Shpanendik

I have enjoyed a blissful and freeing lack of internet use the last couple weeks -- checked my email on occasion, found out my spring term grades, wrote to my brother a couple times, and otherwise spent very little time on the colossal time-waster.

My preceptorship was very nice. The two weeks were vacation compared to vet school -- not that it was lazy going, short hours, or even a 9 to 5 situation. But it was a hands-on learning environment with supportive and knowledgeable people in a beautiful area of southwestern Oregon. I learned new anesthesia protocols, gained confidence expressing/applying knowledge, and saw a fantastic variety of cases. I was told that they saw a greater variety in the two weeks I was there than in a normal two months. Stressful for them, perhaps, but the best situation possible for me. The vet school powers that be may almost think (if they had less confidence in my integrity) I fabricated information when they see my case descriptions.

My weeks contained the following:
Right displaced abomasopexy surgery
Crypt-orchid surgery
Bovine ceasarean section
Choking horse with an esophageal diverticulum
Miniature horse with hyperlipidemia
Downed cow with mysterious CBC/chemistry values
Horse "bleeding to death" due to leg laceration after being caught in a fence panel
Bang's vaccinating 56 calves
Ear tagging
Pregnancy checking 40-50 Holsteins

Tibial tuberosity translocation and pinning, trochlear groove recession and lateral imbrication of retinacular tissue to fix a medial patellar luxation
Tibial intramedullary pinning with external fixation application in a "hit by car" cat
Mandibular wiring for a HBC dog with a mandibular symphyseal fracture
Little dog attacked by big dog (emergency at 10 pm with minor surgery performed)
Eye exenteration on a kitten
Cat with bilateral hindlimb paralysis due to "lead poisoning" (i.e. the gun variety)
Probable Marek's disease in two chickens from separate flocks
A rooster, a raven, an African grey parrot
A very small rabbit rescued from a cat
Salmon poisoning
Tick paralysis (remarkable recovery) -- who knows how many ticks there were
Porcupine quills in dog muzzles (fun to remove)
Ear mite walking across a slide of dog ear swabbing, under 100x+ magnification (yick!)
Foot rot (cow)
Pyometra (cow)

I:
Drenched a cow with calcium and received a white bath down the front of my garment -- thought the tube was past the torus linguae, but somehow the liquid went the wrong direction.
Saw a horse arise from anesthesia with very little warning to the potential endangerment of lives.
Learned first hand that client descriptions of cases may be a bit exaggerated.
Saw the irony of removing a small defect on a valuable dog, only to have it lacerate a large area of thoracic skin a few days later.
Found that mushy, watery pellet mash may clog a nasogastric tube and halt progression of food into the stomach.
Searched "all over" a refrigerator twice for a blood tube, declared myself blind, and observed as a doctor produced the tube from an open-topped box which was in that very fridge AND labelled "Blood Tubes".
Still have green ear tattoo dye (that would be calf tattoos for Bang's vaccine records) on the cuticle of one of my fingers.

Words

My friend LT recently returned from PA for three weeks. Sadly, I will be away for two of those, so I went to visit her last night. We had a good time, and fabulously, I got to see a couple pictures of my brother doing/being strange things. Always a thrill. :)

I need to organize my lecture notes from this past school year so I can quickly reference them during clinics.

I need to study radiology in preparation for "clinical imaging" -- it's been over a year since I had any concentrated teaching in the area.

Today I started packing boxes of my stuff in potential preparation for the exodus of my parents from Oregon. It's easy when a large portion of one's belongings are books -- don't have to worry about padding breakables, etc. There remains the question of where my stuff will reside -- my room at Smuckers is a bit small for such an influx.

I may not have significant web access in the next two weeks... don't give up on me. I am expecting the generation of some fantastic story material during that time, and I have worked significantly on an intelligent design/evolution discussion. Stay tuned. ;)

Senior Year!!!!

Well, finals are done and I am officially a senior. I tell you, it's a weird thought and a satisfying.

I start my first preceptorship on Monday. Am I ever excited!!

Real Deal

I remained (primarily) awake for 22 hours yesterday and began to seriously suffer the effects of sleep deprivation. My balance was questionable. I repeatedly fell asleep as Dr. Schlipf was lecturing to us for the last official time. I was dutifully attempting to take notes and all went well for the first page. However, the 2nd and 3rd pages are stark witness to the somnolent state of my brain. It is funny in a really sad way -- I hope Dr. Schlipf didn't notice.
I ate Skittles to stay awake during the second half of the aquatic medicine lecture -- resorting to such junk is not a desirable situation to be in... but it was better than nodding off with a jerk before the prof.

Why so sleepless? I worked midnight to 7:30 am in the large animal hospital (the night was uneventful and I actually got some studying done), then changed into a clean pair of green overalls and returned to the hospital for my large animal clinical rotation. Yesterday's activities were among the highlights of this term. Jay (fellow classmate) and I went on a couple rural veterinary practice calls with Dr. Brady Bergin.

I have heard nothing but good about Dr. Bergin, who, just four years out of vet school, was voted teacher of the year this spring. However, I had very little personal experience with him until yesterday. Now I understand what everybody was talking about. He's patient, tactful and encouraging; he explains what he's doing as he works, doesn't leave the student in a fog of semi-understanding; and his application of horse psychology/behavior knowledge is laudable.

At the first farm "we" floated the teeth on a mare, checked a fetlock wound, and gave some vaccines. Strangely, the vaccines provided the most, er, excitement of the visit. We were informed that one horse was a "poke-poke-stab" animal (i.e. you poke her in the neck with your finger a couple times (to blend the needle stick with other tactile stimuli) then stick the needle in the muscle and all is well). I vaccinated that animal, and all was well.
Naturally, it was Jay's turn for the second horse. We were told this animal can't handle the poke-stab method, but rather falls for the "pinch-neck-skin and stab" method. Well, the horse couldn't handle the stick. In the ensuing drama, the owner was smashed into the stall wall, the horse popped the latch off the stall door as it came plunging through, the goat became temporarily lame, et cetera. But it got its vaccines, and Dr. Bergin gave it a mini-lesson by linking neck-skin-pinching with positive reinforcement. The horse learned relatively quickly.

We then met up with Dr. Estill and two Italian ladies in the ECFVG (Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates) program. One of the program requirements is that they take radiographs of a pig, so we followed them to a small but well-kept piggery in a high-end neighborhood. The pig had septic arthritis and apparent necrosis in a hind leg. It made a lot of noise, but none of the sows attacked us so I am pleased.

The final call was a lameness exam on Dr. Estill's wife's horse. It seemed to localize to the left hind, and worsened with a hock flexion test. We took 4 radiographs each of the right and left hind leg hocks -- hopefully I'll get to seem them today. This is all very exciting -- the first time I ever observed radiographs taken in the field, and even better, the first time I ever took radiographs myself. It was a fantastic learning experience.
So long for now.