First-year student Dan Cimino gets an in-depth introduction to the chaos of an ER. The evening begins slowly, but before long there are two serious emergencies. Fourth-year student Aria Hill is rewarded with some hands-on work during surgery to remove 10 teeth from a cat. Fourth-year student Singen Elliott is schooled by an orthopedic surgeon who reminds him to treat the patient as the tiny kitten he is, not like one of Singen’s beloved horse patients.
The first-year students are excited to start their veterinary school career but first they must learn the handwashing dance. Fourth-year student Singen Elliott loves large animals, but every veterinary student must rotate through small animals on their quest for a degree. Finally, Millie, a 3-year-old bulldog, has congestive heart failure and has come to Cornell’s Companion Animal Hospital in a last-ditch effort to save her life. Fourth-year student Aziza Glass, in her first cardiology rotation, is part of the team that hopes to save Millie. Will this little bulldog make it through surgery?
A patient comes in with a possible diagnosis of an aggressive form of cancer, but the final x-ray reveals something unusual. Fourth-year student Singen Elliott is working on Lewis, a dog with a suspected breathing issue. The problem is, when the docs try to get the dog to cough, they can’t seem to re-create the problem. Enter Singen, who is told to run Lewis around the hospital hallways to see if that works. Fourth-year student Aziza Glass’ rotation in large-animal medicine has been fairly quiet, except for one vociferous miniature donkey named Leslie who is in for a general checkup. Seems simple enough, but Leslie has quite the mind of her own!
Fourth-year student Singen Elliott performs surgery on a West Highland white terrier to prevent her from going blind. The surgery seems to go well, then Elliott finds himself getting propositioned by the dog’s owner!
Fourth-years Singen Elliott and Aziza Glass attend labs to learn about specialty horse care, while the first-years learn how to make the perfect knot and how to draw blood, from a sheep.
The fourth-year students continue their rotations with Singen Elliott treating a dog that can’t see, Sam Dicker working in anesthesiology and a terrified Aria Hill working with horses for the first time. Meanwhile, the first-years learn how to handle a horse for a basic mouth exam.
Fourth-year student Singen Elliott participates in a surgery on a young horse named Victor with an angular limb deformity that, if not corrected, will end the young colt’s career as a racehorse before it even begins.
The first-year students are extremely busy preparing for their final. They’re using every trick in the book to understand the material, but they are running out of time. And, finally, the group of fourth-year students get to officially add the words “Doctor of Veterinary Medicine” to their names.