sorry for the absence...

So, it's been awhile.  Frankly, this year has been fairly boring in terms of school (just lecture after lecture, with a lab thrown in a couple times a week) and I haven't really had anything happen that I thought was worthy of a blog post.  But then I started reading another blog that was written by a vet student (now full-fledged vet) and realized that not every post needs to be about some neat hands-on class, or even a super interesting day of lecture.  I realized that I was just as interested in reading about her day to day happenings during day after day of lecture as I was in reading about her beginning to perform surgery (okay, maybe not just as interested, but pretty darn close).  While I don't plan on posting every day (or even every week) this year, I do plan on keeping up the habit of posting, so that as I progress through school and things start getting more exciting, I'll still be in the habit.

I wish I had posted this summer (frankly, after getting out of the habit it just wasn't something I thought of)...I worked in a small animal practice, and had tons of interesting things happen.  Something I struggle with, however, is how to maintain client privacy and still including all the relevant, and exciting details, so I would probably have to leave out a fair amount.

As for an update on my activities this year so far, here it goes:  we are taking all the "ologies." Systemic pathology, parasitology, virology, bacteriology, and pharmacology.  No hands on classes this term, but I've attended several interesting rounds (essentially case presentations by clinicians and fourth year students), went to a dinner meeting of a local veterinary organization, attended a panel discussion on subtheraputic antibiotic use in food animals (it became quite heated), and went to lots of lunch talks.  I've been spending lots of time studying, as usual, and feel like I've really hit my stride as far as that goes.  Exams have gone fairly well, though the latest parasitology exam could have gone better--oh well.  There's been a bit of a lack of hands-on wet labs, which hopefully will change next term.

Alright, well, have to get back to the studying.  More later (I promise!).

2 terms down, only 11 to go...

So, it's been awhile, for which I apologize.  The constant exams kind of sucked me in, and I kept pushing this blog to the back burner.  Lots has happened since I last wrote...I spent most of my time with my nose to the grindstone, but did fit in some time for fun and hands-on animal stuff.

While the 4th year students learned how to do c-sections on ewes, myself and some of my classmates learned how to take care of newborn lambs.  That was a fun and busy lunch period, as my partner in crime and I had triplets to take care of.

I also got called into foal team, which is where we help take care of neonatal foals in the hospital.  However, they ended up not needing me when I got there, so I just looked at a cute foal and then went home to sleep.

Lastly, I spent a lot of time learning how to do neuro exams on various animals.  Luckily, one of my classmates had the idea of asking the local animal shelter if we could come and practice these exams on some of their animals.  This was great experience and made me much more comfortable in my ability to perform and interpret the necessary tests.  It was a definite help when it came time for our final exam in neuroscience, though it didn't really help with the "non-traditional" species.

Anyway, that's about all the interesting stuff I've been up to.  We'll see how the spring term goes...it starts in two days!

And they're off!

Last monday, I journeyed to Portland Meadows racetrack with a group of students from the OSU student chapter of the American Association of Equine Practioners.  The trip was organized by one of the equine surgeons at the vet school, who also happens to be a member of the Oregon Racing Commission.  When we arrived at the track, the announcer met us and took us on a tour of both the front side (the stands, saddling paddock, restaurant, announcer's booth, etc.) and the backside (the shed rows where the horses are housed, testing shed, etc.).  We were able to meet and talk with the two private vets who run practices on the backside and tour one of the stables.  We also talked with the women who work in the testing shed, and learned about how/when they test horses for illegal substances.  After lunch, we met the racing commission vet--she and the other commission vet work on the front side and on the track.  They make sure horses are sound before the race, monitor the progress of the race, and treat any injuries that occur during a race.  In small groups, we were able to observe her checking the horses in the saddling paddock and during the post parade.  After the post parade, we jumped in a van with her, her assistant, and a bunch of starting gate guys.  We rode around the track to meet the horses at the gate, watched them load the horses and start the race, then jumped back into the van and rode around to see the finish.  She then watched all the horses to make sure they were still sound.  It was really cool to see a race from right down on the track, and also learn about the racing industry from a vet's perspective.

After my turn with the commission vet, we went up and watched a few races before heading home...I picked a horse in each race, but didn't put any money on my guesses.  Too bad!  While my picks didn't always win, if I'd bet on them to show (finish in the top 3) I would have made money on every race I watched.  During this time, the two backside vets had come to the restaurant where we were watching to eat with the surgeon from our school.  While they were there, the horse I had picked for the race won!  One of the vets knew the owner...her deceased husband had been a vet.  So, he took us down to the winner's circle, and she let us be in the winning picture with her.  She was so happy her horse won, and more than happy to have us all in the picture with her; her policy was the more the merrier.

Well, I have to get back to studying...midterms are upon us.

Hello again!

So, it's been a while since I last posted.  In the time I've been away, I've studied A LOT for midterms and finals, and been on vacation.  I guess I'll start by wrapping up the end of the last term.

After we discussed small animal nutrition in animal care, we had lectures/labs on cats, rabbits and ferrets, reptile handling, and fish medicine.  For the fish lab, we took a field trip to the Hatfield Marine Science Center where we practiced handling fish and learned about different types of life support systems.  We also got to touch a giant octopus, which was pretty cool.  Oh, I also did a club activity where I learned how to shoot dart guns for wildlife immobilization.

Since the winter term started, I've done several cool things.  For a little background, my class schedule now includes: physiology, gross anatomy, microanatomy, integrated problem solving, and neuroscience.  We don't have animal care anymore, which is a total bummer.  But, that doesn't mean the stories have to end.  It appears the clubs are stepping it up and offering lots of cool activities.  This week, I participated in a wildlife necropsy (necropsy=autopsy on animals), where I got to necropsy a cougar with my group.  It had been shot for being a "naughty kitty," and we were able to follow the path of the bullet: through the heart, skimming across the liver, and ending by lodging itself in the right kidney.  Other animals necropsied that night included a couple more cougars, a young black bear, a nutria (kind of a cross between a beaver and an otter), and several raptors (birds of prey).  It was pretty sweet!  The next afternoon my friend, A, and I attended a lab on trimming cows' hooves.  We had a short lecture by one of the rural practice vets from the school,  and then we went and did the lab.  He had set up tables with cadaver cow legs tied down, and we practiced doing both conformational and theraputic trimming.  It definitely takes some muscle to use those hoof knives, especially since most of them were pretty dull and the hooves were pretty hard since they were cadavers.  Also, you're forced to be ambidextrous: you have to use your left hand (and the left-handed knife) on one hoof, and the right hand on the other.  We learned how you would trim/treat a cow with ulcers or abscesses in their hooves also, since at least one of our specimens was a prime example.

The fun doesn't end there...tomorrow, a bunch of my friends and I are journeying up to the racetrack with the student chapter of the American Association of Equine Practioners and one of the equine vets from the school.  We'll be getting a tour of the backside and meeting the vets.  Then, if we want we can go shadow the vets as they do starts and finishes.  Lastly, Tuesday night several of us are going to be attending the monthly dinner meeting of the Northwest Equine Practioners Association.  It's free for students to attend, so we thought we'd see what it's all about.

Anyway, that's about it for now, but I'll try to update again soon...I'll be sure to let you know if I win my fortune at the track!

It's what's for dinner

I've been spending a lot of time this week studying cardiac physiology aka how the heart works.  We have a physiology midterm this coming Thursday, and it is on a combination of muscle physiology and cardiac physiology, with the majority of the questions being focused on the cardio material.    We also have a gross anatomy midterm on Monday, which will also cover cardiac anatomy (along with everything about the neck/trunk, thoracic cavity, and the abdominal wall).

This week in animal care and handling, we spent both class periods discussing small animal nutrition.  The first class we were lectured on how to interpret a pet food label and the various standards, etc. that pet food must meet.  In lab that day we rotated around about 15 stations, learning how to calculate food dosages, about various special needs diets (urinary tract health, dental, etc.), how to figure out the cost of feeding an animal per day and year, etc.  The second day, we were lectured on how to feed various types of dogs and cats (puppies/kittens, gestating/lactating animals, athletes/working dogs, animals prone to obesity, geriatric animals) and then learned how to body condition dogs and cats.  The best part of this class was that the visiting instructor asked our class to bring in our dogs and cats to practice body conditioning on.  As someone without pets, it was great to get some animal time...my friend K's dog spend a large part of the lecture on my lap, and I got to pet lots of dogs and cats in the name of schoolwork.

Overall, it was a pretty good week, and kind of relaxing, though I'm all amped up now for Midterms: Round 2.  I'm writing this during a study break, so I better go make dinner so I can get back to studying.  Later.

Of llamas and cattle (and sheep, and goats, and chickens, and dogs...)

I know, I know, it's been a few weeks since my last post.  But, midterms spread out over a two week period will do that.  So, here's what I've been up to since the last update:

Week 3 saw two more animal adventures: a trip to see some llamas and alpacas and one to see some beef cattle.  I have to say that, while llamas top out at about 400 lbs., and beef cattle can weigh over a thousand lbs., I find the llamas and aplacas much more intimidating.  They are very temperamental, and the alpacas especially are like high-strung, drama queen, junior high girls.  Catching them can be tricky, but luckily, once you get your arm around their neck, they just kind of submit.  My partner and I were lucky to catch a super calm llama our first try, and were able to listen to her heart and lungs, look at her gums, and pick up both her front and hind feet.  Llamas and alpacas have cool feet; they don't have hooves, and instead have pads kind of like dogs, with two little claws on the front.  After we finished with our llama, my partner and I decided to go for gold and try to catch what was described as the hardest, most dramatic alpaca.  Well, we caught her, but didn't really get to do anything with her before she threw herself to the ground and started hocking up a big wad to spit at us.  Even though she didn't actually spit, you could definitely smell it...camelid (alpacas and llamas) spit is probably one of the foulest smelling things I've ever smelled.  Once she started getting ready to spit, we decided to let her go.

Later that week, we headed to see some beef cattle.  On this trip, we had to learn how cut cattle from a small herd, drive them away from the herd, and hold them at the end of the aisle until we were ready to let them go.  Our instructor definitely got a kick out of challenging us and watching those of us without a lot of cattle experience flounder a little.  Then she showed us how to use a round chute system, and how to operate a squeeze chute.  Lastly, we learned about fistulated cows, and got to reach into the rumen of a fistulated steer, looking for a foreign object.  Here's a pic of me up past the elbow in the steer's rumen:

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The next week was small ruminant week in animal care.  On Tuesday, we worked on sheep.  We kind of just got thrown into things, but ended up learning how to trim hooves, draw blood from the jugular (fancy term: jugular venipuncture), spin a sheep on to its butt, and do breeding soundness exams on rams.  On Friday, we had sheep and goats, and we learned about the differences in their behavior, did physical exams on the goats, trimmed up all their hooves, and learned about the standard stuff you would bring with you on a visit to work on some sheep/goats.

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Last week, we went to the local humane society and learned about shelter medicine.  We learned about different restrain techniques to use on dogs and cats, and also about dog behavioral evaluations.

On Friday last week, we didn't work hands on with animals, but instead learned about food animal nutrition.  We focused mainly on dairy cattle nutrition, but talked about beef also.  We learned how to take a hay core sample, how to test silage/haylage pH, how to measure total dry matter, how to find particle size percents (to ensure the animals are getting enough long fiber and chewing enough), and how to distinguish different types of feed.

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This week, we only had animal care lab one day, and we worked on chickens.  We first learned about different types of pet parrots (we had a lecture on the poultry industry earlier in the week, so the vet in charge of the lab didn't lecture on poultry), and then went into the lab to do chicken exams.  We learned a standard exam format, and then were turned loose to do physicals.  My partner, A, and I were a little nervous, but we quickly got over that and did our exam.  We finished by drawing blood.  We tried first on the right jugular, but had some trouble.  Chicken vessels in the neck are very elastic because the neck stretches so much, so they roll a lot, which was our problem.  So, we moved to the basilic vein on the wing.  Unfortunately, this vein is very easy to get hematomas on, and chickens don't have a high blood volume, so if you get a hematoma, it's not great.  So, A took a try on the other wing and was finally able to get some blood.  Then, I took a try on the other jugular...normally the left jugular is smaller and hard to find, but our chicken had a great one.  Even though it tried to roll on me, I just went for it, and finally got some blood.  Then I used the blood to make a pretty good blood smear, so now I'll have one I can keep in my slide box to look at.

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We've been learning lots of other cool stuff too (today I dissected my lab cat's heart!), but this post is getting pretty long, so I'm going to end here.  I'll try to do better at posting more regularly, but we do have another round of midterms starting in a little over a week.  Ciao!

Cow poop

The second week of vet school has come to a close, and I have survived it again.  I've realized that the stories I want to tell all deal with my animal handling class, not only because it is the most interactive and hands-on course, but also because it reminds me why I'm going through the hard work of my other courses.  Plus, I think for non-vet people, these animal anecdotes are probably the most interesting.

This isn't to say that funny and interesting things don't happen in my other courses.  In physiology, a course where we have several instructors teaching various units, we have had an instructor the last two weeks who is typically witty and funny.  On Wednesday he was on quite a role, making wisecrack after witty remark, such as (while attempting to say the word "glycerol"), "Glitterol...I mean glycerol.  Little girls just love their glitterol."  Okay, so maybe you had to be there.  But believe me, the hand gestures and tone of voice made it hilarious.  I've also determined that looking at things through microscopes doesn't necessarily have to be dull.  On Thursday, we were having to look at slides and identify the type of stain used on them.  Some of the slides were actually kind of beautiful, in an abstract way.  I wouldn't have minded blowing a couple of them up and hanging them on my walls.

Alright, now for the stories about actual animals.  On Tuesday my half of the animal handling class (we're divided in half, and one group does lab A on Tuesday while the other does lab B, then we switch on Friday) went to a small family swine operation.  It was interesting, as I previously knew nothing about pigs, but not very interactive.  Today, however, was awesome.  After getting a tour of the college dairy, and briefed about various economic issues affecting the dairy industry, we broke into three groups to learn different skills, rotating between three stations.  At the first station, one of the ambulatory service vets taught us how to catch a dairy calf and then tie a halter out of twine or rope around its head.  After we mastered that, we learned how to "flank" a [relatively small] calf by grabbing its flank in one hand, a fold of neck skin in the other, and then lifting up while pushing up and out with your knee against the calf's side.  If you do these moves simultaneously and quickly, you can essentially flip the calf on its side and then kneel with one knee on its neck to immobilize it.  At first I worried about hurting the calf, but we learned how to do it properly, and if you do it correctly it doesn't hurt them at all.  Then we learned how to "cast" a calf (or any size cow/bull for that matter).  You tie a non-slip not loop around their neck, them make a loop around their chest, and one just in front of their hips.  These loops are all from one continuous piece of rope.  Then you just get behind them and pull back, and they just collapse down onto their legs in a sternal position.  The dairy calves are super cute with their big doe eyes, and I really enjoyed working with them.

At the second station, we learned the very basics of doing a physical exam on cattle.  This included sticking our arms up their rectums (rectal palpation).  We didn't learn how to really palpate, but just got a feel for it, and checked their manure for any abnormalities.

Lastly, at the third station we learned how to put pre-made rope halters on adult cows, how to "tail jack" them, where the tail vein is located, and practiced auscultating (listening with a stethoscope to their heart, lungs, and rumen) again.

Overall, it was a great day and I learned that I rather like dairy cattle.