Large Animal

Brave, a newborn male foal, was born five weeks premature and immediately brought to the UC Davis veterinary hospital with his dam, Ally, who was also experiencing a life threatening condition with uterine artery bleeding. Upon arrival, the colt was lethargic with diarrhea and mild colic. They were received by the Equine Internal Medicine and Equine Medical Emergency, Critical Care and Neonatology Services. A large team, led by a neonatal specialist, was quickly assembled to care for the pair. An initial physical exam in the Lucy Whittier Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) found signs consistent with a premature foal, pneumonia, and sepsis. Brave's long journey out of the NICU was just beginning.

At the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine on Saturday, 137 students received their Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine degrees. In a barn a few hours away, a 19-year-old Thoroughbred horse unknowingly became a doctor also. “Dr. Teddy” received an honorary degree from UC Davis for being a “Master Equine Educator” for the students, having helped them learn equine health at more than two dozen appointments and a lengthy stay at the school’s teaching hospital over the past year.  

When rancher Paul Plouviez—owner of the 600,000-acre Bench Creek Ranch east of Fallon, Nevada—noticed that much of the mountainous areas of his large ranch were underutilized by his cattle, he thought back to his native France. He noticed that the terrain and climate of the area, with its extremely hot summers and cold winters, closely resembled the Pyrenees mountain range in southern France. He thought Bench Creek Ranch might be ideal land to raise Gascon cattle, a breed which thrives in the Pyrenees.

At midnight on a warm summer evening in the barns at the UC Davis veterinary hospital, a first in equine medicine at UC Davis occurred. As Dr. Bruce Christensen, chief of the hospital’s Equine Reproduction Service, watched on, a mare gave birth to the first foal ever born at UC Davis by in-vitro fertilization. Through intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), an in-vitro process of impregnating a mare was successful at the renowned veterinary school. This story’s origins, however, go back almost a quarter of a century.

UC Davis Helps World Champion Horse Return to Competition

UC Davis Veterinarians Help 30-year-old Cow Live Comfortably