Out of the classroom…and back into the classroom

By: Becky Lee

UC Davis, Class of 2012

The summer after my first year of veterinary school, I traveled to Honduras with VetMerge, an organization that provides veterinary services in areas with limited access to veterinary medical care. Along with a small group of veterinary students and two doctors, we traveled to a town with a population of 7,000 called La Villa de San Antonio.

School was out, and I was excited about this trip. It would be a great opportunity to leave behind the lecture hall, abandon the books, and get some “real” clinical experience. We learned that the ranchers relied on their livestock as an important source of income, and we would have a chance to help them. Months before our trip we raised money and gathered supplies. Arriving with our suitcases stuffed full of medical supplies, we were ready to get to work!

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Honduras Trip

By: Kimby Lo

UC Davis, Class of 2012

Last June I embarked on a 10-day trip to Honduras with a missionary organization called VetMerge.  The town of La Villa de San Antonio was small, and definitely a place of great need.  The closest veterinarian lives about 15 miles away in a city called Comayagua.  Although this doesn’t sound too far, it is an unrealistic option for many, and most families can not afford trips to the vet.  The trip was a mix of many animals.  We made numerous ranch calls to deworm and give selenium injections to sheep, goats, and cattle.  A lot of the farmers we met encountered many of the same issues with their livestock, including abortions, retained placentas, decreased milk production, and mastitis.  On one of the last days, we held an educational seminar for them addressing these issues and ways to prevent them. 

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Are you my mother?

By: Stacy Hall

Class of 2012, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine

It would seem that no one in their right mind would attempt to become a mother while in their first year of vet school at UC Davis. But, on the day of orientation in September of 2008, I found out I was pregnant. I had finally achieved my dream of going to vet school at UCD and here I was starting out the year, not knowing a soul, and pregnant. My husband and I decided that I would not take a year off and would brave the unknown of being a pregnant freshman veterinary student.

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