#veterinary studies

[theexhaustedmermaid]

Does anyone know where all the scientists went after Twitter bit the dust? I'm trying to connect with more scientists while I'm recovering but I don't know where they all went online

[moccawolf]

20 things I learned as a 2nd year vet student

I hope it may help the incoming vetlings (who am I fooling, I’m a vetling as well):

1st year was just a stroll around the park; 2nd year is a gun pointed at your back while you were smelling the flowers (aka, your grades will drop if you’re too confident, like me).

you will cry (more), prepare the tissues if you don’t have your shit together

business gets serious all of a sudden, it’s not ambiguous subjects anymore. You’ll be suddenly learning stuff that is actually basic for you career.

it doesn’t help to have unattainable dream grades. 

this is not school anymore, you can’t get good marks by half-assed studying anymore.

You have to go hard if you care about great grades.

Tests don’t test knowledge but our capabilities to remember details that aren’t applicable in the daily basis of a vet.

I stopped caring about grades altogether, and started caring about learning the stuff before me, which I believed was more important. I didn’t get better marks, but not worse either. 

Less anxiety comes with less self-pressure to attain great marks. You need to find a balance to your interests.

everybody looks like they have their shit together. I’m not gonna tell you it’s a lie, I still haven’t quite understood if they are actually perfect beings that can have an active life, good marks and a partner at the same time, but i know something for sure. Others don’t matter. Don’t compare yourself to others.

Failing exams only gives you another chance to actually learn the material by the time the retake comes around. It’s better than passing by utter luck and never learning.

Start the practicum as soon as you can. You’ll feel more grounded.

Half of the theory you think is important, isn’t. Prioritize.

Sleep

Sometimes you need to skip certain useless classes. Sometimes it’s crucial you go. You need to figure out which subject is of each category.

Advice of your life: keep a notebook with key data (arterial pressure for each species, oestrus cycle, pregnancy duration, heart frequency, temperature...).

You will get overwhelmed with your utter lack of knowledge. (I did)

You will get overwhelmed by how much of the stuff studied you will forget.

I still know nothing.

I knew less last year.

It’s okay (I hope).

[dogsaremypatronus]

Going to settle this dog nutrition debate once and for all.

[dogsaremypatronus]

A History of Veterinary Anatomy

When it comes to my studies, I’m an absolute gunner. So, while I’m reading through the material, I tend to write up summaries of each chapter or section, to help retain what I’m reading. Usually, putting it in my own words helps me understand the material better. 

At the moment, I’m reading “Anatomie der Haussäugetiere, Lehrbuch und Farbatlas für Studium und Praxis” by Horst Erich König, and Hans-Georg Liebich. 

I just finished writing up my summary (and VERY rough translation) of their section on the history of veterinary medicine, and I thought I would share it with all of you. 

Please note that this is not a formal essay and is not meant as a resource. That means: don’t quote me. Read the book. I’m only sharing this because I thought it was super interesting and I thought maybe you’d think so as well. 

It’s rather long, so if this subject bores you to tears, simply blacklist “Lexie Studies Anatomy”. 

In order to better understand the history of anatomy, we first have to start at its very beginning: morphology. Morphology is the search for all ascertainable specific structural features of organisms, with strict methodological guidelines, always seeking to find the structural and functional root.

Aristotle, the father of morphology, first wrote “The Book of Anatomy”, using morphology, which was unfortunately lost. However, through a series of references in “historia animalium”, we can find conclusive information about his research, which focused on the digestive system and reproductive organs.  

Although many of his observations were incomplete, and therefore wrongly interpreted, many of his structural observations (such as “locomotion of living organisms”) are, to this day, still worth reading.

For Aristotle, the simple acquirement of knowledge was reason enough to perform his research. His passion to learn was motivation enough. This same motivation is what inspired his first direct followers, Plinius, Aelian, and Theophrastos of Eresos.

Even still, nearly 2,000 years would go by before Humanitarians between the 15th and 16th century would pick up morphological research (and with it, the study of animal anatomy) again, with the same motivation as Aristotle.

During this revival, Italy in particular became a source of new scientific findings. Their research led to an abundance of noteworthy, new knowledge, marked not only by absolutely meticulous descriptions, but also with artistic qualitative illustrations.

While, as far as renowned researchers go, Leonardo da Vinci is the most well known, Fabrizio d’ Acquapendente and Marcello Malpighi are also most noteworthy. Fabrizio wrote the first embryonic work “De formatu foetu” in 1600, and, among other things, Marcello occupied himself with the study of chicken embryos in the egg (“Opera omnia”, 1687).

Even though this research was hindered at first, due to an unstable political environment, as well as by the church, it still managed to slowly lead into the “golden age” (mid 18th to the end of the 19th century) of comparative morphology, which was marked by an impressive productivity of several noteworthy natural scientists.

Richard Owen, an English dissector, is one of these noteworthy protagonists, along with German scientists Johann Friedrich Meckel, and Caspar Friedrich Wolff. Starting at the beginning of the 20th century, they began to shift their focus toward zoological research, which, on the one hand, lead to the formulation of new questions (and with that, the development of new research branches), but on the other hand, turned away from anatomic contents, which in some ways is rather unfortunate, and of course no longer represents the intentions of the father of morphology.

However, a craving for knowledge aside, anatomic knowledge is an important requirement for veterinary handling. Between the Antique up through the end of the Middle Ages, the anatomic study of human bodies was heavily hindered for ethical and religious reasons (and in some cases implicitly prohibited), and even Aristotle seems to have based his results completely on the examination of a fetus that was miscarried in the embryo phase.

Exceptions to these limitations were only rarely documented, and one of the reasons the hellenistic school of Alexandria is so renown, is because under Herophilus and Erasistratos, new knowledge about neuroanatomy was found through the vivisection of convicted criminals.

Because of these restrictions, animal anatomy seemed to offer the best opportunity to acquire basic knowledge about the structural features of a living body, and to then, using logical deductions, to translate it toward the human physique. So really the first animal anatomical research, wasn’t in the interest of understanding animal anatomy, but only a tool to better understand human anatomy.

The study of veterinary anatomy as a basis and prerequisite to practice veterinary medicine, is a fairly recent development. Based on texts from the Antique and Middle Ages regarding veterinary medicine, we can derive that many authors more or less had exact knowledge of animal (in particular horse) anatomy, however systematic presentation of the essential morphological relations, are missing.

The study of horse anatomy with a veterinary focus, first came in the form of a handbook for stable masters. Then, in 1598, Carlo Ruini published a, for that time period, very unusual work, titled “Dell’ Anatomia e dell’Infirmitå del Cavallo”. Ruini, who came from a rich Bolognese family, did not complete any specific animal study, nor did he work as a stable master. He was motivated by his passion for horses, and through great interest in the natural sciences, and equipped with the financial means through his family’s wealth, managed to create the first comprehensive presentation of horse anatomy.

Ruini’s anatomic presentation is, of course, incomplete, and contains many mistakes, and the concluding text for horse medicine is limited to the indiscriminate reproduction of older literature. The particular significance of this work lies in the the fact that previously only Leonardo da Vinci and Vesalius had created such high quality visual presentation.

Even with Ruini’s anatomy rapidly spread far and wide, in the form of many new editions, translations, and reproductions, the time was not yet ripe for the application of veterinary anatomy studies. That would come 150 years later, with the founding of the veterinary medicine educational institutions, which, in its beginning stages, bloomed only slowly, and hesitantly.

The “father” of scientific animal anatomy is known as Philippe Etienna Lafosse. While his attempts to start a private veterinary school in Paris did not come to fruition, his magnum opus, “Cours d’Hippiatrique”, which was published in 1772, was the first work to present an organ system-based veterinary anatomy structure, which, at its core, still represents today’s typical systematic division.

In 1770, Ludwig Scotti, the first director of the Vienna “Horse Treatment and Operation School” (founded in 1767), first presented a modern portrayal of the so-called Regional Horse. Yet, veterinary anatomy as its own discipline within the science of veterinary medicine established itself only very slowly in the still newly founded European Veterinary Medicine schools. The first widely distributed text- and handbooks for the anatomy of domestic animals were not tangible before 1820.

It was only with the publication of the “Textbook of Domestic Animal Anatomy” in Munich 1821, by Konrad Ludwig Schwab, and the “Handbook of Comparative Anatomy in Domestic Mammals” in Berlin 1822, by Ernst Friedrich Gurit that a German traditional veterinary anatomy science came into existence, which was to maintain its international standing all the way through into the 20th century.

Gurlt’s work was revised and expanded on 18 times up to the year 1943. In addition, a wide variety of veterinary anatomic works were published in the mid and end of the 19th century, all throughout Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

The youngest historical veterinary anatomy pioneering development is found in the founding of the International Committee of the Veterinary Anatomy Nomenclature, with the 1968 publication of the first edition of the “Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria”. This publication, modelled after the human anatomy Nomina Anatomica, helped provide a worldwide standard means of communication for the research community.

To this day, anatomy is a part of morphology, and occupies itself with the build, form, position, and the functional effect of the body construction. Even today the dissection of dead animals is the most important and efficient method of learning and understanding anatomy. Early on, the macroscopic anatomy separated itself from the generic histology, microscopic anatomy, and embryology. This separation is explained by the constant growth and expansion of knowledge on the subject as a whole. With the separation of the anatomic subject areas, the access to the subject material should be made easier, while at the same time understanding that macro- and microscopic anatomy in connection with embryology form an inseparable entity.

Systematic Anatomy focuses on the “systems”, that is, structures and organs, that have the same job. Of significant importance here is the fact that the study of systematic anatomy mediates a fundamental knowledge, which conveys a comprehensive connection regarding the structure and function of the organ systems of animals.

This understanding of the systematic anatomy is the basis of topographical anatomy, which focuses on organs and structures within single body sections, and their functional cooperation. Without a profound understanding of the systematic anatomy, a future in the study of topographical anatomy is not possible. Systematic and topographical anatomy should ultimately be the cornerstone of clinical action.

New examination technology such as x-rays, ultrasounds, computer-tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging demand more and more topographical anatomy understanding, which can be gained through learning  anatomic sections. Sectional anatomy is herewith a new period of veterinary anatomy research and learning, and should be included in every modern textbooks.

[dogsaremypatronus]

I'm still trying to figure out if I have what it takes to go back to school and become a veterinarian so I want to buy some textbooks to read in my spare time but I don't want to buy books from whack jobs or something so are there any vets or vet students who have recommendations for me?

[thelovelyother]

I'm so excited to start the Veterinary Assistance program in September :) on Monday or Tues I just need to sort out how and when I'm getting the rabies vaccine for when I have animal handling at the humane society. I'm stressing out a bit but I hope it all works out quickly. Eeek.

[lucywithnodiamonds]

studies thing

so many mixed thoughts about this. I wish I was an unhesitating person who knows what to do with her life. by now I can only wonder what if I have chosen wrongly. WHAT IF omg what a pointless, stupid, hopeless phrase, I hate it. HATE IT.

but yes enough of that.

now just a few photos from our anathomy class. those lectures are quite fun, but to be true - I can't wait when we will eventually finish the osteology and start sth even more absorbing.

I guess those pictures may look quite dramatically for someone who isn't really into it, but oh well. :d