AP photoHammond-Oliver High School veterinary tech students (from left) Rachel Miller and Gretchen Vilas try to entice Houdini into eating some feed at the school on Wednesday. The calf recently underwent emergency surgery and is being cared for by the students.

A group of Bryan seniors spent Wednesday morning caring and tending to a 150-pound calf named Houdini while learning about the physiology of cattle.

Whenever we take his bottle away after hes finished he gets a little cranky, said 17-year-old Johanna Krauter with a smile, after helping feed the four-week-old.

The Hammond-Oliver High School for Human Sciences students began transitioning the calf from its bottle to solid food as another student took its temperature 101.2 degrees and the rest examined its recent 10 inches of sutures to ensure there was no infection.

The veterinary medical assisting class covers large animal topics, including the anatomy and physiology of different livestock, and offers the students time to take internships. Teacher Sue Elliott, whos overseeing the care of Houdini, said the school encourages the students to put in 500 hours at a veterinary clinic or animal shelter to work toward becoming a certified veterinary assistant.

Elliott, who has been teaching the course for four years and has 36 years of classroom experience, said the timing of Houdinis birth couldnt have been more perfect. The calf was born right before school returned to session from the summer months, and Elliott has been able to load up and bring Houdini with her to work each day from Wellborn and take him home again after school.

I love animals so if I can just pass that on a little bit then thats good enough for me, she said. A lot of kids dont realize where their food comes from, so we can talk about how this is what hes raised for and compare that to dairy cattle and the different characteristics theyre bred for.

The students take turns haltering the calf and unloading him from the trailer to bring into a pin that was retrofitted for him behind the campus. Elliott said theres a lot of science in agriculture and shes able to cover a vast array of topics with the students just by having the Brahman available to the class.

When a Brahman is not happy or doesnt want to do anything, they are worse than a spoiled child, she said with a laugh.

Hes had an already challenging life, she said. When he was born, the veterinarian and technicians believed him dead until he wrinkled up his nose, she said.

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Houdini gives Hammond-Oliver students hands-on experience