Western College of Veterinary Medicine

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Funds propel research for pets and horses
Have you ever wondered how veterinarians prepare tiny exotic pets for surgery or thought about how equine clinicians can help horses recover from a tendon injury? Researchers at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) are exploring these kinds of questions — thanks to the support of two research funds dedicated to the health of pets and horses. The Companion Animal …
May 27th, 2019 Full story »

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Horse Health Lines (Spring 2019) online
The Spring 2019 issue of Horse Health Lines, news publication for the WCVM’s Townsend Equine Health Research Fund, is now online. You can also view the publication as part of the Early Summer 2019 issue of Canadian Horse Journal or download a PDF version of the publication. Here’s a sneak peek at the stories inside this issue: $68K for five horse …
May 16th, 2019 Full story »

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Uplifting equine research gains support
A University of Saskatchewan (USask) research team that’s working with Saskatoon’s RMD Engineering Inc. to create a unique rehabilitation harness for horses has received financial support from Mitacs, a publicly funded not-for-profit research and training organization. “If this works, the potential impact will be huge because there are no long-term rehabilitation harnesses available on the market today,” says Dr. Julia …
April 11th, 2019 Full story »

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WCVM to pay necropsy fees on WFFS cases
During the 2019 foal season, the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) will cover the cost of conducting equine necropsy (post-mortem) examinations on aborted fetuses, stillbirths or euthanized foals that are suspected to be cases of warmblood fragile foal syndrome (WFFS). Canadian horse owners and referring veterinarians can submit cases to Prairie Diagnostic Services (PDS), the provincial veterinary laboratory based …
April 08th, 2019 Full story »

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Equine foot expert visits WCVM
This fall, members of the local horse community and students at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) will have the chance to learn about a novel approach to equine foot health straight from the man who developed the theory. Dr. Robert Bowker, director of the Equine Foot Laboratory at Michigan State University (MSU), and an internationally-acclaimed authority on equine …
March 01st, 2019 Full story »

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Equine air flow in 3D
A Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) research team is going back to the drawing board to find a better way of treating recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN), also known as roaring, in horses. Last year surgical specialists Drs. James Carmalt and David Wilson, along with surgical resident Dr. Michelle Tucker, were working on a new procedure that could replace a …
November 01st, 2018 Full story »

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Job groomed student for vet school
This summer, Chantel Dunlop of Seven Sisters Falls, Man., was standing in a warm-up ring at Calgary’s Spruce Meadows when she read an email message confirming her acceptance into the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM). “I remember crying out, ’Oh my God!’, and I started to feel shaky,” says Dunlop, who was working as a groom for Olympic medallist …
October 10th, 2018 Full story »

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Lifesaving support
When a person breaks a leg, it’s highly unlikely that this injury would lead to death. But when a horse injures its leg, the all-too-common outcome is euthanasia. The heartbreaking experience of losing an equine companion to a leg injury is a familiar one for Samantha Steinke, a graduate student in biomedical engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2016, …
October 09th, 2018 Full story »

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Hours in the saddle help B.C. vet in clinic
There’s a certain mystery to working in veterinary medicine, where each new patient can come as a kind of puzzle to solve — discovering the ins and outs of what makes them tick, unlocking whatever issue is at hand and sending them out the door happy and healthy once again. This process is also part of the reason why Dr. …
October 03rd, 2018 Full story »

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‘Lea Riddell, equine vet’
Dr. Lea Riddell has never really fit the mould of an equine veterinarian. A self-proclaimed “city girl,” Riddell was born and raised in Winnipeg, Man. — far from any farm or acreage and with no horses nearby. It wasn’t until she was given a pony riding lesson for her eighth birthday that she discovered her true love for horses. That …
September 26th, 2018 Full story »
