Equine and livestock specialists at the UC Davis veterinary hospital’s Large Animal Clinic constantly seek to optimize standard of care. With advancements in research, collaborative treatments, and innovative procedures, they continue to raise the bar.
Dr. Sam Barringer (DVM ’91) was named the 2023 Consultant of the Year by the Academy of Veterinary Consultants (AVC), a national organization of livestock practitioners who provide high quality continuing education on topics related to livestock health.
Aria Brecheisen was exercising her 4-H goat Captain America (Cap) when she witnessed him drop to the ground and vocalize in pain. Cap, a 6-month-old Boer goat, continued to lay down straining in pain every few steps as she tried to walk him back to the barn.
Chime, a 1-year-old Holstein heifer, was fresh off a win at a local fair this past spring—with another show just a month away—when she began to show signs of abdominal discomfort or colic, and abnormal fecal production.
Social Issues, a 7-year-old Saanen doe goat, has a rich history as a champion show goat and a valuable member of owner Scott Bice’s small genetic show herd, Vineyard View Dairy Goats. She has won “Best Udder in Show” at the California State Fair several times and is also a national champion. Her milk has been used for products of Bice’s sister’s company, Redwood Hill Farms, makers of goat yogurt and kefir. But when Social Issues was recently diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma (skin cancer) on her udder, her future was in jeopardy.
UC Davis Graduate Studies recently honored 34 faculty members with Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Awards, including Dr. Jeffrey Stott, a professor in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, and member of the Graduate Group in Integrative Pathobiology.
The Schuler Ranch in Yuba City is a small beef cattle operation with about 25 head of shorthorns. The 2020 calving season started out as normal as any calving season of the past, with four healthy calves being born, including a set of twins. When the next group of cows calved, five of their newborns became ill at the same time. It was clear that something devastating could be going through their small herd and could wipe it out quickly. After onsite veterinary services could not save one of the sick calves, they rushed the four others to the Large Animal Clinic (LAC) at the UC Davis veterinary hospital.
A small-scale sheep farm in California is the first in the Western United States to have the Awassi breed in its herd. Thanks to help from livestock veterinarians with the UC Davis veterinary hospital, Duckworth Family Farms had eight of the sheep—four males and four females—born via embryo transfer. The farm plans to use the sheep for dairy and fiber production, as well as semen and offspring sales.
Four residents from the UC Davis veterinary hospital recently took home research awards from the 2019 American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) annual conference. As one of the largest veterinary conferences in the world, ACVIM receives resident research submissions from some of the best and brightest young minds in veterinary medicine.
Tag 1839, a 2-year-old Jersey dairy cow, was brought to the UC Davis veterinary hospital for suspected pneumonia. She had been treated appropriately by her primary veterinarian, but without significant improvement, so she was referred to the Livestock Medicine and Surgery Service for further diagnostics and treatment. A blood test showed evidence of severe chronic inflammation, and an ultrasound showed that she had fluid, inflammation, and an abscess in her chest cavity. Radiographs of her chest showed that she had a foreign body—a piece of wire—extending from the first compartment of her stomach toward her heart.
