First week of clinical placement done and dusted! The small animal clinic was a bit smaller and slower than the places I’ve worked in; but you can always learn no matter where you are. This pace of appointments was perfect for asking lots of questions. I took the time to try and have some interesting discussions with the vets including their rationale behind drug protocols, unusual points they’ve learned from specialists or conferences, and how to deal with colorful clients as a new grad.

The clinic had 2 senior vets and 1 new grad vet. I loved this because the new grad vet chatted to me about lots of practical advice on how to navigate (instead of struggle) through my first year in practice. Speaking to the senior vets was fantastic for further expertise on cases and discussion of more complicated surgeries and techniques. This was helpful because after discussing multiple techniques on how to repair ruptured cranial cruciate ligaments we saw a couple of patients with the disease —one dog with a suspected tear, and another dog for a post-op assessment.

One of my favorite parts of this placement was the opportunity to see a flank spay. We’ve been taught that they are generally an older surgery and it is more typical to do abdominal spays now. However, this particular patient was contraindicated for an abdominal incision. I also enjoyed one morning when I spent some time monitoring a critically ill patient who had been brought into the clinic with an acute onset of heart disease and pulmonary edema (fluid in her lungs).

We also performed an enema and an ear clean under general anesthetic and admitted a patient with a fractured pelvis. I enjoyed listening in on consults regarding a seizing patient and a patient with behavioral issues.

Once the vets learned that I knew how to put in intravenous catheters I was allowed to put them in on all the patients that needed one. Practicing my hands on skills was the best part of this week.

A huge thank you goes out to the vets and staff at Greenvale Animal Hospital who are now part of my journey to becoming a veterinarian!