1 Month In

I have been extremely busy these past few weeks. At the two week mark we had our first formal assessment in the form of a short quiz. I did alright on it so I can’t complain but the two weeks following the quiz were intense due to our midterm. The way our exams work is that there is one exam that covers every subject. So for the midterm I took today, I had to know biochemistry, endocrinology, anatomy, imaging, neuroanatomy, and histology. Let’s just say that I have been pulling LONG study hours these past two weeks, especially this past week (i.e. about 15 hours at the school). It has been stressful and frustrating but I took the exam today and I think it went ok. Maybe. We’ll see. At the moment my brain feels like an over-soaked sponge and every time I try to soak up something new, a little bit of the old leaks out. I may have to take another look at my study habits to see if I can find a more efficient way. Also within these past two weeks I have had the opportunity to do intake exams at a nearby ‘low-income’ animal shelter as well as continue with the rehabilitation of the red-tailed hawk and some orphan squirrels. The red-tailed hawk seems to be getting better so hopefully that trend continues but we are thinking that she might have been a pet or a resident as she seems to be glove trained (meaning she is cool with sitting on a glove willingly). So we most likely won’t be able to release her and will need to find a facility that would take her as a resident. I wish I could think of more things to say but I have post-exam brain right now so I am pretty beat.

Until next time!

Some Fun In Vet School

So I figured after posting my super-depressing post at 1 am the other night (in which I correctly predicted an exhausting Monday) that I should post about some fun things that I have done since I started vet school. Every Friday, in anatomy lab, we do an hour of palpation practice on a live animal. Last Friday I got to palpate the muscles associated with the forelimb/shoulder of a horse and I am almost pretty sure that I felt what I was supposed to feel! Example of what we palpated: Triceps, latissimus dorsi, subclavius, supraspinatous, infraspinatous, brachiocephalicus, omotransversarius, extensors/flexors associated with the distal part of the forelimb (still pretty hazy on these but I know I felt them!), and a few other muscles, tendons (stay apparatus [aka how the horse stays standing while sleeping]!), and some parts of the humerus/ulna/radius/scapula. It was pretty great.

I have also done some pretty neat things in the wildlife medical clinic. Unfortunately our little baby blue jay passed away but our orphan bunnies have been sent off for rehabilitation until they can be released back into the wild (yay!). This Saturday we took in an adult female red-tailed hawk. To make things simple I will just say that she presented with general depression, dehydration, and general lack of interest. Usually a hawk will attempt to talon or beak you to death when you try to catch them but she just pretty much sits there and lets you do whatever, pretty unusual. Through a fecal we determined that she had tapeworm eggs, a blood smear revealing many Leukocytozoan parasites, a blood chemistry panel indicating possible muscle damage or cachexia/wasting (not surprising with parasitic load), chest radiographs showing nothing significant, and a CBC showing that she has a left shift. We knew she had a leukocytosis (showing a high WBC) but that just tells us that there’s inflammation, not necessarily infection. The left shift though, means that there is high number of immature neutrophils, otherwise known as band cells. The body kicks out these immature white blood cells when it’s overwhelmed with an infection, so that’s a pretty good sign that we should start her on some antibiotics. Right now our differentials could be West Nile Virus or some sort of infection. But we just aren’t sure yet.

So these are the X-rays, first one is a side view and the second one is a ventral-dorsal view (belly up view)

This picture (below) you can see a tapeworm egg that looks like a brown circle right near the blackened edge

Below this you can see the blood smear showing the leukocytozoans which are all the odd shaped organisms with the spindly things

And here is our patient! (They can be about 19-25 in tall so don’t let this picture fool you)

So I hope this put warm fuzzies in your heart like it has mine (ya know, if you ignore the fact that it is a very sick animal).

Have a good night!