Class of 2015... How ya doing?

Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
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LetItSnow said:
Dork. You have the degree and board certification to prove otherwise. 🙂 All I have is "ok, we'll begrudgingly let your ass into school."

😉

You can treat my animals any day, Dy.
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The imposter syndrome never goes away! Even passing the NAVLE I wanted to make sure they didn't send the report to the wrong name
 
dyachei said:
The imposter syndrome never goes away! Even passing the NAVLE I wanted to make sure they didn't send the report to the wrong name
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Dang. I keep hoping at some point I'll start feeling competent (to the level appropriate for how much/little training I've had). I walked out of my two-day ClinPath exam pretty sure I'm going to need someone to interpret lab results for me for the rest of my life.
 
LetItSnow said:
Dang. I keep hoping at some point I'll start feeling competent (to the level appropriate for how much/little training I've had). I walked out of my two-day ClinPath exam pretty sure I'm going to need someone to interpret lab results for me for the rest of my life.
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Definitely normal but that does at least get easier.

I actually may have my first IMHA dog in practice that I saw last week. He was asymptomatic but his nRBCs were so high it made the CBC read like there were 19000 WBC. He also had a ton of fleas so we are treating for it and rechecking labs next week
 
dyachei said:
Definitely normal but that does at least get easier.

I actually may have my first IMHA dog in practice that I saw last week. He was asymptomatic but his nRBCs were so high it made the CBC read like there were 19000 WBC. He also had a ton of fleas so we are treating for it and rechecking labs next week
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Spherocytes?
Positive coombs test?
osmotic fragility?

My PI is an expert on IMHA (and lots of other blood stuff).
Some of it just rubs off a tiny tiny bit.
 
StartingoverVet said:
Spherocytes?
Positive coombs test?
osmotic fragility?

My PI is an expert on IMHA (and lots of other blood stuff).
Some of it just rubs off a tiny tiny bit.
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very regenerative anemia, some spherocytes. None of the other. She's a little reluctant to follow through with my recommendations and testing so I'm beating my head up against a wall. Like I started the dog on doxy and she doesn't want to give it because I gave her "too many"
 
First live surgery during our surgery lab tomorrow... Maybe a little nervous, but mostly excited! Also a little saddened by my classmates status updates at 8 and 9 pm saying they just got out of surgery. Two exams Friday. My brain is already refusing to keep information in and I can only imagine what that is going to be like after surgery tomorrow and anesthesia duty on Thursday. At least it will be fun DURING lab!
 
Just curious. When does everyone start clinics in their third year? We go a semester and a half before we head out to the big show, but it's not "supposedly" as tough as second year.
 
TheVetVetVetVet said:
Just curious. When does everyone start clinics in their third year? We go a semester and a half before we head out to the big show, but it's not "supposedly" as tough as second year.
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Our Spring semester (Y3S2) ends 5 weeks early (so more like 1.66 semesters for us before clinics). Then we have one week of 'orientation to clinics' then we start our first real rotation.

I'm told that Y3S1 is really pretty similar to the Y2 semesters, but that Y3S2 is a breeze.
 
Classes go until the end of February, then we get a week or two off (depends on if you do an elective), and then clinics start like the 3rd week of March. Something like that.
3rd year is the worst by far in terms of amount of time in class. We have lecture 8-5 pretty much every single day. Although Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are for spay lab, so aside from the 2 different weeks where you are doing a spay, you get those mornings off.
There's no mercy in terms of exams - starting the 3rd week of class, we have an exam every single Friday.
Also, class starts one week earlier for 3rd years than it does for 1st and 2nd years...just because they can.
 
2 full semesters for SGU. Y3S1 (T5) is definitely full schedule-wise for us. we do have afternoon rotations at our teaching hospital in the spring semester though
 
We're on clinics now at UF. We do summer and fall of junior year as well as spring semester of senior year.
 
On the positive side, I've enjoyed my first week of summer break. On the downside, our guinea pig died earlier this week, and we're putting down the old Husky (that is my standby avatar, usually) sometime within the next few days. Very sad.
 
LetItSnow said:
On the positive side, I've enjoyed my first week of summer break. On the downside, our guinea pig died earlier this week, and we're putting down the old Husky (that is my standby avatar, usually) sometime within the next few days. Very sad.
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Sorry to hear that, LIS :-(
 
scb44f said:
Sorry to hear that, LIS :-(
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Thank you. I'm kinda ready for the Husky. She's been declining for a while now and last fall we decided to give her this one more winter because she loves it so much. But she didn't really want to go outside much this winter anyway.... and then I decided to wait until school was done so I didn't have to deal with it in school.... and now I'm sitting here waffling because it's not like she's about to fall over. She's just a mess. Cognitively gone. Cushings. Moderate incontinence. Cachectic. Deaf. Moderate (4+cm diameter) ulcerative mass on an elbow.

It's like... none of those things in isolation are unmanageable. Really, the biggest thing is her cognitive state. I take her outside and she just stands in the lawn with a lost look on her face.

So I'm having trouble pulling the trigger. I've never felt judgmental toward any client putting down an animal (within reason... not talking about the 100% convenience cases), but this is definitely doing nothing but increasing my empathy for clients who struggle with it.
 
LetItSnow said:
Thank you. I'm kinda ready for the Husky. She's been declining for a while now and last fall we decided to give her this one more winter because she loves it so much. But she didn't really want to go outside much this winter anyway.... and then I decided to wait until school was done so I didn't have to deal with it in school.... and now I'm sitting here waffling because it's not like she's about to fall over. She's just a mess. Cognitively gone. Cushings. Moderate incontinence. Cachectic. Deaf. Moderate (4+cm diameter) ulcerative mass on an elbow.

It's like... none of those things in isolation are unmanageable. Really, the biggest thing is her cognitive state. I take her outside and she just stands in the lawn with a lost look on her face.

So I'm having trouble pulling the trigger. I've never felt judgmental toward any client putting down an animal (within reason... not talking about the 100% convenience cases), but this is definitely doing nothing but increasing my empathy for clients who struggle with it.
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That is really difficult. I haven't had to make that call for an animal before, so I don't have any advice for you, but I do want to say that it sounds like my recent empathy-building experience. My in-laws had a dog who they kept alive for 4 years despite having what sounds to me like DCM (some sort of heart disease anyway...). By the end, he had more masses than I could count, he could barely walk, he had cataracts so bad that he could basically only detect a change in lighting (and walking from shade to sunlight would startle him so badly he almost fell over), he didn't want to be touched, he didn't want to be anywhere that my mother-in-law wasn't... Despite all that, when I asked my husband (soon-to-be medical doctor who has similar opinions to mine on the benefits of euthanasia) if euthanasia was something they had thought about, his answer was "he is still happy when he eats". It was a lesson to me that as objective as we want to be sometimes, it benefits us to understand what our clients are going through.

I'm sorry that this is the situation you are in, but I'm sure you'll make the right decision for you and your dog.
 
LetItSnow said:
Thank you. I'm kinda ready for the Husky. She's been declining for a while now and last fall we decided to give her this one more winter because she loves it so much. But she didn't really want to go outside much this winter anyway.... and then I decided to wait until school was done so I didn't have to deal with it in school.... and now I'm sitting here waffling because it's not like she's about to fall over. She's just a mess. Cognitively gone. Cushings. Moderate incontinence. Cachectic. Deaf. Moderate (4+cm diameter) ulcerative mass on an elbow.

It's like... none of those things in isolation are unmanageable. Really, the biggest thing is her cognitive state. I take her outside and she just stands in the lawn with a lost look on her face.

So I'm having trouble pulling the trigger. I've never felt judgmental toward any client putting down an animal (within reason... not talking about the 100% convenience cases), but this is definitely doing nothing but increasing my empathy for clients who struggle with it.
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Not much I can add. Whatever you decide, you are the one who can best decide.
 
LetItSnow said:
Thank you. I'm kinda ready for the Husky. She's been declining for a while now and last fall we decided to give her this one more winter because she loves it so much. But she didn't really want to go outside much this winter anyway.... and then I decided to wait until school was done so I didn't have to deal with it in school.... and now I'm sitting here waffling because it's not like she's about to fall over. She's just a mess. Cognitively gone. Cushings. Moderate incontinence. Cachectic. Deaf. Moderate (4+cm diameter) ulcerative mass on an elbow.

It's like... none of those things in isolation are unmanageable. Really, the biggest thing is her cognitive state. I take her outside and she just stands in the lawn with a lost look on her face.

So I'm having trouble pulling the trigger. I've never felt judgmental toward any client putting down an animal (within reason... not talking about the 100% convenience cases), but this is definitely doing nothing but increasing my empathy for clients who struggle with it.
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So sorry LIS. It's easy to be objective when it's not your own pet. Even when it was absolutely cut and dry with my last one (saddle thrombus in a 6mo kitten, and let's be honest, treatment isn't really even an option even though it exists), I still had doubts. I am a big proponent of pulling the plug earlier rather than later, but I know that if it were my own aging animal I would have a really hard time sticking with my own views. I hope whatever decision you make is the right one for you and your pup.
 
Sorry to hear about your husky, LIS 🙁 I had to make a very similar decision a few years ago and it was incredibly difficult.

In happier news: 2015 finished classes and our last final on Friday! Woot!! I'm a third year, beeyatches!

Of course, we have a physical exam demonstration with blood draws/catheter placement on Wednesday and a comprehensive exam from the last two years on Friday. It is supposed to be this new big scary high stakes exam that determines whether you go to 3rd year or not. Except that they didn't tell us "new curriculum" kids until about 6 months ago and it wasn't in our academic agreement so although we have to take it - we don't have to pass it. Of course, if we don't pass it, we still have to have a meeting with the academic committee or something to explain our transgressions. 😛 While reviewing, it is amazing how many things seemed difficult in the beginning and are straightforward now.....it is also amazing HOW MUCH I've forgotten!!!!!

In other news: My gelding blew out his stifle in some unknown way during finals and at 8 years old is most likely to become a pasture ornament for the rest of his life unless a miracle occurs (yes, I am praying for that miracle).......and so are the days of my life.......
 
heylodeb said:
Sorry to hear about your husky, LIS 🙁 I had to make a very similar decision a few years ago and it was incredibly difficult.

In happier news: 2015 finished classes and our last final on Friday! Woot!! I'm a third year, beeyatches!

Of course, we have a physical exam demonstration with blood draws/catheter placement on Wednesday and a comprehensive exam from the last two years on Friday. It is supposed to be this new big scary high stakes exam that determines whether you go to 3rd year or not. Except that they didn't tell us "new curriculum" kids until about 6 months ago and it wasn't in our academic agreement so although we have to take it - we don't have to pass it. Of course, if we don't pass it, we still have to have a meeting with the academic committee or something to explain our transgressions. 😛 While reviewing, it is amazing how many things seemed difficult in the beginning and are straightforward now.....it is also amazing HOW MUCH I've forgotten!!!!!

In other news: My gelding blew out his stifle in some unknown way during finals and at 8 years old is most likely to become a pasture ornament for the rest of his life unless a miracle occurs (yes, I am praying for that miracle).......and so are the days of my life.......
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Is that the qualifying exam? They are using my class as guinea pigs too, so we don't have to pass it either, but it's still a nice surprise...

And are you freaking kidding me about your horse? I have been sending good thoughts your way about him ever since the beginning of all the issues, and I love seeing all your pictures on fb. Ugh...
 
It has been forever since I was here, I missed everyone! Wow second year done! I think I have finally recovered from finals week. It was brutal! Still don't know what I got on my virology final because the professor never posted the grades, so all we know is our final score. I did fine but would like to know how my final went....
 
scb44f said:
Is that the qualifying exam? They are using my class as guinea pigs too, so we don't have to pass it either, but it's still a nice surprise...
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buh, say what? qualifying exam? interesting to know that that's something we'll have to do.
 
kakurubird said:
buh, say what? qualifying exam? interesting to know that that's something we'll have to do.
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Apparently it's not a new thing for some schools(?), but my school is looking into using it. I guess we will see what happens when most of my class doesn't study for it 😛

Edit: I realize my use of "they are using my class as a guinea pig" is ambiguous. By they, I mean my school's administrators are the ones testing it out on us.
 
scb44f said:
Apparently it's not a new thing for some schools(?), but my school is looking into using it. I guess we will see what happens when most of my class doesn't study for it 😛

Edit: I realize my use of "they are using my class as a guinea pig" is ambiguous. By they, I mean my school's administrators are the ones testing it out on us.
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you are at Mizzou, right? I'm there in the fall, thus my interest. So it's not a set thing yet? Will be interesting to hear what happens...
 
kakurubird said:
you are at Mizzou, right? I'm there in the fall, thus my interest. So it's not a set thing yet? Will be interesting to hear what happens...
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Ahh gotcha 🙂 and you are right, not a set thing yet. They only just told my class about it maybe a month ago when they were telling us about the next steps we need to take before entering clinics.
 
ajd;lfja;lfjasdlfkajd We are marathoning finals right now... I had my surgery lab final (where they are evaluating our abilities to NOT do things that would seriously harm our patients during surgery) yesterday, surgery class final this morning, food animal this afternoon, tomorrow morning we have equine and small animal, and then tomorrow afternoon we finish with our surgery lab concepts final.

I have been eating like crap all week, with frozen yogurt + strawberries and chocolate sauce for breakfast, pizza for dinner twice, Five Guys, etc. Don't get me wrong, my tastebuds are loving it, but my wallet and waist are paying for it lol.

I cannot wait until tomorrow at around 3:30... will finally be done with block 10 and only have to worry about the short summer ahead where I have nothing but 30-ish books to read at my leisure.

I'm tired of school and anxious to start clinics. My mind barely pays attention for 1/3 of a lecture, if that. Hoping the summer is refreshing so I can come back for our last pre-clinical block in the fall...
 
scb44f said:
ajd;lfja;lfjasdlfkajd We are marathoning finals right now... I had my surgery lab final (where they are evaluating our abilities to NOT do things that would seriously harm our patients during surgery) yesterday, surgery class final this morning, food animal this afternoon, tomorrow morning we have equine and small animal, and then tomorrow afternoon we finish with our surgery lab concepts final.

I have been eating like crap all week, with frozen yogurt + strawberries and chocolate sauce for breakfast, pizza for dinner twice, Five Guys, etc. Don't get me wrong, my tastebuds are loving it, but my wallet and waist are paying for it lol.

I cannot wait until tomorrow at around 3:30... will finally be done with block 10 and only have to worry about the short summer ahead where I have nothing but 30-ish books to read at my leisure.

I'm tired of school and anxious to start clinics. My mind barely pays attention for 1/3 of a lecture, if that. Hoping the summer is refreshing so I can come back for our last pre-clinical block in the fall...
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OMG, this sounds miserable. Wishing you the best of luck for the rest of your finals! You're almost there!
 
Thanks guys. It really is doable, and I definitely don't mean to scare you, KPow! We just get crammed thing after thing, like one of our professors who posted a dozen articles this past weekend that are "required reading" for our exam tomorrow. I think everyone in my class laughed and laughed and laughed at that.

It's just a nice time of year when we are sick of going to school and taking tests... and I don't think it has helped that we are jealous of our fellow vet students who have been on summer break for a while now and are posting pictures from far off places and beaches and fun things that are not studying 😛
 
Two left... The one this morning (equine) was a little iffy but it didn't change my grade. The next test is case-based and I feel confident in what I am thinking, but who knows what they are going to ask (we were given the cases several weeks ago and were told to look over them).
 
Finals are done. Now I'm watching 30 Rock, crocheting and getting pumped to go to the lake not once, but twice this summer (different lakes, different sides of the family, but awesome all the same!!).
 
scb44f said:
Finals are done. Now I'm watching 30 Rock, crocheting and getting pumped to go to the lake not once, but twice this summer (different lakes, different sides of the family, but awesome all the same!!).
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Yaaaay very excited for you!! Almost to clinics!!!
 
We didn't have this summer off so we're just...going. Our rotations are 2 weeks each (except surgery and medicine which are 4 weeks each), which means our vacations are 2 weeks each. That sounds great in theory, but when the rest of your vet friends are on rotations and you get tired of your family after a week, 2 weeks seems like forever. I'm actually looking forward to going back to Gainesville this weekend to work and then get back into the school thing. My next vacation block I will be only making the trip home for a week, the rest of the time I will work to make money and prevent myself from going crazy.
 
i fly back the 14th but we start the 19th. i'm so irritated right now because looking at my schedule (thanks to my family) i am basically going to be traveling around the country almost every freaking day before i go back, or i have to skip out on important things. grr.
 
jmo1012 said:
i fly back the 14th but we start the 19th. i'm so irritated right now because looking at my schedule (thanks to my family) i am basically going to be traveling around the country almost every freaking day before i go back, or i have to skip out on important things. grr.
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#firstworldproblems
 
Bearby said:
#firstworldproblems
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haha i know! i keep grouching at my family though that unlike them, i absolutely have to have everything i need for 4 months packed (and not be scatter brained and rushed about it) because its not like i can replace stuff in grenada like you could normally
 
Monday! I'm not looking forward to the studying/tests/stress part but its a good feeling to know we are at the 1/2 way point. I'm ready to get this started so we can get it finished! 😛
 
Classes start Monday. I'm currently trying to sell my car so I'm hoping someone buys it before the tests start piling on.
 
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