Veterinary Medicine in the Texas Panhandle
Veterinary service to rural communities in the Texas Panhandle is typically sustained by mixed animal veterinary practices that see both small and large animal patients rather than those that specialize in only large or small animals. Livestock husbandry and stewardship are also provided by these veterinarians. The region is known for having some of the world’s best livestock veterinarians, nutritionists, and animal scientists serving as technical specialists and consultants.
VERO continues this legacy by training students to serve rural communities and preparing them to provide livestock husbandry and stewardship services.
VERO’s Educational Focus
Impacting Undergraduates
VERO has expanded the pipeline of students from undergraduate study at West Texas A&M University (WT) to the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) for their Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) education. This double exposure encourages students to return to and practice in rural communities, to support livestock industries, and to catalyze economic growth in the Texas Panhandle region.
Enhancing the DVM Curriculum
By leveraging strong industry partnerships and long-standing relationships with WT and rural veterinary practices, VERO provides Texas A&M Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students with diverse fourth-year clinical rotation opportunities across the Texas Panhandle. These two-week rotations offer hands-on, immersive training that allows veterinary students to apply their knowledge and clinical skills as they progress toward graduation.
Additional educational opportunities include a summer palpation camp, providing experiential learning for students entering their third year.
VERO Rotations
In the fall of 2020, VERO faculty began mixed animal practice training rotations that focus on providing care for dogs, cats, horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and swine. Since then, VERO has added clinical rotations that focus on equine preventive care for working horses in the Panhandle and on calf health. Housing is provided for all VMBS DVM students for these rotations.
VERO Rural Practice Rotation
Students participate in the daily caseload of a rural, mixed animal practice under the instruction of a VERO faculty member. This rotation takes place in a high-volume, multi-species practice environment, requiring students to exercise their clinical judgement, surgical skills, and medical case management through extensive hands-on experience. Cases involve small animal wellness care, small animal medicine and surgery, large animal wellness care, and production medicine, including swine management.
VERO Feedlot Rotation
Students begin this rotation by creating Secure Beef Supply plans for privately owned Texas Panhandle feedlots, an exercise that aims to enhance students’ understanding of the biosecurity challenges faced by the cattle feeding industry. Students also complete Beef Quality Assurance training to become certified, which includes the demonstrating of injection site lesions created by common products used in the processing and treatment of feedlot cattle. Other hands-on activities include performing on-farm necropsies, processing cattle, and practicing low-stress cattle handling techniques.
In addition, students tour a harvest facility and feedlots operated by the two largest cattle feeding operations in North America. In-depth discussions of antibiotics, implants, processing protocols, health records analysis, and other pertinent topics take place throughout the two weeks.
VERO Dairy Rotation
This rotation offers an immersive experience in dairy production through on-farm dairy visits under the supervision of VERO faculty. Production areas include: birthing pens, calf management, heifer development, lactating herds, and dry herds. Students utilize herd records to analyze production parameters, including reproductive efficiency, milk yields, health parameters, and culling strategies. In addition, observation of parlor activities is used to determine the influence of milking systems on udder health and milk quality. Biosecurity practices, welfare, nutrition, antibiotic use and residue avoidance, and cow comfort are all emphasized.
VERO Calf Ranch Rotation
This rotation is designed as a focused opportunity to understand the role of the veterinarian on large calf ranches to enable students to better serve future clients in the dairy, beef, and veal industries. Learning opportunities include a combination of on-farm activities, targeted learning labs, and topic rounds — all focused on calf health and well-being. Students practice clinical decision-making and medical procedures to strengthen their veterinary skills.
VERO Equine Preventative Health
In this rotation, students provide healthcare to individual horses and herd populations, with a focus on procedures critical for equine primary-care practice. Methods of safe-horse handling in various working situations are emphasized.
During the two-week ambulatory rotation, students are assigned to the preventative care of working horses in cooperating, privately owned feedlots and resident horses in WT’s equitation program. Wellness procedures include venipuncture for Coggins testing, immunizations, fecal egg counts, dental examinations, and dental floating. Opportunities also exist for a wider variety of other primary care cases (e.g., ophthalmology, lameness, wounds, laceration repair, bandaging, and assessment/treatment of colic in the field) and hands-on practice with diagnostic instrumentation such as ultrasonography and digital radiography.
Rotation expectations include performing physical exams, vaccinations, deworming, Coggins, sedated dental exam, and dental floats for 20-25 feedlot horses per day as well as using the AAEP Guidelines to develop a comprehensive preventative health plan.
VERO Advanced Dairy Rotation
This rotation is designed for students with a demonstrated interest in, and intent to pursue, a career in dairy production medicine. Learning opportunities, through immersive experiences with local dairy veterinary and producer partners, assist understanding of the day-to-day workings of commercial dairy operations as well as the role of the veterinarian in such operations. Principles of herd and individual animal health and critical facets of the dairy operation — including nutrition, reproduction, management, cow behavior, and finances — are discussed to broaden the foundation for future dairy practitioners.
Prerequisites: Enrollment in this rotation requires successful completion of the VERO Dairy Rotation and direct approval from the instructor. Approval for rotation registration requires demonstrated interest in a career in dairy production medicine as evidenced by extensive experience in the dairy industry and dairy veterinary medicine. Evidence of appropriate experience should be provided to the instructor for review and admittance to the rotation.
Established in 2009, VERO is the partnership between the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS)
and the West Texas A&M University (WT) Paul Engler College of Agriculture & Natural Sciences
to bring Veterinary Education, Research, & Outreach to the Texas Panhandle.
