Dentistry

Last week I had a week of small animal dentistry. Well it actually ended up being only 4 days due to the 8 inches of snow and the subsequent snow day on Monday. That was an adventure because snow plows are scarce in Corvallis.  This was my first elective rotation and it was graded pass fail. The others actually have a letter grade associated with them.

Ultrasonic Scaler

Dogs and cats were brought in by students, technicians, and faculty. Each animal was examined and pre-anesthetic blood work completed usually the day before their scheduled procedure. Each animal was anesthetized for dental prophylactic cleaning, dental radiographs, and some procedures like tooth extractions.  Each day we had a different veterinary dentist available to help us. Students were divided into groups and would take turns doing the anesthesia or the dental procedures. I got a lot of extra anesthesia practice. I got to extract a few teeth (1 incisor, 1 premolar, and 1 canine root).

Before dental cleaning - DOG

After dental cleaning

My goal with taking this elective was to get more comfortable with extracting teeth and making flaps. I feel better about it but doing one flap hardly makes me confident. I feel better about shooting dental radiographs now. That took some getting used to but there was time to practice on this rotation and that was helpful. Overall, it was a good rotation but some improvements need to be made for the future. 

Tooth chart

Before dental cleaning - CAT

After dental cleaning and premolar extraction.

Now I'm relaxing at home in Utah with my family and dogs. It's been wonderful so far and I am so blessed to have vacation time corresponding with Christmas. I'm still waiting to receive my results for the NAVLE. Hopefully I'll find out next month sometime.

Small Animal Medicine & NAVLE

Last week I finished my month long small animal medicine rotation. Overall it was a good rotation speckled with times of stress and difficulty. It was especially stressful as I was trying to study for the NAVLE (North American Veterinary Licensing Exam) which I must pass in order to graduate from vet school and become a vet.The good thing about the medicine rotation was that it provided a great way to study for the exam. I would study up about my cases each day before they arrived and during slow periods I was able to work on some study questions (Zuku review was a great online study tool). 

The waiting area for clients. Six exam rooms on the right.

Most days I had 1-2 patients. Over the 4 weeks I had a total of 24 patients.  This may not seem like much but a lot of them needed advanced diagnostic imaging such as CT scans, ultrasound, radiographs, or endoscopy. This often meant that they would be in the hospital for a good part of the day. We would also do blood work and urinalysis on almost every patient. A few of my patients were even hospitalized. I learned how to use a feeding tube and give food, water, and medications to a very sick dog. This dog was my most time consuming patient and I grew very attached to her. I learned patience as I waited for her to show improvement. This patient tested my desire to become a veterinarian and in the end also reaffirmed that desire as I saw her improve and the gratitude expressed by her owners for all that we had done to help her. She continues to improve and her feeding tube was removed this week. :)

The hours I spent at the hospital were fairly decent. I averaged around 50 hours per week. I had a patient in the hospital for two of the weekends during the rotation. Compared to my surgery rotation I had a lot more free time. Free time however was mostly spent studying up on cases for the next day or studying for NAVLE. The week of Thanksgiving was a 3 day week for receiving patients. I had a shift in the ICU on Thanksgiving day from 8am to 4 pm. It was pretty slow but I enjoyed the slow pace of things and helped make snow flakes to hang up to replace the leaves. :)

I cant take any credit for the Rudolf clock :) That was all a tech's doing

Once again putting my bandage scissors to good use

I enjoyed getting to know a lot of the hospital staff better by getting to know their pets who were my patients. In fact I think a good majority of my patients belonged to students or technicians. It was awesome! I liked personally knowing the person whose pet I was taking care of. As part of this rotation we also got to do what is referred to as the preventative health program. This entails doing wellness examinations, administering vaccinations and giving out flea/tick/heartworm preventatives. This will be a huge part of what I will actually be doing as a practicing veterinarian.

I enjoyed working with the clinicians, residents, and my classmates on this rotation. There were 4 other students on the rotation with me and, for the most part, I thought we worked well together and helped each other out.

Courtney, Andrea, Dr. Reina, Els, and myself. What a fun group!

This week I had the week off to study for the NAVLE which I took on Thursday. The testing center was about an hour away in Eugene, OR. I drove down the night before and stayed in a hotel to help cut down on my stress level. The exam was computerized, multiple choice with some images. It took me a little over 6 hours to complete counting two short breaks that I took to recharge. Each time you entered the exam room you had to turn out your pockets, roll up your sleeves and pant legs, and wanded down with a metal detector. It was the real deal! It was a long and draining test. I can't say that it was easy for me but I am hopeful that I passed.

Next week I have a 1 week rotation in small animal dentistry! I will get to become a pro at cleaning cat and dog teeth and maybe get to do some tooth extractions. Then I'm headed home for a little while to enjoy the holidays with my family.