Nothing great ever came that easy

19 year old vet student on my 2nd year at the Royal Veterinary College

[equinevetadventures]

Exams

Vet School is in general a pretty broad experience. There is good, bad and everything in the middle. But if there ever was a time when I cursed my high-achieving and perfectionist backside, it was during exam fun! I was the kind of person that’s probably very annoying because I’d study hard but with my demanding self would always think it wasn’t enough. So I’d go to exams with that mindset “well, I’m probably going to fail,but might as well try”. Despite this I only failed one exam on my first try (and it was a Food Safety related course). But the fear was always there. Fear I wouldn’t be able to ever pass the exam, I would never graduate, I would never be a vet. I used to get very nervous, and for a long time after I used to think I was able to pass the exams because I was lucky. I would get above average grades and dismiss it as not really enough. Once in secondary school I aced my maths exam, and I remember thinking, “Well, this either is going to be a great one or I misunderstood every single question”.

So, guess what Vet School is full of? Exams. I used to be so jealous of all of my friends that had 3-4 exams per semester while I was usually in the two digits range. It took me a couple of years, but around final year I stopped being unreasonably nervous about exams. I stopped imagining worst case scenarios that would be very unlikely (”I’m never going to pass this one”), and started thinking about it more logically. “Ok, so what’s the worst it can happen? You have to take it again. You get another chance to improve your skills and to learn more. You will probably feel more calm about this, when you finally use this in real life.” Suddenly failing wasn’t the worst option.

It might be weird. I still get a bit nervous when I have to take an exam. But the normal alert and impatient nervous, not panicking and nerve–racking kind. Took me a while to get there, but the lesson of the “bigger picture” and realistic view of every challenging moment in life was invaluable. And vet school taught me that.

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Vet School Lessons series:

1 - Vet school in a nutshell

2 - Exams

[vetschooltruths]

HOW TO SURVIVE VET SCHOOL

[aspiringvetsurgeon]

I’ve been a little absent on here lately as I’m 4 days into this year’s lambing placement. It’s been going great so far although the 3am shifts are killing me! I’m going to try and do a few lambing related posts when I’m finished here - barely had time to sit down for a cup of tea so far!! (Still loving it)

[booprenorphine]

Apomorphine is a potent emetic used in dogs (not recommended in cats) which acts pretty quickly. The little gasp of surprise before they start throwing up like crazy makes me chuckle to myself sometimes. Apomorphine is a dopamine receptor agonist and its reversal agent is Naloxone (0.01-0.04mg/kg). In humans, it has been used in acute and chronic studies of parkinsonism and other neurological disorders.

[aspiringvetsurgeon]

Survived my 3 exams today! Felt really good coming out of the oral exam. After expecting the anxiety to take over I managed to pull some confidence out of nowhere and ended up with 55% which I am so happy with for a first try. Won't get our results for the multiple choice paper for a while and the essay wasn't marked properly as it's a mock but I felt both went better than expected Great finish to what has been a very stressful term. Bring on the Easter holidays!!!

[aspiringvetsurgeon]

08/03/18 Picked myself up a stethoscope case for a fiver (originally nearly £20). One of the best ways I've found to get good deals on things since I've been at uni is buying from older students selling them on. I've had so many bargains through this and saved myself a lot of money (particularly with textbooks). 10/10 would recommend

[lizziedoesvetpath]

How to survive vet school placements!

So I’ve been on a lot of placements (or externships, as I know some of you call them) and I thought I’d share what I’ve learnt about how to not end up crying in a corner 3hrs in

1. Drink water. Like, loads of it. You will likely not feel all that thirsty, but you need to drink water. I quickly discovered that the reason I felt like sitting down and having a good cry some days was that I had not had enough water, and apparently that’s how my brain thought I should deal with said dehydration.

2. Ask questions. This is coming from someone who is remarkably bad at asking questions. Every single one of my school reports would somewhere include the comment “Lizzie is a good student, but should ask more questions”. I get that you don’t want to seem annoying, or like you don’t know anything, but here’s the thing: YOU (the student) ARE ALWAYS GOING TO BE THE LEAST KNOWLEDGEABLE PERSON IN THE CLINIC. THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO BECOME SLIGHTLY LESS CLUELESS. Asking questions shows whoever you’re working with that you are paying attention, thinking about what’s happening, and (above all) you are interested in what they are doing. It is the key to vets liking you. I’ve been trying to think of one question for each animal we see. It can be something complicated about the minutiae of the case, or it can be as simple as double checking what the vet used for sedation and why. That being said….

3. Never ever EVER question the vet in front of clients. Especially not with “why” questions. To you, “why are you using penicillin for this case?” sounds like you trying to understand how to choose antibiotics (a mysterious subject that I am still trying to grasp). To the client it sounds like you, currently at university and learning the most up to date information, cannot fathom why the vet would choose the drug they have. Questions are for after the client has left the consult room or once you are back in the vet’s truck.

4. Have some study to do in your bag. Not every day/week you are on placement will be the busiest, most interesting week at that clinic ever. There may be down time, and it’s best not to be playing phone games in said time. I am personally fond of having “The Small Animal Veterinary Nerdbook” (Sophia Yin) in my bag. Not only is it small and light, it is an easy to search reference book that covers HEAPS of topics. In my down time, I will look at the sections in this book relative to cases I’ve seen that day (recent cases gets you bonus points because it shows you’re looking deeper).

5. Be nice to nurses. This should be self explanatory but just in case - nurses are a wealth of knowledge (they do know more than you. Always) and if you are nice to them they will share this knowledge and help you thrive in the clinic. 

6. Be honest. You will always look dumber by claiming to know something than by admitting you do not. Nobody will thank you for pretending to know how to do something you have never done before, and you learn nothing if you say you understand a concept when you do not. You will get far more respect by admitting that you don’t know or can’t remember than by trying to seem smart.

7. Take the breaks you are offered. You don’t need to work until you drop. If someone says you can go take 10 mins for a coffee, take 10 mins. Sit down, drink some water, rest. Just because it seems like there will be plenty of time for that later does not necessarily mean there will be.

8. Say thank you. I always leave or send a thank you note at the end of a placement. It doesn’t have to be long or eloquent, just say thank you somehow. You should do it just because it’s polite, but also remember that clinics will probably be filling in evaluation forms about you, or you may want a letter of reference from them when applying for jobs etc. You’ll fare better if you say thank you.

In short: don’t be a dick, remember you are there to learn, and make sure you are feeding your body as well as your mind. And have fun!

[aspiringvetsurgeon]

02/03/18 Today's practicals with the ponies (and calves - even if I didn't get a cute photo of them) Getting to grips with the anatomy of the abdomen in different species - always find it useful to learn my anatomy with live specimens as well as images and dissections (plus I'm never going to say no to pony cuddles)

[aspiringvetsurgeon]

27th Feb 2017 Dentistry practicals yesterday after our horse dissections. Life is stressful but this was great fun. Got a few exams in the next 2 weeks then it's Easter holidays and lambing!! Can't wait

[aspiringvetsurgeon]

20/02/18 Had a sheep dissection today to look at the gastrointestinal tract which was great fun and also really useful for consolidating what we learnt in the lectures. (No pictures for obvious reasons). We also had a session with the haptic cow which is a model used to practise cow rectal exams - it gives you a virtual feel for where everything is and was interesting to use but I reckon it's 10x harder on a live cow. Our library was having a book sale so I picked up a £1 bargain to try and help myself through immunology (my biggest enemy) A really good day - felt very much like a vet student and was great to get out the lecture hall for a day.

[love-vetsurgeon-acvs]

Splenic tumor

[shityouhearatvetschool]

A Valentine’s Day special! Last week the students union informed us we could pay £2 for a member of staff to read a romantic poem to a student of our choice…or pay £3 to give an unsuspecting student a ‘cow lap dance’

[shityouhearatvetschool]

Bringing this back for Valentine’s day!

[aspiringvetsurgeon]

Had a great riding lesson today - finally feel like I'm making some progress after a few weeks of lessons that left me feeling very defeated

[aspiringvetsurgeon]

"Pretending like I know what I'm looking at" pretty much sums up histology for me

[talesfromtreatment]

Time for some good feels

A little over a week ago we pulled a scruffy little doxie thing from a rural shelter. 3 days prior to that she experienced some sort of trauma, we suspect a car. She didn’t break any bones but she was very painful, and there was blood in her chest. What that shelter didn’t tell us was that she was also unable stand or even lay sternal.

So this naturally caught the vets by surprise and they weren’t too pleased. Euthanasia was seriously being considered but there’s a saying in vet med that nothing should die without steroids and so in addition to pain meds, the vet on duty gave her a whopping dose of steroids.

The next day we went to check on her.

Progress! We did a neuro exam and found significant cp deficits on the right side and the forelimb responded only to deep pain (that is, pressure applied to the bone, not inflicting agony on the dog… when you pinched her skin she couldn’t feel it)

That night:

She couldn’t walk, but she stood up. She wasn’t putting any weight on the front right and you can see that she’s knuckled over on the rear but hey. Drastic improvement from 24 hours prior.

Next morning and she’s still at that progress point so the vet asks me for new thoracic rads and some really good cervical rads. (Pretend I remembered to take photos of my beautiful xrays and I put them here. )

We sent them of to the radiologist and it turns out little ruby has ruptured a disk in her neck. All the vets were extremely worried about this but willing to give her a chance.

and then I had my weekend and spent 3 days worrying about this extremely sweet little scruffy dog.

and then yesterday this is what greets me.

Yaaaaaaaay!

and then they sent her to a foster home and now I won’t get to see her for an entire week. Boo.

[thepowerwithin]

Imagine if you didn’t have any expectations. If you just simply tried your best, put in a full effort, and ended up at your own personal best. Imagine. You wouldn’t criticize yourself for not doing well enough. You wouldn’t have anything to compare your results to. You wouldn’t feel down about others doing better than you. You would simply be proud of yourself, for you yourself know that you have your all. You would respect yourself, for it is your results and yours only that would matter. Imagine.

Nicole Addison @thepowerwithin (via thepowerwithin)

[aspiringvetsurgeon]

29/01/2018

After today’s lectures on the oral cavity, I had a look at some of the specimens from our anatomy museum to try and get my head around all the anatomy we had thrown at us.

In the top image of a polar bear skull, you can see the hyoid apparatus really clearly. I find it so useful using physical representations of the anatomy which we usually see as just a picture on a lecture slide or textbook.