09/24/2026
When these 2 groups of kids came to our hospital they had no idea what a fun day they were about to have! Dr. Barta's dog, Starry B, was the patient and the kids needed to work together to find out why she stopped eating (for pretend of course). First they needed to learn how to do a physical exam on a dog. Who knew seeing the retina in the back of the eye through the eye scope would be one highlight...they saw her brains they said! We learned how we draw blood on a dog and look at blood under a microscope, how we take radiographs and what we look for. Oh no! She ate a toy! First attempt was to make her vomit it out. There is a joy we get from making fake vomit with dog food and coffee grounds, lol! Just like in real life, we plopped that vomit on a pad and they had to dig through it with their hands to find the toy. It's 50:50 on crowd response from disgust to mega cool on vomit fishing! But we didn't find every toy, so to surgery we went! They got to 'scrub in' and 'gown up' just like a surgeon, then dig through Ellie the Elephant's stuffed doll abdominal stuffing in the OR to find that toy. They saved Starry B's life and earned their Junior Veterinarian certificates! We truly hope we have inspired another generation to love healing and helping little furry creatures as much as we do.
Please share your story if your kids enjoyed it, let us know if we should do it again, tag us in your posts, and feel free to share this post! - Dr. Jaime Barta, Stonewater Vet, Clayton NC
