A digression...on vet school and animal welfare

Okay, so this isn't about Egypt and it's not happening in Egypt, but it's important, so I'm going to get it off my chest. This morning before I left for class, I hopped on Facebook and saw that my best friend had posted a note in response to an article in the OSU campus newspaper (for which I used to be a columnist, in the interest of full disclosure). Since then, I have read the article, and I can understand why my friend and her classmates are so upset. Here is the link to the article: O'Colly. Now, I understand that the O'Colly needs its one scandal a year just to keep things interesting, but at least make it somewhat factual, guys.

A brief disclaimer: I am not a vet student, nor do I play one on TV. I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I am, however, someone who once thought vet school was it for me. I worked for two OSU educated vets while in high school and continue to take my cat to OSU educated vets. I'm also related to an OSU educated vet. So, yes, I do have a horse in this race, one I freely acknowledge. That being said...

There are alternatives to live animal surgery. This is beyond dispute. However, those alternatives are not without their downsides. For example, there are now very sophisticated computer programs available that simulate surgery, and they are used both in human and veterinary medicine. These are great tools and should be utilized. But, they cannot take the place of hands-on training. Why? Because touch is so incredibly important in surgery. A diseased liver feels different than a healthy liver, even if it looks basically the same. How can a computer program teach you about such important differences?

Then there are cadaver animals. You can feel a diseased liver there, so no problem, right? Not really. The art of anasthesia is an important one in human and veterinary medicine. How does too much anasthesia affect geriatric animals? How does too little anasthesia complicate a surgery? These questions cannot be addressed in cadaver dogs/cats/etc. because anasthesia is unnecessary in an animal that's already dead.

Is live animal surgery the greatest thing in the world? No. Is it something vet students relish? Not really, no. It is truly one of the more unpleasant realities of vet school, but a necessary one. It has been argued...and argued...and argued that doctors don't think about cutting open live patients only to euthanize them, and this is certainly true, but doctors and veterinarians don't train for their professions in the same way. Doctors NEVER graduate from med school and immediately expect to head their own surgical team. They have internships and residencies to complete before they are allowed to do anything that looks like being in charge in an OR. Vets don't get that seven year luxury. They can get thrown from the frying pan into the fire very quickly out of vet school, so you tell me--do you really want Fido to be your vet's first go-around at removing bladder stones the size of river rocks?

Furthermore, doctors almost always have a whole team of folks with them in the OR. The vets I worked for in high school had one vet tech, a receptionist, and me--and that was only in the afternoon. Many, many times, they would perform surgery with only one other person in the room with them. That's something no doctor will ever do except in the most extenuating of circumstances. So the comparisons between doctors and veterinarians are really quite unfair to vets. They often take work home with them--literally. The vets I worked for had a makeshift ICU in their garage. Their clients may bite and snap and snarl, and the dogs and cats might do the same thing. The patients can't tell you what's wrong with them, and most owners are truly and horrifically unobservant. "What's wrong with Fido?" "Dunno. He just don't seem right." Thanks, man. That's a lot of help. Dogs can't tell you where it hurts. Cats can't tell you that urinating feels like someone's setting fire to their asses. You have to figure those things out for yourself. So, yes, vets do face things that doctors do not. Vets must be ready to be vets on a timetable different from doctors. And that timetable necessitates that vets operate on live animals, even if euthanasia is their final fate.

I'm disappointed in the O'Colly, Mrs. Pickens, and OSU for the mealy mouthed response to this story. While I truly appreciate all that Boone and Madeleine Pickens have done for our university, I can't help but wonder if the university's official statement might have been more forcefully behind Dr. Lorenz and the vet school if the benefactor's last name was something other than Pickens. Friends are honest with each other, and Mrs. Pickens was dead wrong in this story and should be told as much. The O'Colly smelled a scandal and jumped at the chance to make waves, even if all of the facts and all of the relevant parties hadn't been contacted. And Gary Shutt's "we evaluate blah blah blah on a yearly basis" was as chickenshit a response as could have possibly been drafted. Here's what it should have said: "We leave the veterinary medicine to the veterinarians. We understand that they care about animals and that there are multiple factors at work in determining the best way to complete the junior surgery class. We appreciate the concerns of Mrs. Pickens and we invite her to address those concerns with vet school faculty, staff, and students in an open and honest dialogue. However, final decisions about vet school policy rest with the vet school administration, and we have the utmost faith in their judgement."

It has been said many times that one cannot judge another without having walked a mile in their shoes. I have walked at least part of that journey, and I have an incredibly amount of respect for the hard work and dedication required of vet students and veterinarians. Are there issues at play here which are distressing? There are, and no one denies the existence of them. However, outrageous allegations and slander are no way to address such issues.