Submitted by Jim Burke (not verified) on December 26, 2007 - 09:41.
I visited my daughter last week at the Iron Spring Horse Farm at which she is employed in Coatesville, PA. She has a B.S. in equine sciences and is responsible for the health of the Dutch Warmbloods and Friesians. I was able to tag along as she did her work one morning. She showed me the farm lab with the prominent large tank of liquid nitrogen that is used for freezing semen that can last indefinitely and which is shipped by Fedex, etc. to all parts of the world. The farm records are all digitized and readily available via the computers at various places.
While there, Lissa assisted a veterinarian who was taking perhaps three dozen X-ray shots of a horse using a laptop, a camera (x-ray generator) that was perhaps the size of an older-style VHS camcorder. This is all preventative and not because the horse had any particular issues. Each X-ray takes only 6 seconds to render on the laptop at which time they could look for the beginnings of any possible problems and then move on to the next shot. All the images are archived and backed-up immediately, giving a history over time of changes in the horse and available for immediate call up should a problem arise.
This portable X-ray machine has been in use for 2 years on this farm, and though initially expensive, has paid for itself already in problems that are caught much sooner and thus can get early intervention for these very high-priced creatures.
Now I certainly don't recommend that students work with X-rays, but doing series of standard photos over time to see changes certainly would be a valuable activity in understanding connections and relationships. The important concept of planning ahead through understanding of the past can be put in concrete terms.
Images over Time
Submitted by Jim Burke (not verified) on December 26, 2007 - 09:41.
I visited my daughter last week at the Iron Spring Horse Farm at which she is employed in Coatesville, PA. She has a B.S. in equine sciences and is responsible for the health of the Dutch Warmbloods and Friesians. I was able to tag along as she did her work one morning. She showed me the farm lab with the prominent large tank of liquid nitrogen that is used for freezing semen that can last indefinitely and which is shipped by Fedex, etc. to all parts of the world. The farm records are all digitized and readily available via the computers at various places.
While there, Lissa assisted a veterinarian who was taking perhaps three dozen X-ray shots of a horse using a laptop, a camera (x-ray generator) that was perhaps the size of an older-style VHS camcorder. This is all preventative and not because the horse had any particular issues. Each X-ray takes only 6 seconds to render on the laptop at which time they could look for the beginnings of any possible problems and then move on to the next shot. All the images are archived and backed-up immediately, giving a history over time of changes in the horse and available for immediate call up should a problem arise.
This portable X-ray machine has been in use for 2 years on this farm, and though initially expensive, has paid for itself already in problems that are caught much sooner and thus can get early intervention for these very high-priced creatures.
Now I certainly don't recommend that students work with X-rays, but doing series of standard photos over time to see changes certainly would be a valuable activity in understanding connections and relationships. The important concept of planning ahead through understanding of the past can be put in concrete terms.
jim