80 Fun Facts About Veterinary

The world's first veterinary school opened in 1761 in which city?

A second school followed at Alfort near Paris in 1765, and the model spread across Europe within decades.

Which French horseman founded the world's first veterinary school?

He ran a riding academy and turned to animal medicine after watching cattle plague devastate French herds.

The word 'veterinary' comes from the Latin 'veterinae', meaning what?

The earliest vets were essentially horse and ox doctors, which is exactly what the Latin root implies.

Which 17th-century English writer first used the word 'veterinarian' in print, in 1646?

The physician-author of Religio Medici coined dozens of English words, including 'electricity' and 'hallucination'.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons was established by royal charter in which year?

The London veterinary college itself had been running since 1791, but it took another half-century to get a professional body.

In 1922, who became the first woman recognised as a veterinary surgeon by the Royal College?

She had completed her training in Edinburgh decades earlier but was barred from sitting the exams until the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act.

The oldest veterinary college in the United States, established in 1879, belongs to which university?

The land-grant school in Ames had been teaching veterinary science to seniors since 1872 before offering degrees.

The first D.V.M. degree granted in the United States was awarded in 1876 by which university?

The graduate, Daniel Elmer Salmon, went on to a USDA career and lent his name to the genus Salmonella.

The American Veterinary Medical Association was founded in which year?

Forty delegates from seven states met in New York during the Civil War to create it; today it represents more than 105,000 vets.

The earliest surviving veterinary text, the Kahun Papyrus, comes from which civilization?

It dates to the Twelfth Dynasty and deals mainly with cattle ailments.

What was the cattle illness caused by Brucella abortus long called, after its Danish discoverer?

In people the same bacterium causes undulant fever, and Bernhard Bang's bacillus is still a headache for dairy herds worldwide.

What was the name of the 9-year-old boy first given Pasteur's rabies vaccine in 1885?

He received 13 inoculations over 11 days and later worked as a caretaker at the Pasteur Institute.

Pasteur risked prosecution for treating that boy because he was not licensed as what?

He was a chemist and microbiologist by training, so he had colleagues who were doctors administer the injections.

Which cattle plague became in 2011 only the second disease ever declared eradicated worldwide?

It joined smallpox on the list; the virus is a close relative of measles and canine distemper.

The word 'rabies' comes from a Latin word meaning what?

The disease was historically called hydrophobia because throat spasms make victims panic when offered a drink.

James Herriot was a pen name. What was the Yorkshire vet actually called?

Born in Sunderland and raised in Glasgow, he practised in Yorkshire for almost 50 years.

The real James Herriot ran his practice in which North Yorkshire market town?

The surgery at 23 Kirkgate is now the World of James Herriot museum.

In the Herriot books, the fictional town where the practice is based is called what?

The author described it as a composite of several market towns plus a fair chunk of his imagination.

The Herriot pen name came from a Scottish footballer playing for Birmingham City in which position?

The vet was watching a match on TV when he needed a pseudonym, since British vets were not allowed to advertise under their own names.

The real James Herriot qualified in 1939 from a veterinary college in which city?

He took six years to finish the five-year course, having decided on the career after a school lecture by the college principal.

The eccentric senior partner Siegfried Farnon was based on which real vet?

He was reportedly offended by the portrayal, telling the author the book was 'a real test of our friendship'.

Who played James Herriot in the original BBC series of All Creatures Great and Small?

He described the real vet as having a soft, lilting Scottish accent.

Which actor plays James Herriot in the 2020 revival of All Creatures Great and Small?

The Scottish newcomer kept his own accent for the role, a nod to the real vet's Glasgow upbringing.

The 2020 All Creatures Great and Small premiered on which UK broadcaster?

In the US it airs on PBS Masterpiece, and neither this version nor the BBC one was filmed in the real town because it had grown too big.

Reality TV vet Dr. Jan Pol was born in which country?

He emigrated to the US after vet school and his show ran for 24 seasons on Nat Geo Wild.

The Incredible Dr. Pol is filmed at a rural practice in which US state?

He opened Pol Veterinary Services in Weidman in 1981 after a decade working for another practice in Harbor Beach.

Which author created Doctor Dolittle, the country doctor who learns to talk to animals?

The first book appeared in 1920, set in the fictional village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh.

The TV series Bondi Vet follows veterinary surgeon Chris Brown in which city?

The show splits time between a Bondi Junction clinic and an emergency hospital in North Ryde.

From 1982, Bob Barker ended which game show by urging viewers to spay or neuter their pets?

Drew Carey kept the sign-off when he took over in 2007, and Barker left millions to animal charities.

How many teeth does an adult dog normally have?

Puppies start with 28 baby teeth, and the big carnassials at the back are used to shear meat.

How many permanent teeth does an adult cat have?

That is twelve incisors, four canines, ten premolars and four molars; kittens have 26 baby teeth.

Which is the largest compartment of a cow's four-part stomach?

It works as a giant fermentation vat where microbes break down grass the cow could never digest alone.

Which compartment of a cow's stomach works most like a human stomach, secreting acid and enzymes?

It is often called the 'true stomach' and is the last stop before food reaches the intestines.

Horses are physically unable to do which of these?

That one-way gut is why digestive upsets so quickly turn into colic.

A mare's pregnancy lasts approximately how many days?

The range runs roughly 320 to 370 days, and twins are rare and risky.

Vets often remove a horse's small vestigial 'wolf teeth' because they interfere with what?

They sit just in front of the molars, exactly where the metal mouthpiece rests.

In horses, 'colic', the leading cause of premature death, is a general term for pain located where?

It is a symptom rather than a diagnosis and can range from mild gas to a fatal twisted gut.

What is the colloquial term for a horse whose coffin bone has shifted after severe hoof laminae inflammation?

The bone can eventually push through the sole, which is why the condition so often ends in euthanasia.

Triple Crown winner Secretariat was put down in 1989 after developing which hoof condition?

He was 19 and was buried whole at Claiborne Farm, an honour usually reserved for just the head, heart and hooves.

The pathologist who necropsied Secretariat estimated his heart weighed roughly how many pounds?

That is about two and a half times the average horse's 8.5-pound heart, and a big part of the 'super horse' legend.

A giraffe's 11-kilogram heart must generate roughly how much blood pressure compared with a human's?

It has to push blood up a two-metre neck, and a rete of vessels stops the brain from flooding when the head drops to drink.

Elephant pregnancies typically last how long?

It is the longest gestation of any land mammal, and the mother will not calve again for at least four years.

Like humans but unlike most mammals, guinea pigs cannot make which nutrient and must get it from food?

Without it they develop scurvy, so pellets are fortified and vets recommend fresh peppers or greens.

Unlike rodents, rabbits have how many sets of upper incisors, one behind the other?

The little 'peg teeth' behind the front pair are one reason rabbits are classed as lagomorphs, and all their teeth grow for life.

Which of these animals has the highest normal body temperature?

Birds run hot: a hen's normal reading can top 43 °C, while a horse sits nearer 38 °C.

Which range is a dog's normal rectal temperature in Fahrenheit?

That is a full two degrees warmer than a person, so a dog that feels hot to the touch is usually just being a dog.

Heartworm larvae are passed to dogs by the bite of which insect?

Four genera carry the parasite, and dogs show no sign of infection during the six-month prepatent period.

Despite the name, adult heartworms most often live in which vessels?

The damage to lung vessels is what eventually leads to congestive heart failure.

Canine parvovirus was first recognised in which year, spreading worldwide within two years?

It appears to have jumped from a closely related cat virus, and a modified live vaccine from Cornell is still in use.

Canine parvovirus is 98 percent genetically identical to which cat virus?

The two differ by just two amino acids in a capsid protein, which is why the dog virus can also infect cats.

Which bacterium is the most common cause of kennel cough?

It is a close cousin of the whooping-cough bacterium, and canine parainfluenza virus is the usual co-conspirator.

Canine distemper virus belongs to the same family as the virus that causes which human disease?

A telltale complication is 'hard pad', where the paw pads and nose thicken.

Which breed is about ten times more likely than average to suffer gastric dilatation-volvulus, or bloat?

One study put its lifetime risk at 42 percent, and many owners opt for a preventive gastropexy that tacks the stomach in place.

The sweetener xylitol is dangerous to dogs because it triggers what?

A dose of 100 mg per kilo sets off a flood of insulin, and symptoms can start within 30 minutes of eating sugar-free gum.

Which compound in chocolate is toxic to dogs because they metabolise it far more slowly than humans?

Cocoa powder is about 2 percent of it by weight, which is why baking chocolate is far more dangerous than milk chocolate.

Collie-type dogs with an MDR1 gene defect can be poisoned by which antiparasitic drug?

The mnemonic 'white feet, don't treat' warns vets about the risk in Scotch collies.

Satoshi Ōmura isolated the Streptomyces strain behind avermectin from soil near what kind of site in Japan?

The 1970 sample from Honshu led to a 2015 Nobel Prize shared with William Campbell of Merck.

Ketamine, a staple veterinary anaesthetic, was extensively used for surgical anaesthesia in which war?

It keeps the airway reflexes and blood pressure up, which makes it ideal for field surgery without ventilators.

Spaying a female animal means surgically removing which organs?

The technical name is ovariohysterectomy when the uterus comes out too, and many countries require it before adoption.

Declawing a cat, or onychectomy, involves amputating what?

Because the claw grows from tissue inside the third phalanx, the bone has to go, which is why many countries ban the procedure.

'Cherry eye' in dogs is a prolapse of a gland attached to which structure?

The nictitating membrane produces a large share of the eye's tears, so vets prefer to tuck the gland back rather than remove it.

The 'cone of shame' is formally an Elizabethan collar, named after which item of Tudor-era clothing?

It has also been called a treat funnel, a radar dish and a lampshade, and soft fabric versions now exist.

Where is an identification microchip normally implanted in a dog or cat?

The rice-grain-sized RFID tag has no battery and is read by a handheld scanner.

Cat-scratch disease in humans is caused by which bacterium?

Kittens are the likeliest carriers, and the cat was identified as the natural reservoir in 1950.

The parasite Toxoplasma gondii can only reproduce sexually inside which animal family?

That is why pregnant women are told to hand off the litter-box duty, though undercooked meat is the more common route.

What is the most common hormonal disease diagnosed in cats?

Weight loss despite a ravenous appetite is the classic sign, and radioactive iodine is a curative treatment.

Feline immunodeficiency virus was first isolated in 1986 at the veterinary school of which university?

It was originally called feline T-lymphotropic virus and spreads mainly through deep bite wounds.

The Coggins test, a blood test developed in 1970, screens horses for which disease?

A negative result is still required to move horses across many borders and onto showgrounds.

Which of these is one of the four abnormalities of brachycephalic airway syndrome in bulldogs and pugs?

Surgery to shorten the palate and widen pinched nostrils is now routine in flat-faced breeds.

Mad cow disease, or BSE, is caused by what kind of infectious agent?

The misfolded protein turns the brain spongy, and the UK outbreak of the 1980s and 90s led to a human form, vCJD.

Which livestock outbreak led to millions of animals being culled in the United Kingdom in 2001?

The 'Type O pan Asia' strain cost Britain an estimated £8 billion and shut down much of the countryside.

Myxoma virus was deliberately released in Australia in the 1950s to control which introduced pest?

It was the first virus ever released into the wild to wipe out a vertebrate pest, and it was spread by fleas and mosquitoes.

The North American Veterinary Licensing Examination consists of how many multiple-choice questions?

Candidates get eight hours, and the paper includes images to test diagnostic skills.

Roughly what share of students admitted to US veterinary schools are women?

The profession flipped from overwhelmingly male within a couple of generations.

The Shalihotra Samhita, an early Indian veterinary treatise, dates from the time of which emperor?

His edicts boast of providing two kinds of medicine, for people and for animals, and of planting healing herbs where none grew.

The Hippiatrica, a 5th- or 6th-century compilation on horse medicine, comes from which empire?

Horses dominated early animal medicine because of their economic value; medieval horse-shoers doubled as 'horse doctors'.

A 1356 push by London's Lord Mayor to regulate horse-shoers led to which livery body in 1674?

Sir Henry Picard wanted every farrier within seven miles of the City to join a fellowship to improve horse care; the Worshipful Company followed three centuries later.

Which Frenchman became the first professor of London's new Veterinary College in 1790?

Granville Penn's campaigning persuaded him to accept, and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons followed by charter in 1844.

A Brazilian zoo made the first recorded use of stem-cell therapy on a wild animal in 2011. Which species?

Zoo Brasília treated the animal after a car hit it, and it was later returned fully recovered to the wild.

Per the AVMA, roughly what share of U.S. veterinarians work in private practice treating animals?

The rest work in research, public health, industry, government and academia.