Dedication ceremonies set for 1:30 p.m. Friday, June 7, will mark the official opening of the new Veterinary Medical Center at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University.

The five-story facility, under construction since 1994 with $54 million in funding from New York state, houses three animal hospitals, four academic departments and parts of two veterinary service units: the Companion Animal Hospital, the Farm Animal Hospital and the Equine Hospital; the departments of Microbiology and Immunology, Pharmacology, Clinical Sciences, and Pathology; as well as some facilities for the Diagnostic Laboratory and Laboratory Animal Services.

Cornell's Veterinary Medical Center is the second in a three-phase, $90-million construction and renovation project, the largest of its kind ever undertaken for the State University of New York. The first, the Veterinary Education Center, was completed in 1993. Beginning this year, refurbishing of Schurman Hall for faculty and administration office spaces and conversion of the former animal hospital to instructional facilities ultimately will increase the college's usable space by 70 percent.

Officials from Cornell University, the State University of New York, the state Legislature and veterinary professional societies will speak at the dedication, which will be conducted under a tent to the east of the new center. Among those scheduled to speak are: Hunter Rawlings, Cornell president; Franklin M. Loew, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine; Mara DiGrazia, D.V.M. '96, past president of the Cornell Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association; MacDonald Holmes, president of the New York State Veterinary Medical Society; Irving Freedman, SUNY vice chancellor for capital facilities; State Sen. James Seward; and State Assemblyman Martin Luster.

In an executive citation prepared for delivery at the dedication, New York Gov. George E. Pataki said: "This world-class research institution is important to its students, people who care for companion animals, farmers, the horse racing industry, the veterinary profession and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries."

Animals also will, appropriately, have a role in the dedication: Distinguished guests and participants will be escorted to their seats by trained guide dogs and police dogs.

 

An inside view of Cornell's Veterinary Medical Center

The Companion Animal Hospital has 16 examination rooms, grouped in sets of four to six around three large treatment rooms. One set is devoted to the Internal Medicine Service and another to the Ophthalmology and Surgery services. The third set of rooms is devoted to Community Practice and Dermatology and is also shared with the Behavior, Wildlife/Exotic Pets and Small Animal Fertility and Infertility clinics. A special exam room with a one-way mirror is used by reproductive specialists to observe animals that have breeding problems. Separate hospitalization wards are reserved for medicine, surgery, ophthalmology and wildlife and exotic animal patients.

The Companion Animal Hospital's surgery wing is located back-to-back with the surgical suites for horses and farm animals. This allows clinicians and technicians to share access to a central supply unit for sterile clothing, instruments, linens and reprocessing. There are six aseptic small animal surgery suites, including three that have been specifically designed and equipped for soft tissue, orthopedic, and ophthalmic operations. Another two surgery rooms are set aside for dentistry and endoscopy procedures.

The small animal Radiology Department is adjacent to the facilities for large animals. This allows radiologists and technicians to more easily serve the Companion Animal, Farm Animal, and Equine hospitals. The Radiology Department provides services typically not available in most private veterinary practices, including ultrasonography, echocardiology, nuclear medical imaging and computerized tomography (CT) imaging.

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Companion Animal Hospital can house up to 30 animals and is staffed round-the-clock, 365 days a year, by experienced veterinary technicians. Fourth-year D.V.M. students, residents and faculty clinicians regularly are found in the ICU, attending to the needs of critically ill animals, as well as giving them a generous dose of "T.L.C." Special facilities in the ICU include two oxygen cages for animals with respiratory problems; clinical monitors that measure ECG, blood pressure, pulse rate, and other vital signs; infusion pumps for administering all types of intravenous fluids; and life support and emergency resuscitation equipment.

The ICU also functions as the small animal emergency room because it has the sophisticated equipment used to stabilize animals with traumatic injuries or critical illnesses.

The Farm Animal Hospital is well equipped to provide the best possible care to varied species, including cattle, goats, sheep and swine, as well as for more recently popular exotic species such as llamas and Vietnamese miniature pot-bellied pigs. The Farm Animal Ward can house up to 40 animals, varying in size from newborn lambs weighing only a few pounds to mature dairy bulls weighing more than a ton.

A special entrance is used for farm animal admissions. This entrance is equipped with a uniquely designed unloading ramp and gating system to provide safe and efficient handling of bulls, as well as range and free-stall animals that are not trained to be led. This gating system includes a scale for accurate weighing of incoming patients, a hydraulically operated chute and a tilting treatment table for surgical and other procedures on the feet.

Two specially equipped examination rooms provide the most modern techniques for diagnostic evaluations, including endoscopy. The farm animal surgery unit provides state-of-the-art facilities for anesthetic and surgical procedures.

The Equine Hospital is the most modern facility of its kind in the United States if not the world. The entrance to the Equine Hospital, located at the southeast end of the Veterinary Medical Center, is equipped with loading and unloading ramps designed to accommodate various equine conveyances. The hospital itself is arranged so that outpatients can be completely examined without intermingling with hospitalized animals.

Upon admission, horses can be placed in three holding stalls, located just inside the entrance, until they can be examined. Two examination rooms, located across the hall from the holding stalls, contain diagnostic instrumentation. A special room for endoscopic procedures and the equine radiology suites are located in close proximity to the entrance and can be used for both outpatients and hospitalized animals. A special table has been designed to allow for computerized tomographic imaging of the head and legs of horses. A surgery unit for standing patients is located near the entrance so that diagnostic procedures such as nerve blocks can be performed on an outpatient basis.

There are four equine wards, each with 12 box stalls for housing hospitalized horses. The wards include associated treatment rooms, hydrotherapy units and a computerized record room for maintaining patient data.

In the equine surgical facilities, induction rooms provide safe and efficient induction of anesthesia. After horses are anesthetized on surgical tables at floor level, the tables are hydraulically raised and wheeled into one of two sterile, equine surgical suites, designed for soft-tissue or orthopedic procedures, respectively. The surgical tables are attached to specially designed hydraulic jacks that allow for flexible positioning of animals during surgical procedures.

After surgery, the patients are wheeled into the recovery area where they are moved by overhead hoists into padded stalls for safe recovery from anesthesia. The equine induction and surgery areas has controlled access so that clean, aseptic conditions are maintained. The Equine Hospital also includes space for a "swimming pool" recovery facility to be designed and installed in the future.

The New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell is one of 27 veterinary schools in the United States and one of only three in the Northeast. Since 1896, the college has graduated more than 4,200 veterinarians.

When Cornell University opened in 1868, it was the first American university to include a professor of veterinary medicine on the faculty. In 1876, Cornell was the first university in the United States to award a D.V.M. degree (to Daniel E. Salmon, who later identified the infectious pathogen, Salmonella). The College of Veterinary Medicine was established by an act of the state Legislature in 1894, and the college officially opened in the fall of 1896.