Maria Graciela Estrada Davilais a passionate veterinary doctor, teacher and in charge of the project to link the Veterinary Medicine career of the University of the Americas. He tells us that there are three pillars of the academic training of a person who studies Veterinary Medicine: disease prevention, its treatment and being part of the comprehensive public health system.
The career, in its undergraduate stage, includes 4 and a half years of study (9 semesters), with a wide variety of specializations, which involve more the practical part of professional practice. Within these specialization options are: surgery, clinic, traumatology, reproduction, genetics, animal welfare, clinical laboratory, population management, epidemiology, cardiology, nephrology, among others. All point to a more specific work in different animal systems.
Also after 4 and a half years you can choose to be a Master or Doctor in Veterinary Medicine and in those cases a practical theoretical framework is involved, with academic works that prove having developed research.
NECESSARY FACILITIES
In the case of the University of the Americas, it has Veterinary Simulation Centers, the Veterinary Clinic EAT and a place to practice and handle larger animals, called the Nono Experimental Farm of the EAT. Simulators of different species of animals serve for students to acquire skills. “This is the case of the subject of surgery, the students first begin with the handling of a type of material, they go through three levels of complexity, before reaching direct practice with animals”specifies Dr. Estrada. This is part of the concept of animal welfare and its principle of the 3Rs applied to experimental animals and those used for teaching: reduce, refine and replace. With the use of simulators, these 3 Rs are achieved, for which it also supports the dummies of the animals being studied, formed by the parts and organs they possess.
SUPPORTING WHOA (WORLD ORGANIZATION FOR ANIMAL HEALTH)
Vaccination and deworming are two practices that must be carried out annually in both companion animals and larger animals, depending on the species and the incidence and prevalence of diseases to prevent not only animals but also people from getting sick, who can be infected. of some of the diseases that they may suffer from. The EAT carries out a project that develops activities for the control of the population of stray dogs, one of the activities requested by the OMSA (World Organization for Animal Health). Sterilizations, vaccinations and deworming are carried out especially in locations where there are no veterinary services or if there are, people do not have the economic resources to do so.
SUPPORTING WHOA (WORLD ORGANIZATION FOR ANIMAL HEALTH)
Vaccination and deworming are two practices that must be carried out annually in both companion animals and larger animals, depending on the species and the incidence and prevalence of diseases to prevent not only animals but also people from getting sick, who can be infected. of some of the diseases that they may suffer from. The EAT carries out a project that develops activities for the control of the population of stray dogs, one of the activities requested by the OMSA (World Organization for Animal Health). Sterilizations, vaccinations and deworming are carried out especially in locations where there are no veterinary services or if there are, people do not have the economic resources to do so.
DIAGNOSTIC TESTS
The first exam that is performed on the animal is the physical one to see the general state of health, then for more information from the doctor and to arrive at an adequate diagnosis there are complementary tests such as those of blood, urine, liquids such as the spinal brain or spinal cord. , X-rays, gynecological and cytological examinations and biopsies, CT scans, MRIs, to name the most important. The Veterinary Clinic EAT It is open to the public to carry out this type of examination.
PET ANIMALS AS PATIENTS
There are more and more feline patients, comments Dr. Estrada, indicating that before there was a misconception that since cats were self-sufficient they did not need more care and they were not taken to the veterinarian. Today it is known that any animal that is a companion must have a veterinary control at least once a year to develop their vaccination and deworming plans and a general physical examination, with the aim of preventing diseases that go unnoticed and when detected at time, complex or difficult-to-solve consequences can be prevented. In relation to companion animals, such as patients, it is thought that the proportion is 60% dogs, 40% cats, the rest of the species is really very low.
SOFT TISSUE OR TRAUMATOLOGICAL SURGERIES
Pets or companion animals, among which dogs and cats are the most common, and older animals, cattle, horses, pigs, can be patients of soft tissue or trauma surgery. “As an example of soft tissue surgeries is an Ovariohysterectomy (to prevent females from getting pregnant) or Caesarean sections (so that mother and puppy are not at risk to life) and traumatological interventions are those that are done when there are fractures and require a procedure to put intramedullary nails, screws or plates, depending on the case”points out Dr. Estrada.
ORAL HEALTH
Once again, thanks to the greater dissemination of information on this topic, there is a greater awareness of the oral health of pets. “Although many perhaps still think that this is taking the animal to the veterinarian to be anesthetized and do oral cleaning or dental prophylaxis, but it is necessary to give greater strength and spread the word that there must also be preventive oral health, with instruments that They allow them to motivate chewing or gnawing, actions that help eradicate tartar.”