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GRAFTON, Mass. - Marcus Cardana had a teddy bear with a boo-boo. Fortunately students at the Cummings School for Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University specialize in animal care -- even when the animal just happens to be stuffed.
Tufts Open House 2012
Cardana's teddy bear, P.J., was one of several that visited the Teddy Bear Clinic Saturday as part of the open house at New England's only veterinary school.
Residents from the school's host towns of Grafton and Westborough as well as people from around Central Massachusetts, came to the open house to wander around the barns, visit the Foster Hospital for Small Animals and marvel at the medical care available for pets and livestock.
In a tent, medical students explained the heart problems of a dog that was hooked up to a EKG monitoring its heart rate. Nearby, another student discussed animal x-rays and bone fractures.
The most popular areas, however, were the barns where children got up close and personal with 6-month-old piglets and attempted to woo belted galloway cows (aka "Oreo cows") with handfuls of stray hay. They came away with helium-filled surgical gloves and rode through the campus on a hay trailer pulled by a tractor.
Student Cynthia Doyles, giving Cardana back his bear, said the stuffed animals tended to be well-behaved.
"It's good practice for working on the real thing," she said.
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