Class of 2016....how ya doing?

Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
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Jamr0ckin said:
Freaking amazing externship so far, really don't want to leave. Crazy amazing cases (2 intussuception surgeries, bilateral microphthalmia, inter-uterine insemination, transient vestibular syndrome... to name a few). I got to help do the enteroplication for the intussuception dog, as well as do an intestinal wall biopsy. I don't think I hate surgery anymore.
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Where is this magical place?
 
Anesthesia has been a super fun and relaxed rotation, and I'm really glad to be taking it as early in the clinical year as I am. However, I'm just absolutely chomping at the bit to get to my extramural rotation with an all-exotics practice next block. I've also had anesthesia for two hemilams and I'm really done with four hour long surgeries at this point...
 
Week one of Internal Medicine done. I have one in-patient who is going home tomorrow and is super sweet. So far, it's not too bad. I really like the clinicians I'm working with. I definitely feel super stupid at times, but not necessarily ever in a way where I feel like think they I'm a complete idiot. And I was complemented on my discharge for my in-patient. My supervising clinician said it was one of the best she's seen done by a student recently.
 
I am rather over this rotation I am currently on. Holy buckets taking care of 20 dogs every day plus doing half of those dogs' twice in one day is exhausting. Especially when a rotation mate can't keep up and prioritize. Yes, your dog is going home at 2, you have to do 2 treatments on it, you have to be done with both by 2... why would you think to do that dog last? That dog should have been first this morning before your other 2 patients. This rotation mate worked with maybe 2.5 dogs and that is being nice about it. The rest of us easily did 5-7 dogs, plus picked up the slack on her patients... I say 1/2 because we started on a couple of hers and she took over sometimes, but most of the time we completely did her patients for her. I think she only actually managed to get one dog completely done on her own and only for the morning treatment.
 
NStarz said:
Scored my first LOR for the match :-D
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I'm so nervous about asking people for this. One, I don't know if I want to do an internship yet (keep going back and forth on it) and two, I feel like I'm still so early in clinics that there's no way I've shown what I'm capable of, you know? But I'm on Medicine now, which would probably be a good rotation to get one from.
 
kaydubs said:
Week 1 of ECC nearly complete. Was a tough one yesterday. Saw my fewest number of patients but the first case was a tough one. ATE, struck really close to home for some reason.
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ATEs suck so bad. I had one first thing this week. I euthanize so many patients each week and I honestly am not affected by them much usually. But I cannot stop myself from sobbing all the way home every time I have an ATE case (poss because I worry about my HCM kitty, but it's for some reason waaaay worse with an ATE than just CHF)
 
Minnerbelle said:
ATEs suck so bad. I had one first thing this week. I euthanize so many patients each week and I honestly am not affected by them much usually. But I cannot stop myself from sobbing all the way home every time I have an ATE case (poss because I worry about my HCM kitty, but it's for some reason waaaay worse with an ATE than just CHF)
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Precisely. I've worked up my cat for his murmur and his wall looked okay but is subject to change. So I think I'm very sensitive to that. Plus the fact the cat came in for vomiting (1 acute episode) and had to break that kind of news to the owner....
 
This rotation... please read these 11 chapters, there will be quiz at end of rotation... ok, fine.

Today... please be sure you have made it through half of the chapters we will discuss them tomorrow. I am just now able to sit down to do anything.... it is 11:20 at night. I am tired. There is no way I will stay awake to read 5-6 chapters from a book tonight. Nope. Not going to happen.
 
DVMDream said:
This rotation... please read these 11 chapters, there will be quiz at end of rotation... ok, fine.

Today... please be sure you have made it through half of the chapters we will discuss them tomorrow. I am just now able to sit down to do anything.... it is 11:20 at night. I am tired. There is no way I will stay awake to read 5-6 chapters from a book tonight. Nope. Not going to happen.
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dyachei said:
i think you'd be hard pressed to find a vet that likes ATE
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It just falls into that category of disease that make me feel helpless, yanno? So many things we can treat and deal with and give the animal a decent chance at a good quality of life. But this is one of the ones that makes me grumpy since I can't really DO much... opioids, plavix, and manage its heart disease.... and then sit back and watch. Yippee.

Give me a surgical case any day over ATE.
 
LetItSnow said:
It just falls into that category of disease that make me feel helpless, yanno? So many things we can treat and deal with and give the animal a decent chance at a good quality of life. But this is one of the ones that makes me grumpy since I can't really DO much... opioids, plavix, and manage its heart disease.... and then sit back and watch. Yippee.

Give me a surgical case any day over ATE.
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thats why nobody likes it. Crappy prognosis even with the best care
 
LetItSnow said:
It just falls into that category of disease that make me feel helpless, yanno? So many things we can treat and deal with and give the animal a decent chance at a good quality of life. But this is one of the ones that makes me grumpy since I can't really DO much... opioids, plavix, and manage its heart disease.... and then sit back and watch. Yippee.

Give me a surgical case any day over ATE.
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Fibrinolytics? I know t-PA is expensive, but it's out there. Even if it does carry a 50% mortality side effect..
 
Semi-enjoying imed...weird. Something may be wrong with me.
 
NStarz said:
Semi-enjoying imed...weird. Something may be wrong with me.
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I liked IM until mid-way through week four of it... then it was really getting old and I was absolutely done with all the bull**** paperwork. Also had a much less fun clinician in charge in the second half, so that brought it down a lot.
 
Trilt said:
I liked IM until mid-way through week four of it... then it was really getting old and I was absolutely done with all the bull**** paperwork. Also had a much less fun clinician in charge in the second half, so that brought it down a lot.
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We only have two week blocks so that shouldn't be an issue for me 🙂
 
NStarz said:
We only have two week blocks so that shouldn't be an issue for me 🙂
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Man I wish ours was two. Or even two weeks twice or whatever just to split things up. Being the first block, I had almost five weeks of IM in a row and I was just completely over it near the end, kind of killed the better vibes I had going at the beginning.
 
Yeah I have imed twice but the next go through's not until November.
 
IM here has been actually enjoyable, although it's been slower than normal. I've really enjoyed working the clinicians on my side of the rotation so far. I feel like a complete idiot most of the time, but they've been doing a good job at not making me feel incompetent.
 
orca2011 said:
IM here has been actually enjoyable, although it's been slower than normal. I've really enjoyed working the clinicians on my side of the rotation so far. I feel like a complete idiot most of the time, but they've been doing a good job at not making me feel incompetent.
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Man, I almost wish we've been slow. We've had 14 appointments every day, and 9 of us on the rotation, plus transfer cases from ER. It's been CRAZY
 
NStarz said:
Man, I almost wish we've been slow. We've had 14 appointments every day, and 9 of us on the rotation, plus transfer cases from ER. It's been CRAZY
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Appointments are usually busy. We were supposed to have at least 24 today (not sure what all ended showing up), with only 6 people to see them. The other 6 are responsible for pick ups/internal transfers to medicine. That side has been on the slower side. On appointment days, I constantly feel like I'm running around. I ended up only seeing two appointments today, but only really got to sit down and chill at like 6:15p.
 
psilovethomas said:
Fibrinolytics? I know t-PA is expensive, but it's out there. Even if it does carry a 50% mortality side effect..
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Last I checked, the literature didn't really seem to suggest that it improved outcomes.

But that said, I can't say I've investigated it too thoroughly.

.... I just had an ATE case this evening. Figures. Euth.
 
LetItSnow said:
Last I checked, the literature didn't really seem to suggest that it improved outcomes.

But that said, I can't say I've investigated it too thoroughly.

.... I just had an ATE case this evening. Figures. Euth.
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Actually increased mortality (not sure if this has been published yet, but it's coming if not) so not recommended esp for the price of $3-4000 just to pop the bottle open.

I keep going back and forth in my mind about what I would do if my cat has an ATE. I guess if she's one of those cats that aren't in bad fulminant CHF, who's comfortable and chill about it by the time I get her to the teaching hospital, then I will probably give her a chance.

But it's like with oliguric/anuric AKI cases, the waiting for a miracle really messes with you, as you slowly realize that you just need to euthanize after a few days... but then it's really hard to not believe that your pet will be the exception to the rule as long as they seem comfortable.
 
Nothing like one bad comment out of a sea of good ones to ruin your eval 🙁 That one stung so much.
 
Dear fellow rotation-mate:

You have had a dog in for quite a few days that will not eat. Randomly trying to get the dog to eat various human foods is not a good idea (as evidenced by the other dogs that have been having diarrhea this rotation). When I suggest trying canned a/d or recovery it is because I think the dog might actually eat it and you have told me that you have not tried those yet. It is worth trying them as dogs tend to love those two types of food. When you refuse to try them for no obvious reason that makes me think you are an idiot. When I then try canned a/d with your patient when I am the in-house student caring for the dogs one night and the dog eats the entire can, I think you are an idiot for not trying that 4 days ago. This dog could have been eating for 4 days and possibly even been gradually switched over to a different canned or dry food in that time frame. When I then tell you that your patient will eat canned a/d the following day and your response is, "well, she is going home today anyway so it isn't our problem anymore" and then continue to refuse to feed the dog what it will actually eat that morning, I no longer only think you are an idiot, I think you are an irresponsible imbecile.
 
DVMDream said:
Dear fellow rotation-mate:

You have had a dog in for quite a few days that will not eat. Randomly trying to get the dog to eat various human foods is not a good idea (as evidenced by the other dogs that have been having diarrhea this rotation). When I suggest trying canned a/d or recovery it is because I think the dog might actually eat it and you have told me that you have not tried those yet. It is worth trying them as dogs tend to love those two types of food. When you refuse to try them for no obvious reason that makes me think you are an idiot. When I then try canned a/d with your patient when I am the in-house student caring for the dogs one night and the dog eats the entire can, I think you are an idiot for not trying that 4 days ago. This dog could have been eating for 4 days and possibly even been gradually switched over to a different canned or dry food in that time frame. When I then tell you that your patient will eat canned a/d the following day and your response is, "well, she is going home today anyway so it isn't our problem anymore" and then continue to refuse to feed the dog what it will actually eat that morning, I no longer only think you are an idiot, I think you are an irresponsible imbecile.
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Is this the same person you were venting about before? Because this is just all kinds of ridiculous...
 
DVMDream said:
Yup.
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Wow. It's one thing to be ignorantly incompetent, it's another thing to continue to be incompetent when someone else tries to help you and basically tells you what you should be doing. Sorry you're having to deal with all this.
 
NStarz said:
Nothing like one bad comment out of a sea of good ones to ruin your eval 🙁 That one stung so much.
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Well, is it actionable/useful/on-track? If so, take the criticism and fix it. If it's not actionable/reasonable, then ignore it and focus on all the good comments. 🙂 Don't let 1 negative drag you down from 10 positives!

I felt like rotation eval criticism was only useful maybe 1/4th of the time. Half of the time it just reflected things I already knew I needed to improve, which is fine. And the other fourth of the time it was bizarre stuff that didn't even make sense and seemed like most likely they were confusing me with another rotationmate.
 
Halfway through cardiology. Really enjoying it and getting better at my auscultation skills. But, still feeling like an idiot half the time.
 
My mid-rotation evaluation for Internal Medicine was better than I expected it to be. I have some areas to work on which I expected but got some tips on how to improve them.
 
So happy to be on rotations now and out of lecture... I was done... completely.

I am starting my last week of 5 week surgery rotation and loving it and this is supposed to be the toughest rotation. It is ridiculously long hours, lots of reports to write, lots to study nightly (usually fall asleep sitting up trying to), and the surgeons continually quiz you on your knowledge. BUT I finally feel like I am in the right place, it is so good to see patients again and I am learning so much more working on real cases.

I almost gave up, threw in the towel this year... I was so burnt out and started to question whether I should be a vet anymore. I had lost all motivation and had passion in other areas of my life, but the passion for vet had burnt out. I was seriously worried. I am not one to give up and I knew even if I decided after I didn't want to be a vet I had gone that far I might as well finish it. Now being on rotations my motivation is back and I feel more energised to tackle the next year. I know I have the skills to work with the patients, now it is just finding where all the knowledge is stored from the last 4 years and learning new stuff as well.
 
devyn said:
So happy to be on rotations now and out of lecture... I was done... completely.

I am starting my last week of 5 week surgery rotation and loving it and this is supposed to be the toughest rotation. It is ridiculously long hours, lots of reports to write, lots to study nightly (usually fall asleep sitting up trying to), and the surgeons continually quiz you on your knowledge. BUT I finally feel like I am in the right place, it is so good to see patients again and I am learning so much more working on real cases.

I almost gave up, threw in the towel this year... I was so burnt out and started to question whether I should be a vet anymore. I had lost all motivation and had passion in other areas of my life, but the passion for vet had burnt out. I was seriously worried. I am not one to give up and I knew even if I decided after I didn't want to be a vet I had gone that far I might as well finish it. Now being on rotations my motivation is back and I feel more energised to tackle the next year. I know I have the skills to work with the patients, now it is just finding where all the knowledge is stored from the last 4 years and learning new stuff as well.
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I cannot tell you how much this resonates with me and my own experience. I'm so glad you're loving your rotations as well!!
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I think I am allergic to large animals. I had on and off stuffy noses, runny eyes, etc on food animal med and now that I am on equine I am back to the stuffy nose/runny eyes.

Should be completely away from the large animals in less than 2 weeks.
 
Trilt said:
My day ended with a 20 year old leopard gecko that is doing really well after abdominocentesis and a fox kit. Do I seriously ever have to leave this extramural?
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20 yrs old?!?!? Wow!!!! What's the typical life span for those guys ?
 
Kpowell14 said:
20 yrs old?!?!? Wow!!!! What's the typical life span for those guys ?
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Not usually 20 years!! But it's really hard to give typical lifespans for captive reptiles, as we've gotten significantly better at managing them over the years. One of my classmates has a 15yo one, but 20 is definitely the oldest I've seen.

This client was super adorable - he apparently got the gecko as a kid and has had him through everything since then. Big bearded dude cooing and absolutely beaming over his teeny little leopard gecko. 🙂
 
Trilt said:
Not usually 20 years!! But it's really hard to give typical lifespans for captive reptiles, as we've gotten significantly better at managing them over the years. One of my classmates has a 15yo one, but 20 is definitely the oldest I've seen.

This client was super adorable - he apparently got the gecko as a kid and has had him through everything since then. Big bearded dude cooing and absolutely beaming over his teeny little leopard gecko. 🙂
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Are you a snake person? Someone needs to tell me how long our captive-caught (but young, I suspect, when she was caught - and no, we didn't do the catching) Garter Snake is going to live. We've had her 8 years now and she just keeps eating and shedding and growing and eating and shedding and growing. And leaving jelly bean eggs once in a while. She even got attacked by the cats the one time she escaped - tiny little puncture wound that bled - and she shrugged off the injury and kept right on going. I didn't realize how resilient they are.
 
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