Week #2

The handouts for each class is continuing, so my plan is to switch from a notebook for each class plus an expanding folder to hold all my course handouts to a 3-ring binder for each class. So far Large Animals has the most handouts, so I bought a 1.5 inch binder for that one. I plan on taking notes on the PowerPoint slide handouts starting next week rather than in notebooks -it's just too much duplication using a notebook.

Dogs and cats come in next week. Barn duty is easy, it only takes 15 minutes or so -you just schedule a time with the person you are assigned to work with and clean out the automatic waterer and feed the grain and hay and you're done. No bedding changes or anything.

We're learning a lot of anatomy terms for external parts and bones for dogs/cats and then also for sheep/cattle. Having some familiarity with the human skeletal system helps, but the differences and external anatomy is just all memorization.

In Large Animals only half of us got to do blood draws and subcutaneous injections on the sheep because they are only allowed to be used once for each injection or blood draw location per week. So, I let my partner do the blood draw since she had never done one before. She was super nervous because the entire class would huddle around to watch each person do their draw, but she ended up getting it on the first try so good for her! Aside from that we each took their temperatures, tried getting a heart rate (I do heart rates on dogs regularly, but sheep are much harder!), and a respiratory rate.