I was privileged with the ability to once again job shadow a large animal veterinarian, this time a woman named Dr. Shrader. She was a very friendly vet who explained a lot and even allowed me some hands-on experience. My day wasn't as long as it was when I was with Dr. Esterline, but I still learned and experienced a lot and it was great fun.

Our first appointment was vaccinating a very large seventeen hand  Dutch Warmblood.  He was very sweet and very mouthy with no regards to personal space. Dr. Shrader gave me a handful of horse treats and had me hold his halter while she vaccinated him. He nuzzled me all over and greedily gobbled up the horse cookies I had. Two stalls down was a handsome black warmblood with no front teeth, causing his tongue to always hang out of his mouth. He too was a sweetie from Heaven. The ranch was quite large and beautiful and nestled in Ann Arbor Michigan.  After we finished  up there, we  traveled to a large hobby farm and treated a mare for what may be either laminitis, founder or an abcess in her right front hoof and possibly her left front hoof. She walked slowly and painfully throughout her stall as Dr. Shrader tried to access what was causing her pain. Her hooves are large and round and, as Dr. Shrader said, the hooves of a laminitic horse. She had two goat companions and several chickens across from her.

Once finished there, we headed back to the clinic where Dr. Shrader picked up more supplies , then  we headed to a large, nice stable in Fowlerville, near the clinic. The owner, Bill Brown is a graduate from the University of Findlay, a university I would like to attend. He answered all my questions about the university and then some. A boarder at his stable had the cutest little buckskin Quarter Horse who seemed to be ill. He was lethargic and spewing out diarrhea constantly. The suspect is Potomac Fever, so Dr. Shrader put an IV in him(which sprayed blood at her) and started giving him fluids. She had me hold his halter and hold the tube with which the fluids were flowing in place while she checked his vitals. While there I met two gorgeous Friesian mares and a lovely Paint mare. I also learned that boarding there(Chase Lake Equestrian Center) are two Dutch Warmbloods who are the top two in the country for the CBF jumping cup.

The day was a very short one with Dr. Shrader only having four appointments, but it was fulfilling and I learned a lot and got more encouragement to continue on in this field. I'll be trying to schedule more job shadowing time again soon, fingers crossed I'll get either Dr. Shrader or Dr. Esterline.

That's all for now, I'll try to start blogging some more now that things have settled down a bit more. Until then, Have A Happy Ride~