I remember reading an article on 'Dating Advice' last year put out by eHarmony, called "15 Reasons to Date a Veterinarian" At the time I thought it was a rather humorous list, and while I thought that most of the characteristics listed were pretty accurate, I also felt that most of them did not make good reasons to date a vet, if anything, I felt they were reasons to not date a vet.
I have not given this article any further thought, but OnceKitten over at WordPress has, and I couldn't agree more!
I popped onto Facebook today to see half-a-dozen classmates having shared her recent rebuttle to eHarmony's reasons. I encourage you all to take a moment to go read this before continuing on...
While many of my classmates are in long-term relationships, engaged or married- I think it's safe to say the clear majority are single. I also think it's safe to say that since I began VM1 year there have been more classmates that have gotten engaged during their existing relationships than there have been people starting new relationships.
It's not hard to imagine why so many vet students are single and remain that way during school. The hours spent in class/labs/club-related activities often consumes the better part of your day. It's not uncommon for me to have a day that starts at 7:40am and continues until 6pm with no break in classes/meetings- add in tutors/tutoring, wetlabs, etc and it can easily go until 9pm. Then what little free time you have is generally spent buried in your studies. Somedays I feel like feeding my pets takes too much of my time... Finding time to build and maintain a good relationship with somebody new? Yeah, good luck with that! Not to mention having time to go out and meet non-vet students (you're certainly not going to do well picking from the handful of single male students...)
The Friday before my Fall semester began this August I found myself dumped by my boyfriend of 10months. The bitter and poetic nature of that scenario is that I had to get my mess of a self to the Vet school to meet my VM1 and lead a group of new students during their orientation on a tour of the school. Even in the face of a break-up, my school responsibilities still would not grant me time for that relationship. And that relatioship started on a similar note- I had to cancel our first date because I got the opportunity to stay late for my equine castration wet-lab to help with some awesome cryptorchid procedures and watch one with complications. Doomed to fail from the start I suppose, but it certainly set the mood for how things would go...
And it's not just me dear readers, last Spring we had a couple of married Vets come to give an evening presentation (which I attended with the then boyfriend) that discussed the struggles of having a relationship with a veterinary student. Even those that come into vet school already in a relationship find their relationship suffering- especially when it means they have to become a long-distance relationship on top of everything else.
I have started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation for the first time (I promise, this is relevant!), and a conversation between the Captain and Wesley caught my attention:
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: For ambitious Starfleet officers, there are certain costs involved. You must be cautious of long-term commitments, Wesley.
Wesley Crusher: No problem. Where women are concerned, I am in complete control!
Truer words could not have been spoken regarding vet school- it's a huge commitment in itself and to yourself, it has to be a priority for you. Giving up having relationships (and a social life in general) is certainly a cost you pay... Does that mean you have to have a life of solitude? Of course not. Some people can make it work- and kudos to those that can- some people can't. And don't let me give the impression that vet school killed my relationship, because that was a dysfunctional relationship if I've ever had one, but in theory-land I think it could have done a little better, and it's certainly not a coincidence it ended just before classes began again.
In conclusion-I have since made the decision to swear off of men for the next few years and get a dog ;) haha Enough procrastinating- time to get to studying for Finals! Wish me luck!!! (I'm gonna need it!) And in light of Finals and the holidays, it will likely be a month or so before I make another post. Happy Holidays everyone (and good luck on Finals for those who have them!)
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Equine Dentistry (Shortcourse) Wetlab
Sorry for the several week delay in posts, but us VM2s finished our 2nd round of exams only to start the 3rd round a matter of days later. Hectic schedule! But at long last, Thanksgiving break has arrived! And the last Friday of classes kicked off the AAEP's much anticipated Equine Dentistry wetlab!
Friday evening we had a dinner "meeting" that involved about 3 hours of lecture relating to equine dentistry. We had a wonderful presenter who normally does a 3 day short course but was able to give us a condensed version that consisted of the nearly 3 hours of lecture material Friday evening, followed by 7 hours of mostly hands-on work and a little more lecture on Saturday.
A few of the key points from what was discussed Friday evening:
--The 2 main goals of equine dentistry are to minimize pain and to maintain dentition.
--Exams should be done annually, if <5yo they should be done twice a year, or more frequently with a history of oral/dental problems.
--"Floating" and "Dentistry" are not the same thing- floating is mostly to just prevent mucosal damage, whereas dentistry is a more comprehense exam and more important to the overall health of the animal.
--We covered various equine oral pathologies of the hard & soft tissues, including:
Overgrowths, bone growth disparities, maleruptions, supernumerary teeth, oligodontia, infundibular cavities, dental fractures, neoplasia of HT, dysplasia, EOTRH, periodontal disease, pulpar disease, secondary mucosal trauma, neoplasia of ST, and foreign bodies.
--Also covered was equine oral anatomy- physical and functional, and the 8 parts of an oral exam.
Saturday morning we began with live horses (belonging to one of the supervising DVMs). In groups we got to prep the horse, go through the steps of the exam and take turns working on the teeth. I was fortunate enough to do all of the work on the 400's (the horse's lower right teeth) of the first horse. It was such a great hands-on opportunity! Especially since I will likely never do any equine dentistry ever again (I'm a small animal gal & the heavy equipment doesn't do my carpal tunnel any good!). I've even got a picture of me working away, with supervision and guidance from the horse's owner (the aforementioned vet) and the veterinary presenter. I got to wear a pretty sweet (incredibly old) headlamp, which is not visible in this photo (sorry!).
In total, it took my team of 4 vet students about 1.5hours to complete a dental exam & work to the satisfaction of the presenter. He was a stickler for detail and I appreciated that. We all had to go back in a second time to do a better job, some had to go back a 3rd! (thankfully, I got mine in 2!).
It's pretty nerve-wracking to use heavy power tools inside a living, breathing horse's mouth for the first time! Especially for somebody who has never even seen the inside of a live horse's mouth before, let alone stuck their arm in one (and is also a little terrified by horses!). Everyone had a great time and learned a ton...
Four horses were worked on during the morning and we got to see a few interesting dental problems as well as gain a great appreciation for what is normal and how good dental work should look in the end.
The afternoon brought a quick lunch break and a short lecture break that included a pretty cool video depicting oral anatomy of the horse. We also touched on floating techniques, nerve blocking, and looked at a few cases. Afterwards we concluded with some cadaver heads where we could safely practice nerve blocks, practice with some hand-float tools, and do some more oral exams.
It was a pretty long and intense wet lab, but I gained a wealth of knowledge that I would probably not have received much on (especially since I'm following a small animal track) that I can thankfully refer back to someday should I ever find myself looking at a horse- you never know!
Friday evening we had a dinner "meeting" that involved about 3 hours of lecture relating to equine dentistry. We had a wonderful presenter who normally does a 3 day short course but was able to give us a condensed version that consisted of the nearly 3 hours of lecture material Friday evening, followed by 7 hours of mostly hands-on work and a little more lecture on Saturday.
A few of the key points from what was discussed Friday evening:
--The 2 main goals of equine dentistry are to minimize pain and to maintain dentition.
--Exams should be done annually, if <5yo they should be done twice a year, or more frequently with a history of oral/dental problems.
--"Floating" and "Dentistry" are not the same thing- floating is mostly to just prevent mucosal damage, whereas dentistry is a more comprehense exam and more important to the overall health of the animal.
--We covered various equine oral pathologies of the hard & soft tissues, including:
Overgrowths, bone growth disparities, maleruptions, supernumerary teeth, oligodontia, infundibular cavities, dental fractures, neoplasia of HT, dysplasia, EOTRH, periodontal disease, pulpar disease, secondary mucosal trauma, neoplasia of ST, and foreign bodies.
--Also covered was equine oral anatomy- physical and functional, and the 8 parts of an oral exam.
- 1-History
- 2-PE (including external head for symmetry)
- 3-Sedation
- 4-Placement o full mouth speculum/lavage
- 5-Visual Exam of mouth (with & without intraoral mirror)
- 6-Palpation of tooth surfaces
- 7-Periodontal probing & use of explorer
- 8-Records of findings on dental chart
Saturday morning we began with live horses (belonging to one of the supervising DVMs). In groups we got to prep the horse, go through the steps of the exam and take turns working on the teeth. I was fortunate enough to do all of the work on the 400's (the horse's lower right teeth) of the first horse. It was such a great hands-on opportunity! Especially since I will likely never do any equine dentistry ever again (I'm a small animal gal & the heavy equipment doesn't do my carpal tunnel any good!). I've even got a picture of me working away, with supervision and guidance from the horse's owner (the aforementioned vet) and the veterinary presenter. I got to wear a pretty sweet (incredibly old) headlamp, which is not visible in this photo (sorry!).
It's pretty nerve-wracking to use heavy power tools inside a living, breathing horse's mouth for the first time! Especially for somebody who has never even seen the inside of a live horse's mouth before, let alone stuck their arm in one (and is also a little terrified by horses!). Everyone had a great time and learned a ton...
Four horses were worked on during the morning and we got to see a few interesting dental problems as well as gain a great appreciation for what is normal and how good dental work should look in the end.
The afternoon brought a quick lunch break and a short lecture break that included a pretty cool video depicting oral anatomy of the horse. We also touched on floating techniques, nerve blocking, and looked at a few cases. Afterwards we concluded with some cadaver heads where we could safely practice nerve blocks, practice with some hand-float tools, and do some more oral exams.
It was a pretty long and intense wet lab, but I gained a wealth of knowledge that I would probably not have received much on (especially since I'm following a small animal track) that I can thankfully refer back to someday should I ever find myself looking at a horse- you never know!
-------------------------
*I have tried to exclude names and faces to keep individuals anonymous, as well as not providing specific details from our lecture due to copyright constraints. Also, should anything here be incorrect, I am working from some quickly jotted notes that may be a little erroneous. Gotta throw my disclaimers out there ;) *Friday, November 1, 2013
Crush 'em & Cut 'em - I can relate!
The Saturday before last it was that much awaited time again- Castration Wet Lab!
The SCAAEP (student chapter of the American Association of Equine Practitioners) held their annual Fall castration wetlab- a great opportunity for hands-on experience for its members. The set-up is that People from the surrounding area are recruited to bring in foals (and one guy brings in donkeys) to be castrated by the student. Usually a group of one VM1 (restrain, PE), VM2 (drugs, catheterization), VM3 (castration) work with each animal. There was a new system this year that allowed constant physician supervision with every step of the process, which was great (aside from it taking a whole... lot longer). It really is a wonderful, and very popular wet lab but I don't have much more to say about it than that. If any of you have further questions- just shoot me a comment and I'd be happy to answer them. Otherwise it's all pretty straight-forward what happens - crush 'em and cut 'em ;)
In other news:
The last two weeks have been a doozy! Round 2 of exams for us VM2s. We had an exam on Wednesday, an exam Friday, and exam Monday, 2 Exams Thursday and one more this upcoming Monday. YIKES! The following week it starts back up all over again... we had 2 weeks off since the first round, we don't even get a full week this time. It gets pretty brutal- but that pretty much applies to all of vet school. Brutal.
You know you're a vet student when you lose track of the days, forget the last time you showered, haven't eaten a proper meal in the last week and are running on caffeine and the occasional "nap". You also get really excited about having time to run errands and clean! Errands have never been so much fun!
That being said, I took last night off to, yes- run errands, and have a nice sit down/eating out dinner of sushi (an appropriate meal after a week of Microbiology and Parasitology exams) and finish up my Halloween costume while watching some scary movies. Vet school party is tonight- and vet students know how to party! "Work hard-Party hard"-- the unofficial slogan of vet school. I'm not the "party hard" type, but that won't stop me from going out all costumed and have a good time!
On a side note- eating out with veterinary students is always fun. We listed every microbe & parasite that could possibly be in the components of our sushi rolls (even the rice & cucumber weren't safe from our scrutiny!), and compared things to Pathologic lesions. Too bad we didn't have any non-veteriny friends along to be completely grossed out by our conversation.
Back to the grind this weekend.
The SCAAEP (student chapter of the American Association of Equine Practitioners) held their annual Fall castration wetlab- a great opportunity for hands-on experience for its members. The set-up is that People from the surrounding area are recruited to bring in foals (and one guy brings in donkeys) to be castrated by the student. Usually a group of one VM1 (restrain, PE), VM2 (drugs, catheterization), VM3 (castration) work with each animal. There was a new system this year that allowed constant physician supervision with every step of the process, which was great (aside from it taking a whole... lot longer). It really is a wonderful, and very popular wet lab but I don't have much more to say about it than that. If any of you have further questions- just shoot me a comment and I'd be happy to answer them. Otherwise it's all pretty straight-forward what happens - crush 'em and cut 'em ;)
In other news:
The last two weeks have been a doozy! Round 2 of exams for us VM2s. We had an exam on Wednesday, an exam Friday, and exam Monday, 2 Exams Thursday and one more this upcoming Monday. YIKES! The following week it starts back up all over again... we had 2 weeks off since the first round, we don't even get a full week this time. It gets pretty brutal- but that pretty much applies to all of vet school. Brutal.
You know you're a vet student when you lose track of the days, forget the last time you showered, haven't eaten a proper meal in the last week and are running on caffeine and the occasional "nap". You also get really excited about having time to run errands and clean! Errands have never been so much fun!
That being said, I took last night off to, yes- run errands, and have a nice sit down/eating out dinner of sushi (an appropriate meal after a week of Microbiology and Parasitology exams) and finish up my Halloween costume while watching some scary movies. Vet school party is tonight- and vet students know how to party! "Work hard-Party hard"-- the unofficial slogan of vet school. I'm not the "party hard" type, but that won't stop me from going out all costumed and have a good time!
On a side note- eating out with veterinary students is always fun. We listed every microbe & parasite that could possibly be in the components of our sushi rolls (even the rice & cucumber weren't safe from our scrutiny!), and compared things to Pathologic lesions. Too bad we didn't have any non-veteriny friends along to be completely grossed out by our conversation.
Back to the grind this weekend.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Feral Cat Alliance: TNR and Eartipping
For those of you not familiar with TNR- eartipping is not some strange variation of cow tipping! ;)
Last Saturday I had the great luck of having my fourth experience with the FCA- Feral Cat Alliance- an organization here at the CVM that holds spay/neuter clinics roughly once a month to contribute to TNR efforts in the area. If you are unfamiliar with TNR programs, you're not so different from me, not so long ago. TNR programs and I go way back.
Back in the tail-end of my undergrad days I was approached by a faculty member who wanted to begin a TNR program for the feral cat community living on campus. My response was "Great!"- but what the heck is TNR? We have feral cats on campus? A whole community of them..?
Essentially I was tasked to start an official TNR program (JCats) for the school- solo. I had my work cut out for me, but that's a whole different story. Bottom line is I spent many hours first figuring out what all of these basic concepts were, then researching local laws/regulations/etc that may pertain to these cats and whether or not what we wanted to do was legal. The major resource for our little TNR program was AllieCatAllies- a great place to go if you want to learn more about the particulars and ways you can get involved and help!
The basics are this:
TNR= Trap-Neuter-Return
Feral cats, or domestic breed cats living in "wild" (feral) communities, can be found just about anywhere- from farms to the center of major metropolitan cities. These cats can be considered a nuisance, public health concern, and threat to local wildlife (birds, small mammals, the like) - in some cases. Many people want to simply find a way to remove or kill the community of cats and be rid of them, but that is not the solution. If there are the right resources to support this cat community, and you get rid of it, those resources become available to the next cats that happen upon it (and sooner or later, they will happen upon it!). But if you leave them to their own devices they will continue to breed and that is problematic as well. Now here's where the TNR part comes in- if you Trap these cats (especially the females), spay/neuter them, and then Return them to their community- you will not be opening up new spaces for more cats and you will be slowing & hopefully nearly preventing reproduction. This way, you end up with a fairly stable number of cats in the community and can also clean them up, vaccinate them against disease, check them for serious medical problems like Feline Leukemia-- and ultimately end up with healthier cats that are less of a public health concern.
The great thing about FCA is it is 100% run by the veterinary students (with DVM supervision) and allows you to get in some excellent, precious, valuable hands-on experience! What you do depends greatly on what you are experienced with coming into the clinic, what you are comfortable doing, and the skill level of the other members of your group. There are floating vet techs, Drug officers, Recovery people, and "groups" that do all of the rest. In groups you do some bloodwork, vaccines, surgical prep, surgery, anesthesia, and everything in between. One of the last things you do before you send your cat to recovery is to eartip them. The purpose of eartipping is make the cat easily identified as having been spayed/neutered already. This is actually the exact image we have up in the clinics-- slicing a small tip of the left ear off. (This is common practice and the cats are sedated/well medicated)
Once these cats are recovered they are able to sent back home later that day and re-released to their communities! I think TNR programs are greatly beneficial and there are so many ways you can get involved if it interests you.
Last Saturday I had the great luck of having my fourth experience with the FCA- Feral Cat Alliance- an organization here at the CVM that holds spay/neuter clinics roughly once a month to contribute to TNR efforts in the area. If you are unfamiliar with TNR programs, you're not so different from me, not so long ago. TNR programs and I go way back.
Back in the tail-end of my undergrad days I was approached by a faculty member who wanted to begin a TNR program for the feral cat community living on campus. My response was "Great!"- but what the heck is TNR? We have feral cats on campus? A whole community of them..?
Essentially I was tasked to start an official TNR program (JCats) for the school- solo. I had my work cut out for me, but that's a whole different story. Bottom line is I spent many hours first figuring out what all of these basic concepts were, then researching local laws/regulations/etc that may pertain to these cats and whether or not what we wanted to do was legal. The major resource for our little TNR program was AllieCatAllies- a great place to go if you want to learn more about the particulars and ways you can get involved and help!
The basics are this:
TNR= Trap-Neuter-Return
Feral cats, or domestic breed cats living in "wild" (feral) communities, can be found just about anywhere- from farms to the center of major metropolitan cities. These cats can be considered a nuisance, public health concern, and threat to local wildlife (birds, small mammals, the like) - in some cases. Many people want to simply find a way to remove or kill the community of cats and be rid of them, but that is not the solution. If there are the right resources to support this cat community, and you get rid of it, those resources become available to the next cats that happen upon it (and sooner or later, they will happen upon it!). But if you leave them to their own devices they will continue to breed and that is problematic as well. Now here's where the TNR part comes in- if you Trap these cats (especially the females), spay/neuter them, and then Return them to their community- you will not be opening up new spaces for more cats and you will be slowing & hopefully nearly preventing reproduction. This way, you end up with a fairly stable number of cats in the community and can also clean them up, vaccinate them against disease, check them for serious medical problems like Feline Leukemia-- and ultimately end up with healthier cats that are less of a public health concern.
The great thing about FCA is it is 100% run by the veterinary students (with DVM supervision) and allows you to get in some excellent, precious, valuable hands-on experience! What you do depends greatly on what you are experienced with coming into the clinic, what you are comfortable doing, and the skill level of the other members of your group. There are floating vet techs, Drug officers, Recovery people, and "groups" that do all of the rest. In groups you do some bloodwork, vaccines, surgical prep, surgery, anesthesia, and everything in between. One of the last things you do before you send your cat to recovery is to eartip them. The purpose of eartipping is make the cat easily identified as having been spayed/neutered already. This is actually the exact image we have up in the clinics-- slicing a small tip of the left ear off. (This is common practice and the cats are sedated/well medicated)
Once these cats are recovered they are able to sent back home later that day and re-released to their communities! I think TNR programs are greatly beneficial and there are so many ways you can get involved if it interests you.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Censorship or not- here it is.
Greetings to any who still follow me or happen upon this blog!
So it's been about a year since my last entry and that entry stated I was hesitant to make future posts because "during orientation it was heavily drilled into me that posting any details online pertaining to school was basically... strictly forbidden. So I will be carefully censoring any information I share on here in the future- my further apologies. But fear not! I will still share plenty!" And obviously my declaration to post regardless fell through.
I recently received a comment on that blog post stating: "Since you have apparently abandoned your blog, I can only assume they succeeded in scaring you off" Firstly, I would like to address this by saying VM1 year got ridiculously demanding and I- a) didn't have time to keep blogging & b) forgot about my blog altogether haha So my reply is- No- no they did not scare me off, the blog just died of natural causes with inconvenient timing.
So it's been about a year since my last entry and that entry stated I was hesitant to make future posts because "during orientation it was heavily drilled into me that posting any details online pertaining to school was basically... strictly forbidden. So I will be carefully censoring any information I share on here in the future- my further apologies. But fear not! I will still share plenty!" And obviously my declaration to post regardless fell through.
I recently received a comment on that blog post stating: "Since you have apparently abandoned your blog, I can only assume they succeeded in scaring you off" Firstly, I would like to address this by saying VM1 year got ridiculously demanding and I- a) didn't have time to keep blogging & b) forgot about my blog altogether haha So my reply is- No- no they did not scare me off, the blog just died of natural causes with inconvenient timing.
What prompted me to attempt to start this blog up again with this post is the irony of the situation in which I read that comment- it was during my Ethics course where we once again received the "No online sharing of informationg" lecture. The exact same lecture, by the exact same lecturer that I referenced from during my Orientation. AGAIN! During a class in which it was highly irrelevant (so I became highly irritated). The reason given for not sharing informationg regarding the school, the curriculum, etc was:
"To protect the university and programs because the general public does not understand the context"
"To protect the university and programs because the general public does not understand the context"
Now, this is in all fairness a valid concern, even my own mother (a nurse, who obviously knows what medical training entails and knows what her daughter is going to school for) is often disturbed to hear any mention of what it is I actually do at school. Although, she is highly sensitive about sick/injured/dead animals (she cries over roadkill, for example). The point I'm getting at is- some people are easily offended, appalled and/or emotionally distraught over some of the practices that take place during a veterinary education (whether that reaction is warranted or rational- or not). It's understandable. And there are crazy animal rights extremists out there with no appreciation for the educational aspect that want to see many of these practices ended at the cost of our education.However, all of the lectures about censoring what we share publicly is getting to be overkill and frankly, a little insulting. Do some veterinary students say or do or post completely idiotic things they shouldn't have? Absolutely. But does that mean that's what the majority of us do? No. They are addressing the exceptions and I feel like those people will make those choices regardless of hearing these censorship lectures or not. People need to just use some common sense and we wouldn't have these problems.
*As a disclosure- these are simply my opinions & do not reflect that of the university I am affiliated with ;) Also, I am not implying any practices that take place during my education are cruel, inhumane, or an objectionable practice in any way/shape/form.*
Now that that is addressed, I would like to say I will make every effort to keep this blog relatively active in the future- but life has no guarantees and VM2 year is pretty brutal with the work load.
Keep on truckin...
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