Three Day Week? Yes, Please!

I am totally fine with a 3 day school week. We had two snow days last week, and I was so thankful because I needed the extra study time! Plus I got to experience my first real winter storm! I'm definitely not a fan of winter, but it was kinda nice watching the snow fall. And SO MUCH SNOW FELL!

 

This was a beast to clean off...

 

 

I'm clearly a superb snowman builder...{yep, those are granola flakes for eyes!}

All this snow has made me a little bit home sick...while we're enduring wind chills of -10 on some days, my Florida friends and family get to walk outside in shorts and tanks with their highs of 70-80 degrees! I can't even remember the last time I wore shorts! And I really hate not being able to take Rhyley on walks {she's not a huge fan of snow} or open my windows and let fresh air in {unless I want to freeze to death}. Getting a little bit of cabin fever!

Speaking of Florida, I've been thinking a lot about where I want to end up when I graduate. Originally I thought I would refuse to live anywhere other than San Diego, but the older I'm getting the more I'm realizing how important it is for me to be near family. A few of my family members are dealing with some health issues and I hate being far away and not able to see them. I do see San Diego in my future, but as of now my plan is to get a job either in Tampa Bay or the Clearwater area {or obviously Orlando if I land an awesome job at a theme park! I've seen enough snow to last me a lifetime!

It isn't easy being a vet student's pet...

ESPECIALLY when said vet student is also a total hypochondriac! Whenever I think something may be wrong with me I do a lot of research on whatever the condition is to help myself "make a diagnosis". Ridiculous, I know, and of course none of the things I think are wrong me ever are actually afflicting me {except paranoia!} but my anxiety transfers over to my dog's health too. So anyway, when I saw this brown mole type lesion on her butt, my brain is screaming MELANOMA! So we took a trip to the vet school today to have the spot checked out {and yeah, I snap photos of my dog's butt and post them on the internet...hahah, totally normal}! Thankfully the doctor didn't seem concerned about it because it isn't raised or invasive, so we'll just watch it to make sure it doesn't grow. Oh and the vet mentioned how "observant" I am...I'll take that as a compliment and pretend they didn't think I was a total weirdo for checking out my dog's butt!

The second reason I brought her in is because I noticed she has gotten a lot thinner since we got back home from Florida. I've had Rhyley on a weight management diet for roughly a year now, and she only dropped half a pound in that time frame, but recently I could tell she had lost the fat pads over the her ribs and her abdominal tuck is more obvious. So we weighed her today and in the past month, she has lost 1.6 pounds - TWELVE PERCENT OF HER BODY WEIGHT! I haven't restricted her food intake at all and she's exercising even less now that it's winter. I think that's a substantial amount in a short time frame for a small dog, so we ran a CBC/chem/UA to see if there is anything obvious and we'll go from there. It just alarmed me because I haven't been actively trying to get her to lose weight. I hope nothing is wrong but at the same time I'm not sure how that much weight loss could happen for no reason. It'd be great if she did just "magically" lose the weight though because she's actually right at her ideal BCS!

My crazy little girl :)

But anyway, I just ask that you keep my pup in your prayers, or at least send her some good vibes if praying isn't your thing! 

UPDATE:  Rhyley's lab work, including her T4, came back normal! Such good news! I'll bring her back to the clinic for a weight recheck in about 3 weeks. Hopefully she maintains her weight so we don't have to do any more diagnostics!

How to Get an Internship

I recently shared my blog with the pre-veterinary society at UCF and got a pretty great response, including a few PMs from students. {FYI, I'll be acquiring questions and placing them here, with links back to the response blog post!} I thought I'd start out with a question I received about getting internships and vet experience in general. Hopefully my advice isn't totally lousy and helps at least one person out :)

So I know that it's a tough situation to be in when you're first starting out, because many places won't hire without previous experience. So where do you begin? As for me, I spent hours applying to every veterinary clinic within a 20 mile radius of my apartment. Mostly it's just luck {and a lot of praying}, but you have to sincerely try. It took me about 3 months to find my first veterinary job in Orlando. Apply, get interviews, dress professionally and take it seriously. Hand your application and resume in to the office manager and introduce yourself! Call and follow up. Show them that even though you don't have experience, you want to pursue vet med for reasons other than just loving animals. Another option is to get started by volunteering at your local animal shelter. Most will offer a brief training course after which you can serve as an adoption counselor. That's at least something you can put on your resume to show that you have the ability to work around dogs and cats, and there may even be a staff veterinarian you could shadow occasionally.

Once you have a basic work foundation down, you can start applying to internships. Honestly, it's pretty hard to get internships without any previous experience because you often need multiple letters of reference. For specific internship opportunities where you live, the pre-veterinary student doctor forum is really helpful! Once you've found a few places to apply, your next step is to create a winning resume. As a side note, if you need help creating a resume or would like for me to critique yours, feel free to contact me by clicking the "contact" link above and sending me a PM! I'm kind of obsessed with perfecting my resume and it's a really important component of applying to internships, especially more popular and competitive places such as Animal Kingdom because you really want to stand out in a giant pile of applications.

The last major suggestion I have is to practice for your interviews. Have an idea of what to say when they ask you why you want the internship, what you see yourself doing in five years, and of course the typical questions like what are your strengths and weaknesses. Show that you are serious about getting into this field and passionate about the medicine aspect of the job (and have a reason for that too).

And most importantly, be persistent and don't give up!

What about my vet student readers? Do you have any other tips or tricks for pre-vets?
 

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

I'm back in Florida so I finally have some time for an update!

This semester went great and I learned more than I ever thought I could! I was so afraid of second year because everyone always talks about how horrible it is, but I didn't find it to be that terrible...next semester is supposed to be worse though. And don't get me wrong, I had to sacrifice a lot and work extremely hard (non-stop...literally), but nothing worth having comes easy. And just like the quote in the subject line says, if you love what you're doing, you will be successful. So true! I love this profession wholeheartedly. Even though it's not easy, it really is enjoyable. And there is nothing like seeing hard work pay off!

My favorite course this semester was pharmacology. I found it interesting how much drugs can affect the body, and how one drug can literally save a life! I enjoyed first year a lot but this semester was much more interesting overall, and everything has started to tie together. There were many instances where I used information I learned in one class to formulate test answers in another class (saved my butt a few times!) Parasitology was really interesting, but by the end of the semester it got a little dry. I have a harder time learning about food animal medicine, and that's all we were learning for a while. I love cows, but I don't ever see myself working with them!

2012 has been a really amazing year. I learned a lot, made new friends, lived in a new place for the summer, and experienced a lot of firsts! Now I get to spend the rest of year relaxing and catching up with friends and family. I really need to get back into an exercise routine too - hopefully I can solidify it as a habit over the next 4 weeks. And in the beginning of next year, I'll be doing my week long mentorship at UAH and attending the NAVC conference! Fun things to come :)

^ true life!