Mar 21, 2024
Story and photos submitted by Addiston Graham ’22
Since the beginning of the year, I have been studying veterinary science. I chose this area of study since I have always loved working with animals and doing what I could to help them remain healthy. Another reason that I chose this area of study was that veterinary science is what I will be studying in college.
Throughout the year, I have learned many things. The first thing I learned about was chicken diseases. Through making a poster, I learned how they can be cured, and what causes them. The second lesson that I focused on was cattle diseases. I made a slideshow and learned how to recognize what the cattle diseases look like, and how to cure them. Using the junior classes school-raised turkeys, I have learned how to do health checks and what to look for to ensure that the turkeys are healthy. I was given the opportunity from a fellow ag student to preg check his dog. I learned how to preg check this dog using the ultrasound machine and how to write a veterinary report telling the owner what I noticed. Unfortunately, one of the school-raised turkeys passed away but this gave me an opportunity to learn how to dissect a turkey and determine the cause of death. One of the piglets out of our farrowing trailer suddenly passed and Kylee and I were determined to find out what caused the death. Through dissection and careful inspection of the stomach specifically, and other inside parts of the piglet, we determined that the piglet had been beat up pretty bad and possibly laid on by its mother which would have caused the pig to die. Recently, I have been learning about the cattle reproductive system and how to Artificially Inseminate a heifer. I made a call to the mount ayr locker and was lucky enough to be able to retrieve the whole reproductive tract out of a heifer so that I could better understand the system. I am currently working on making a video explaining each part of the reproductive system and what it does.
I am looking forward to learning more about the system of bulls, and eventually, diving into embryo transfer so that I will be one step ahead when I go to veterinary school. After learning about embryo transfer, I will use a deer foot and part of leg that was graciously given to me, to study the tendons and bones of a deer.