Tufts Ambulatory Service

(Directions to Facility -->)

Since 1980 Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University has operated a large animal veterinary service in Woodstock, CT that delivers round the clock ambulatory care for a variety of food and fiber animals and horses in parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Tufts Ambulatory Service provides quality veterinary service to clients, superior education to students, support for agriculture in the community, and professional growth for its faculty and staff. The overall goal of Tufts Ambulatory Service is to complement the didactic and in-house clinical training provided to students in our hospitals with a practical hands-on approach in a setting typical of most large or mixed animal practices in New England.

To achieve that aim, the Ambulatory team promotes health and well-being of farm animals through prevention and treatment of disease, enhances the viability and sustainability of livestock-based farms, and provides students with experience and training in large animal veterinary practice.

Initially staffed by two faculty members, there are currently seven veterinarians based in Woodstock and the service continues to grow. In fiscal year 2007, veterinarians in the section made 3,700 farm calls, tending to over 35,000 cattle, 2,200 horses, 700 sheep, 700 goats, and 800 llamas or alpacas. All the Tufts Ambulatory Service faculty members teach in the school's lecture and laboratory programs in addition to providing clinical education to students and service to our clients' animals.

A busy teaching practice year round, each month a group of seven fourth year students spend their days assisting clinicians solving individual animal and herd-based problems. A bit more than half the work is preventative in nature encompassing such tasks as vaccinations, fertility examinations, and herd record analyses. The rest is largely responding to illnesses, injuries, or other emergencies such as birthing problems. Most students feel that they get more "hands-on" experience on this rotation than any other in the curriculum.

In order to teach the students the importance of partnering with their farm clients to become a valued member of the management team with the goal of optimal animal welfare and farm profitability, each group of 7 is required to do the "herd project." On the first day of the rotation, the students are assigned to a farm and must analyze the operation during their time on the ambulatory rotation and recommend changes that will improve the farm's profitability. They must act as a consulting team, dividing the labor and each one becoming an expert in their chosen field of specialization, such as calf raising, milk quality, cow comfort, labor management, financial management, nutrition, and herd health. At the end of the month they make a written and verbal presentation to the clinicians and the farm owner and/or manager. This exercise in population medicine is a unique and invaluable part of the overall curriculum.

Directions to Tufts Ambulatory Service

149 New Sweden Road
Woodstock CT 06281
860-974-2780

FROM GRAFTON: Mass Pike West to I-395 South

From I-395 take the US-44 exit - EXIT 97- toward PROVIDENCE /PUTNAM (0.35mi)

From the North - Turn RIGHT onto SCHOOL ST/US 44 (0.9 mi)
*Turn RIGHT onto PROVIDENCE ST/CT RT 171 (0.85 mi)
Keep RIGHT at the fork to continue on RT 171 (2.13mi)
Turn LEFT onto CT 171/ SOMERS TURNPIKE (1.59 mi)
Turn LEFT onto NEW SWEDEN ROAD (0.68 mi)
ARRIVE at 149 New Sweden Road, Woodstock CT 06281

If traveling from the South: Take I-395 N to exit 97 - PUTNAM US 44
Turn LEFT onto School St- US 44 (1.0mi) Follow directions above from the *