During their fourth year at Purdue University’s School of

Veterinary Medicine, students finally get to work with real

patients, rotating among several services for two-and-a-half

to five weeks on each. As with cardiology, internal

medicine, oncology and others, the ophthalmology service

at Purdue is an opportunity for future veterinarians to learn

more about specialties they had only heard of in lectures or

read in textbooks. Most students will go into general

medicine and not specialize in anything, but they will still

need to know at least basic information about each area

when they are doctors and seeing their own patients. For

vet students in Purdue's Class of 2003, their brief time

working in ophthalmology allowed them to literally look

into the eyes of what, at its core, their chosen profession is

about.

Click on the picture at right to begin slide show.