Course Descriptions

Year 1 | Semester 2

DVM 5211 Clinical and Professional Skills 2 (2 credits, 1 hour lecture, 7 hours lab). Through a series of clinically oriented learning experiences students will become competent in individual and herd physical examinations and history taking. This course builds on skills from Ia, furthering surgical and diagnostic skills. In addition, students will gain experience in diagnostic procedures and develop introductory skill sets in clinical intervention and patient management. Students will build on communications skills and conflict resolution.

DVM 5221 Clinical Presentations 2 (2 credits, 0 hour lecture, 0 hours lab, 2 hours active learning). A problem/clinical presentation-based course where students will develop their problem-solving, diagnostic reasoning, and clinical decision-making skills by exploring a series of clinical presentations. Presentations will cover clinical problems, health protection problems, public health/public practice and research problems, in individuals, groups, and populations of animals. Skills will include problem identification, information gathering and assessment, analytic and non-analytic clinical and diagnostic reasoning skills clinical reasoning, and problem solving. Students are expected to integrate foundational knowledge from biomedical sciences with clinical sciences, population health science, and technical skills to explore and resolve problems. The focus in Clinical Presentations Ib is on the ability to differentiate normal from abnormal and to start learning to integrate this into diagnostic reasoning.

DVM 5261 Principles of Epidemiology (2 credits, 2 hours lecture, 0 hours lab). Students will be introduced to the basic principles and methods used in veterinary epidemiology. These concepts include types of epidemiologic studies, measures of disease frequency and association, epidemic and infectious disease dynamics, disease causation, and the relationships between population and individual animal medicine, and basic statistical concepts applied to veterinary medicine. The course will provide foundational skills relevant to population health, which includes public health, health management, and clinical medicine.

DVM 5331 Veterinary Physiology Ib (3 credits, 3 hours lecture). Pending course description.

DVM 5341 Pathologic Basis of Disease (3 credits, 3 hours lecture, 0 hours lab). This course provides an introduction to the general processes underlying disease. Morphologic and functional changes in cells, tissues, and organs as a result of internal and external stimuli are discussed. Students obtain a basic understanding of the development of lesions and the complex relationship between host, pathogen, and environment that leads to dysfunction and disease. The use of pathology as a diagnostic tool and the relationship between pathology and clinical medicine is introduced. Students are introduced to safe, systematic approaches to performing postmortem examinations. Students learn to recognize and describe common gross and microscopic lesions using appropriate medical and specifically pathological terminology. Note: laboratory experience for this subject will be included in the Clinical and Professional Skills Ib course.

DVM 5370 Microbiology (3 credits, 3 hours lecture, 0 hours lab). This course provides an overview of the bacterial and fungal classes important in animal health and disease and explore how virulence mechanisms lead to the spectrum of animal bacterial and fungal diseases and zoonotic diseases. The interaction of bacteria and fungi with the animal host, the environment and shared human hosts will be explored. Students will be introduced to diagnostic and management approaches relevant to common bacterial and fungal diseases.

DVM 5380 Parasitology (3 credits, 3 hours lecture, 0 hours lab). The students will learn the fundamentals of parasitology in animals of veterinary importance. Emphasis will be placed on the understanding of the epidemiology, host-parasite interaction, and clinical disease of North American parasites, particularly those in Texas and the surrounding regions. Attention will also be given to those that pose a zoonotic, biosafety, or security threat. Students will also learn diagnostic, management, and treatment practices in the different species of parasites and their hosts.

DVM 5431 Veterinary Anatomy 2 (4 credits, 4 hours lecture). Pending course description.