This page contains information specific to the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine. For official information from Oregon State University, see COVID-19 Updates and Information.  

 

March 30, 2020

Information on Companion Pets & COVID-19

Many companion animal owners understandably have been concerned about the possibility of their pets contracting the coronavirus (COVID-19). Click here for what we know now, and what guidance we offer. We will continue to monitor the situation, and update this page on pets and the coronavirus throughout the pandemic, as new reports become available.

March 24, 2020

On March 17, the VTH implemented a plan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 23, we moved into emergency-only operations, while limiting staffing in the Hospital to decrease exposure and protect our personnel. We are periodically reassessing those measurements and making the necessary adjustments. Our current plan is in compliance with the latest State and University rules. We currently cannot anticipate when we will return to normal operations and the VTH plan will remain in place until the University transitions into a lower risk level.

We understand that these measurements disrupt the dynamic of the VTH. They are necessary to ensure best public health practices that help protect our community and slow the spread of disease. Please let me know if you have any questions or need additional information. 

At this time the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (OVDL) receives emergency cases only and cases related to public health and safety (e.g., rabies, zoonotic diseases), foreign animal diseases, herd health, disease outbreaks, maintaining a safe food supply, and animal movement. For non-veterinarians, please contact your veterinarian to determine if your case is an emergency or fits one of these categories.  Also, due to limitations, we are accepting cases only between 8 am and 5 pm Monday through Friday (no afterhours or weekends). 

March 19, 2020

All Spring term courses will be delivered remotely. This includes academic labs, testing during the term, and final examinations. 

March 17, 2020

The nation and indeed the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine (CCVM) are experiencing challenging and uncertain times. We continue to learn of new and tighter restrictions from government and public health officials to “flatten the curve” by slowing the spread of COVID-19 and protect those around us. In response, the CCVM is instituting specific measures that admittedly are difficult and severely restrict our day to day operations. This is a fluid situation and we will do our best to update you as new information becomes available. Our goal is to protect our students, faculty, staff, clients and community, and thank you in advance for your patience and understanding while we navigate uncharted waters. 

Students
  • To reduce the population density within the CVM, students in Year 1-3 transitioned to all remotely-delivered final exams and instruction beginning March 16th, 2020.
  • For 4-Year students, please visit here for specific information related to clinical rotations and graduation requirements 
Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH)
  • Beginning March 19th, the VTH will accept emergency-only operations. Services such as chemotherapy, pacemaker implants, and C-Sections will be available for existing clients. No elective cases will be admitted through April 1st, 2020, at which time the situation will be re-assessed. 
  • For those patients that are seen in the VTH, services are modified as follows: pre-screening by phone, clients will not enter the building, clients will not be able to visit in-clinic patients, patient hand-off will be in the parking lot (except for ruminants and pigs). 
Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (OVDL)
  • OVDL will continue to provide service both to the VTH and external cases but client cases will be dropped off at the Business Office and clients will not enter the building. For specific information related to staffing and fourth year rotations, click here. 
Biomedical Sciences Department (BMS)
  • The BMS department will continue to function with limited staff support. Re-evaluation will take place on April 1, 2020. Please click here for restrictions.

 

Information for Year 4 students regarding Clinical Rotations:

  1. Students will not report to clinical rotations starting Thursday morning, 3/19/20 and lasting until 4/1/20. The duration of the in-person learning interruption will be continuously re-evaluated. Rotations include: Clinical Pathology, Diagnostic Services (Necropsy), Cardiology, Therio, LA Med, LA Surgery, RVP, Anesthesia, Oncology, LA Overnights, SA Med, SA Surgery, Imaging, SA overnights.
    • If students are not needed for patient care, services may not ask you to report on Wednesday this week.
    • Services with patient care will plan for how to offer continued patient care without students in the time up to Thursday morning.
  2. Preceptorships: If your planned preceptorship location remains open and you are already located there, you may continue if you feel comfortable doing so. We do not recommend travel to preceptorships at this time. 

Graduation Requirements Information:

  1. Preceptorship and Elective credits: We will accept your current number of preceptorship weeks completed and elective credits completed as FULLFILLMENT of graduation requirements.
  2. We are still planning to offer several electives as remote courses, but you do not need to replace any canceled elective credit to fulfill graduation requirements.
  3. Our highest priority is to focus on fulfillment of core rotations prior to graduation. We will have remote learning available and will reassess the potential of in-person learning continuously.

Strategies for remote learning for clinical rotations that may be implemented include:

  • Virtual rounds in Zoom
  • Sharing clinical case workups (history, PE, blookwork, imaging, etc.)
  • SOAPs or case reviews
  • Use of videotaped or recorded clinical encounters
  • Literature reviews
  • Practice for evaluation of the literature (evidence-based medicine)
  • Application of information obtained from the literature to clinical case 

We understand the challenges that come with this change and will try to assist you with technology, and other support we can provide. We are getting daily updates from other vet schools and will pass along information that is helpful in transition to remote instruction. 

Biomedical Sciences Department:

  • The BMS departmental office will function with one assistant (other working from home) in the next 2 weeks with re-evaluation after that. 
  • All labs should have students, technicians, and post-docs in the building for the minimal time required. 
  • All other work should be done remotely. Distance between individuals should be at least 6 feet.