School is painful...

Well... I just finished a mini bout of exams. First Toxicology last thursday then Anesthesia today... let me tell you, I did not rock them out. Tox was painful but at least I was at the class average (even though that in itself was not good at all :-/) and anesthesia today went a bit worse than I had anticipated. Oh well, I'll get the next ones :)

Now I'm at the school cause I'm oncall for after hours radiology... we took one set of radiographs of a cat but so far that's been it. Not that I'm complaining too much :) At least I get some time to study.

Oh and! This coming saturday is Vet-A-Visit! The vet school will be open to the pubilc from 9am to 4pm that day... I'll be here all day so if any of you come, find me in the new oncology center selling merchadise :-D

Home!

I just wanted to let everyone know I'm back safely :) I know this is a few days late but better late than never right? Portland was lots of fun but I'm glad to be back... well in Michigan, not necessarily in school :)

Right now I have a toxicology exam to study for and some notes to catch up on so things might be quiet this week... but Vet-A-Visit is coming up so I'll have much more to write about then!

Thanks for reading!!!

Day 5 - Last day

So here I am writing my last Portland, OR blog post :) Sadly, this was the slowest day of them all... I think I honestly touched maybe 3 animals today. The only interesting thing that happened was a Chinese crested (here's a pic for those who don't know what it looks like :) http://www.thepamperedpup.com/dog_breeders/ChineseArchieMagic.jpg) came in who was apparently having seizures. For a moment they thought it was slug bait poisoning which would have been kinda cool since we don't have that in MI, slugs are a NW problem :-D But no, looked like it was just seizures because the pup recovered and was walking normally a little bit later :( I kinda feel bad that I'm disappointed about it but seriously... I ONLY TOUCHED 3 ANIMALS TODAY!!!

I did go into Portland again though. This time I shopped a little east of the river, on Hawthorne because Dr Kirkham recommended it. There were a few cute little shops :) I drove past this BBQ place on the way in and thought of dad so I had to take a picture :-D Make sure he sees it mom! Then I headed back over the river and couldn't find parking for the life of me. When I finally found a sop it was almost 7pm and darkness was coming so I booked it down to the riverside to take some pictures. And here they come :-D

These first 4 are just overlooking the river (I actually don't know which one so don't ask ;-)) It is very pretty down there and there are a couple of those little park-like places where there are seats and whatnot.

Multiple times at the vet office I heard of them referring to the people who live under the bridge... I think this could be one of the spots occupied ;-)

A boat was going under one of the drawbridges so I got a couple pictures... one shows the section of bridge that was raised and the other is of the boat going underneath.
Here you can see a mountain in the distance... kind of pretty with the lighting. Also there a couple more pictures across the water, one is of the crazy expressways I had to navigate :)

And finally, here is a little park area with people lounging around :) I included it because it reminded me of that sketchy park we stopped at after hours in Seattle.. remember mom ;-D

Ok, that's all from Portland! Thanks for reading and don't forget to look at the last post again to see what was added :) Detroit airport, here I come!!!

Day 4

Hi all :) Today I went into Portland again but not for very long :( I slept too late so I only got an hour, but tomorrow I'm done at the vet office at 4ish so I have the rest of the afternoon to wander around down there :) Since I didn't have much time I don't have Portland pictures... but I do have vet office pictures (which I'll show in a moment)!

Today it was kinda slow again :( There were a couple cool things though :) We had a greyhound come in who was attacked by a housemate (another greyhound who may no longer be a housemate after this). She had 3 large wounds and one small one. The small one was on her foot and luckily no tendons were damaged. 2 large ones were on her neck and, again, luckily the other dog missed her jugular. The lat one was on her back and it looked small until the doctor started probing around and there was actually a pretty large pocket under the muscle and skin. She used a few drains and stitched her up nicely :) Now she looks like Franken-puppy :-D There was also a cat with an abscess that needed a little draining :) All the techs were so excited to have the doctor pop it and see what was in it... honestly, it grossed me out a little :) But with that one they drained it, flushed it, and put in 2 drains.

I also got to draw blood today :) I hit the vein right away, unfortunately I grazed myself first :-/ I took a picture to show you guys :) It looks small but wouldn't quit bleeding :( And right now it's kind of throbbing.

That's about it for the excitement :) Now for the clinic pictures :-D

First the outside... just a quick night-time photo of the outside of the clinic.







Come through the door and here is the front desk - left (where the exam rooms are), center (front desk with medical records behind it), and right (where the waiting area is) :)


Behind the front desk to the right but not quite in the back yet is the "pharmacy"

Up towards the front of the waiting room area there is a room for the 4 blood donor cats :)

This is the office where the Vet's spend much of their time.







And finally the treatment area - Looking in at the beginning of the area (crash cart is the red thing), recovery kennels, and looking towards the front of the treatment area (Dr Kirkham is sewing up that greyhound here and Will is helping with anesthesia... she's almost done :))


Well... that was my day :) I'll definitely have more city photos tomorrow to go along with my last Portland post :) I forgot one clinic picture so look at this post again tomorrow evening to see what I've added :-D It'll be like a game!

Day 3

Alright, I know this is a day late but let me tell you all about day 3 before I really start day 4 :)

I just worked today, no Portland. I went to the doctor's meeting first. It was kinda interesting to hear the stuff they had to talk about and the stuff that was important to them. At the bottom of the list was scrubs and how the staff was wearing them :) They kind of give you the plumber look when you are all crouched down :-D and apparently it is becoming a problem. Aside from that it was mostly about their remodel and general vet clinic stuff :)

It wasn't too exciting on my shift. One rottweiler came in on emergency but he ended up being put down. There was another blocked cat, this one wasn't as bad, and they let me flush his bladder and place the catheter :-D I got to be all sterile and perfect my glove putting on technique and everything ;-) The only part I didn't do was suture it in because I wasn't entirely sure what they were talking about :) But now that I've seen it I bet I could do it by myself next time.

Really that's about it :-/ Not too exciting I know... but today I'm heading into Portland then to work. I should be gone until midnight and tomorrow I have to work at 8am :-/ But I will do my best to write tonight cause I'm sure I'll have more pictures :)

Day 2

Alright... let's divide the day up first -

Work: Today there were alot of euthanasias :( We had 4 emergencies come in right in a row and 3 of them were put down. One was a blocked cat and after he was put down one of the techs showed me how to unblock him and let me do it! It was difficult but eventually I got it :-D It was exciting... kinda made me forget he had died :'( They also had to put down a long time client's pet :( She was an 11yr old cattle dog, the nicest cattle dog ever, who started having seizures and there was nothing they could do... many tears involved :( And one of the doctors was performing a spay on the biggest pit bull I've ever seen and she dropped the pedicle :-O Once again I'm taking the easiest way out and putting up a link for you all to see what I'm talking about exactly http://www.ahrdvm.com/surgery/can_spay.htm. Any questions just ask :) That's about all that was exciting... the techs are great because they teach me stuff :) I think the doctor I'm shadowing has done this so much with externs that sometimes I get lost in the shuffle... don't worry, I know I just need to speak up and that's exactly what I'm doing tomorrow in regards to me watching surgeries.

Portland: I went to the city today :) First time all by myself and I rocked it ;-) Didn't get lost at all and successfully navigated myself back out and onto the right expressway. Take that all you who think I have no directional sense! So far I stuck to the Pearl district and Chinatown. I'm expanding on Thursday. I took a few pictures but the streets I was on resemble GR so I didn't think I needed to take a bunch of pictures... but here are some I did take -

First, the elevator I had to take in the parking structure... the weirdest parking structure ever. Very tight, only one lane really to come in and go out... and I don't think dad would have even fit on the elevator :-/ (outside real door and then the outside of the gated door)

Ok, next is the gate into Chinatown... it was pretty neat :) Kind of looked like a smaller version of San Francisco's Chinatown (that was

for mom and anyone else who has been to SF :)

After all my walking around I got something to eat... Yes, I ate at Pizza Schmizza and it was delicious :-D

And finally, driving home I took a picture of the trees and the highway and the driver people on the road. I kind of like it but it's a bit dark (I'm no professional like mom :)) so feel free to disregard :)

More to come tomorrow!

The rest of day one

I just finished my first "working" day at the vet clinic. I put working in quotes because I really just follow the vet around, listen to what is going on, and ask questions... if only I could get paid for that it's what I'd do the rest of my life ;-)

Not too much out of the ordinary happened today. They see regular appointments from about 7am to 8pm so we get normal stuff like vaccines. Just about every dog I saw today with Dr Bonnell was a caution so that got a little exciting :) Dr Kirkham had some interesting stuff but the best was that she explained everything to me very well and had me "practice" when I could. By that I mean she had me look in some ears and do a rectal exam :-D (the big fat smile is because I have never done one before and I felt a slightly enlarged prostate :)) She also had a cat with some sort of Pododermatitis which was kinda gross. All 4 paws were affected and the rear ones were all red and bloody with one of the nails falling off... she was going to do a biopsy to try to figure out what it was for sure. They also have digital radiography which is pretty much the coolest thing ever :-D All the x-ray are so detailed it's ridiculous. And they have an ultrasound machine that I got to see it in action today even though we didn't really see anything useful in the cat (well, I'm sure there are useful things in a cat but not what we wanted to see :)).

Tomorrow I work at 8am and afterwards I'm going to putz around downtown a bit. I'm going to be hitting rush-hour but it doesn't matter :) As long as I find parking somewhere I'll be ok. Hopefully I'll have some downtown picture tomorrow and I'm going to ask if I can take pictures of the hospital before I leave so hopefully I'll be able to share those visuals also. If you want to read about where I'm working while waiting for the pictures here's the link http://www.vcasoutheast.com/.

Day 1-ish

Here are a bunch of pictures from the time I arrived to this morning. They are mostly of where I am staying :)

My rental car. The picture doesn't really show how electric sky blue it is... I like to call it my little blue bullet :) This is the gift basket Karen left for me :) It's got lots of goodies in it!

This is her house from the front and the back.

This is the surrounding road and whatnot... to show you how rural the area is :)

And, finally, here is my room :)

I'm off to the vet office now, day one of actually learning :-D Hopefully I'll have something interesting to write down when I come back. Tomorrow I'm headed to the city so look for more photos!!

Portland

Ok, finally made it to Portland and I'm exhausted... I'll write more tomorrow and include pictures but today after meeting the people at the clinic the woman I am staying with took me on a whirlwind tour of Portland :) I can't wait to have some free time and go explore :-D But like I said... more tomorrow when I'm not so tired and have taken some pictures :)

Packing...

Well, kind of.. and Cedar thought he'd help ;-)

Fun Fact

Today in VIPS I learned a little bit about hydrogen peroxide and dogs :) It is not something you just want to give to your dogs everytime it eats something it shouldn't have. There can be toxicity if too much is given and the best thing to do is call a Vet first. I don't actually know what the appropriate dose is so I would not be the person to ask :-D But as soon as I have DVM behind my name, ask away!

Now to get ready for spring break!

The musculo test is over! And I did much better on this one than the first one (yeah, I rocked it ;-)) Now it's time to start thinking about packing for Portland. And since you guys know me so well, you know what comes next... list making!

But that's for tomorrow, today I'll tell you what I got to do :) I got to watch a procedure in the teaching hospital :-D A dog with kidney problems was in to have a G-tube (gastic tube - or stomach tube if you like) and a central line (a catheter in the jugular vein - easier access) put in. And I got to watch the endoscopy! So I don't have to explain the reasoning or what it exactly is, here's a link http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=0&cat=1475&articleid=999 (If there are any questions about it fire away :)). The doctor placed the scope into the stomach, the tech poked at the abdominal wall so she could see where she was on the screen then stuck a catheter in the body wall(dog was under anesthesia, don't worry :)), threaded some suture through it, the student threaded the grabber thingy (kind of like a claw... a little claw) through the endoscope and grabbed the suture, then they pulled everything out (endoscope, grabber thingy, and suture). The tech then threaded the pulled out suture throught the G-tube and they stuck it back down the dogs throat, into the stomach, and out through the hole in the side (very painful looking) until it was tight against the stomach wall. Finally, they used the endoscope to make sure it was in the right place... and I got to press the button to take the still picture. That's right, I'm a pro at the endoscopy picture taking ;-) They did all that because the dog wasn't eating and drinking and this way they can pass liquids right into the stomach. Hopefully she'll start doing better soon :)

That was my day :) Also I taught Cedar how to "speak"! That should be fun, right mom? ;-)

Should be listening to lecture...

... but instead I added some links :-) Just a little peak at the places I'll be going from now through the summer, I definitely post some pictures as soon as I hit those destinations.

And it starts...

Ok, here it is... a glimpse into my life as a vet student. I'll do my best to keep up with it, especially since I'll be stating clinics next year and should have some good stuff to share. And this way it'll be coming stright from the horse's mouth and not second hand through mom ;-)

So, I'll start with my Oregon trip and we'll see where it goes from there :) Enjoy!!