Catherine Skinner examines an alpaca as Dr. Christopher Cebra teaches during the camelid course. 

Catherine Skinner has gone two weeks without getting spit on. That’s hopefully a normal occurrence for most of us. But most of us aren’t working with alpacas and llamas on a daily basis.

Skinner just finished the Camelid Medicine and Surgery course, a two-week elective, at Oregon State University’s Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine. It covers all things alpaca and llama.  

Tom O'Brien and Jeannine Marshall-O'Brien dedicate the Leilani Comfort Room.

Did the horse have rabies? That’s just one of the questions that Wendy Black and Nelson Osorio can answer. Black and Osorio are both microbiologists in the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the Oregon State University Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine.

Dr. Kadie Anderson (right) doing an exam on a spider crab. Photo courtesy of Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.

 

Imagine you’re a doctor. Each day you get up and go to work. But you’re not just treating one type of patient. Some days your patients have fins. Some days they have shells. Some days they have fur and fangs. Some days they breathe through gills. Some days they have backbones. Some days they don’t.

If you’ve lived in Oregon for any length of time, you’ve probably heard the stories of “cattle mutilations” on Eastern Oregon’s high desert, juniper, bunchgrass and sage ranchlands. Cattle carcasses are found by ranch hands. The cattle are missing genitalia and eyes – the wounds so clean they look like a surgeon did it. There are no footprints to be found. The carcasses are dried out – no blood anywhere.

Who did it? “It’s always aliens or Satanists,” said Dr. Sean Spagnoli with a wry laugh.

Dr. Sarah Garver, Benny, Chupi and Mitch Garver.

Dr. Sarah Garver (née Jogi) and her husband Mitch wanted to get a dog, but the circumstances didn’t seem right. It was the summer of 2018, and Dr. Garver had just graduated from Oregon State University’s Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine with her degree in veterinary medicine. Mitch’s work meanwhile takes him around the country for seven to eight months of the year, so they were long distance. They were also working on building a house in their hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico.