Friday, August 2, 2013

Dr. Claudia Ciugudean, DVM


From Alba lulia, Transylvania, Romania, introducing Dr. Claudia Ciugudean, DVM (Doctor of Veterinarian Medicine). Dr. Ciugudean is the Vice President of the Romanian Equine Veterinarian Association, as well as an avid equestrian and horse lover! As a dedicated fulltime veterinarian, Dr. Ciugudean emphasizes the importance of proactive animal care. In her free time, she enjoys her beautiful family, and riding her horse Apache…

Welcome Dr. Ciugudean!

At what age did you realize you wanted to become a veterinarian?
As a child, when I was about 7 years old, I wanted to become a veterinarian, but only after I was 22 years old and my favorite mare died after birth, I choose the path towards veterinary medicine.

What do you like most about being a veterinarian?
When the animal understands that you cure him, when you succeed in doing that and then you see him healthy and happy again. The animals express their affection and gratitude for the reason that you've cured them. It depends on how open you are to see this as a veterinarian.


Describe your daily routine...
First of all, I am mother of 2 boys, Gabriel aged 9 and Robert aged 5. Usually they should be my first priority, but most of the times something shows up and I put them on the second place (when an urgent situation shows up). Usually in the morning I take the kids to the school/kindergarten, then I am usually performing the running treatments and, if I have some free time, I take care about my horses. In the afternoon I try to do as much as possible for my kids, home, husband and the rest of the stuff...I said I try because not always I have time enough for all of them.

What is your role as vice president of the Romanian Equine Veterinary Association (REVA)?
We established REVA in 2010 (www.ecvet.ro), starting from my great respect and passion for what means to be a veterinarian and because of my constant love for horses. Together with some professors from the Veterinarian Medicine Faculty Cluj Napoca and some former colleagues, all of us are very fond of horses; we started this professional association, the first and only one from Romania. We did that because we all agreed that the veterinarian should be trained separately and more detailed for each species, not only what we learned during the classes in the university.

My role is to replace the president whenever he is absent or he delegates me to represent him, but I am also implying myself in the development of REVA, in establishing new international relationships, in organizing workshops on various themes. Next year I intend to introduce also alternative therapies, such as Bowen therapy on horses, considering the fact that I am going to follow a trainer course in this type of therapy.

How long have you been riding horses?
I will tell you a secret: I learned how to ride for first time on a cow! I am not joking, when I was a child, my grandparents were not allowed to breed horses because the communist conditions from that period, so they had only cows. I was about 7 and I desperately wanted to ride, so that I started by riding our cows, these were my first lessons and that's how I learned to keep my balance when riding.

On July the 6-th 1996, my grandfather sold a cow and bought me a mare with a colt, even if I was already 20 years old, because he couldn't offer me this opportunity when I was younger. My grandfather died in December 1997, pleased that I finally got what I always wanted so much to have. I never took dedicated riding courses, everything came natural, I only followed the advice of some riding trainers and listened very careful to what the horse was whispering to me.

Where do you like to ride?  
Outdoors, in the nature.

Do you have a favorite horse breed?
I cannot state that I like more a certain breed of horses...I like all of them! Each breed has something special, a different character, different features and so on.

About my horse, Apache, is a half breed Lipitzan, I have him since he was 2 months old, he was raised practically in the family along with my children, he is very receptive, is learning very fast and I train him with natural dressage method. I reached now the level when Apache is very confident in me, if something serious happens, he is waiting for help from me (last year he fell into a well somewhere on the field and he waited for help for more than one and a half hours till we succeeded in lifting him out of there; if he wouldn't have been that confident, probably now he would have been only a memory for us).

What is the most important thing I can do to ensure my horse stays healthy?
First of all, you must have a daily contact between you and the horse. Then, a thorough inspection of the body and the hoofs is necessary. We have a saying: it is easier to prevent than to cure; therefore I recommend all my clients to perform a quarterly internal deparasitation, yearly vaccination, teeth control, hoofs cleaning and horseshoeing whenever necessary. I also recommend a well-balanced nutrition consisting of grass, hay, concentrates, vitamins and as many fruits and vegetables as possible (apples, pairs, plums, carrots, pumpkins, etc.), plenty of space for moving (inside as well as outdoors) and a lot of affection. Horses are sensitive animals and they are very receptive to energetic waves, therefore a nervous or impulsive owner will never be able to fully cooperate with his/her horse.

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1 comment:

Claudia said...

Thank you !