Tag Archives: classes

Eyeballs, ovaries, and anesthesia!

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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.

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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.

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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…

 

Beginning Clinical Skills Practice

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Lets get back to the real reason I started this website… I won’t be doing any more traveling for a while as I have just started my 3rd year of vet school! The first 2 weeks were an intensive block on the ‘Principles of Professional Practice.’ The mornings consist of lectures and then most afternoons we have very interesting practical classes:

In our fluids practical class we worked through some case studies. We had to decide if a patient needed intravenous (IV) fluids, how dehydrated they were, and what kind of fluids to give them. Then we had to calculate how fast we were going to give fluids to the animal. Another part of the class was practicing how to put IV catheters into canine forelimbs. The university provides us with fake ‘skin’ and realistic dog arms with ‘blood filled’ veins to practice on!

I really liked our first surgery class! Initially we looked at all the different types of surgical instruments you could use, and talked about how to properly hold them, clean them, and what kinds of surgery you might use them for. Then we had some time to practice a few different suturing patterns and knots on fake skin! The other half of the class we learned how to properly do a ‘surgical prep’ —> shaving the hair and washing the skin of a dog prior to abdominal surgery. We learned the basics of maintaining a sterile surgical field and how to properly drape a patient. Then I was volun-told to scrub in for surgery, put on a surgical gown, and close glove (this means I need to safely wash my hands/arms, put on my surgical clothing/gear without contaminating myself by touching anything).

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All of the things we got to take home to practice our clinical skills with–masks, surgical gown, cap, gloves, hand brush, catheters, suture, and surgical instruments.

Radiology (x-rays) practical class could have been very boring, but thanks to great professors it was engaging. The first half of the class we talked about different radiology equipment and machines that we might use in practice. We discussed how they worked and why we might want a certain set up. Then we went into the teaching hospital and exposed some x-rays of single bones. We also got to explore and play with the university’s rad viewing software.

The communications practical class was something I was both very excited to do and very nervous about. In this class we had to go into the teaching hospital and read the history on a case. Then we went into the waiting room and called our client and patient into our consult room. Our job was to establish a good first impression, understand the client, and get a sufficient history. We were to conduct the consult up until the point where we began a physical exam of the animal–we will practice that part later in the year. The case I got was about a dog with itchy ears and eyes. Once I called my client into the room I became a lot less nervous and my questions and conversation flowed more naturally.

Equine Clinical Examination: this class was a bit of a review from DVM1 I think. We had to work in groups and do a clinical exam on a horse–this includes looking at the horse from head to tail and assessing all the body systems for abnormalities. We also used our stethoscopes to listen to the different heart, lung, and gut sounds. Then we practiced intra-muscular (IM) and IV injections (into the jugular/neck vein) using saline.

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Listening to the heart of a horse after it finished competing. This picture was taken in my first year of vet school. I was assisting with vet checks at an eventing day. 

So even though we have well over 30 lectures to study within the first 14 days of class –I love vet school. Third year is going to be a good time, I can feel it!

Back at it!

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Its the end of first week of Semester 2!! —which means that I went through an entire semester without writing a single blog post. I guess that goes to show how busy first semester was. Goals for 2nd semester:  improve time management skills.

The first semester of my DVM2 year was quite the ride. I took 8 classes:

  1. Regional Anatomy of the Dog (RAD)
  2. Parasitology
  3.  Locomotion
  4. Haematopoeitic, Lymphatic, and Integument Systems
  5. Epidemiology
  6. Virology
  7. Immunology
  8. Microbiology

This semester looks like it will be just as busy. This week we hit the books again. In one of our classes we are studying the brain. We’ve covered the anatomy and some of the physiology.  In our practical class we got to dissect brains. I found it difficult because my group had a small cat brain and many of the structures were hard to see. However, finding the cranial nerves and vessels was much easier when studying a horse or cow brain.

I’m excited because study of the brain means we will be covering pain and how to measure the intensity of it in animals. This also means we will be discussing analgesics (painkillers) and how to appropriately use them. Fun fact from lecture today—> Opium comes from poppies; the farms that grow poppies are very tightly regulated and at certain times of the year the crops are protected by security guards to prevent trespassing!

ttyl

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Baby roo from a wildlife carers house—thats another story! 

8 steps to having a good first year in vet

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With the end of my first year of veterinary medicine finally coming to a close it seemed fitting to share 8 steps I used to help me have the best first year of vet school!

Don’t work too hard 

  • Hard work is amazing. Never run away from hard work; you get out of it what you put into it. You’ll need to study, memorize, practice, learn every day in vet school. But I hear classes only get harder and the schedule gets busier, so don’t destroy yourself in first year trying to keep up.

 

Make sure you make good friends with lots of people

  • One day these friends will turn into co-workers! For right now they are study buddies, best friends, network contacts, etc. University days are supposed to be the best days of your life–and good friends help with that!

Get involved with clubs, exec, off campus activities

  • This was something I did in my undergrad degree and it generated a lot of favourite memories. Becoming a part of a club or team will allow you to get to know people better and make more friends. I also found it really important to have friends outside of vet.

Get to know your profs quickly

  • Believe me, this will help when it comes to networking or studying, or feeling like you belong. You can be friends with your profs! If a professor knows who you are they will better be able to answer questions or frustrations you may send them while studying; they’ll also be more willing to offer up industry contacts or experience.

 

Don’t share your grades with friends

  • This might not be helpful for you, but for me–I’m ridiculously competitive. By not sharing my grades with other people I’m keeping my stress levels down. I’m working hard on studying, getting grades that I’m satisfied with and not constantly trying to outdo everyone just for the fun of it (this has made for a much more relaxing school year).

 

Change your study habits

  • I have found that there is a lot of students who have entered vet without an appropriate study technique. These students definitely need to speak to other classmates and professors to find the best way to learn material. I was confident in my study habits, but I changed some of them up for something new —it gets a bit boring when you’ve been studying the same way for 5 or 6 years. It is also important to recognize that different classes may need to be studied for in different ways. Example: class A would be great to learn via flash cards; class B would be great to learn via straight memorization; class C would be great to learn by drawing out flow charts, time-lines, and summaries.

Keep your doors open

  • So many students come in to vet knowing that they want to do cats and dogs or large animals. (Right now I want to do large animals when I graduate!) However, I think that everyone should embrace the wide range of knowledge and opportunities gifted to us in school. Try and learn about all animals and don’t discount something because you do not believe you’ll ever work in that field. The amount of vets who graduated and then completely changed their area of interest is huge!

 

Never forget where you are!

  • In case you didn’t notice: YOU ARE IN VET SCHOOL. How hard was it to get here? How long have you been working for this? Would you want to do anything else with your life? When exams and papers and lower grades feel like they are piling up just remember that one day you’ll be a doctor (and that is a HUGE accomplishment)!