement.

Finally, at the end you said "i'm not an equine focus so i don't know how important it is to touch/feel/hear..." Obviously, it is impt to touch/feel/hear things. So really, when you claim to have said that you didn't know how important things are for horse folks, you weren't talking about the distance by itself, you added in that we can't have hands on experience because of our distance.

I'm not trying to start anything again. I just wanted to explain how your writing came off and the reason why others felt it was argumentative. I'm not trying to say Penn is better, i just wanted to clarify the truth because your post seemed to skew the events at Penn and the experience you can get.

 

[tpad40]

Penn is definitely an equine vet student's paradise. Although having the campus far away is a huge drawback, the benefit is that New Bolton is amazing and we have a great caseload. We are all desperate and eager to get experience he first few years but honestly, you get SO much experience fourth year that it is just fine.

We have emergency shadowing through our equine club where we can sign up to go out in the evening and observe/assist with any incoming emergencies (including scrubbing in to surgery if the case goes there)! Many of my classmates did summer research out at NBC as well so there are plenty of opportunities to get out there if that is what you would like. Also, we have lots of wet abs through the various student clubs and they frequently are held out at NBC.

I just got back from a wet lab at Texas A&M and WOW was I impressed. Their large animal hospital is amazing and from what it sounds, they have an excellent caseload. I really wish I had considered applying! However, being a New-Englander through and through, I don't know what I would do with myself surrounded by cowboy boots, navicular-prone Quarter Horses, and country music 🙂 I probably would have loved it lol!

Like someone said, it doesn't realllly matter where you go since you can supplement your education with externships and rotations at other schools. The things to consider are definitely the hospitals caseload as that will determine how much you get to see and do as a 4th year. Penn is right in horse country and right nearby a LOT of racetracks so we see everything from geriatric backyard pampered horses, to valuable 2 year old TBs, to olympic eventers.

I chose Penn over VMRCVM primarily bc of caseload, but I am sure I could have gotten just as good an education there as I am getting here. I would have done a few rotations at Penn perhaps 🙂

 

[birty88]

So I'm in a similar boat here. I primarily want to do Equine, but am not closed off to the idea of doing mixed larger animal. My top three schools for Equine include Penn, VMRCVM and OSU. I've seen Penn and VMRCVM mentioned in this thread a few times but never OSU. They seemed to have a lot going on out in Columbus when I interviewed - cows, horses and alpacas were currently in their Vet Med Center. What's the word on the web about The Ohio in terms of Equine?

 

[BClove21]

VMRCVM does not see a huge caseload of horses because we are in a really rural area that does not have a lot of wealth. That being said, the majority of cases you will see are horses, but the recession has definitely taken a toll on the caseload in general. I worked in the large animal clinic at the VTH for about a year two years ago and the place was always swamped with horses, alpacas, and some cows. Since then every time I have been in there (including most of this past summer) there were barely any patients in there, if any at all some days. I don't mean to turn you off, because as someone else said, we have the horse center in Leesburg 4 hours away so you can get the experience, it is mostly what you make out of it as a student. Your 4th year you can go just about anywhere in the world as long as it is approved.