They ate what?!

I'm sharing this here because I'm using it to study for Diagnostic Imaging. Really. What, you don't believe me? It's not like I'm just giggling over the descriptions.

They Ate What? Pet X-Ray Contest 2012 Winners

I do love radiographs. Even when they don't have bizarre foreign bodies in them. We covered ultrasound, MRI, CT and nuclear scintigraphy on Monday in Diagnostic Imaging. I love this stuff. I get right giggly over it. I know I won't get to use it much in my career, unless I end up in a specialty practice, so I'm enjoying it while I can. But I will get to use radiographs and ultrasound, and even those are awesome. We take them for granted every day, but really stop and think about what they are. They are pictures of what is inside you.

Let me state that again, because I don't think it can be overstated: THEY ARE PICTURES OF THINGS INSIDE YOU. THINGS YOU CAN'T SEE. THEY LET YOU LOOK AT YOUR OWN ORGANS AND BONES.

Yes, I meant for that to be in caps. It's just that freaking cool.

We had a Pharmacology quiz today, in preparation for the midterm next week. I love Pharm. If you've ever watched a drug ad on television and heard them rattle off lists of side effects, seemingly completely unrelated to the drug itself, well, pharmacology explains that stuff. I aced the quiz, so I'm feeling pretty good about the test. To think - Pharmacology was the course I was most worried about coming into this year, and now it's easily my favourite. What a difference an awesome professor can make!

Lurking outside the door

Vet students are scientists by nature. We have an innate and deeply ingrained curiousity about the world around us. Some people say we're nosy. They're right.

After our physical exam lab today, a few classmates and I were in the hallway getting ready to go home. To follow the ensuing conversation, there's two pieces of information you need. 1) Dr D is the wildlife specialist at AVC and 2) GDV (gastric dilatation and volvulus) is usually a dog thing. The poster child for is the Great Dane. Oh, and Lecture C is usually the first year lecture theatre. The following conversation took place around 3:15 pm, and in a stage whisper.

J: *happens to look into Lecture C* What's Dr D doing lecturing on GDV?
Me: *peeks in* GDV? Really? Dr D is wildlife, isn't she? Like I'm not crazy, right?
J: No, you're not crazy. The slide is talking about GDV.
Me: In what species??
J: I don't know. Hurry up, change the slide! We didn't get a lecture on GDV from Dr D. I'm jealous!
Me: *checks the schedule* It's the third years, it's an exotics lecture.
T: Why are you peeking through the window?
Me: Dr D is talking about GDV, and we can't figure out why.
J: Oh she changed it!
Me: I can't see, there's a post in my way. Does it say what the animal was?
J: No... But there's a crazy bunny on it.
Me:...What?
J: A crazy bunny. Like a cartoon bunny.
Me: Do bunnies get GDV??
T: Crazy bunny! Oh, there's an xray!
J: What species is that?? Does it look like a bunny?
Me: It's kind of hunched over, it looks like a bunny. I think I see an ear tip.
J: Is that its stomach!?

By now, the class is wrapping up and the third years are coming out and wondering what we're doing lurking outside their classroom. And yes, it was a rabbit with GDV. Awesome.

Free to good home

My animals will probably soon be looking to give me away sometime in the future. They'd like you to know that I'm house-trained, quiet and I don't shed, but I do having some food guarding issues. Two Domestic Shorthair cats, one Quarter Horse mare and one geriatric Valley Bulldog will probably pay someone to get rid of me! Why? Because, as I've said before, we're learning physical exams this semester.

As the pet of a vet student, you receive the best of care. Top of the line foods (since we get it discounted), fantastic medical care (since we have specialists and state-of-the-art equipment at our beck and credit card's call) and more playmates and toys than you can imagine.

In exchange, we practice on you. Yeah, sucks to be you.

Before I go palpating and auscultating and sticking things up the arse of animals I don't know, naturally, I'm going to start with the ones I do know. Physical exams are actually quite daunting to me. There's so much to remember and it's the basis for the rest of your diagnostics. I've always been in awe of my veterinary mentors and just how much information they can get using their four senses (taste should probably never be a part of the physical exam) and a stethoscope. The aforementioned bulldog is a horrible little psycho (affectionately known as a "caution dog" by her veterinarian) but she's stupidly tolerant of anything I try to do to her. The mare is the same way. She's actually given me some bad horse handling habits because she's just so chilled out that I forget that not all horses are the same way. Plus, it gives me a chance to spend as much time as I want to try to find a horse's heart sounds without being laughed it.

Except possibly by my riding coach.

Scratch that, definitely by my riding coach.

Don't you laugh either! It's harder than it seems. They have big hearts, but there's just so much horse between you and the heart that hearing it isn't always easy. And they're completely uncooperative about it, since the best place to hear the heart sounds is more or less directly where their leg is, and do you think they'll remove it for me? So inconsiderate!

Past, present and future

I won't waffle on too much about the present. It's what I live every day, obviously. From staring blankly at a histopathology slide of a kidney, to throwing out project suggestions on totally obscure viruses to a classmate ("Really, you HAVE to do rinderpest! It's an awesome name! Ooh, or how about bovine lumpy skin disease? It's officially got "lumpy" in it's name, how great is that?"), that's my day in a nut shell. And oh yes, giant kidney worms made another appearance. *shudder*

I had a past moment and a future moment though. I run the student laundry service at the AVC, and today was the first day open for the year. A fourth year bustles in just before I close the morning shift before my first class.

Her: "Oh good, you have coveralls! I don't know if I'll need them, but it never hurts to have an extra set, right? Wait, do I need them today? What day is it? Is it a weekday?"
Me: "Um, it's Tuesday."
Her: "Are you open at lunch?"
Me: "Yep, 12:30-1:20."
Her: "I'll be back at lunch then!"

She was good to her word and grabbed a pair of coveralls. I saw her later with the rest of her group as they started their diagnostics rotation. They're so close to being doctors, but they still look nervous. I'm convinced I'll never make it as a fourth year. I can't figure out a kidney histopath slide, for crying out loud. I look at them and I realize just how far I have left to go.

And then I got smacked in the face with my past. As we were sitting in the cafeteria during a break (having the aforementioned obscure viruses conversation), a group of first years filed in, pouring over laptops with histology slides on them. Oh boy. Was that really only last year? Yes, first years, histology is all pink and purple splotches and lines. I promise it gets better when you get to organs. Tissues suck. You have my deepest sympathies as someone who's been there, done that, and sadly, there wasn't even a bloody t-shirt.