quick update

I am not allowed to post pictures of animals at the university or our labs. it is a violation of our contract so you will not see any more of those and you may have noticed they have been removed from my posts. Sorry all!

Things I meant to write about earlier





**note** I tried to be helpful and link to things that have more information. So if it is in blue you can click on it and get more info**

Clinical skills:

This is that course where we get to learn the basics about lots of different domestic animals.

After only 4 weeks I already achieved one of my biggest vet school goals, and it may sound silly, but it was a huge deal to me....

I milked a cow.

Seriously that was a huge goal of mine and I actually would practice the hand motion when I was reading books on cattle this summer (yes I am a nerd). Not only did I get to milk a cow, but I was good at it the very first time and had no problems, so that was a huge win for me.

So far we have worked 3 days with dairy cattle learning how to do mastitis tests, what to feel for, their basic anatomy when they aren't dead and cut up, listening to heart beats and feeling for abnormalities. They still make me a little nervous because they are so big but these cattle are university owned and they are dairy cattle, so they are naturally calmer and easier to work with than most animals.

We also went into the university swine teaching center which I already posted a little bit about (click here to reread :-) But we learned  how the animals were cared for, some basics about how you raise pigs, how to catch baby piglets, how to draw blood (we watched, we didn't do this part), and how to assess the health of the pigs without having to grab and restrain each one.

This week we will be working with alpacas and I will be going to the class a day early because I am taking all of Friday off to go visit the boyfriend! I am going to leave early in the morning and get there by dinner time Friday. I am so excited to go see him and Harvey, plus I get to grab lunch with my aunt and my cousin/sister and possibly my favorite nephew-dog.

But wait! There's more! I am bringing the Harv-man back with me. He gets to come stay with me for a little more than a month while his daddy goes to grad school interviews (so proud of him!) and a few work things in Feb. I am so excited for Mike and for having my dog at school finally. The V school is the kind of place where they don't mind if you bring your dog in during a meeting or if you need to bring them in to print something or to study. Harvey is used to going to my Outdoor Adventure Club meetings so I know he will behave himself and I have really missed that dog.

Oh yea I also wanted to give a little blurb about
VRSP:

I applied to the Veterinary Research Scholars Program and even if I don't get a position it is still a really cool program

The program lasts all summer and is a great way to get integrated into the research community and to see if it is something you would be interested in at all. You spend the summer working with a mentor (a faculty or research employee of the teaching hospital) who helps you design and complete a research project

That in itself is really cool, but there is more. They also plan tons of things that help you expand your experience and get to know more people such as:

• touring research facilities (like the baboon facility in Oklahoma)
• float trips (drinking while floating down a river, 'nuff said)
• a class which begins before the program to help you get some research skills (and you get class credit for it)
• going to a conference at the end of the summer to present your research and have fun with other scholars from other school
• oh, and you get paid more than you would probably get working full time for our short 7 week summer

I will hopefully get into the program and get to work with the mentor I have chosen. She does research on sepsis with animals that come through the ICU and would be willing to mentor me through writing a paper which could be published in national journal. Plus she is fun and I would get really good at drawing blood hopefully.

So that is in the works hopefully. Still don't know what I am gonna do with my DVM. Apparently just wanted to be a vet is not specific enough. I guess it is a good thing that I dont hate anything yet, but I sometimes wish I only wanted to do one thing so I had a goal.

Oh and yesterday I got to practice giving physical exams which may seem like a small thing, but as a first year you are not sure what a heart murmur is supposed to sound like, what things feel like, what is a big deal and what isn't. So that was some awesome practical experience.

I am also going to the SAVMA symposium, I don't know if I wrote about it yet, but it is at Purdue and all the vet schools are invited, we get 2 days off and $150 to cover travel expenses, they have a bar crawl, and there are tons of wet labs and lectures to go to. I am super excited and will post more when I know if I got into any of the wet labs.

Well gotta study so I have time to go to Tabata tonight. It's a class here at the rec where you work out really hard for 20 seconds and rest for 10 and do that 8 times. The class is 30 min and your famous last words are "I can do anything for 20 seconds". Ha. I always hurt for days!

Have a great day all!

Prove that I do have fun! We went out to a bar then went back to my friends apartment, made sweet potatoe fries, and drunkly played with her roommate's bunny (Ollie) and my friend's dog Sophie - both shown here :-)