I smell like dead cow. (And Italian salad dressing, but that's mostly unrelated.)
**WARNING: The following post may be considered gruesome or disgusting by some. Read at your own risk. But heck, this is a blog about vet school, so I don't know why I'm even bothering to warn you.
Today we had the much acclaimed "hands-down best therio lab of the semester." To qualify that, let me add that (in my humble, therio-disliking, proponent-of-preventing-reproduction opinion) it would take only the most minimal change to make this lab better than every other lab we've had this semester.
But I digress.
The purpose of the lab was to give us some "hands-on" experience trying out some of the things we've been learning in the classroom during the last few weeks - mostly about pregnancy, parturition (giving birth), and dystocia (difficulty giving birth).
The set-up: 45 students. 2 instructors. 1 food animal lab room. 8 "phantom" cows made of metal. 8 "reproductive tracts" made of a large canvas bag with zippers. 8 stillborn baby calves (collected from nearby farms and frozen, then thawed for our convenience). 2 arms' worth of shoulder-length rectal sleeves secured with rubber bands, with latex gloves on top. 1 set of rubber overboots. 1 pair of coveralls. 253 reminders to myself to breathe through my mouth.
What we basically did was take turns putting our calf inside the canvas bag in some sort of weird position, then making each other try to feel how the calf was positioned, manipulate it into the right position, and get it out through an opening made of a metal horseshoe-shaped structure about 12 inches around.
If you're curious, "pulling calves" usually requires the use of obstetrical chains (short chains with a loop on each end) that are tied around the calf's feet so that you can pull them out. In real life, plenty of lube is involved.
It was actually a little bit interesting (once I got over the disgusting/stinky aspect). I was proud of myself for managing to correctly position a calf that was in anterior presentation with dorsopubic positioning and postured with both front legs back, to the normal birthing position, then successfully pull it with the aid of a classmate. It almost made me think that maybe, someday, if I really had to, I might sort of be able to try to help somebody else assist with a bovine delivery. Maybe. But.... no.
After the lab was over, most of us headed back to main campus for shelter medicine.
One of my friends was sitting a couple seats over from me, and I realized he hadn't been in therio lab today.
He asked me how lab was, and my most honest answer was, "Exhausting."
He seemed a little surprised by that, but then said, "Oh, I guess you didn't really have that adrenaline rush going or anything."
Yep, that makes a lot sense. I find that one's enthusiasm for yanking on chains tied to a calf's feet is markedly dimished when one knows that one's efforts will only result in the expulsion of a cold, wet calf covered in diarrhea and fetal juices with at least one broken leg and part of its skin left in the fake cow.*
*Note: In a "normal" birth (i.e. delivering a live calf from an actual cow), all of the skin stays on the calf. In a "simulated" birth that has been repeated on the same calf about 20 times in one day, not so much.
Now, if I'd left 20 minutes before the end of the lab, I couldn't have honestly made the "I smell like dead cow" statement. You might think that reaching your arm inside a fake reproductive tract and wrangling a dead baby calf would be the messy part. Nope. Being the last lab of the day, my classmates and I were the lucky ones who got to clean up, meaning disposing of the calves and hosing down everything - the canvas reproductive tracts, the metal "phantom" cows, the floors, the walls.... everything. With high-powered hoses. In a room measuring about 20x20 feet and containing 45 people, 8 phantoms, and 8 calves. Let's just say the "splashing" was significant.
Just a little taste of my day.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
I love this time of year... NOT
What's better than sitting in the pathology lobby killing time before my 4 pm VTH tour, while all around me people are setting up for the scholarship reception that I was not invited to, having not received a scholarship again?
All of the above, on a Monday when I was greeted in the morning by one of my acquaintances saying, "Guess what? I got another scholarship!"
Yeah, yeah. It's just money. I'm sure I'll have it all paid off in 50 years or so. And I am happy for the people who got scholarships, especially my friends.
But maybe we could limit it to one scholarship per person? Spread the $$ around a little more? Give some priority to out-of-state students?
Whatever.
All of the above, on a Monday when I was greeted in the morning by one of my acquaintances saying, "Guess what? I got another scholarship!"
Yeah, yeah. It's just money. I'm sure I'll have it all paid off in 50 years or so. And I am happy for the people who got scholarships, especially my friends.
But maybe we could limit it to one scholarship per person? Spread the $$ around a little more? Give some priority to out-of-state students?
Whatever.
Friday, April 23, 2010
TGIF / TGFS
Thank goodness it's Friday / Thank goodness for sleep.
Nothing like a nice little 2.5-hour Friday afternoon nap to put the week in perspective.
This seemed like an especially sleep-deprived week (and it's not over yet). I was up around 6 every weekday - for 8 am class twice, for running before 9 am class twice, and today for an 8:15 routine doctor's appointment.
(Although, after this morning's doctor appt including a weigh-in on The Official Scale, I feel glad that I have been putting a little extra effort into exercising this week...)
Tomorrow is our church's confirmation service, which includes 70-some confirmands from all the churches in the diocese.... yeesh. It's at 10 am, so we have to be there at 8:30 because both bell choirs are playing, the choir is singing, there are special instrumentalists, etc. etc. And it is supposed to be at least a 2 hour service.
Then, of course, there's the usual Sunday morning early wake-up time.
And back into another school week!
This is a really tough time in the semester. It's about when we get really exhausted in fall semester, but at that point we get to take a week off for Thanksgiving. It's even harder in spring, with no break and knowing that summer is just a few weeks away. Enthusiasm for class is rapidly deteriorating on everybody's part - students and professors alike. Class attendance is dropping, sullenness is increasing, and my desire to do anything school-related is just about gone.
It's not as though I'm going to spend the summer totally just lounging around and doing nothing, but at least I won't be sitting on my butt in class for 7 hours every day...
I now totally understand why everybody says sophomore year is a killer. I also understand why the curriculum is structured such that we enter clinics next year - if we didn't, there would be a massive mutiny.
Nothing like a nice little 2.5-hour Friday afternoon nap to put the week in perspective.
This seemed like an especially sleep-deprived week (and it's not over yet). I was up around 6 every weekday - for 8 am class twice, for running before 9 am class twice, and today for an 8:15 routine doctor's appointment.
(Although, after this morning's doctor appt including a weigh-in on The Official Scale, I feel glad that I have been putting a little extra effort into exercising this week...)
Tomorrow is our church's confirmation service, which includes 70-some confirmands from all the churches in the diocese.... yeesh. It's at 10 am, so we have to be there at 8:30 because both bell choirs are playing, the choir is singing, there are special instrumentalists, etc. etc. And it is supposed to be at least a 2 hour service.
Then, of course, there's the usual Sunday morning early wake-up time.
And back into another school week!
This is a really tough time in the semester. It's about when we get really exhausted in fall semester, but at that point we get to take a week off for Thanksgiving. It's even harder in spring, with no break and knowing that summer is just a few weeks away. Enthusiasm for class is rapidly deteriorating on everybody's part - students and professors alike. Class attendance is dropping, sullenness is increasing, and my desire to do anything school-related is just about gone.
It's not as though I'm going to spend the summer totally just lounging around and doing nothing, but at least I won't be sitting on my butt in class for 7 hours every day...
I now totally understand why everybody says sophomore year is a killer. I also understand why the curriculum is structured such that we enter clinics next year - if we didn't, there would be a massive mutiny.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
I want my money back!
Today, we had yet another no-show professor.
That makes at least 3 that I can recall this semester.
First we had the professor who was in Italy when he was scheduled to lecture.
Second, we had the cardiology professor who was scheduled to give an afternoon lecture, but never showed up. When our regular prof came to lecture the next day, he had no idea that his associate missed the previous day's lecture. Turned out she was helping in the clinics on an unstable surgery that needed a cardio consult, and she couldn't leave. Would have been nice if she had let us know by email or something that night!
Third, we [be "we," I mean about 50% of the class] showed up for our usual BoD lecture at 8 this morning. No problem. A third of us went and sat in the lab in preparation for our 9 am BoD lab session. We immediately noticed the lack of foul odor resulting from an absence of any pathology specimens... and no instructor in the lab. Like patient little vet students, we waited until 9 am, when no instructor had arrived yet. Our course coordinator poked her head in, realized nobody was there, and called the professor who was supposed to run the lab... turns out he just forgot.
So that made 3 hours instead of 2 that I was stuck in the pathology building (pouring rain outside) trying to kill time. At least my shelter paper is finally finished once and for all, and my FarmVille farm is well under control!
But seriously... only for one of those three absences did we receive a really sincere, heartfelt apology (the first absence). Even in that case, the professor who was supposed to teach didn't apologize - rather, the course coordinator apologized for him, and acknowledged wasting our time.
We pay a lot of money for our education - about $50 per hour of lecture for me this semester. That means I'd like a $150 refund, please. I understand that sometimes class is cancelled because we got through material faster than expected, or something like that. But when we all show up, early in the morning, ready to go, and someone just "forgot"? Then I get irritated.
That makes at least 3 that I can recall this semester.
First we had the professor who was in Italy when he was scheduled to lecture.
Second, we had the cardiology professor who was scheduled to give an afternoon lecture, but never showed up. When our regular prof came to lecture the next day, he had no idea that his associate missed the previous day's lecture. Turned out she was helping in the clinics on an unstable surgery that needed a cardio consult, and she couldn't leave. Would have been nice if she had let us know by email or something that night!
Third, we [be "we," I mean about 50% of the class] showed up for our usual BoD lecture at 8 this morning. No problem. A third of us went and sat in the lab in preparation for our 9 am BoD lab session. We immediately noticed the lack of foul odor resulting from an absence of any pathology specimens... and no instructor in the lab. Like patient little vet students, we waited until 9 am, when no instructor had arrived yet. Our course coordinator poked her head in, realized nobody was there, and called the professor who was supposed to run the lab... turns out he just forgot.
So that made 3 hours instead of 2 that I was stuck in the pathology building (pouring rain outside) trying to kill time. At least my shelter paper is finally finished once and for all, and my FarmVille farm is well under control!
But seriously... only for one of those three absences did we receive a really sincere, heartfelt apology (the first absence). Even in that case, the professor who was supposed to teach didn't apologize - rather, the course coordinator apologized for him, and acknowledged wasting our time.
We pay a lot of money for our education - about $50 per hour of lecture for me this semester. That means I'd like a $150 refund, please. I understand that sometimes class is cancelled because we got through material faster than expected, or something like that. But when we all show up, early in the morning, ready to go, and someone just "forgot"? Then I get irritated.
Monday, April 19, 2010
American dogs these days
Last Thursday, I attended a free lunch sponsored by one of the drug companies that makes a behavior modification drug (actually it's basically Prozac) for dogs.
(That's right, I got to go to a free lunch this semester! I even convinced my PBL group to take a week off [in my defense, we are way ahead of all the other groups] so that we [I] could go to the lunch.)
The main topic of the lunch was canine separation anxiety, with just a little token reference to the doggie Prozac at the end.
Here's a quick synopsis of separation anxiety, for those of you who are not crazy dog people:
Some dogs are really super attached to their owners. Like, they will follow them around the house constantly, always have to be in the same room as the owner, or in some severe cases they always want to be in physical contact with the owner. They are VERY attuned to their owners' actions and routines. Sometimes we call them "velcro dogs."
You can probably imagine that such dogs get a bit bummed out when their owners leave the house. Okay, "a bit bummed out" is a gross understatement. They can freak out so badly that they tear themselves out of plastic or metal crates, eat couches, pee and poop everywhere, bark and howl, scratch halfway through door frames or eat large quantities of dry wall, and occasionally launch themselves through windows in their desperation to get back to their owners.
You can also probably imagine that such behavior is rather frustrating to the owner, to say the least.
And it's not very easy to fix. The dogs are so closely focused on their owners that they know every step of the owner's morning routine prior to leaving for work. For example, the owner gets up, takes a shower, gets dressed, makes some oatmeal, reads the newspaper, checks their email, packs up their briefcase and laptop, puts away the breakfast dishes, turns off all the lights, grabs their car keys, and heads out the door.
So as soon as the dog figures out that the owner is starting step 1 of maybe a 30-60 minute "getting ready to leave" routine, the dog starts getting wound up. Anxious. Even panicked.
As the morning routine progresses, the dog has half an hour or a full hour of getting itself worked up. By the time the owner is actually ready to leave, the dog can be in a full-blown panic.
There are a bunch of behavior modification and training things you can do to try to basically teach your dog to be independent and enjoy "alone time." The speaker at the lunch, though, offered one suggestion that I hadn't heard before:
She suggested that the owners go through their entire morning routine, letting the dog get itself all worked up. Then right at the moment when they would head out the door, they should go sit down in the living room and watch TV for 10 minutes.
As the speaker put it, "American dogs have learned that when their owners sit down to watch TV, the dog can be pretty confident that the owner won't be going anywhere for awhile."
So the dog figures out the owner is apparently staying around for awhile, and immediately calms down (or at least gets markedly calmer within 10 minutes). At the end of the 10 minutes, the owner stands up and immediately leaves the house, with no fanfare or delay. Yes, the dog is still going to be upset about the owner leaving, but the dog goes straight from "calm" to "owner gone" within a matter of seconds, without an hour of panicking wind-up.
Wonder what other great habits we have taught our pets....
(That's right, I got to go to a free lunch this semester! I even convinced my PBL group to take a week off [in my defense, we are way ahead of all the other groups] so that we [I] could go to the lunch.)
The main topic of the lunch was canine separation anxiety, with just a little token reference to the doggie Prozac at the end.
Here's a quick synopsis of separation anxiety, for those of you who are not crazy dog people:
Some dogs are really super attached to their owners. Like, they will follow them around the house constantly, always have to be in the same room as the owner, or in some severe cases they always want to be in physical contact with the owner. They are VERY attuned to their owners' actions and routines. Sometimes we call them "velcro dogs."
You can probably imagine that such dogs get a bit bummed out when their owners leave the house. Okay, "a bit bummed out" is a gross understatement. They can freak out so badly that they tear themselves out of plastic or metal crates, eat couches, pee and poop everywhere, bark and howl, scratch halfway through door frames or eat large quantities of dry wall, and occasionally launch themselves through windows in their desperation to get back to their owners.
You can also probably imagine that such behavior is rather frustrating to the owner, to say the least.
And it's not very easy to fix. The dogs are so closely focused on their owners that they know every step of the owner's morning routine prior to leaving for work. For example, the owner gets up, takes a shower, gets dressed, makes some oatmeal, reads the newspaper, checks their email, packs up their briefcase and laptop, puts away the breakfast dishes, turns off all the lights, grabs their car keys, and heads out the door.
So as soon as the dog figures out that the owner is starting step 1 of maybe a 30-60 minute "getting ready to leave" routine, the dog starts getting wound up. Anxious. Even panicked.
As the morning routine progresses, the dog has half an hour or a full hour of getting itself worked up. By the time the owner is actually ready to leave, the dog can be in a full-blown panic.
There are a bunch of behavior modification and training things you can do to try to basically teach your dog to be independent and enjoy "alone time." The speaker at the lunch, though, offered one suggestion that I hadn't heard before:
She suggested that the owners go through their entire morning routine, letting the dog get itself all worked up. Then right at the moment when they would head out the door, they should go sit down in the living room and watch TV for 10 minutes.
As the speaker put it, "American dogs have learned that when their owners sit down to watch TV, the dog can be pretty confident that the owner won't be going anywhere for awhile."
So the dog figures out the owner is apparently staying around for awhile, and immediately calms down (or at least gets markedly calmer within 10 minutes). At the end of the 10 minutes, the owner stands up and immediately leaves the house, with no fanfare or delay. Yes, the dog is still going to be upset about the owner leaving, but the dog goes straight from "calm" to "owner gone" within a matter of seconds, without an hour of panicking wind-up.
Wonder what other great habits we have taught our pets....
Sunday, April 18, 2010
I may be a nerd...
....but I think this cardiology spoof is about a thousand times better than the Justin Timberlake original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVxJJ2DBPiQ
(Yeah, I know nobody will think it's as funny as I do...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVxJJ2DBPiQ
(Yeah, I know nobody will think it's as funny as I do...)
Where is all the interest??
No, I'm not griping about a lack of interested readers for my blog.
I am griping about rock-bottom interest rates offered for our CD account!
In mid-2007, we were getting about $21/month in interest on a $5,300 CD.
In late 2007, we were getting about $36/month in interest on a $9,500 CD.
In mid-2008 we were getting about $30/month in interest on a $13,500 CD.
(Then that whole buying-a-house thing sucked out all of that money.)
We started up a CD again in September 2009 with $8,000.... and got about $1.70/month in interest for 3 months.
Then we got $1.35/month in interest for the next 3 months.
Now it looks like we will be getting $0.70/month for the next 3 months.
On eight thousand dollars! Seriously? Yeesh!
I am griping about rock-bottom interest rates offered for our CD account!
In mid-2007, we were getting about $21/month in interest on a $5,300 CD.
In late 2007, we were getting about $36/month in interest on a $9,500 CD.
In mid-2008 we were getting about $30/month in interest on a $13,500 CD.
(Then that whole buying-a-house thing sucked out all of that money.)
We started up a CD again in September 2009 with $8,000.... and got about $1.70/month in interest for 3 months.
Then we got $1.35/month in interest for the next 3 months.
Now it looks like we will be getting $0.70/month for the next 3 months.
On eight thousand dollars! Seriously? Yeesh!
The library IS a pretty classy place
CLH just headed off to his concert in Fort Collins. On his way, he was going to stop by the library to return some books. In his tuxedo.
I am highly amused.
I am highly amused.
Happy Birthday to me!
I celebrated my 24th birthday on Friday.
Did I do a bunch of super-exciting things for my birthday?
Um.... no.
Was it about as exciting as my more recent birthdays typically have been?
You bet.
Since we don't have class till 10 on Fridays, I slept in until 8 am (no, wait, 8:10 am.... no, wait, 8:20 am; yes, there were a couple re-set alarms in there).
Lectures on my birthday included an hour of livestock fluid therapy, an hour of circulatory shock, an hour of anesthetic considerations for hepatic and renal patients, and an hour of parturition.
Note: no hour of Business Law! That's right, I felt that having a birthday was a good enough excuse to skip that class for one day. (Although, truth be told, my standards for "good enough excuse" have been rapidly declining as of late.)
I got home around 3:30 and hung out for awhile.... caught up on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report...
I must admit to working on my shelter medicine project for awhile as CLH was making special birthday dinner.
(Aside: This shelter project has turned out sort of weird for me. Mine is basically a 17-page paper entitled "Feline Leukemia Virus: Diagnosis, Prevention, and Education in Animal Shelters." I was really unexcited about the whole prospect of a project for shelter medicine class, seeing as it is a one-credit elective that already has two exams as part of the grade... can we say 'going overboard'? But once I got started on it, I have really gotten into it. I was expecting to write maybe 5 pages, plus references, but am now up to 17 [and just about done, except for some proofreading and rearranging]. I think it helps that I haven't really had to write any serious papers for the last maybe 3 years or so.)
CLH made me honey sesame chicken and fried rice for dinner, with a chocolate chip cheesecake for dessert. Nom nom nom!
After dinner we opened presents. CLH's were hidden a la scavenger hunt-style around the house and included an Easter egg hunt (we couldn't find the Easter eggs at Easter). Then we opened presents and cards from other family and friends. Thanks everybody! One of my favorite random presents was a snake knitted for me by my quirky vet school friend. Definitely my weirdest present.
After presents, we watched an episode of Boston Legal and pretty much headed to bed.
I definitely slept in till about 10:30 yesterday morning, then we went out for brunch in Fort Collins. While trying desperately to fight off the postprandial coma, we went to Sprouts, Staples, Target, King Soopers, and the bank on our way home.
At that point, I contemplated studying some cardiology. (I really did think about it! Well, for all of about 7 seconds.)
Instead I baked some gingersnaps for CLH's concert today, then we made some biscuits.
The biscuits came with us down to Broomfield for a church dinner group/get-together. Which was fun, and we ate a lot! Then another hour drive back home, and off to bed.
Okay, here is the "strike-me-dead" part of the blog entry: I skipped church today!
Yep, first time in any sort of recent memory that I can recall just blatantly skipping church.
(Before some of you flip out: I had no responsibilities at church, not even singing in the choir [no anthem today] or page-turning for CLH.)
I mostly skipped because of tomorrow's horrifying cardiology exam (covers 50 hours of lecture material and is 1/3 of our ClinSci II grade). And, admittedly, it was SO totally worth it to be able to not get up super-early and still get in a solid 3.5 hours of cardiology study time before CLH got back from church. I also skipped because I want to go to CLH's choir concert this afternoon, and I would just be way too stressed out if I did that AND spent all morning at church.
So that's my "bad deed" for the weekend.... but I have to admit to almost no regrets! Ah, I dream of a day when our church isn't 50 minutes away....
Did I do a bunch of super-exciting things for my birthday?
Um.... no.
Was it about as exciting as my more recent birthdays typically have been?
You bet.
Since we don't have class till 10 on Fridays, I slept in until 8 am (no, wait, 8:10 am.... no, wait, 8:20 am; yes, there were a couple re-set alarms in there).
Lectures on my birthday included an hour of livestock fluid therapy, an hour of circulatory shock, an hour of anesthetic considerations for hepatic and renal patients, and an hour of parturition.
Note: no hour of Business Law! That's right, I felt that having a birthday was a good enough excuse to skip that class for one day. (Although, truth be told, my standards for "good enough excuse" have been rapidly declining as of late.)
I got home around 3:30 and hung out for awhile.... caught up on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report...
I must admit to working on my shelter medicine project for awhile as CLH was making special birthday dinner.
(Aside: This shelter project has turned out sort of weird for me. Mine is basically a 17-page paper entitled "Feline Leukemia Virus: Diagnosis, Prevention, and Education in Animal Shelters." I was really unexcited about the whole prospect of a project for shelter medicine class, seeing as it is a one-credit elective that already has two exams as part of the grade... can we say 'going overboard'? But once I got started on it, I have really gotten into it. I was expecting to write maybe 5 pages, plus references, but am now up to 17 [and just about done, except for some proofreading and rearranging]. I think it helps that I haven't really had to write any serious papers for the last maybe 3 years or so.)
CLH made me honey sesame chicken and fried rice for dinner, with a chocolate chip cheesecake for dessert. Nom nom nom!
After dinner we opened presents. CLH's were hidden a la scavenger hunt-style around the house and included an Easter egg hunt (we couldn't find the Easter eggs at Easter). Then we opened presents and cards from other family and friends. Thanks everybody! One of my favorite random presents was a snake knitted for me by my quirky vet school friend. Definitely my weirdest present.
After presents, we watched an episode of Boston Legal and pretty much headed to bed.
I definitely slept in till about 10:30 yesterday morning, then we went out for brunch in Fort Collins. While trying desperately to fight off the postprandial coma, we went to Sprouts, Staples, Target, King Soopers, and the bank on our way home.
At that point, I contemplated studying some cardiology. (I really did think about it! Well, for all of about 7 seconds.)
Instead I baked some gingersnaps for CLH's concert today, then we made some biscuits.
The biscuits came with us down to Broomfield for a church dinner group/get-together. Which was fun, and we ate a lot! Then another hour drive back home, and off to bed.
Okay, here is the "strike-me-dead" part of the blog entry: I skipped church today!
Yep, first time in any sort of recent memory that I can recall just blatantly skipping church.
(Before some of you flip out: I had no responsibilities at church, not even singing in the choir [no anthem today] or page-turning for CLH.)
I mostly skipped because of tomorrow's horrifying cardiology exam (covers 50 hours of lecture material and is 1/3 of our ClinSci II grade). And, admittedly, it was SO totally worth it to be able to not get up super-early and still get in a solid 3.5 hours of cardiology study time before CLH got back from church. I also skipped because I want to go to CLH's choir concert this afternoon, and I would just be way too stressed out if I did that AND spent all morning at church.
So that's my "bad deed" for the weekend.... but I have to admit to almost no regrets! Ah, I dream of a day when our church isn't 50 minutes away....
3.5 weeks to go!
With 3 weeks of class, plus 4 days of finals remaining, I have added up the following:
* 9 exams (BoD x 2, ClinSci x 2, Therio x 1, Imaging x 1, Shelter x 1, Anesthesia x 1, Business Law x 1)
* 1 (mostly completed) Shelter project
* 1 ClinSci homework
* 31 hours of ClinSci lecture
* 6 hours of BoD lecture
* 3 hours of BoD lab
* 6 hours of Therio lecture
* 6 hours of Therio lab
* 6 hours of Imaging lecture
* 3 hours of Shelter lecture
* 6 hours of Anesthesia lecture
* 3 hours of Anesthesia recitation
* 9 hours of Business Law lecture
A person can do anything for 3-4 weeks, right? Even if it includes 9 exams, 2 assignments, 67 hours of lecture, 9 hours of lab, and 3 hours of recitation?
* 9 exams (BoD x 2, ClinSci x 2, Therio x 1, Imaging x 1, Shelter x 1, Anesthesia x 1, Business Law x 1)
* 1 (mostly completed) Shelter project
* 1 ClinSci homework
* 31 hours of ClinSci lecture
* 6 hours of BoD lecture
* 3 hours of BoD lab
* 6 hours of Therio lecture
* 6 hours of Therio lab
* 6 hours of Imaging lecture
* 3 hours of Shelter lecture
* 6 hours of Anesthesia lecture
* 3 hours of Anesthesia recitation
* 9 hours of Business Law lecture
A person can do anything for 3-4 weeks, right? Even if it includes 9 exams, 2 assignments, 67 hours of lecture, 9 hours of lab, and 3 hours of recitation?
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Not helpful
When one of my classmates posts something like this on Facebook:
"22 days of school, 8 exams, and 41 hours of clin sci left"
I understand that they mean to be helpful, but really? I'm pretty sure there is not enough time in the next 4 weeks to do all of that...
"22 days of school, 8 exams, and 41 hours of clin sci left"
I understand that they mean to be helpful, but really? I'm pretty sure there is not enough time in the next 4 weeks to do all of that...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The "twin crush"
The topic of today's therio lab was detection of pregnancy in dogs, cattle, and horses. (Or let's be more specific: bitches, cows, and mares.)
Turns out that if you are ultrasounding a mare in very early gestation (like within a couple weeks of conception), and you detect the presence of twins, that is a big "uh oh" for one of those itty bitty twin horsies.
If a mare tries to carry twins to term, she will very often end up aborting both fetuses around 5 months of gestation (normal gestation is ~340 days).
So the solution, if you detect the twins early enough, is to "get rid" of one of them.
The technique is a little barbaric, I think. You are doing your ultrasound (which is done with the ultrasound probe and your arm in the mare's rectum). You make sure that the "keeper twin" is far away from the "uh oh twin" (they can migrate around the uterus), and then you take your ultrasound probe and physically crush the "uh oh twin" embryo against the bone of the pelvis.
Poof! No more twins!
My therio instructor prefers to call this "twin reduction" rather than the more common colloquial terms of "twin crush" or "twin pinch."
Yet another example of why (a) I don't want to work with large animals, and (b) you should spay and neuter everything.
Turns out that if you are ultrasounding a mare in very early gestation (like within a couple weeks of conception), and you detect the presence of twins, that is a big "uh oh" for one of those itty bitty twin horsies.
If a mare tries to carry twins to term, she will very often end up aborting both fetuses around 5 months of gestation (normal gestation is ~340 days).
So the solution, if you detect the twins early enough, is to "get rid" of one of them.
The technique is a little barbaric, I think. You are doing your ultrasound (which is done with the ultrasound probe and your arm in the mare's rectum). You make sure that the "keeper twin" is far away from the "uh oh twin" (they can migrate around the uterus), and then you take your ultrasound probe and physically crush the "uh oh twin" embryo against the bone of the pelvis.
Poof! No more twins!
My therio instructor prefers to call this "twin reduction" rather than the more common colloquial terms of "twin crush" or "twin pinch."
Yet another example of why (a) I don't want to work with large animals, and (b) you should spay and neuter everything.
TMI, times about a thousand
My "interesting activity of the day" today was filling out a Mayo Clinic questionnaire sent to me courtesy of my father (an apparently willing guinea pig) on the topic of "Familial Aggregation of Chronic Constipation."
People, there are some questions that just should not be put into words.
Want to know why I'm going to be a vet and not a physician? THIS is why: terms such as
-- "straining"
-- "feeling of incomplete emptying"
-- "press on or around your bottom"
-- "loose, mushy, or watery"
-- "hard or lumpy"
-- "leakage"
In fact, on the T-shirt I'm currently wearing, #6 of the "Ten Reasons Why I Want to Be a Veterinarian Instead of a Human Doctor" is "I would rather rectal a cow than a human."
Enough said. Someone pass the mind bleach, please.
People, there are some questions that just should not be put into words.
Want to know why I'm going to be a vet and not a physician? THIS is why: terms such as
-- "straining"
-- "feeling of incomplete emptying"
-- "press on or around your bottom"
-- "loose, mushy, or watery"
-- "hard or lumpy"
-- "leakage"
In fact, on the T-shirt I'm currently wearing, #6 of the "Ten Reasons Why I Want to Be a Veterinarian Instead of a Human Doctor" is "I would rather rectal a cow than a human."
Enough said. Someone pass the mind bleach, please.
It's the small things
Like getting out of therio lab an hour before shelter medicine starts, and going to sit in the unoccupied lecture hall with your friend because you have nothing better to do, and sitting still so long that after 20 minutes the automatic lights turn themselves off, and sitting still for another 10 minutes while watching the screensaver on the projector in the dark, until one of your instructors comes in half an hour before the class is due to start, and loses a couple years off her life when she sees four eyes staring back at her from the pitch black room.
Sweet potatoes!
I have a quirky vet school friend whose favorite curse word or expression of displeasure is "Sweet potatoes!"
Lately I have been trying to convince her to start saying "Yammit!" instead.
Lately I have been trying to convince her to start saying "Yammit!" instead.
I guess I should have listened...
In preparation for our second business law exam, the instructor warned us to take this test seriously, that we would need to study more because it would be harder than the first exam, and that previous classes typically got lower scores on the second exam.
I guess I should have listened to him, because I skipped half the classes and put minimal effort into studying.
As a result, I actually missed a question.
So I guess he was right: my 98% on exam 2 was indeed lower than my 100% on exam 1.
I guess I should have listened to him, because I skipped half the classes and put minimal effort into studying.
As a result, I actually missed a question.
So I guess he was right: my 98% on exam 2 was indeed lower than my 100% on exam 1.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Tours x 5
During the last two days of the VTH's open house, I gave 5 tours. That's as many tours as I usually give in two months!
I was signed up for two shifts yesterday (11-1 and 1-4) and gave three tours. The first two tours yesterday were fairly unremarkable -- groups of 15-20 people, mostly parents with kids, some adult couples without kids, occasionally the odd high school or college kid seriously interested in going to vet school.
I did have one guy on my second tour yesterday who appeared to be there by himself. During the 70 minute tour, he compulsively straightened every framed photo and poster that we walked by in the hallways. One part of me thought, "I like it!" A second part of me was thinking, "Yikes..." And a third part of me thought, "You must not realize that another giant group of unruly kids is going to come along in 5 minutes and knock all of those awry again."
My third group yesterday was about 20 high school kids from a private school in Colorado Springs where they can evidently take health- and science-based courses (their electives, at least) if they know they want to go into some sort of health profession. They were a little bit squirrely but mostly interested in what I was saying, and it was a bit of a relief to get to talk to more "grown-up"-type people after having kids around for the other tours. I will admit I had a super-fun time emphasizing things like vasectomy techniques for bull elephants and watching the teenage guys cringe. You could say I talked about that stuff a little more than usual, just for the heck of it.
When I first arrived yesterday, carrying Simon in his carrier to hang out at the cat booth, and a poop sample from Johnny to leave at the lab, I immediately encountered several humongous swarms of second graders. Apparently the local schools usually do an annual field trip for kids of a certain age and bring them all to open house. As I did my shifts on Saturday last year, I was unaware of this. I feel quite lucky that throughout my two Friday shifts this year, I managed to avoid having to lead an entire class of second graders with one lone teacher through the hospital and maintain their interest for an hour.
Today, I was only signed up for one shift, 1-4 pm. We are actually only required to volunteer for 2 shifts during the weekend, but they had very few tour guides sign up for the 1-4 pm Saturday shift so I offered to do an extra one. Good thing I did! I arrived at about 12:50 so I could have a few minutes to check in, but was immediately bombarded by a frazzled-looking tour scheduling person trying to contain three tours' worth of people in the lobby with no available tour guides in sight. So, I was immediately put to work.
Fortunately, things slowed down between my first tour and my second, although since there were fewer guides, I only got about a 5 minute break between tours.
My second and last tour today was my favorite tour of all weekend. By the fifth time around, I think I got into a pretty good rhythm and learned some ways to make things more interesting for the kids. Almost every tour I've given as a regular guide (i.e. not during open house) has been to pre-vet students -- mostly high school or college kids who are really seriously interested in going to vet school, know some medical lingo, don't need to have minute details explained to them, and are genuinely interested in everything. The "family crowd" that we get at open house needs to have a really different style of tour.
So I figured out to do things like, when we are looking at the scrub sinks where the students scrub before surgery, I ask, "Do any of you guys wash your hands before dinner? Well, we have to wash our hands before surgery! Does anybody have a guess about how long we spend washing our hands?" (The kids guess anywhere from 30 seconds to an hour. Answer: 8-10 minutes. They are usually really impressed.) There is also a fairly boring part of the tour where tour groups also happened to get pretty backed up and I ended up having to just sort of stall and talk about random things. I figured out that the next stop on the tour was the diagnostic lab booth, which had bacterial cultures and fertilized chick eggs and WORMS in jars, so it was fun getting them geared up for that when they were getting bored. (The kids were all, "Worms! COOL!" and the parents were like, "Worms? Grosssss...")
So my last group was about 20-25 people, with probably 6-8 kids along from ages 5-12 or so. The kids were SO attentive and asked really good questions. The adults made at least a sincere attempt to laugh at my little jokes. A couple of the parents were really, really interested in everything. At the very beginning of the tour, I did my typical introduction: "Hi, welcome to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, my name is yada-yada and I'll be your tour guide today, I am a sophomore or second-year student in the vet school, it is a four-year program, so I am almost halfway done" --- at this point everybody spontaneously cheered for me. I knew then it was going to be a good group. :-)
At the end of the tour, I thanked them all for coming and offered to answer any questions, etc. before sending them out to the exhibits and booths. I complimented the kids on their focus and thanked them for their good questions. Everybody clapped! The parents all said I did a great job and I got some remarks about "I can't believe what a great job you did keeping their attention for this long." They all seemed like well-behaved kids to begin with, but that was still really rewarding as I never feel that comfortable around kids and had struggled a little with some of the earlier groups.
As a bonus, I got to leave a little early - around 3:30 instead of 4 as scheduled. Yesterday I left at 4:40 when my last tour finished - no tours were supposed to start after 3:15 but my scheduled school group didn't get their till 3:30 and most of the other guides had left already, so I got to stick around. But today I had time to get gas and stop by the pathology building to pick up my forgotten anesthesia notes and still get home early.
Now I just have to remember that next time I give a tour it's going to be grown-ups again, and I have to put the little kid voice away...
I was signed up for two shifts yesterday (11-1 and 1-4) and gave three tours. The first two tours yesterday were fairly unremarkable -- groups of 15-20 people, mostly parents with kids, some adult couples without kids, occasionally the odd high school or college kid seriously interested in going to vet school.
I did have one guy on my second tour yesterday who appeared to be there by himself. During the 70 minute tour, he compulsively straightened every framed photo and poster that we walked by in the hallways. One part of me thought, "I like it!" A second part of me was thinking, "Yikes..." And a third part of me thought, "You must not realize that another giant group of unruly kids is going to come along in 5 minutes and knock all of those awry again."
My third group yesterday was about 20 high school kids from a private school in Colorado Springs where they can evidently take health- and science-based courses (their electives, at least) if they know they want to go into some sort of health profession. They were a little bit squirrely but mostly interested in what I was saying, and it was a bit of a relief to get to talk to more "grown-up"-type people after having kids around for the other tours. I will admit I had a super-fun time emphasizing things like vasectomy techniques for bull elephants and watching the teenage guys cringe. You could say I talked about that stuff a little more than usual, just for the heck of it.
When I first arrived yesterday, carrying Simon in his carrier to hang out at the cat booth, and a poop sample from Johnny to leave at the lab, I immediately encountered several humongous swarms of second graders. Apparently the local schools usually do an annual field trip for kids of a certain age and bring them all to open house. As I did my shifts on Saturday last year, I was unaware of this. I feel quite lucky that throughout my two Friday shifts this year, I managed to avoid having to lead an entire class of second graders with one lone teacher through the hospital and maintain their interest for an hour.
Today, I was only signed up for one shift, 1-4 pm. We are actually only required to volunteer for 2 shifts during the weekend, but they had very few tour guides sign up for the 1-4 pm Saturday shift so I offered to do an extra one. Good thing I did! I arrived at about 12:50 so I could have a few minutes to check in, but was immediately bombarded by a frazzled-looking tour scheduling person trying to contain three tours' worth of people in the lobby with no available tour guides in sight. So, I was immediately put to work.
Fortunately, things slowed down between my first tour and my second, although since there were fewer guides, I only got about a 5 minute break between tours.
My second and last tour today was my favorite tour of all weekend. By the fifth time around, I think I got into a pretty good rhythm and learned some ways to make things more interesting for the kids. Almost every tour I've given as a regular guide (i.e. not during open house) has been to pre-vet students -- mostly high school or college kids who are really seriously interested in going to vet school, know some medical lingo, don't need to have minute details explained to them, and are genuinely interested in everything. The "family crowd" that we get at open house needs to have a really different style of tour.
So I figured out to do things like, when we are looking at the scrub sinks where the students scrub before surgery, I ask, "Do any of you guys wash your hands before dinner? Well, we have to wash our hands before surgery! Does anybody have a guess about how long we spend washing our hands?" (The kids guess anywhere from 30 seconds to an hour. Answer: 8-10 minutes. They are usually really impressed.) There is also a fairly boring part of the tour where tour groups also happened to get pretty backed up and I ended up having to just sort of stall and talk about random things. I figured out that the next stop on the tour was the diagnostic lab booth, which had bacterial cultures and fertilized chick eggs and WORMS in jars, so it was fun getting them geared up for that when they were getting bored. (The kids were all, "Worms! COOL!" and the parents were like, "Worms? Grosssss...")
So my last group was about 20-25 people, with probably 6-8 kids along from ages 5-12 or so. The kids were SO attentive and asked really good questions. The adults made at least a sincere attempt to laugh at my little jokes. A couple of the parents were really, really interested in everything. At the very beginning of the tour, I did my typical introduction: "Hi, welcome to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, my name is yada-yada and I'll be your tour guide today, I am a sophomore or second-year student in the vet school, it is a four-year program, so I am almost halfway done" --- at this point everybody spontaneously cheered for me. I knew then it was going to be a good group. :-)
At the end of the tour, I thanked them all for coming and offered to answer any questions, etc. before sending them out to the exhibits and booths. I complimented the kids on their focus and thanked them for their good questions. Everybody clapped! The parents all said I did a great job and I got some remarks about "I can't believe what a great job you did keeping their attention for this long." They all seemed like well-behaved kids to begin with, but that was still really rewarding as I never feel that comfortable around kids and had struggled a little with some of the earlier groups.
As a bonus, I got to leave a little early - around 3:30 instead of 4 as scheduled. Yesterday I left at 4:40 when my last tour finished - no tours were supposed to start after 3:15 but my scheduled school group didn't get their till 3:30 and most of the other guides had left already, so I got to stick around. But today I had time to get gas and stop by the pathology building to pick up my forgotten anesthesia notes and still get home early.
Now I just have to remember that next time I give a tour it's going to be grown-ups again, and I have to put the little kid voice away...
Friday, April 9, 2010
Promotion!
Not only do I have a job again for next year (okay, that wasn't really in question), but I've been promoted!
Okay, fine. It's more responsibility but probably no extra recognition and possibly no extra pay.
But I will get the title of "Tour Guide Coordinator." I don't know yet exactly what I have to do, but I'm pretty sure it makes me the super awesome boss of all things tour-related.
However, I have to admit I wussed out today while I was giving tours for the VTH's annual open house. The tour scheduler announced to us tour guides who were just lounging around and being unproductive (because nobody wanted to go on a tour) that the hospital director was going to take a tour with his wife and some of their friends. I did NOT volunteer for that one. If I say something patently inaccurate in front of them, I get in trouble since I'm supposed to know better. The other guides can just explain it's their first tour ever!
Seriously, after 3 consecutive tours today, my throat is raw and my feet hurt. Looking forward to doing it again tomorrow!
Okay, fine. It's more responsibility but probably no extra recognition and possibly no extra pay.
But I will get the title of "Tour Guide Coordinator." I don't know yet exactly what I have to do, but I'm pretty sure it makes me the super awesome boss of all things tour-related.
However, I have to admit I wussed out today while I was giving tours for the VTH's annual open house. The tour scheduler announced to us tour guides who were just lounging around and being unproductive (because nobody wanted to go on a tour) that the hospital director was going to take a tour with his wife and some of their friends. I did NOT volunteer for that one. If I say something patently inaccurate in front of them, I get in trouble since I'm supposed to know better. The other guides can just explain it's their first tour ever!
Seriously, after 3 consecutive tours today, my throat is raw and my feet hurt. Looking forward to doing it again tomorrow!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
6 weeks till junior year
Can you believe it?
Five more weeks of class and one week of finals, and I will officially be a vet school junior, i.e. halfway through vet school.
Yikes. That's a little scary!
The last two years have been really intense. I can't believe how much I've learned. Occasionally we'll be talking about something and I think to myself, "Two years ago I knew nothing about that. WOW!"
At the same time, I don't feel quite ready to be a junior yet...
It's gotten to be a comfortable routine: sitting in a classroom all day, occasional labs and recitations, general anonymity with the professors. Sort of nice.
Next year, though, I'll spend every morning dealing with actual, live patients, clinicians, and clients. I'll have to be able to extract the last 2 years' worth of information from that deep, deep corner of my mind and apply it to real-life situations. I'll be put on the spot and probably end up feeling like an idiot quite often.
But I'm also ready to get off my butt. Sophomore year, especially, has been a bit excruciating in that regard. Will I be sorry to have 30 hours a week sitting in the same chair in the same lecture hall put behind me? Nope.
I can't believe that two years from now, I will have (hopefully) passed the NAVLE, will have only 4 or so more weeks of clinical rotations left as a senior, will ideally have secured a job for after graduation, and will be merely a month from being an actual real live veterinarian. That is really a daunting thought. I feel like I could spend 5 more years in vet school and still not feel ready.
My upcoming tasks in preparation for junior year are:
1. Prioritize my junior practicum selections (i.e. which rotations I want to take).
2. Order some books.
Elsevier, one of the main publishers of veterinary textbooks, has a sale every spring in which they permit vet students to order their textbooks for 20% off, before the prices increase in May. That basically means that any textbooks I want for next year, I'd be wise to purchase now.
So, gasp, I'm contemplating ordering 6 textbooks that will cost me almost $700.
Yeeeshh... I haven't spent that much on texts all at once since I ordered all of my freshman year textbooks two summers ago (I think that was over $1K).
But as CLH says: that's what loans are for!
I've talked to junior students and been on VIN to see what recent graduates recommend, and here's what I want:
* Internal medicine book: currently deciding between Ettinger ($223.20) and Nelson & Couto ($147.20); leaning toward N&C because it sounds more accessible
* Thrall's radiology text: $94.40
* Surgery book: deciding between Slatter ($192) and Fossum ($174.40); leaning toward Fossum seems to be the recommended choice if you don't want to be a specialty surgeon
* Parasitology text: $65.56 (a book I used in the cubes last year during parasitology and which seemed to be really applicable for clinics and as a real-world reference guide)
* Saunders Manual of Small Animal Practice: $138.40; listed as an "essential" resource by most vets I heard from
* Plunkett's Emergency Procedures: $69.56
Why do textbooks cost so much??? This is even including the 20% off!
Five more weeks of class and one week of finals, and I will officially be a vet school junior, i.e. halfway through vet school.
Yikes. That's a little scary!
The last two years have been really intense. I can't believe how much I've learned. Occasionally we'll be talking about something and I think to myself, "Two years ago I knew nothing about that. WOW!"
At the same time, I don't feel quite ready to be a junior yet...
It's gotten to be a comfortable routine: sitting in a classroom all day, occasional labs and recitations, general anonymity with the professors. Sort of nice.
Next year, though, I'll spend every morning dealing with actual, live patients, clinicians, and clients. I'll have to be able to extract the last 2 years' worth of information from that deep, deep corner of my mind and apply it to real-life situations. I'll be put on the spot and probably end up feeling like an idiot quite often.
But I'm also ready to get off my butt. Sophomore year, especially, has been a bit excruciating in that regard. Will I be sorry to have 30 hours a week sitting in the same chair in the same lecture hall put behind me? Nope.
I can't believe that two years from now, I will have (hopefully) passed the NAVLE, will have only 4 or so more weeks of clinical rotations left as a senior, will ideally have secured a job for after graduation, and will be merely a month from being an actual real live veterinarian. That is really a daunting thought. I feel like I could spend 5 more years in vet school and still not feel ready.
My upcoming tasks in preparation for junior year are:
1. Prioritize my junior practicum selections (i.e. which rotations I want to take).
2. Order some books.
Elsevier, one of the main publishers of veterinary textbooks, has a sale every spring in which they permit vet students to order their textbooks for 20% off, before the prices increase in May. That basically means that any textbooks I want for next year, I'd be wise to purchase now.
So, gasp, I'm contemplating ordering 6 textbooks that will cost me almost $700.
Yeeeshh... I haven't spent that much on texts all at once since I ordered all of my freshman year textbooks two summers ago (I think that was over $1K).
But as CLH says: that's what loans are for!
I've talked to junior students and been on VIN to see what recent graduates recommend, and here's what I want:
* Internal medicine book: currently deciding between Ettinger ($223.20) and Nelson & Couto ($147.20); leaning toward N&C because it sounds more accessible
* Thrall's radiology text: $94.40
* Surgery book: deciding between Slatter ($192) and Fossum ($174.40); leaning toward Fossum seems to be the recommended choice if you don't want to be a specialty surgeon
* Parasitology text: $65.56 (a book I used in the cubes last year during parasitology and which seemed to be really applicable for clinics and as a real-world reference guide)
* Saunders Manual of Small Animal Practice: $138.40; listed as an "essential" resource by most vets I heard from
* Plunkett's Emergency Procedures: $69.56
Why do textbooks cost so much??? This is even including the 20% off!
Weekend! / Shelter conference
At long last, another weekend has arrived.
This seemed like a really long week. There weren't actually that many horrible academic stresses, but I got myself so worked up before Tuesday afternoon's Therio exam that I sort of felt like I used up all my energy by that point and wasn't all that motivated to be productive for the last 3 days of the week.
Since spring break, Friday mornings (no class till 10) have turned out to be absolutely essential given that Thursdays are no longer so fun (class 8-9, lab 9-10, break 10-12, PBL 12-1, cardiology 1-4).
So I got to sleep in till 8:15 on Friday, and TEN today. Ahhhh... sleep is awesome.
That's as opposed to last weekend, when I was up at 6:15 am for the shelter medicine conference at the VTH.
(Last Saturday really felt like a 6th day of school. I got up earlier than I usually do, left the house earlier than usual, got to school earlier, sat through 7 hours of lecture, gave a tour, helped with registration and clean-up, and came home later than I usually do.)
The shelter conference was really fun. It was the first time the vet school has had one, so there were some little bumps to be worked out for next year, but overall it seemed to be a success.
There were 150 people registered: I'd estimate about 25 vets, 25 vet students, 25 certified or licensed vet techs, and about 75 humane society workers and veterinary assistants. (It's Saturday morning; I hope that adds up to 150.)
Not everybody showed up, but we did get a good crowd and a nice mix of positions, backgrounds, and perspectives.
The morning started with coffee, OJ, bagels, and pastries from Panera. (Note: Yum!) We had some free giveaway stuff provided by the ASPCA (like cool little magnetic clips for your refrigerator) and the vet school (lanyards). There was also a raffle selling tickets all day, donations being accepted for the shelter club (since there was no cost to attend the conference), and a couple clubs selling merchandise like vet school sweatshirts.
The first lecture was by one of our main internal medicine professors, doing an intro for the day and then talking about four recent research projects and how they are relevant to shelter medicine. He also talked about how he has done research with animals in the local shelter and I think he did a great job of emphasizing to the attendees (especially the shelter laypeople) that "research" doesn't have to be a dirty word.
The second lecture was given by the vet school's shelter medicine resident. She talked about different zoonotic diseases (Salmonella, rabies, ringworm, etc.), how they are transmitted, how you treat them, and how you prevent either animals or people from getting them.
The third lecture was given by our main emergency/critical care clinician and was all about triaging medical emergencies, focusing on ABC (airway, breathing, circulation), initiating shock fluid therapy, etc. He had a bunch of cool videos of animals with horrible gaping wounds, in respiratory distress, cyanotic, etc.
The last morning lecture was by one of my favorite anesthesia lecturers. She talked about assessing and managing pain in shelter settings, so she mostly focused on surgical pain (i.e. medicating animals pre and post spay/neuter surgery) and pain from trauma (i.e. the stray dog hit by a car and brought straight to your shelter). At the end she worked through two case examples and provided cost information for different drugs: for example, giving that 60lb dog you're spaying some morphine pre-op will cost you all of 17 cents. A nice way to show the shelter people that pain management doesn't have to be cost-prohibitive.
Lunch was box lunches from Panera - sandwiches, pickles, cookies, chips, and bottled water. Nom nom!
Over lunchtime, we offered tours of the VTH for anyone who was interested. A lot of the vets in attendance were grads of my vet school, so they found it amusing to go back through the hospital again. There were three tours, one by me and the others by two other guides. Since lunch was only an hour, and our tours are usually 60-75 minutes, we had to try to squeeze them into 30-40 minutes so people would have time to eat.... that was an interesting way to do a tour.
The afternoon lectures were more focused on shelter management than on specific medical issues. They broke it up that way knowing that some people would be more interested in the medical stuff versus the management stuff, to make it easier for those people to only come to half the conference.
The first afternoon lecture was by the director of our local humane society. She talked about different national statistics and statistics from her own shelter relating to reasons why animals are surrendered by their owners. It is "common knowledge" among the sheltering world that behavioral problems are one of the main reasons for surrender, but she explained that her statistics didn't show that. This claim was later challenged by statistics from several other shelter facilities.
The second afternoon lecture was given by the ASPCA's director of shelter training. She gave an interesting discussion of different methods of learning, i.e. some people learn best through visual means, others through auditory modes, and others through a kinesthetic approach. She then gave some examples of ways in which shelters do adoption counseling (talking to adopters, usually right at the time of adoption, about the pet's medical history, environmental/behavioral/housing needs, etc.) -- and how that's really ineffective for a lot of people who are *super* excited to be taking home a new puppy. It was an interesting way to start thinking about how that process can be improved and made more effective.
The last lecture was by another nearby humane society's CEO. She talked about partnerships between shelters and local veterinarians. This lecture turned into an intriguing "discussion" between the shelter people in attendance and the vets in attendance. Apparently there is a lot of tension and not-so-happy feelings between the two sides. Interesting.
Anyway, the shelter conference seemed to go well and I think all the lecturers struck a good balance of information that vets, techs, vet students, and laypeople could all relate to and find useful.
It was interesting for me to reflect on my "growth" up through the field of animal care and veterinary medicine. Three or so years ago, I believe I would have found myself relating far more to the shelter people than to the vets, techs, and students, whereas the opposite was true last weekend. This is something I started to realize several years ago - my priorities for the animals while I worked at the shelter in high school are fairly different from my priorities for animals now. It's an interesting shift in perspective, but I hope to end up back in the middle someday.
This seemed like a really long week. There weren't actually that many horrible academic stresses, but I got myself so worked up before Tuesday afternoon's Therio exam that I sort of felt like I used up all my energy by that point and wasn't all that motivated to be productive for the last 3 days of the week.
Since spring break, Friday mornings (no class till 10) have turned out to be absolutely essential given that Thursdays are no longer so fun (class 8-9, lab 9-10, break 10-12, PBL 12-1, cardiology 1-4).
So I got to sleep in till 8:15 on Friday, and TEN today. Ahhhh... sleep is awesome.
That's as opposed to last weekend, when I was up at 6:15 am for the shelter medicine conference at the VTH.
(Last Saturday really felt like a 6th day of school. I got up earlier than I usually do, left the house earlier than usual, got to school earlier, sat through 7 hours of lecture, gave a tour, helped with registration and clean-up, and came home later than I usually do.)
The shelter conference was really fun. It was the first time the vet school has had one, so there were some little bumps to be worked out for next year, but overall it seemed to be a success.
There were 150 people registered: I'd estimate about 25 vets, 25 vet students, 25 certified or licensed vet techs, and about 75 humane society workers and veterinary assistants. (It's Saturday morning; I hope that adds up to 150.)
Not everybody showed up, but we did get a good crowd and a nice mix of positions, backgrounds, and perspectives.
The morning started with coffee, OJ, bagels, and pastries from Panera. (Note: Yum!) We had some free giveaway stuff provided by the ASPCA (like cool little magnetic clips for your refrigerator) and the vet school (lanyards). There was also a raffle selling tickets all day, donations being accepted for the shelter club (since there was no cost to attend the conference), and a couple clubs selling merchandise like vet school sweatshirts.
The first lecture was by one of our main internal medicine professors, doing an intro for the day and then talking about four recent research projects and how they are relevant to shelter medicine. He also talked about how he has done research with animals in the local shelter and I think he did a great job of emphasizing to the attendees (especially the shelter laypeople) that "research" doesn't have to be a dirty word.
The second lecture was given by the vet school's shelter medicine resident. She talked about different zoonotic diseases (Salmonella, rabies, ringworm, etc.), how they are transmitted, how you treat them, and how you prevent either animals or people from getting them.
The third lecture was given by our main emergency/critical care clinician and was all about triaging medical emergencies, focusing on ABC (airway, breathing, circulation), initiating shock fluid therapy, etc. He had a bunch of cool videos of animals with horrible gaping wounds, in respiratory distress, cyanotic, etc.
The last morning lecture was by one of my favorite anesthesia lecturers. She talked about assessing and managing pain in shelter settings, so she mostly focused on surgical pain (i.e. medicating animals pre and post spay/neuter surgery) and pain from trauma (i.e. the stray dog hit by a car and brought straight to your shelter). At the end she worked through two case examples and provided cost information for different drugs: for example, giving that 60lb dog you're spaying some morphine pre-op will cost you all of 17 cents. A nice way to show the shelter people that pain management doesn't have to be cost-prohibitive.
Lunch was box lunches from Panera - sandwiches, pickles, cookies, chips, and bottled water. Nom nom!
Over lunchtime, we offered tours of the VTH for anyone who was interested. A lot of the vets in attendance were grads of my vet school, so they found it amusing to go back through the hospital again. There were three tours, one by me and the others by two other guides. Since lunch was only an hour, and our tours are usually 60-75 minutes, we had to try to squeeze them into 30-40 minutes so people would have time to eat.... that was an interesting way to do a tour.
The afternoon lectures were more focused on shelter management than on specific medical issues. They broke it up that way knowing that some people would be more interested in the medical stuff versus the management stuff, to make it easier for those people to only come to half the conference.
The first afternoon lecture was by the director of our local humane society. She talked about different national statistics and statistics from her own shelter relating to reasons why animals are surrendered by their owners. It is "common knowledge" among the sheltering world that behavioral problems are one of the main reasons for surrender, but she explained that her statistics didn't show that. This claim was later challenged by statistics from several other shelter facilities.
The second afternoon lecture was given by the ASPCA's director of shelter training. She gave an interesting discussion of different methods of learning, i.e. some people learn best through visual means, others through auditory modes, and others through a kinesthetic approach. She then gave some examples of ways in which shelters do adoption counseling (talking to adopters, usually right at the time of adoption, about the pet's medical history, environmental/behavioral/housing needs, etc.) -- and how that's really ineffective for a lot of people who are *super* excited to be taking home a new puppy. It was an interesting way to start thinking about how that process can be improved and made more effective.
The last lecture was by another nearby humane society's CEO. She talked about partnerships between shelters and local veterinarians. This lecture turned into an intriguing "discussion" between the shelter people in attendance and the vets in attendance. Apparently there is a lot of tension and not-so-happy feelings between the two sides. Interesting.
Anyway, the shelter conference seemed to go well and I think all the lecturers struck a good balance of information that vets, techs, vet students, and laypeople could all relate to and find useful.
It was interesting for me to reflect on my "growth" up through the field of animal care and veterinary medicine. Three or so years ago, I believe I would have found myself relating far more to the shelter people than to the vets, techs, and students, whereas the opposite was true last weekend. This is something I started to realize several years ago - my priorities for the animals while I worked at the shelter in high school are fairly different from my priorities for animals now. It's an interesting shift in perspective, but I hope to end up back in the middle someday.
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