Editor’s Note: In their fourth and final year of veterinary school, students are required to complete a series of two-week clinical rotations in the Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center. This article is one in a series that highlights those rotations.
It’s a clinical rotation unlike any other in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
For two weeks, a group of fourth-year veterinary students traveled throughout central Iowa observing different animal species in a different locales. Here’s a quick synopsis…
First Tuesday – students spent the day at the Animal Rescue League of Iowa where they toured the shelter and had a discussion of animal welfare issues in shelters.
First Wednesday – a field trip to the Des Moines Blank Park Zoo led to a discussion of veterinarians’ role in welfare issues of captive exotics.
First Friday – a tour of the ISU dairy farm with discussions centering around the FARM animal welfare assurance program.
Second Monday – students spent the afternoon at the ISU Swine Teaching Farm learning about swine welfare issues.
Second Tuesday – an all-day trip to Knoxville, Iowa, where students went through a local cattle sale barn.
Second Wednesday – a change of pace as students visited the Canine Craze Performance Center in Urbandale where they observed puppy classes and obedience.
Last Day – a field trip to Prairie Meadows in Altoona where an equine veterinarian discussed welfare issues in horse racing and the role of the regulatory veterinarian and equine practitioner.
“The rotation helped me think more deeply about cases, clients and the larger systems that animals live in,” said Jinnan Xiao, a fourth-year student who took the rotation. “It gave me tools to assess and communicate about welfare in both small animal and livestock contexts.
“It also encouraged me to think about how I can make small, but meaningful changes for animals, whether that’s in a clinic, on a farm, or in community settings.”
Xiao was one of a dozen fourth-year Iowa State veterinary students who took the rotation. In addition to the field trips, the students gave presentations on the off days.
“All the farm visits were interesting, but to me the zoo trip stood out the most,” Xiao said. “Seeing how enrichment and welfare standards are implemented for exotic species was eye-opening. It challenged me to think about welfare not only in food animals and pets, but also in animal that live in very different environments and under unique human care.”
But regardless of where the clinical rotation went to Xiao saw a benefit.
“Overall, I appreciated how each visit, whether to a shelter, a farm or the zoo, pushed me to think beyond the medical side of veterinary work and more about the quality of life for animals,” he said. “The rotation reinforced why I came into veterinary medicine in the first place, which is to do something that makes life better for animals.”
October 2025