Finally, a little down time for an update

Sorry it has been so long, but the past two weeks have been insane!

Last week I had my first micro anatomy exam, and studying for it kicked my butt. I did really well though, so all of my hard work (and excellent guessing skills) paid off! Today was the second gross anatomy lab exam and the first lecture exam. Studying for this one also kicked my butt (on a whole new level), learning just about every single muscle in the canine body, plus nerves, blood veins and arteries, and the entire thoracic cavity. I am seriously amazed at how much we are able to learn in such a short period of time. With each test I think "there is NO way I could learn more information than this", but then the next test comes and there is twice a much information on it, and I think again, "there is no way", hahah. I know I can do it though, and it will all be worth it in the end. One thing that I like so much more about vet school than undergrad: yes, the exams are difficult, but they are STRAIGHT FORWARD!!! (novel concept, eh?) So, if you study sufficiently, you will do good. I love that!

After the exams, a friend and I went to a country store complete with all sorts of hunting gear and random manly items so I could pick up some super attractive (lol) coveralls and boots for necropsy lab, where they had two cows, a dog, and a horse to evaluate. I caught a few bits of the dog necropsy, but since I know their anatomy pretty well I mainly watched the horse necropsy..and it was AWESOME! I was able to examine the heart chambers much more easily (one because it wasn't fixed in formalin, and two because it was MASSIVE!) so it really helped me to understand it more clearly. Also got to see all the bifurcations of the trachea, and of course every other body part (GI tract, female cow repro system...the works) My senior mentor is also really awesome and challenged my knowledge of anatomy by asking me tons of questions. It's nice to apply it to a recently living animal that actually looks real (unlike our stiff, preserved anatomy dogs). One of the cows was even still WARM! I definitely marveled at how much food is the rumen of a cow at any one time (omg...SO MUCH FOOD!) It was fun stuff! I really still can't believe I'm here...it's a dream come true :)

On another note, let's talk about Rhyley, who is turning into quite the grumpy girl! I'm gone from 8-4 or 8-5 four days a week, which really isn't much different from the 40 hours I was working over the summer, but Rhyley is really getting angry about it. I say this because she has been becoming progressively snippier when I leave in the mornings, but today she took it to a whole new level. As I opened the door to leave, she jumped off the couch, snarled, and full force bit my ankle!! Luckily I had boots on otherwise she would've drawn blood. I think she's just getting really frustrated because she is alone a lot, and even when I'm home I can't focus on her like I could after working since I have to study so much. I feel so bad that it's affecting her that way. I'm hoping to find a good dog park to take her to so she can get some exercise and socialization. When I think about it, I wouldn't want to be alone that much either! I'd get cabin fever, which she probably has. It's only going to get worse though - I keep hearing seniors tell me they didn't go home for "over 48 hours" or didn't sleep for 30 hours during clinics...I don't know how that's going to work out, but I guess I'll deal with that when the day comes!

Humorous photo of the day, in lieu of the feline obesity lecture we had the other day! (Contrary to popular belief, cats are not supposed to be fat, hahah)

A month gone by

Wow, a month of vet school has already flown by! It feels like I just started a few days ago. Things are going great so far, but I'm definitely worried about the microscopic anatomy exam on Friday. We have the lab and lecture exam, but it's the lab portion I'm most freaked about. I'm working on getting everything straight in my mind, but I still have a ton to get through - muscle, connective tissue, cartilage, bone, respiratory...aye aye aye! It is interesting though, so I don't mind the subject matter. I just need to develop a better eye for identifying everything.

Anyway, yesterday was awesome! I took my physio exam in the morning, and then headed over the clinic. I went to ophthalmology with one of my lab partners. We got to see some meds administered to a horse with a fungal plaque on its eye (ow!), which wasn't too exciting itself but I haven't been around horses much so it was fun to be near them. They're so beautiful! Later we got to see a short repro ultrasound on two female alpacas. They make the most adorable noises!! I had never pet one before...so I was pretty pumped, hahah. Lastly we saw a bit of rectal surgery on a dog (pretty neat). When I came home, I ordered Chinese delivery (veggie lo mien, vegetable tofu soup, with fried rice)...I engorged myself, which I later felt guilty about haha. I ended up passing out for like 5 hours, and then studied the rest of the evening. Friday evenings are always the best :) [I'm a little worried that ordering chinese, napping, and studying are my idea of a good Friday night...hahahah, definitely in vet school!]

There's another football game today, so I'm pretty much confined to my apartment until it starts. It gets really crazy out there since they sell parking in my apartment complex. I try to avoid the crazies as much as possible, but I really need to get to the lab to look at slides this evening (and some dog muscles too).

I'm still so thankful that I was given the opportunity to go to vet school, which I of course have to thank God for. The chances of me getting that spot were so slim...so I am definitely not taking that for granted! And speaking of God, Luke 1:37 has definitely been helping me along the way - "For nothing will be impossible with God" - amen!

How to (painlessly) trim your dog's nails

Okay, so the picture is kind of comical...but in reality, cutting the quick is very painful and unnecessary! After working in an animal clinic for over two years, I saw my fair share of nails cut past the quick. I always felt terrible for the dog, and made sure to do my best not to cut too short. It's got to hurt! Anyway, here's some information for you dog owners out there! :)

The nail basically consists of the outer casing (the black or white portion), the "quick" which is the tissue that contains the blood and nerve supply of the nail, and a bone called the distal phalanx. The outer casing is directly in contact with the skin covering the bone. That being said, if a nail is cut too short it is most likely going to cut the quick causing bleeding and pain, or could even cut the bone (ouch!). 

The quick can easily be seen in dogs with white/clear nails (just look for the pink portion under the nail). On dogs with black nails, it is hard to see the quick, so trimming can be a little difficult. The best way to safely cut a dogs nails (when they are moderately long) is to trim little by little over a period of a few days. By trimming small amounts, the quick will recede and become shorter, making it much easier and less painful to clip the nails short! The longer the nails grow, the longer the blood supply becomes, so regular trims are recommended. And one more tip - if you cut the nail at an angle towards you (as seen in the picture), you are less likely to cause bleeding, and the bottom of the nail will have a better contact with the ground, allowing it to be filed naturally by concrete.

Happy trimming!

An actual vet school post? Sure... ;)

I decided that I should probably make a post about vet school, rather than all the random dramas of my so-called life... :)

I sometimes find Micro Anatomy to be absolutely ridiculous. I am extremely OCD so when professors aren't organized, I get a little antsy. The syllabus is kind of all of the place, from liver cells to kidney cells, to skin cells and bone cells....it doesn't have much logic (though I will say it is starting to flow a little better now, thankfully!) Although I do enjoy looking at slides, I have an overwhelming amount of information to study for the exam which is in a few weeks.

We have begun our canine dissection in Anatomy lab. I have never dissected a dog before, but after teaching anatomy lab in undergrad, I would say that I'm pretty skilled at the art of skinning, cleaning fascia from muscles, and all of that fun stuff, so it has definitely come in handy! That lab is also really disorganized and frustrating. In undergrad, we learned muscles of the entire body, with one side of the cat showing superficial muscles and the other side deep muscles. Once we took that exam, we removed the muscles and learned the cardiovascular and nervous systems, as well as the organs. In this lab, we're doing limb by limb, and had to actually remove the forelimb from the body. I can't understand how severing muscles is going to help me learn them? Seeing everything connected together seems much more logical, so I'm having a really hard time adjusting. Despite that, I am enjoying learning about canine anatomy, especially since I can apply it to my own pet!

After my test I stopped by Walmart to pick up a few things, and decided to get my glasses adjusted at the vision center. Bad decision. They weren't fitting very well on my right ear, and now they're even worse! They're super crooked unless I rig them to sit a certain way, grr. Later I got my last rabies vaccine (which is definitely by far the worst in terms of how sore my arm is!). I am so glad that is over with! After class I rushed home to be there for the carpet cleaning person. He did a pretty dang good job on removing most of the old stains. I feel much better :) Once he was gone, the maintenance man finally came (after a week of no a/c) and fixed everything back to normal. My apartment is actually below 85 degrees now, something to celebrate I'd say.

Now that I feel like I'm in the groove of things, I can finally get a conductive schedule set. I need to start working out, going to church, planning activities for Rhyley, making time to go to the teaching hospital, and studying just a little more effectively because things are about to get real crazy!

I should probably be in bed...

Good news of the day: my rabies vaccines are covered 100% by my insurance! That will eventually put 720$ back in my pocket...thank God! :]

So I'm also thankful that today was relatively easy. Got out of class early so I had a 2 and a half hour lunch break, and then got out of lab early. This is good because tomorrow is going to be a really long day...I have class from 8-9, a class officer meeting at 9, class 10-12, a mentor luncheon with a mixed animal clinician, lab from 1-350, studying until 5, and then going back to campus for the Christian Veterinary Fellowship meeting. Phew! That basically means that I need to go to bed....now.

I leave you with a video of Rhyley targeting! I am so proud of her :] She holds it up to 15 seconds now (which is quite some time considering her breed, haha). I'm working on training her to sit at the door before we go out (instead of jumping everywhere) and targeting helps her to focus! It's working pretty good so far, she's a smarty pants. I love my baby :]

H2O

Our next test is in Physiology this Friday. I was a little nervous about it, but after going back over the lectures and old exams, it seems like it will be relatively straight forward! I definitely have a lot more studying to do, but I feel brain dead now that I've been studying for 7 hours straight with a few short breaks in between...aahh!

I follow a bunch of veterinarian blogs, and I saw a post the other day that I thought was really cool. A bat was brought into the clinic, and although unfortunately it was euthanized (due to possible rabies), they were able to get some really awesome photos. You can check them out here!

So I know this will seem kind of random, but I've been forgetting to mention this. I'm pretty sure that I should have been put in the hospital a few days ago for dehydration. It was 100+ degrees outside for the past two weeks, and I was really only drinking 1/2 to 1 bottle of water a day. I was having extreme migraines about every other day, and on Friday night it really hit me. I (stupidly) had beer Friday night, which dehydrated me even further. I had also been hot all day long due to my broken A/C and the venue for Shaft that was extremely hot inside. When I got home I took Rhyley out, and when I was walking back up the stairs I couldn't even make it up one step without my heart racing and feeling short of breath. It was so bad I had to stop every few steps!! I laid down once inside to calm my heart back down, but for the rest of the night I could feel it pounding of my chest, I could feel my pulse throughout my body, and I was still feeling short of breath. I called my mom in a panic and told her I thought I might be really dehydrated and told her all of my symptoms (she's a nurse), and she said it sounded like I was. Turns out that if your heart is affected by dehydration, you should pretty much be in the hospital. So I forced down 2 and 1/2 bottles of water before bed, and then made sure to drink at least 3 on Saturday and Sunday. I feel so much better now! I know that I never really drink enough water, but actually being so dehydrated made me realize how important water is. So the tip of the day is to drink at least three bottles of water everyday! (Preferably not from the toilet)

See, Doc, he's not fat. I can feel his ribs.

Hahaha, as much as this cartoon made me laugh, it also made me sad. So many people are in denial that their pet is overweight, or worse they think it's "cute"...but they don't think about how it's affecting the dog's organs. If you love your pet, keep it at a healthy weight! You are in control of their diet, so it's your responsibility to keep them healthy. Speaking of, I've noticed Rhyley has put on about a pound since we've moved (which for her is way too much), probably because we haven't been walking as much. So we are about to go for a nice long walk! The weather is AMAZING today, it's in the 60s (thank God, since my A/C is broken)! We're going to take a path that leads down to a road with cow pastures and farmlands...this will be interesting. [Side note: I had my windows open last night and the smell of cow manure was drifting in with the wind...yes, this is definitely the country!]