Pine Straw - North Carolina State University College of Veterinary ...

Dr. Theresa Beachler
collects a blood sample
for testing.
Photographs By Cassie Butler
76 November 2012 PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

good
Horse Sense
At the NC State equine Health Center, a
state-of-the-art veterinary teaching hospital,
high technology meets hands-on love of horses
Dr. Scott Bailey
PhotograPh by JohN gessNer
By nicole White
from US 1, the NC State Equine Health Center (EHC) seems
serene — even quiet. I check in at the front office and go around
the corner to meet veterinarian Scott Bailey, and all notions of
peaceful pasture animals go out the big bay open doors.
Within the hustle and bustle of a large exam room two
horses stand in their confines — tails wrapped and tied to the side. Both
veterinarians and their students move with purpose around the room examining
the mares in preparation for insemination. Computers and medical
instruments span one wall while, opposite, a much-frequented steel door
leads into the laboratory. The still summer air is pierced by a fiercely eager
trumpet call out of a nearby stall. A “whinny” is hardly an adequate description.
It seems this stallion knows what all the activity is for. Dr. Bailey grins
at me: “Have you ever seen a stallion collected before?”
Today, Notorious Playboy, an American Paint stallion owned by a private
client in Hoke County, is the object of the staff’s attention. She’s Off Limits,
owned by Libby Staples of Southern Pines, is patiently waiting in the open
bay. The aptly named mare will never even meet the stallion; they won’t
touch, but if all goes as planned she will bear his foal in the spring.
It takes three people, all wearing helmets, to complete the collection
process. (Dr. Bailey informs me that head trauma is the most frequent
injury sustained around stallions.) One of the stallion’s handlers is a clinical
technician, down for a theriogenology (or reproduction) rotation from NC
State’s College of Veterinary Medicine Raleigh campus. She, along with Dr.
Bailey, has gone to the prestigious New Bolton Center in Pennsylvania for
specific stallion-handling training. Other students are watching, studying
how stallion collection is handled or continuing to prep the mare that stays
confined out of site.
Dr. Bailey briefs me quickly. “This particular stallion is actually used to
live cover,” he explains, referring to the natural reproductive process. “But
artificial insemination is often more effective and is much safer — there is
less risk of injury to the stallion by a kicking mare or to the mare who can
get her neck and flanks bit or raked by the stallion’s hoofs.”
A “teaser” mare, who is also in heat, is brought close to the collection
shelter, which houses a large mounting form, called a phantom. Notorious
Playboy likes this new girl. Not unlike some humans, this stallion wants
a mare he hasn’t seen before. The mare used during his last collection was
brought out and promptly ignored, but this pretty new thing has Notorious
Playboy throwing his head, trumpeting and trembling all over. The mare’s
handler is also helmeted, but the horse is calm and eyes the stallion with
some tacit aloofness. When he goes to mount her, she is pulled aside and
he uses the huge Saran-wrapped, blanket-covered barrel-like form that is
raised up on a 45-degree angle. Notorious Playboy doesn’t seem to care or
notice the difference. The mare rolls her eyes with a disdainful “as if!” And I
almost start humming MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This.”
It is all over fairly quickly and the mare stands by, swishing her tail as if
bored. Notorious Playboy looks spent and is led calmly away. The semen
collected measures nearly 40 ml, approximately 10 billion sperm. About half
will prove to be viable and be enough to impregnate five mares. Notorious
Playboy progeny seem a sure thing.
The NC State Equine Health Center, a satellite facility of the university’s
PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills November 2012 77

College of Veterinary Medicine, was originally created as an equine emergency
center for the large population of pleasure and sport horses located in
the Sandhills. In the mid 1970s, Southern Pines horse enthusiasts raised
$300,000 through hunter/jumper shows with a matching donation from
Raymond Firestone. Brick for the buildings came from a Sanford brick
plant, and the eighty-three acres that make up the facility were donated by
Mr. and Mrs. W.O. [Ginnie and Pappy] Moss, who also deeded the adjacent
4,000-acre Walthour-Moss Foundation.
When the University of North Carolina system created the NC State
College of Veterinary Medicine in 1981, the facility was turned over for the
creation of a state-of-the-art veterinary teaching hospital that would also
be an outstanding equine medical center. In the last decade that dream
has grown dramatically, with 2011 and 2012 marking the most significant
growth yet seen by the facility.
After being tapped by the dean of the college in 1992 to fill the position
of medical director for the fledgling facility, Dr. Lloyd P. “Jock” Tate immediately
got to work updating the medical equipment, introducing research
projects, creating space for additional services, and responding to the
region’s increased interest in a quarantine location.
Now, the full service Equine Health Center offers Equine Breeding or
“Therio Service,” ophthalmology, diagnostic testing services and is the only
USDA-certified contagious equine metritis (CEM) quarantine site in the
state and one of a small number along the Eastern Seaboard. This latter
service combined with the reproductive services make up the majority of the
Equine Health Center’s caseload.
With six physicians rotating every two weeks from NC State’s main campus,
half a dozen students at any time, two “house officers” and an intern,
not to mention the twenty-five University-owned horses and ponies that
stay on the grounds, the facility is a bustling place. Coupled with the training
and competition facilities of the Carolina Horse Park and the Pinehurst
Harness Track, as well as the vast expanses of the neighboring Walthour-
Moss Foundation, the medical capabilities of the Equine Health Center and
the larger campus at NC State all aid in making the Sandhills one of the
most popular horse communities on the East Coast.
“The Equine Center’s three theriogonologists have a combined forty
years of experience in this specialized area of reproductive medicine — a
wealth of expertise unique in the state of North Carolina,” says Scott Bailey,
DVM. “We are a cutting edge facility that can cater to very specific needs of
the patient and client.”
Although there is an ever-increasing utilization by local equestrians and
a much greater understanding by the public of what the facility can offer,
Dr. Bailey would like to see the community take even more advantage of the
learning opportunity it provides. “I would love to see this facility be used
even more for educating the public,” Bailey says. As it is, at least once a year
continuing education classes and open houses are offered to the public.
“My goal is to be a teacher to everyone,” says Bailey, who loves teaching
in the university setting, but misses mentoring clients like he did in his
private practice.
He is not able to reminisce for long, though. Back in the exam room, Dr.
Bailey is already working on another mare, reviewing what he sees on the
ultrasound with two students. Though a typical week would see one or two
stallions collected, this particular Friday he will collect three in just one day. A
fourth year vet student has her arm up to the shoulder in one mare’s rectum.
She is “palpating” the uterine body to feel for follicles on the ovaries that hold
Medical laboratory technician Pam Wilser tests for Equine
Infectious Anemia, more commonly known as the Coggins test.
78 November 2012 PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

the all-important eggs. She looks down at the
ultrasound in front of her, reaching even farther
in. She tells me the uterus is shaped like a Y and
that the bifurcation is the tell-tale spot that helps
her find her way. She feels the cervix, which is the
entrance to the uterus and, when the mare is in
heat, is much softer than normal. “It feels like a
bunch of soft paper towels,” she says.
Meanwhile, in the adjacent lab, Dr.
Mohamadou Diaw is studying a sample of the
sperm collected from Notorious Playboy through
a microscope. The collection process has moved
quickly and efficiently into a sterile environment
to minimize contact with potential spermicide.
Dr. Diaw is judging motility — one of the few
ways to measure how fertile the sperm sample is.
Both progressive motility and sperm concentration
will indicate just how strong a sample Mr.
Playboy gave.
Tammy Stewart, program administrator at the
Equine Health Center, has been at the facility
for over two decades and seen it evolve into a
main component of the community. “In the early
1990s little was known about this facility by this
community,” she says. “That has greatly changed
since the university has opened the doors and
services to the local veterinarians and general
public.” Previously supported in its entirety by
state allocated funds, the facility now generates
enough of its own revenue to substantially help
cover operating costs. At its core, however, it
remains focused on being a teaching hospital.
That focus is paramount to director Tate’s vision
for the future. “The cycle hasn’t been completed,
but we have raised more than $100,000 for a new
surgery room to be named after the late Southern
Pines horseman, Dave Kelly,” Tate says. “Looking
forward, our vision is that we would have the facility
to conduct day-time surgeries for locals with followup
care to be provided by local veterinarians.”
The College of Veterinary Medicine, which
ranks third among the nation’s twenty-eight veterinary
programs by U.S. News and World Report,
graduated seventy-six students this past spring. The
class of 2016 will grow to one hundred — the first
class of that size in CVM’s thirty-one-year history.
For each of those students, the Southern Pines
satellite facility rotations and hands-on learning
environment will be vital to their education.
“The Equine Health Center brings students
in contact with the horsemen and experts of this
area,” says Tate. “This community is the ideal
mix for a dynamic educational forum.”
It is a mix that promises even greater things for
the future of the Equine Health Center as decades
of experience merge with state-of-the-art innovation
and a plethora of eager young minds. PS
Nicole White is a frequent contributor to PineStraw.
Kevin McDonnell, animal caretaker and maintenance supervisor,
feeds the University-owned horses and ponies at daybreak.
PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills November 2012 79