Anatomy and Animals - Learning About More Than One?

[Doctor-S]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Human docs have it easy - we only need to know the anatomy of the human body. That's all.

I'm wondering ...

How do veterinary students/veterinarians learn the anatomy of different animals (e.g., cats, dogs, rats, rabbits, horses, cows, birds, dolphins, elephants, etc.)?

Although I'm sure there are certain similarities (e.g., vertebrates), do you use special reference books or diagrams?

If you were asked to identify a small bone from an unknown vertebrate, would you be able to determine if the bone was from a wolf, or from a dog, or from a cheetah?

 

[nyanko]

I think the answer to these questions is going to vary some by school and even by individual at schools that have any species-based tracking. In my anatomy training in vet school, it was taught from a comparative perspective for the most part. The lectures would involve learning about the anatomy all of the types of animals (in a systems-based order), along with overall similarities and differences. In the lab portion at my school, we were provided one dog per group for our own dissection, and there were pre-dissected cows/horses available as examples for where there were major differences between species. The majority of the hands-on lab learning and examination was therefore centered around the dog as a model with comparative aspects to other species where applicable. Much of it is a lot more conserved or analogous across species than you might think. At my school (tracking), there were electives that went more in depth regarding specific systems. For example, a person interested in horses (AKA NOT ME) could take a class that covered more depth on horse musculoskeletal anatomy than the basics we learned in general musculoskeletal anatomy (essentially, we learned about the suspensory apparatus and the differences in limb structure).

As far as books or diagrams, I mean, all of that is available. There are veterinary anatomy textbooks that focus on single species and there are ones that focus on comparative anatomy. I think what people tend to use has more to do with individual learning style and such than it does with what is in the curriculum, though in a curriculum with a heavy comparative focus you'd probably have more of a need for a textbook of like focus.

I don't think I could personally identify the species of origin of a small bone (especially if we're talking about the difference between a dog and a wolf, haha!) unless it had some significant species-defining feature present. There are certainly people who can though.

 

[that redhead]

Human docs have it easy - we only need to know the anatomy of the human body. That's all.

I'm wondering ...

How do veterinary students/veterinarians learn the anatomy of different animals (e.g., cats, dogs, rats, rabbits, horses, cows, birds, dolphins, elephants, etc.)?

Although I'm sure there are certain similarities (e.g., vertebrates), do you use special reference books or diagrams?

If you were asked to identify a small bone from an unknown vertebrate, would you be able to determine if the bone was from a wolf, or from a dog, or from a cheetah?

To be honest, we like to brag about having to know ALL the different species but our education focuses very narrowly on cats, dogs, horses and ruminants. No one learns the anatomy of a dolphin or elephant anywhere close to as in-depth as the "core" species. For someone such as myself who practices on other species with very unique anatomy (a variety of small mammals, reptiles, birds, etc), I did (and continue to do) a lot of self-study AFTER school. A large chunk of health problems and presentations in the exotic companion species is attributable to poor understanding of species' anatomy/physiology and their particular needs in respect to those things. Exotics are uniquely challenging in that they are ALL so very different from one another. The GIT of a ferret is not at all like that of a rabbit, for example, but dog and cat GITs are relatively similar.

If I were asked to ID a small bone from an unknown vertebrate, I don't I could do so accurately without any context clues. A bird versus a dog, sure. Certain larger bones of certain animals, sure. A wolf versus a dog? I doubt there are many people out there that could make that differentiation just by sight alone.

 

[Doctor-S]

@nyanko and @that redhead thank you very much for you informative and detailed responses.

Veterinary medicine is seriously challenging - especially given that your patients are unable to readily converse with you in the same manner in which a human patient can converse with me. At least I can ask conscious patients to "tell me where you hurt ... for how long ... can you point to the area that hurts," etc.

I'd say your bragging rights are well-deserved! 🙂

 

[Frozenshades]

Interesting to see the different curriculums. Since we don't have tracking everyone learns a bit of everything.
First semester anatomy was dog and cat focused and each group had a dog for dissection. Then second semester for gross II, we moved faster and did dissections on horses, calves or goats, and chickens. There was also a special interest anatomy elective that was basically a self study and utilize whatever specimens were available. I dissected and studied up on a bunch of weird stuff with that; snake, stingray, fish and others. Third year everyone takes the intro to exotics class (with a follow up zoo and exotics elective for those who want) and I'm pretty sure that was the class we discussed bird and reptile anatomy in.

 

[vetmedhead]

At my school we do general comparative anatomy that focuses predominantly on dogs, horses, and cows, and we tended to extrapolate to other species as appropriate unless they had something unique going on that warranted special attention (for example, we spent more time on cat claws and whiskers because they are set up fairly uniquely compared to some other species). We did a little bit of stuff with pigs, focusing on major differences between them and the other species we had studied, and at the end of anatomy we did brief sections on birds and common laboratory species (mainly rabbits and rats, but we did see some hamster, ferret, etc. specimens). Each group had our own dogs to dissect for the whole semester, and we had prosected horse and cow specimens to learn off of for the rest of it. When we were learning hoof/leg anatomy we were given fresh horse limb specimens to dissect. Our class also did "demonstrations" where professors would walk us through things like fresh GI tract specimens, nasal sinuses for different species, etc., as well as a day where they brought in a fistulated cow and had us practice feeling the rumen and identifying structures.

In the fall of first year we had two anatomy electives - a large animal anatomy class where students could spend more time with mainly horse and cow anatomy (and some pig dissection), and an exotic animal anatomy class where we covered fish, frogs, lizards, snakes, turtles, and a variety of bird species. I took the exotics class and I'm glad I did, it gave me a really good working background for a lot of veterinary species that don't always get as much attention in the standard veterinary curriculum.

 

[katashark]

At my school (tracking is only for 4th year), 1st year anatomy is broken up into units by species. 1st quarter and the 1st half of second quarter, each group dissected both a dog and cat and had palpation on live animals. The last half of 2nd quarter we had dissections of birds (chickens and others) ferrets, hamsters, mice, rats, guinea pigs, and otters. 3rd quarter was dissections of cows (+live palpation), llamas, sheep, goats, horses (+live palpation and pigs. Special interest, student run clubs will get together with professors and develop extra wet labs for whomever is interested in going more in depth. Then there are additional electives, continuing education and veterinary workshops outside of school for those who want to go even more in depth. For example, I am focusing on aquatic and marine animals, so I spend my summers and free time doing as much as I can to learn about those species and their care.