Pathogen: 
Giardia^
Species: 
All Species
Section: 
Parasitology
Test: 
SNAP
Standard Fee: 
$19.00
Days Tested: 
M-F
Turn-Around: 
as needed
Specimen: 
feces
Species: 
All Species
Section: 
Histopathology
Test: 
Digital Imaging - Slide Scan
Standard Fee: 
$15.00
Additional Comments: 
15.00/scan Please contact the coordinating pathologist, laboratory manager or digital technician for requests and questions regarding this service. Image transfer will be to user or lab provided flash drive (additional fee if lab provided).
Pathogen: 
Histopathology
Species: 
All Species
Section: 
Histopathology
Test: 
Slide preparation - MEGA
Standard Fee: 
$15.00
Additional Comments: 
This is an additional charge for generating a large format histology (MEGA) slide.
Pathogen: 
Legal Case Fee
Species: 
All Species
Section: 
Pathology
Standard Fee: 
$250.00
Additional Comments: 
$250.00 for legal or insurance case processing and documentation.
Pathogen: 
Bacterial Basic Quantification
Species: 
All Species
Section: 
Bacteriology
Test: 
Basic Quantification
Standard Fee: 
$10.00
Days Tested: 
M-F
Turn-Around: 
2-5 days
Specimen: 
Urine (voided, catheterized, clean catch or midstream, or cage floor), semen, prostate wash/fluid
Additional Comments: 
Fee is per sample and in addition to routine culture. This test only quantifies the bacteria present directly from the sample in 0.1 mL, 0.01 mL, and 0.001 mL with no dilution.
Pathogen: 
Bovine abortion panel - BAP
Species: 
Bovine
Section: 
Molecular
Test: 
PCR
Standard Fee: 
$55.00
Best Practice Fee: 
$49.50
Days Tested: 
M-F
Turn-Around: 
Same day
Specimen: 
Fetal Tissues
Additional Comments: 
Fetal tissues should include ALL of the following: kidney, liver, lung, placenta, skeletal muscle, and spleen. Includes Bovine herpesvirus-1, Bovine viral diarrhea virus, Leptospira species, and Neospora caninum.

Rewarding Career

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Dr. Alyse Aerts has found veterinary medicine to be an extremely rewarding career.

Yet one thing stands out and it is the basis of what she enjoys about her profession.

“I love to establish a relationship with a client and their pet and determine what is best for that person and that animal,” she said. “Each case is unique and demands individual attention and a treatment plan.”

Some cases do stand out though. These can include a difficult behavioral case or an animal that doesn’t have a good prognosis.

“I want to fight for animals that might not otherwise have a chance,” she said. “While this is taxing at times, I have found these are where my deepest relationships have developed and where I have truly discovered that animals are a lot tougher than we think.”

After graduation, Aerts took an associate veterinarian position in Wisconsin but three years later, she moved back to Nebraska to be closer to family. Today, she is firmly entrenched at Ehlers Animal Care, a small animal practice in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Even that has come with some adjustments. When she first joined the practice, Aerts was one of two veterinarians. Ehlers Animal Care is now a four doctor practice with plans to add another veterinarian soon.

The clinic outgrew its space and has recently opened a new, larger facility. And bigger means changes.

“”There have been times when maintaining a small and intimate feeling in a large practice with lots of moving parts has become quite challenging,” Aerts said. “While I enjoy the growth for many reasons, I deeply miss the small feeling.

“Previously anytime a client walked in, I knew exactly who they were.”

There are good things about growth however.

“The new building has allowed us to expand the number of animals and people that we serve,” Aerts said. “I hope with time, we will be able to find a balance on how to help more clients and patients and restore the original feel of our practice.”

In the meantime, Aerts will continue to work hard on establishing relationships while helping grow a thriving practice. Her duties at the small animal clinic include wellness checks, sick patients and soft tissue surgeries.

“I know this sounds goofy, but every day is seriously a good day,” Aerts said. “The work is rewarding.”

Photo: 
Alumni Full Name: 
Alyse Aerts
Alumni Maiden and/or Last Name: 
Aerts

From Vegetarian to Veterinarian

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Before she could pronounce her future profession correctly, Dr. Michelle Zanol knew she would eventually become a veterinarian.

“I have wanted to be a veterinarian ever since I was a little kid and before I even knew the right word,” Zanol said. “According to my mom, after taking our dog to the vet I came home and said I wanted to be a vegetarian.”

Zanol’s “vegetarian” career has taken her from Iowa State to a trio of clinics where she has served as an associate veterinarian, including stops in Fargo, North Dakota, and Savage, Minnesota. She met her husband John and his cocker spaniel Joe in Fargo, and adopted another cocker spaniel named Jack while in Savage.

That’s surprising because Zanol grew up with dachshunds and believed she would have that breed as an adult as well. But Joe, the cocker spaniel, had other things in mind.

“Joe was such a sweet boy that I fell in love with the breed,” Zanol said. “Then we got Jack.”

Jack was surrendered to the Scott Lake Veterinary Center in Savage where Zanol was an associate veterinarian. It seems the one-year-old cocker spaniel would run away from home and his owners couldn’t care for him.

“I took Jack home to show my husband and knew he would be staying with us,” she said. “After we neutered him and did some training he no longer runs away. We have since lost Joe, my husband’s first cocker spaniel, but have gotten two more.”

For the past three years, Zanol has worked at the Elm Creek Animal Hospital in Champlin, Minnesota. In the small animal clinic she not only sees daily appointments but sets aside one day for surgeries.

“Being a veterinarian makes me very happy most days,” Zanol said. “I love helping people provide the best care for their pets.”

But like any job, there are trying days.

“Sometimes cases aren’t very straight forward but I love working together with colleagues to try and figure it out,” Zanol said. “That’s what keeps me coming back into the clinic every day – the opportunity to see how happy the clients are when I make their pet feel better as well as working with my colleagues as a team.”

 

Photo: 
Alumni Full Name: 
Michelle Zanol
Alumni Maiden and/or Last Name: 
Zanol
Pathogen: 
Cortisol^^
Species: 
All Species
Section: 
Serology
Test: 
ELISA (R&D)
Standard Fee: 
$30.00
Best Practice Fee: 
$27.00
Turn-Around: 
contact section leader
Specimen: 
serum, plasma, saliva

An Untraditional Route

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There may not be a routine journey to become a veterinarian.

But it’s doubtful many veterinarians have gone to the lengths and career changes Dr. Glenn Ringenberg did to graduate from the College of Veterinary Medicine in 2010.

His interest in veterinary medicine began while in high school and he was working at a western Nebraska feed lot.

“The veterinarians would do preg checks and I ask them what it took to become a veterinarian,” Ringenberg said. “I never pursued it until later in life when I decided to pull the trigger and go to vet school.”

But before he made that decision there were other careers to consider. After high school, Ringenberg went to vocational school where he learned to become a welder.

“I did that for a few years but I missed working with cattle,” he said. “So I became a ‘feed lot cowboy’ for another three or four years.”

Soon it was time for another career change. Ringenberg, who was married with a child at this time, went back to college full time to pursue an agriculture business degree at the University of Nebraska-Kearney.

Again things weren’t adding up right.

“I enjoyed the math and science classes,” he said, “but not so much economics so I switched to pre-vet.

“I was more mature. I knew what I wanted to do and I was ready to do the work.”

Still, there’s no comparison between learning how to weld and being a vet student.

“In vocational school you show up to class, do the work and when the school day is done, you’re done for the day,” Ringenberg said.

Ringenberg spent the first two years after graduation at a clinic in eastern Iowa before finding a home at the Twin Valley Veterinary Clinic in Dunlap, Iowa. Clients at the clinic are almost all cow-calf but Ringenberg will do an occasional small animal surgery.

And when Ringenberg is out on the job, he is working with cow-calf operations. That’s the way he wants it to be.

Regardless if it is a C-Section, pulling calves or preg checks, he is at home in a feed lot.

“There is something about pulling calves,” Ringenberg said. “It’s rewarding, especially when everything comes out OK. I like helping people and I never seem to get tired of it.”

If he ever does tire of pulling calves, Ringenberg has a few hobbies to fall back on. For a number of years he was a goalie on a hockey team but in recent years he has taken to playing a set of Scottish Great Highland Bagpipes.

“The area of Western Iowa has great places to hunt, fish and play the pipes,” he said. “The Loess Hills are one of my favorites.”

It’s just one of the reason why Ringenberg enjoys calling Dunlap home.

“The people around here are very welcoming and they have made this place feel like home,” he said.

Photo: 
Alumni Full Name: 
Glen Ringenberg
Alumni Maiden and/or Last Name: 
Ringenberg

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