Large Animal Surgery Resident Dr. Barbara Hunter was selected as the 2014 recipient of the prestigous Robert and Clarice MacVicar Animal Health Fund Scholar Award. The award is given to a senior graduate student whose research is primarily concerned with animal health and welfare, or a veterinarian in a residency program at OSU that includes research at the masters or doctoral level.
During her residency, Hunter has workd on four different research projects. The first studied the use of IV regional limb perfusion with morphine as a way to deliver drugs locally to tissue in horses. Previously the technique was used only to deliver antibiotics. “This is the first study to look at delivery of an analgesic,” she says.
Dr. Hunter’s second project compared the facial sinus as a blood sample collection site to jugular blood in horses. “I was able to validate the facial sinus as an alternative blood sampling site for in horses so we don’t have to use their jugular veins so much. This is valuable in sick horses as their jugular veins are easily damaged.”
The third project was a retrospective study that determined the best surgical options for correcting carpal valgus in camelids. And her most recent project, her thesis research, investigated the use of IV regional limb perfusion to deliver tiludronate to the lower limbs of horses with navicular disease. “This is a bisphosphonate drug that normalizes bone turn over; increased bone resorption is a problem with navicular disease and can lead to alot of pain,” she says.
Robert MacVicar was a past president of Oregon State University. He and his wife Clarice had a strong interest in the health and welfare of animals. As a result, they established a fund to support research at OSU that impacts animal health and welfare in its broadest sense. The award will provide Dr. Hunter a $5,000 stipend, with an additional $1,000 for research supplies and/or travel.
