Owls Patrol Takes a Career Trip

By ALICJA MORAWIEC | Owls Patrol Leader

The Owls Patrol from Scout Troop 223G gathered together at my house on February 8 for our Career Trip as part of our merit badge study on veterinary medicine.

A veterinarian, Dr. Ellen Singh of GreenTree Veterinary Service visited us to talk about her career. She told us how she became a veterinarian and what she did on the way.

She says typically vets are in school for 8-12 years after high school! She grew up on a farm and her dad was a veterinarian, and becoming a vet herself wasn’t her first choice. She started school studying general science before switching to animal science.

By the time she finished her undergraduate studies she had decided to become a veterinarian. She graduated from Penn State for her undergraduate degree and the University of Pennsylvania for her veterinary degree.

After working at clinics in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Australia, she transferred to house calls, and currently sees patients at their homes in Los Angeles. She mainly sees dogs and cats now, but has treated birds, lizards, rabbits, and even cows and other farm animals over the years.

Dr. Singh presented the gear and materials she brings with her to see patients. Her equipment includes a large scale, ophthalmoscope, otoscope, stethoscope, blood pressure machine, vaccines, caliper to measure lumps and bumps, and many other necessary items to determine the health of a patient.

Dr. Singh told us about how her work differs from a regular doctor, since the major difference is that her patients can’t talk. Her work is like a puzzle, she has pieces that she must put together to figure out what’s wrong.

She told us about how she uses an ophthalmoscope so she can see the back of the animal’s eye. Since animals can see at night, they had a reflective coating on the back of their eye. The patrol looked in each other’s eyes with the ophthalmoscope.

Dr. Singh also mentioned how practicing on large animals vs. small animals differs, including surgery. She discussed different handling techniques including a Calm n’ Cozy bag that wraps around a cat when they don’t want to be handled. It’s a cozy fleece bag that zips up around a cat with four flaps that open for the cat’s limbs if a blood pressure or other things needs to be measured.

Dr. Singh also told us that she does housecalls because animals tend to be more comfortable when they’re at home. This can still be challenging though with more aggressive animals. Animals can also suffer from diabetes and cancer like humans do.

The scouts asked many questions and learned a lot about what it means to be a veterinarian. I provided grapes, strawberries, and homemade cookies during the presentation for the patrol to snack on.

Overall, the scouts had a lot of fun listening and learning about the job of a veterinarian.

Parents of fifth- or sixth-graders who want to learn more or visit a 223 troop meeting can contact Greg Frost at frostfamily@frostinvestigations.com (boys) or Scoutmaster Larry Kirven at lkirven@gmail.com (girls).