Large Animal Surgery & Graduation

I know this post is long overdue but having just recently acquired internet after the whirlwind graduation and moving twice and beginning my new job I finally have a quiet moment to update my blog. This may be my last post for awhile. I am pleased that I managed to chronicle my entire 4th year as a veterinary student. It was a tough year but I made it through.

Large animal surgery was a big rotation to end on. I was not sad that it was only 3.5 weeks instead of 4 weeks due to graduation. It started out slow and picked up a little bit but I actually never scrubbed in on a single surgery. We only had a couple surgeries and a lot of them turned out to be standing procedures where we were able to perform surgery on a sedated but standing horse. I did get to watch a few surgeries were the horse was actually put under general anesthesia and that was pretty neat to see. I think the hardest part of the rotation was that my good luck ran out for being on call. For the whole year I was rarely called in when I was a back up/on call student. On this rotation I had a day were I was at the school for 20 hours straight because 4 emergencies came in when I was on call. It was a pretty crazy night. I got home around 3 am, slept for three hours and then went right back the next day for another full day. Another night I was lucky enough to have a couple hours at home before I was called in and again got home around 3 am. Now I can say I got the full vet school experience and I am sooooo glad that I don't have emergency on call shifts at my new job!

Sporting the green Coveralls one last time - Last day ever as 4th year student

On slow days we would go over x-rays or practice our suturing. One day we had a race to see who could suture the fastest. I was doing great until my expired suture broke completely away from the needle causing a major set back. I seemed to get a lot of horses with sinus problems but most of my patients were very nice, beautiful horses. I am definitely more comfortable around large animals and have developed a love for goats. I don't anticipate ever owning or working on large animals in the future but I am glad for the oppourtunity that vet school provided.

Suture Race - Carrie, Carrisa, Leah, Me, Nick

Graduation was great and kind of surreal. There were many award ceremonies and dinners. My parents, Morgan, and grandpa Campbell drove to Corvallis to attend the festivities and to help me move. We had a good time going to the coast one day and eating at some nice restaurants in celebration of my graduation. The graduation day came and went so quickly. I will always remember how nervous I was that my hat tassel was going to fall off because somehow I got the hat without a button so all that was holding my tassel on was the nail sticking up. My tassel did not fall off, I did take a step when I wasn't supposed to while I was being hooded but it all turned out okay. It was cool to see all of my classmates families and after graduation it was neat to be congratulated by a lot of my instructors. It was a little sad driving by Magruder Hall for the last time and leaving Corvallis behind. I had some good memories there.

I moved home to Utah the day after graduation then moved again to Draper, UT that same Friday/Saturday and started my new job on Monday. It's been an emotional roller coaster with ups and downs. I've now completed my third week working as an associate veterinarian. I still am trying to get my feet on the ground and I am learning a lot. I hope things get better as I gain more experience and confidence in my abilities. But the bottom line is that I accomplished a lifelong dream to become a veterinarian and that is something to be proud of. 

Diagnostic Services

I was fortunate to have one glorious week of vacation time which was entirely sunny and warm. I spent the week visiting places I love in Oregon as kind of as last hurrah before I leave. I went to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival, the Oregon Coast (Newport), the Oregon Zoo, and I spent time out in the sun hiking and riding my bike around Corvallis. Yes, there is much I will miss about Oregon...

The last 2 weeks I have been on a rotation called Diagnostics Services which is just a fancy way of saying necropsy. Basically, I got to play detective and figure out why animals had died. Most of the time I had no idea what the cause of death was because there weren't many obvious lesions. In those cases we collected samples of various organs and tissues to hopefully find something microscopically. Sometimes the diagnosis was pretty obvious. Each Wednesday we presented interesting cases that we had received to our classmates. It was a lot like show and tell because we were able to preserve lesions in formalin and show them to the other students as we presented.

The necropsy room and gallery.

I was very apprehensive when I started this rotation. I don't particularly enjoy working on dead animals. I did learn a lot though and was with a great group of students which made the rotation pretty awesome. The strangest species I performed a necropsy on was probably some fish. We also saw a sea lion, chickens, rabbits, a pet bird, calves, horses, dogs, cats, and mink. By the end of the rotation we were all pretty good at guessing the weights of the various species.

Some of the tools and supplies needed for performing a necropsy

Now the only thing remaining to conquer before graduation is my 3.5 week rotation in Large Animal Surgery. Am I nervous? You bet! Am I starting to get some senioritis? Indeed. But will I finish out strong doing my best and giving it my all? Always! Because as this message which has been on my fridge since Day 1 of my 4th year states: I Can Do Hard Things!

In the strength of the Lord, I can do ALL Things

A Job and Exotic Pet Elective

Last week I had an elective class that covered exotic pet medicine and surgery. In this case exotic animals refers to pet birds, amphibians, reptiles, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, mice, hedge hogs, ferrets, etc. It was officially my last rotation involving sitting through lectures. There were no exams, just listening and trying to soak up all the information.  With all those species to cover you can imagine that there was a lot of information but it was all pretty interesting and the lecturing veterinarians had many years of experience working with these animals. One of the lecturers actually used an old slide projector to display his lecture material. It was pretty neat to see it in action. 

One afternoon we had a hands on lab where a local pet store owner/breeder came in and passed around several different amphibian and reptile species which we were able to handle. It was pretty awesome! My favorites were the veiled chameleons and the whites tree frog. There were several types of lizards, turtles, and snakes that were also passed around.

Veiled chameleon male

After taking the elective I certainly feel more knowledgeable about exotic animal medicine and surgery but there is so much to know about each individual species that experience is vital to  become successful vet. Unfortunately it looks like I won't be gaining much experience with these species at the clinic that I will be working after graduation which brings me to my next point...

Bearded Dragon

I got a job!!! Yep, it's official I will be working at a small animal veterinary practice in American Fork, UT. The clinic is called Country View Veterinary Hospital and I am very excited about working there this summer. It will be a new adventure and I think it will be a good experience and that I will have a good mentor to help me make the transition from student to veterinarian. Only 6.5 weeks of veterinary school left until graduation!!

Preceptorship in Utah

My last four weeks were spent in Utah doing a preceptorship at Bayview Animal Hospital in Farmington. A preceptorship is basically in internship where I was under vet supervision with the idea of becoming more comfortable and familiar with a clinical setting or "real life" veterinary medicine. While at Bayview, I enjoyed getting to know the doctors there and observing them in exam rooms and surgery. Dr. White, Dr. Norman, and Dr. Smart are the current practicing doctors at Bayview and they were all great! I also enjoyed getting to know the staff who were all pretty awesome. It was a great hospital with great clients and patients. I was able to do some hands on things like draw blood, obtain urine, give vaccinations, view samples under the microscope, trim nails, clean ears, and try my hand at ultrasound. There were slow days and busy days. On the slow days I would study up on different medications in the Drug Handbook. I feel fortunate that I was able to complete my preceptorship at Bayview because I was able to see a lot of things and because Dr. White had some great advice about starting out as a new vet and finding a job. I will miss the people at Bayview and the two hour lunch breaks every day but I am excited to get on with vet school. I am so close to being finished!

While in Utah I also spent a fair amount of time interviewing at a few veterinary hospitals. It has been a stressful process because I want to find the right fit for me as a new graduate.  After much deliberation I think I've figured out where I'll be practicing veterinary medicine after I graduate in June. Stay tuned for this announcement in the coming weeks. :)