GOING BEYOND THE EXPECTED
UGA CVM gets creative in its efforts to recruit future practitioners excited to serve in rural Georgia. With the help of University and State partners, CVM is sending confident, capable clinicians into the field.
By Amy H. Carter
To hear Alyssa Rauton tell it, the field of large animal veterinary medicine found her, not the other way around. The daughter of a nurse and a law enforcement investigator with no ties to agriculture, Rauton, who grew up in Waynesboro, was introduced to livestock in middle school.
“I was fortunate to have a very pushy ag teacher, and she said, ‘Why don’t you show dairy calves?’ and I said, ‘Why don’t I show dairy calves?’”
The suggestion became an obsession for Rauton. She started showing Holstein calves in eighth grade and later showed sheep and goats. She got a job at a dairy. She “did all the things” in her local FFA chapter, holding both local and regional offices.
In October 2024, on the cusp of graduating with her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree, Rauton marked her 12th consecutive year in the livestock arenas of the Georgia National Fair in Perry. This time around, she wasn’t showing animals, she was in charge of their medical care. Rauton was entrusted by her advisors in the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine with overseeing the health and wellbeing of dairy cows birthing their calves in the Georgia Grown Baby Barn.
The baby barn is just one of the ways the CVM offers real-life experience in large animal medicine to young people exploring careers in veterinary medicine, while also introducing the field of work to the public at large. The number of veterinarians specializing in livestock has declined steadily since World War II. Fewer Americans than ever are directly involved in food and animal production, so careers in those areas are unfamiliar to youth pondering their futures.
Wilson Griffis, a 10th grader at Westfield High School in Perry, discovered an interest in large animal medicine working at a Houston County dairy. When he learned that cows from the dairy are featured at the Baby Barn during the fair’s 11-day run each October, he asked for a job there. He was paired with Rauton and fellow fourth-year veterinary students tasked with caring for the animals. He helped pull calves and answered questions from curious fairgoers, some of whom were standing in the presence of live cows for the first time.
Griffis has friends whose families farm, but he had no direct experience of it himself prior to working at the dairy. He’s getting all the experience he can in preparation for applying to vet school. “I hope to be a vet from the UGA vet school,” he says. He plans to return home to practice in middle Georgia.
Some experts say rural youth are key to the future of large animal medicine. Like Griffis, they are more likely to return home to serve producers in their communities. UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine and its College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences work together to make that dream a reality for students like Griffis and Rauton by offering a Food Animal Veterinary Incentive Program. FAVIP guarantees admission to the CVM for undergraduates on a preveterinary large animal track who complete the required studies and maintain a certain grade point average.
Students, staff and faculty of the CVM united at the Georgia Grown Baby Barn in Perry every October to tell the story of UGA VetMed to fairgoers of all ages. Here, a young visitor performs a physical on a stuffed bulldog at the CVM booth.
The CVM allows fairgoers to experience veterinary medicine in engaging ways. This year, a virtual reality stand allowed fairgoers (and students) to operate their own grooming salon where they could practice brushing the fur and teeth of cats and dogs.
Rauton applied for and was accepted to FAVIP as an undergraduate majoring in avian biology. Set to receive her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in May, Rauton says she may pursue a master’s degree in food animal medicine but is also considering “a big kid job.” Ideally that will involve ruminants large and small.
After graduation, the state of Georgia steps in to encourage veterinarians on the large animal track by offering a loan forgiveness program to practitioners who commit to serving in rural communities. The program repays up to $20,000 of student loan debt annually for those who participate.
Dr. Sam Dalton (DVM, 2019) is enrolled in the Georgia Veterinary Education Loan Repayment Program and extolls its virtues to all who will listen. The owner of Orchard Veterinary Clinic in Hawkinsville, Dalton worked in a busy mixed animal practice in Alto until her son Mason was born. “I loved it there but when I had my baby, I knew I couldn’t keep up the level I was at there.”
While being a sole practitioner sounds like more work, not less, Dalton says she’s found a balance. In addition, she often assists with instruction of a veterinary career pathways course at UGA where she enjoys advising female students about finding the right work/life balance for themselves.
So, I try to talk about being a woman, being a mom, a new mom, and being in a rural area, doing large animal things, because you can, you really can do it all.”
Dr. Sam Dalton (DVM 2019)
The real-world life experience Dalton offers is not unique among CVM faculty. Dr. Emmanuel Rollin (DVM, 2007) returned to UGA to teach after spending four years in a private dairy practice based in Eatonton. The shortage of specialized large animal practitioners is so acute that his practice served all of Georgia and South Carolina. One client visit required Rollin to travel 300 miles round trip between Eatonton and Alma in South Georgia. That’s six hours of driving on top of clinical time caring for his patients.
Rollin primarily teaches fourth-year students through a combination of classroom and real-world instruction on client and UGA-owned farms. For livestock such as pigs, which aren’t produced in large numbers in Georgia, students are offered the opportunity to learn on farms in Iowa or Minnesota.
This exposure to all the things a large animal veterinarian is likely to encounter in practice is designed to create confidence. A confident doctor, even one just out of school, is more likely to stick with their chosen career path.
Rollin says the baby barn was just such an experiential learning opportunity for his student, Rauton.
“Part of the learning experience here is the medicine, learning how to deal with the animals, but also, in a broader sense, dealing with the public, interacting with the public, and educating the public,” Rollin says.
“As a veterinarian, she’s going to be an educator of clients. She can’t talk to patients, but she’ll be educating her clients about a lot of things. So, this is how to do it. And giving her that confidence, because doing it by yourself all alone with the producers can be stressful. And here with the crowd, it’s stressful, but she’s got us. We’re right there behind her.”
