Last week we had a quiz and an exam on Monday, then 2 lab practicals on Wednesday, and a quiz on Friday. It was nuts. But, let me try to back-track and get this blog up to speed.
In Week 6 of Large Animal lab we spent another day at the dairy farm, this time with the calves. We drew blood from them, gave them subcutaneous injections, took their temperature, pulse, and respiration rates. My lab partner and I got a calf named "Beans". Here's a pic of me and him:
In Week 7 we lectured instead of having Large Animal Lab, and Week 8 we spent with horses. The horses were owned by various people who brought them in for free blood tests and vaccines, so there was a little more pressure with the owners standing there watching us. My lab partner and I did great, though -we both got our blood draws on our first stick (jugular) and did our IM injections of the vaccines in the neck and rump quickly and without much trouble from the horse. We also each wrapped on of the horse's legs and demonstrated a tail wrap. Afterwards a local vet brought out his portable digital x-ray machine and we took a radiograph of one of the horse's knees (we happened to have a 24 year old gelding with an arthritic knee). I held the cassette for the first exposure (lateral) and was able to see the osteophytes right away when the image came up on the screen. We took another view (cranial/caudal) as well which showed diminished space between the femur and tibia which also pointed to advanced arthritis. The owner was grateful for the radiographs and said she might send us his old ones from 4 years ago to compare. That'd be neat.
In Small Animal Lab we were shown how to do IM injections on dogs and cats and we were given our injection list that we need to complete on our own by December. We have to give subcutaneous and IM injections in the tricep and quadricep on both dogs and cats. I've done 2 so far, both on a cat, so I have a little over a month left to do the other 6.
In Small Animal lecture we've been learning about the diseases that are prevented by routine vaccines as well as heartworm.
In Radiology we radiographed an anesthetized chicken (which we helped put under with gas anesthesia and we recovered it as well). Their heartbeats are super fast! We also radiographed some horse leg bones using an old portable xray machine. It was before we did the real horse, but I can't believe how much nicer the vet's digital one was than ours! Still, I'm sure there are plenty of vets with old machines, so it's definitely a good thing we've seen and can use both kinds.
On Wednesday we got our schedules for next semester. I'll have Tuesday totally off and only one class (Anatomy & Physiology) on Mondays and only one class (Kennel Management) on Thursdays. Wednesdays and Fridays are long days, but I think the schedule will be pretty nice! The Sophomores are warning us that second semester Freshmen year is the hardest, though, so I'm not taking any chances -I'm watching the Anatomy & Physiology lectures from Berkley in what spare time I have to try to get a leg up on the material for next semester.
We also learned that the Sophomores will be spending most of their time in their externships next semester, so we'll be on our own for kennels. We'll pick our teams and day and we'll be expected to run with it. We'll have a new crop of animals next semester, and I guess they usually get about half the number of dogs and cats, so there won't be as much work, but that's good because there will be half the people to do it!
So, this is about mid-term and I'm at an A in all of my classes except Small Animals where I can't seem to break out of the 85% territory. I'm hoping this Lab Practical helped. I felt pretty good about it, but we won't get our grade until Wednesday. Still, I'm very happy with even a B. The Sophomore class went from 40 to 18 I think this semester. We have 3 or 4 people who were dropped from the program last year due to failing Small and/or Large Animals and rumor has it more will be retaking Surgery I and possibly other classes next semester. This program is certainly fast-paced and challenging. I'm very happy I'm doing as well as I am and it's taken a lot more work to keep up these grades in this program than it took me in my previous 2 years in college!
I can't think of much else to say, so I'll end it here and will come back and add more if anything comes to mind. This week's schedule looks much easier, so chances are I'll be able to start posting weekly again after this.
