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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| In the strength of the Lord, I can do ALL Things |
