Oregon Humane Society

Friday was my last day of a 3 week rotation in Portland at the Oregon Humane Society (OHS). I can't believe how fast it went by and how much I learned and experienced while I was there. I was very impressed with the facility and the doctors and staff that I worked with.  First here's a little tour of the general facility with pictures: 

The view from the front.

Where I spent the majority of my time in the shelter

The surgery room where students do dog and cat spays/neuters during the morning. It has viewing windows for the public and often there were children watching us doing surgery through the windows. 

 

My Bedroom. The student bedrooms are within the shelter, situated above the medical center

The student lounge

View of the side and back of the shelter. Complete with rose garden and pet cemetery/memorials.

Entrance to the pet cemetery.

One of several pet memorials behind the shelter.

Walking trail behind the shelter for walking dogs that are housed in the shelter. Volunteers come in daily to walk each dog.

One of the cat rooms in the shelter where potential adopters can go in and meet the cats. All of the rooms are themed. This one is skiing themed I think.

Another cat room.

Another cat room. I thought these rooms were really great!

 As you can see, OHS is a pretty neat place. While there I got to work on my surgical skills, medical skills, and animal behavior skills. Every day was different. Some days we would do dentistry and clean and polish teeth and sometimes extract teeth that were bad. Other days we would learn about animal behavior, talk to people that called in on a behavior helpline, and work with actual dogs in the shelter with behavior problems. I enjoyed working with some puppies that needed to be trained to walk on a leash. It was fun to see them progress from belly crawling when on a leash to being able to walk on a leash with no problem. 

Two of the four puppies that we worked with as group to get them used to being on a leash.

 Probably my favorite thing was surgery. At first it was kind of scary but all the doctors where very reassuring and willing to help you when you needed it. We started out working in pairs but by the end I was pretty much flying solo and asking for help if I needed it. We kept a tally of the surgeries that we participated in so here is my final numbers: Dog spays = 7, Dog neuters = 24, Cat spays = 17, Cat neuters = 43, Rabbit spays = 1, and Mass removals = 2. That adds up to 92 surgeries!  For those who don't know, a spay is an ovariohysterectomy in a female where both ovaries and the uterus is removed. A neuter is removal of both testicles in a male. 

Me and another student performing surgery one morning.

Now for a little bit about some of my patients. Each student is assigned patients that they care for with the aid of one of the doctors. Each morning we would do treatments, clean kennels, walk dogs, and look for improvement. Then, in morning rounds we would inform everyone about how our patients were doing and decide what she be done for them that day. Sometimes we would get to participate in surgeries or other treatments that our patients needed during the day. Other times we were busy doing other things and would be updated during evening rounds about what happened to our patients during the day. Then we would do evening treatments. We were encouraged to take our patients upstairs to the student quarters and we did! It was like having several pets for 3 weeks. When they got well enough to be adopted or fostered they would be moved out of the medical center. 

Meet Jack, a Shih tzu with one eye, bad teeth, a shoulder mass, and bladder stones.  We did surgery on him to remove a stone that was lodged in his urethra. Later he got a dental cleaning and I got to remove the mass from his shoulder. I feel really lucky that I was able to  remove his mass. It was pretty cool! He was a very nice little dog.

Jack hanging out in the student lounge. You can kind of make out his mass on his left shoulder.

Me and Jack after his mass removal

He got moved out of the medical center the last day I was at OHS. I hope he finds an awesome family!

 FoxTrot the snowshoe cat with inflammatory bowel disease. He was the patient I had for the longest amount of time and he had awful diarrhea that we struggled to control. Despite that, he was a very nice, happy cat and I enjoyed being greeted by him every time I entered the cat room. He loved his special diet food and coming upstairs to hang out with me. He is still under care in the medical center.

Rory Joe, the cutest kitten ever! While he wasn't my patient, he found his way into most of the students hearts including mine. He had a rectal prolapse problem which was treated surgically and seems to have worked. Rory actually was adopted by one of the students on the rotation. :)  



 

 A few more cuties... The orange kitten is Rockey, he had a fracture of his femoral head so the removed it doing a procedure called an FHO. He took it like a champ and loved being petted and fed. The puppy was one of 6 adorable puppies that we spayed/neutered and I would go hang out with them until one by one they all got adopted. 

 

There were many other patients that I had and I learned a lot from each of them. I got really good at getting dogs and cats to take their pills (not as easy as it sounds). Overall, my experience was awesome and I really did learn a lot and I gained confidence while at OHS. I really liked the group of students I was on my rotation with and thought that we all worked together well. I'm looking forward to being able to go back in January for 2 weeks and meet more cute animals!

The last day at OHS.  Me, Katelyn, and Giovanna

Diagnostic Imaging

My first vet school rotation rotation was Diagnostic imaging which was a 2 week rotation where I was able to review and practice my ultrasound and radiography skills. Here is a picture I took of myself on my first day as a senior. 

 
After the first day I never wore my white coat again because we were told it didn't matter what we wore as long as we had closed toed shoes. I was all over not dressing up since we never talked to clients on this rotation and I enjoyed wearing jeans and not having to iron dress pants. 

Lead aprons, thyroid protectors, and gloves

On this rotation I learned how to  position animals for radiographs (x-rays), adjust settings on the x-ray machine, and crop and adjust the digital images. Positioning animals was fun and often involved a lot of foam blocks and medical tape to achieve the correct positioning. One cool thing about this rotation was that we saw a large variety of animals including dogs, cats, horses, a sheep, a bull, and a llama. I also was able to watch a fair number of ultrasound exams and even got scan my classmate Leahs' guinea pig one day. I still have a long way to go with my ultrasounding skills but I'm glad that I can at least reliably identify the bladder :) They also do CT scans and MRI at the vet school but we weren't really involved with those on this rotation. We did get to tour the MRI trailer which was kind of neat, only dogs and cats can fit in the MRI machine.

Me wearing my lead protective gear

Every morning we would have rounds where we go over assigned cases with a radiologist. I actually learned a lot through those rounds and hopefully the things I learned will stick with me. On Fridays we had an exam including a multiple choice test as well as a practical, interpret the radiograph portion. The exams were a little tricky at times but not too bad. Fridays were also "Food Friday" and we brought some good food to share. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the rotation and learned a lot. I like the group of students I was with and thought we worked well together. The technicians were all awesome and very helpful and knowledgeable. I enjoyed learning from and working with them. I'm sure I will see more of them in the future as a go through other rotations and have patients in need of an ultrasound or radiograph.

My badge and rings that detect radiation exposure

Diagnostic Imaging Group = Me, Leah, Ryan, and Selina