Its finally the start of our Easter break and its given me a chance to write another post. This has been a full on semester…the material is a lot more clinically relevant and interesting. I love that we get more hands on experience. This is the fun stuff, the stuff that counts, its what I’ve been looking forward to for years.

Recently I had a really good week of practical classes:

The first one was our Ophthalmology Practical class.  I’ve helped out with tons of eye examinations at work over the years, but only got to use the equipment myself a few times. I have never been overly interested in eye cases but this class was a lot of fun for me. We had our ophthalmology lectures a few days earlier which were full of different pictures and explanations of what to look for. Our lovely teaching greyhounds were present and we got to practice Schirmer Tear Tests (STT (measures tear production)), fluorescein eye stains (highlights wounds or ulcers in the eye), and examination of the eyeball with a focal light and an optivisor. I’m starting a clinical placement at a small animal clinic this week and I am really hoping to get a chance to practice my examination skills.

We had our second Bovine Reproduction Practical class where we practiced rectal palpation on female cattle. Our main objective was to attempt to find and palpate the cervix, bifurcation of the uterus, and both ovaries. I was able to find all the structures; one of our cows even had a cystic ovary. That ovary was a lot larger and easier to find than the normal healthy ovaries. The week before we had an Equine Reproductive Practical class where we felt for the same structures in horses. It was good practice to go between species and think about the differences in anatomy. Horse ovaries are bigger and you feel for them higher up than cow ovaries.

We both found ovaries! Well on our way to diagnosing pregnancy…. 

Our Small Animal Reproductive Practical class finished off our clinical skills in our reproduction block. Unfortunately there was no dogs or cats present in our class so we mostly used microscopes to examine slides of swab samples. Cytology (the examination of cells) is one of the best ways to determine which stage of a cycle the bitch (female dog) is in. It is very important to know what stage she is in so that she can be bred on the right day and get pregnant with puppies. Looking through microscopes is definitely not my favorite part of vet med but after this class I understand a lot more what to look for in these cases.

My favorite practical class that week was our Equine Anesthesia class. We were split into 2 groups of students. Half of us were given a drug protocol and had to calculate drug doses and draw up our medications. The other half of the class had to complete a physical exam on our patient. My roommate and I were in the same group and we felt quite confident about how to start and complete a physical exam on a horse because of our time volunteering in the horse hospital. After we completed our exam we had to clean, prep, and insert a jugular catheter so we could administer the premedication drugs. Our group had a ‘Triple Drip’ drug protocol which is very common in horses. Then we proceeded to anesthetize our horse with our maintenance drugs. When the patient was asleep we were responsible for monitoring his vital signs and recording everything on the anesthetic record. We also practiced intubation. I’ve done intubations in cats and dogs before, horses are different because it is a ‘blind intubation’. That means that you cannot see exactly where you are placing the tube and instead have to rely fully on feel and knowledge of anatomy.

I am holding the maintenance drugs we used for our TIVA (total intravenous anesthesia) Triple Drip protocol and equine intubation tubes. 

So vet school? Loving it!

After a full 9 weeks of class I’m ready for a 2 week break to catch up on lectures and complete some clinical placements…