Saving Plastic Horses (and hopefully real ones too)

The delegates in your SAVMA House of Delegates work hard to help bring new and interesting programs to your schools. Here is an example of that work in action. Every year, the Education and Licensure Committee puts on a grant competition to help fund programs that cover topics not otherwise covered in the veterinary curriculum. One of the winners this year was Large Animal Technical Rescue Team at University of Florida. You can read about the event that they put on and check out the cool pictures. If you want to know more about what opportunities are available for funding through SAVMA, click the "contests and awards" link on the right.

Article by: Jaimie Miller

Class of 2012, University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine

The UF College of Veterinary Medicine’s Large Animal Technical Rescue Team (a component of its disaster response team “VETS”), DVM students from the Public Health and Service Club (PHSC), and a Florida Veterinary Reserve Corps veterinarian, trained with 35 firefighters from St. Johns County and Clay County Technical Rescue Teams over the April 2-4 weekend at the Star 4 Ranch.

The firefighters and PHSC students learned about safety around a horse during a rescue, techniques for safety moving a horse on the ground with webbing, “packaging” a horse for transport, and the safe use of lifting systems on large animals.  These basic techniques were applied to scenarios involving rescuing the “packaged” horse up a steep embankment where a crane or helicopter is not available, using the A Frame (a portable crane system) to lift a downed horse from a hole, and righting an overturned horse trailer.  The VETS team, with the help of the PHSC, the Leg Up Fund, and the American Association of Equine Practitioners, recently purchased the “Equine Rescue Randy” horse mannequin, which allows the team to train in much more realistic scenarios than before, without risking injury to a live animal.

PHSC received the SAVMA Education and Licensure Grant, which helped make this even possible. The money was used toward hotel accommodations as well as fuel for travel to the event.

The UF CMV Large Animal Technical Rescue Team is a volunteer team, with training and equipment funded through grants and donations.  It and the “VETS” team are part of the Florida State Agricultural Response Team, and is available to assist anywhere in the state during a declared disaster.  The team performs training with the PHSC to help prepare veterinary students to be responders in their own communities upon graduation.  The team performs training in the North Central and Central Florida area to help firefighters and first responders to be better able to confidently respond to large animal emergencies, as well as to develop working relationships with those agencies in the event the VETS team is called to assist in their community.