Haven't gotten to finals yet, but we had our visit out to the New Bolton Center for Large Animal Physical Exam Laboratory yesterday.
It was a pretty amazing (and tiring day). Lots of hands on work for us and a welcome change from classes all day (even for those who rarely attend
😛).
My day went like this.
1) Started at the swine facility...Attempted a PE on a sow. Got a temp and that is about it. Visited the farrowing room and saw piglets born one day ago up to about 2 weeks old. They were pretty cute. Then we practiced carry 4 week old piglets and saw my first pig pile. Hilarious.
2) Opthalmology: examined 3 horses and 2 goats. 1 of the goats took a run at me while I was engrossed in my exam, but I was too quick for the little bugger!
3) Physical Exam... Did PE on 3 different horses. Heard some nice murmurs.
Lunch during a thunderstorm which was a very well behaved storm to not interrupt our activities and held off until midday.
4) Reproduction... Walked mares up to stallions to see if they were in estrus. Pretty interesting. Afterwards we all palpated the testicles of a stallion. <= Insert inappropriate joke here.
5) Restraint/Venipuncture.... Did a jugular and facial venipuncture. My first ever (whoo hoo). Both were successful The facial is unbelievable, you basically just stab the horse in the face, and no they don't like it too much. We also did neck twitches to help calm the horse. Lots of sugar cubes involved here.
6) Respiratory... ausculatations of upper/lower airways and used a rebreathing bag (not much to hear to be honest). More fun in collaborating on an endoscopic exam. I got to "drive" the endoscope. Pretty cool.
7) Forelimb exam... This was the end of the day, we were all exhausted and the horses (understandably) even more so. Teaching horses or not, how would you feel if you had to deal with 1st years so long. We basically just did a P/E on the forelimb while avoiding getting stomped on. Best part was when 2 students had to be stopped from trying to lift the horses legs at the same time
.
Next week we go to the cow facility for a little more work. It was nice to do this after we actually have learned something to make it meaningful. I think a few more people may be thinking of large animal now. Pathetically, there were still just a few people who were reluctant to be near the horses.
🙁
Almost unanimously this was a highlight of first year for us. A nice way to give our brains a re-boot before beginning the grind of finals.
And the number of things we frantically write down, just be told not to worry about that, and then have it show up on the test anyway is absolutely ridiculous.
You're right. We do! Brilliance.
