Lessons From Vet Camp

When my daughter was in between her freshman and sophomore years in high school, she attended a summer program at Tufts university in Massachusetts that she refers to as "vet camp." It was an intensive ten day program in which aspiring vets got to shadow Tufts fourth year veterinary students in the classroom, laboratory, clinics and operating room. There were also classes for the kids and lots of social activities but the highlight for her was watching surgery.

I bring this up because at the end of the program, the school sponsored a program for parents to hear their kids present the projects they had researched during their time at Tufts. One project was about laminitis, and I think it was the first time I had ever heard of the hoof disease. Maybe because it was presented by a self-professed fourteen year old "horse-crazy" girl, or maybe because it was presented in layman's terms with hand colored pictures, but somehow I remember that presentation as being extremely heart rendering as well as educational. The pony tailed rider was essentially pleading with veterinary medicine to find a cure for the disease to which one of her own horses had succumbed.

Here we are many years later still searching for the mysteries of this baffling disease that respects neither age nor pedigree. It has been around nearly as long as the horse and we still don't have all the answers.

I thought about this as I worked my way yesterday through a section of my paper on Barbaro's legacy and the role he played as a "poster horse" for laminitis. Certainly he put the disease on the public radar and attracted funding and expertise to the cause. And I keep remembering him as well as the pony tailed rider who put a face on this horrible affliction.

Here's hoping that one day soon, this disease will truly belong to another age.