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Class of 2019...how ya doing?
Started by brightimpressio
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I think they are meaning pathology.
Our pathology rotation was part "diagnostics" you'd get necropsy in the afternoon and diagnostics/making blood smears in the morning
Ah! I’m taking large animal path, because it’s one of the state labs too, so you get a little of everything, including small animals.
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We call it diagnostics here because it is a mixture of necropsy, clinical pathology, and parasitology
I think ours is too, except the parasit part is minimal from what I’ve been told.
hehe. Come to any of the southeast, and parasites will be exponentially more!
We've been getting inundated with job postings being emailed to us by one of our deans...I usually ignore them because they're mostly central Illinois jobs (no thanks.). Today we got one for an Arizona hospital chain that sounds pretty nice and the salary was awesome. They're wanting students to apply now, but I'd want to see how I fare in the match first. But wow, just a hair under a six figure salary for my first job? Never would have expected that, but I guess I'm just desensitized to the idea of getting an intern salary for the first few years out. They even see exotics, so that's a huge plus.
Messaging you to hear more about this soul destruction
Just scheduled my NAVLE 
Woot! And luckily two other gals that I like will be on that day and I booked a hotel room near the center so we just pop up and head over that morning instead of having to drive the hour to OKC. Good stuff. I like it when things slide into place.
I'm taking it Dec. 4th. I registered early enough that I could have done November, but I'd rather get a two days off soft tissue sx than Optho 😀
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November 14th for me.
Ah that's a good idea. Our services get pretty sparse around the NAVLE so I've heard.
Blergh. Brain done today. I blame allergies flaring up bad with the ragweed season at full tilt.
We started the semester pathology rounds today during which the interdasting lesions found during necropsy are presented to those that chose to come. It has been a while since I've mingled with 1-3rd years. Amazing to think back to first year versus now. I can definitely appreciate the accumulated knowledge. NAVLE studying I'm sure helps too. lol
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I've always loved going to gross rounds! They shifted to doing necropsies in the morning though so now gross rounds are at 2:30 instead of 4:30 and we're always in class 🙁
One more day on path. I will be sad to leave, but the show goes on. Equine sx next.
Ew.
The people were okay, I just hated it (naht a horse person) and there was a lot of standing around during surgery and a lot a lot of cleaning up after surgeries.
I have one more day of shelter med, and I’m not sad to have this rotation end. Mostly due to a personality conflict with a non-student. I did do my first spay with no help today though.
I’m on large animal surgery next, and very much not looking forward to it.
I’m on large animal surgery next, and very much not looking forward to it.
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I don't mind horses, but I have a feeling the workload is not going to be much with this time of year.
At least the whole equine barn isn’t shut down because of an EHV horse for the entire rotation. That happened to SEVERAL rotations during my year. They have the area for quarantine... now. Hah.
That happened once at my school last year. Some people were really happy to miss their entire surgery rotation.
We had a strangles 'scare' a few weeks back with an abuse case (it was mostly just students not even on the same service spreading rumors), but it was just a tooth root abscess. Also always found it weird that we have 12 (I think) equine quarantine stalls but like 2 cages i an extremely small room for all of SA quarantine. I believe there are plans to expand our SA quarantine though.
I really liked my LA blocks (I'm not a 'horse person' but I do love horses), I'm kind of sad that I had them all back to back. I'm in SA land for the rest of the year, save for my zoo externships. I also did get a tonnnnn of experience though, most of my rotation-mates hated horses so I took a ton of cases and got to see a lot.
Been going nonstop this week on equine sx. No lunches including yesterday since I had to be on for ICU duty unexpectedly. Enjoying my time though. Treating myself to IHOP this morning as a reward. haha
Am I the only one who REALLY struggles to hear cardiac murmurs? I FEEL like I’ve tried lots of things... listening to recordings of known murmurs (I can often barely hear them), listening to LOTS of hearts (my OWN DOG has a grade 2 systolic, I can’t hear it), listening to as many normal hearts as I can get my stethoscope on. And I STILL feel like I’m doing a disservice to my future patients because I don’t know if I’d EVER be confident enough to call a murmur. I had my hearing checked last summer and it was fine. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice??
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I had a dog on neuro rotation that had a grade 3 heart murmur... it stayed hospitalized for 5 days I think. I finally could hear that murmur and recognize it on day 4... it takes time. I listened to that dog 4-5 times per day for minutes at a time.
A heart murmur, to me, sounds very similar to breath sounds so any panting/shaking/etc makes it harder to hear them. Even an owner petting the dog makes it harder sometimes.
Practice. If you get a hospitalized patient with one listen to it....constantly
That's about the best advice I can give.
Ask the intern/resident/clinician where they are hearing it at on the dog best, grade, etc, then ask if you can have a few minutes to just listen.
yeah, I just keep listening, plus with different stethoscopes, until I get it down for murmurs. I am decent at it now with pretty much any stethoscope.
Sadly, I am still the angel of death when I'm on emergency duty. 🙁
Sadly, I am still the angel of death when I'm on emergency duty. 🙁
Definitely don't feel bad if you can't hear a grade 2, because you have to be in the exact right spot to hear it. If there is an animal with a known low grade murmur, have a doctor or classmate find it for you, and then just take the ear parts of the stethoscope, while they hold the bell in the same place. It does take time and a lot of practice. Keep a look out for high grade murmurs like a 5 or 6, after you hear one of those, it will make hearing the more subtle ones easier.
My match anxiety is getting real...
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I will when it opens!
That's the goal! I don't plan on trying for any at an academic institution though.
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First actual surgery on anesthesia and it lasted over 6 hours. It also wasn't an easy case. The patient was super painful and light for the first 2 hours no matter what we did. He was ok for the next 2 hours, then tanked the last 2. Anesthesia makes me so nervous that I shut down, this case certainly didn't help.
Tbh most of it was the fact that I'm not competitive GPA-wise...no point in wasting my money/ranks when I'm fairly confident they'd toss me based on my GPA alone. The Illinois grading system makes it really hard. Hell, most of my class is probably under a 3.0! Combo that with the general consensus telling me that academia internships actually can really suck in terms of experience and whatnot...I just figured it wasn't worth it given the gamble you take. I know a few schools had to scramble last year and I wouldn't say no if I was also scrambling. I've talked to what feels like 100 people about it...most clinicians/mentor-types have told me that private practice internships tend to be more standardized than academia (which is counterintuitive imo, but it made sense once it was explained to me) and I like the idea of that.
I've got a few private practices I'm really liking the sound of for my first internship, and my local zoo's head vet is going to push for funding to get a zoo internship program so I can be her first intern in 2020 (not holding my breath, but you never know).
I also am taking my fiance into account, he has a salary we can both live off of and then some so I'm trying not to interfere there. If I have to move, I have to move, but it would be nice to just have to worry about working and loan payments 😛
I like the pharmacology aspect of anesthesia, but that's it. Granted, with zoo/wildlife/exotic animals, they also hate anesthesia so things are often rocky at some point during a procedure, if not during the whole thing. Adds a lot of stress to everything.
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I helped with an avian anesthesia lab over the weekend, and even though it was pigeons and they aren't exactly fragile, I feel like we might as well have just hooked everything up to a ventilator because they'll be damned if they're gonna breathe on their own
Good info! I still don't know if I'll be going straight into the internship route after school (I may get sucked into PhD land...) but gathering opinions from many people helps.
Best to get some difficult ones rather than not and be uncertain what to do in practice... 😉
I just worry that in a few months, I still won't know what to do when patients tank under anesthesia.
You will. I had 3 AV block cases a few months back. Haven't had that issue ever before, I remembered... did look it up briefly to double check, but you'll remember.
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What do you want a PhD in? I think that's awesome!I helped with an avian anesthesia lab over the weekend, and even though it was pigeons and they aren't exactly fragile, I feel like we might as well have just hooked everything up to a ventilator because they'll be damned if they're gonna breathe on their own
Good info! I still don't know if I'll be going straight into the internship route after school (I may get sucked into PhD land...) but gathering opinions from many people helps.
WildZoo
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Nothing like doing a surgery in the morning and having to go back at night again for something different for the same patient. Luckily I had just enough time to ingest a rotisserie chicken (five minutes for a new record) before having to go back in. haha
struggling to concentrate and read through things for next rotation. Also have the 5-12 ICU shift tonight before test over things I am not reading at 7 tomorrow morning. I think they knew I am on tonight though because they didn't assign me any appointments for tomorrow. Either that or fortuitous luck. haha
Not looking forward to my next rotation...6 days a week, 12+ hours a day. Coming off of a month at a zoo where the hours were really good.
