Class of 2020... how you doin?

Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
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supershorty said:
You’ll. Be. Great.
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Coopah said:
You're gonna be so great!!!
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Thanks guys 😍
Caiter92 said:
I start Tuesday. I would def feel better if I had touched a dog sometime in the last three months :laugh:

But they said I can wear whatever I want sooo business pajamas it is.
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Same...the last live animal I touched in a medical setting was on my zoo externship in March (but hey I did work on a domestic dog there! :laugh:)

Business pajamas for me toooo
 
I survived! I was only there for the morning and only saw two appointments but it was nice to start with sweet owners who brought in sweet pets for minor things. I expect I'll have some kind of trainwreck tomorrow :laugh:
 
More appointments today than yesterday but still really sweet owners and only one dog tried to eat me (and he didn't try that hard). Friday I work into the late evening so I'm expecting to see some emergencies :heckyeah:
 
Last Saturday morning I had an emergency BDLD. He’s been hospitalized with us since then. That weekend after presenting was soooo touch and go. My current workplace is like 2 minutes down the road from the house so I have been known to pop in to make sure things on fluids are still getting them, etc. well Saturday night when I came in the dog was lateral and agonal. It ended up being septic with a low BG, and he popped right up after a bolus! I took him in for wound closure first thing Monday morning. He has everything from drains to tie overs—it took me almost 3 hours to sew everything back up! Now a few days later he’s, walking, eating and a happy boy and should be home soon.

It feels pretty darn good to save a life.
 
A few observations from the intern life so far.

1) Wow I ended up with a great group of humans as internmates and I am super thankful.

2) 80hrs/wk of ER in a very high caseload practice is a lot. Kinda feel like I’m learning in a trial by fire kind of way, which feels overwhelming pretty often - especially when several stats come in within like 15 mins. But, I’m learning, I have some great attendings who care about my learning, and I’m trying my best to be positive and grow every day. And also not beat myself up when I don’t know everything that my boarded criticalist attendings who have been doing this for 20 years know.

3) 80hrs/wk of ER doesn’t really give you much time to do things like feel things and process emotions from hard cases, tough clients, and other challenging situations. I realized that this morning when I woke up on a day off and actually had some energy and time to process, and found myself sitting on the couch crying into my coffee.
 
Cephal0pod said:
A few observations from the intern life so far.

1) Wow I ended up with a great group of humans as internmates and I am super thankful.

2) 80hrs/wk of ER in a very high caseload practice is a lot. Kinda feel like I’m learning in a trial by fire kind of way, which feels overwhelming pretty often - especially when several stats come in within like 15 mins. But, I’m learning, I have some great attendings who care about my learning, and I’m trying my best to be positive and grow every day. And also not beat myself up when I don’t know everything that my boarded criticalist attendings who have been doing this for 20 years know.

3) 80hrs/wk of ER doesn’t really give you much time to do things like feel things and process emotions from hard cases, tough clients, and other challenging situations. I realized that this morning when I woke up on a day off and actually had some energy and time to process, and found myself sitting on the couch crying into my coffee.
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80hrs/week of any kind of work is ridiculous. Were you expecting that much coming in?
 
WildZoo said:
I saw 9 appointments yesterday, and 5 of them were derm cases. The universe decided to remind me why I'm not doing GP long-term :lame: Much preferred the other day when I had multiple behavior cases!
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This is the stuff of my personal nightmares and definitely why i cant do GP
 
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mmmdreamerz said:
I think it's incredibly important and probably very gratifying because you can improve quality of life a lot...it's just not my thing
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No, it is rarely gratifying and highly annoying. No one wants to do a full and appropriate allergy work up. No one wants to do food trails and you find yourself repeating the same spiel to the same clients over and over and over again. They are always like "well the apoquel was working but we ran out of it 4 months ago and now it is back. I don't get why you can't just give me something to make this go away so I don't have to keep getting meds." I hated derm in GP, it is the most common crap to deal with and the one thing that it seems clients just can't grasp the concept of.
 
DVMDream said:
No, it is rarely gratifying and highly annoying. No one wants to do a full and appropriate allergy work up. No one wants to do food trails and you find yourself repeating the same spiel to the same clients over and over and over again. They are always like "well the apoquel was working but we ran out of it 4 months ago and now it is back. I don't get why you can't just give me something to make this go away so I don't have to keep getting meds." I hated derm in GP, it is the most common crap to deal with and the one thing that it seems clients just can't grasp the concept of.
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This is how I actually feel, I was just trying to put a positive spin because I have very limited interests in reality and I know other people who like things I definitely do not lolol
 
mmmdreamerz said:
I think it's incredibly important and probably very gratifying because you can improve quality of life a lot...it's just not my thing
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This would be the case in an ideal world however...
DVMDream said:
No, it is rarely gratifying and highly annoying. No one wants to do a full and appropriate allergy work up. No one wants to do food trails and you find yourself repeating the same spiel to the same clients over and over and over again. They are always like "well the apoquel was working but we ran out of it 4 months ago and now it is back. I don't get why you can't just give me something to make this go away so I don't have to keep getting meds." I hated derm in GP, it is the most common crap to deal with and the one thing that it seems clients just can't grasp the concept of.
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This is what I expect with all my future rechecks lol
One of the appointments yesterday already was a recheck...2 weeks after it was supposed to happen, and with the owner having restarted meds without telling anyone things hadn't cleared up completely. Le sigh. Derm to me is either extremely boring or extremely frustrating with little in between. I had my fill of it working in Florida before vet school. But sadly I'm still in the south :laugh:
 
that redhead said:
80hrs/week of any kind of work is ridiculous. Were you expecting that much coming in?
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I knew it would be in the 60-80hr a week range most of the time. Pretty typical for most programs. It’ll be closer to 60hrs/week when I’m on the non-ER rotations, broadly speaking.
 
I finally euthanized my first pet on Friday. It could not have gone any better from a procedure point of view which was amazing. I don't really know if I've processed it yet.

I think the hardest part is the wondering after. Like did the grieving owners feel supported? Did they feel like I gave their pet the best death possible? I really hope I did but idk. Just not what I think I thought I'd be most worried about after the fact.
 
SARdoghandler said:
I think the hardest part is the wondering after. Like did the grieving owners feel supported? Did they feel like I gave their pet the best death possible? I really hope I did but idk. Just not what I think I thought I'd be most worried about after the fact.
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Oh, same. I've done 3 so far, and for each one, those are the questions I've been asking myself. Especially whether the owners felt supported. Did I do a good job explaining what was going to happen? Did they feel I was compassionate enough?

This last one was a QoL discussion turned euthanasia for a patient I hadn't seen before but who had been seen by someone else at the practice. Two of the family members were 99% decided on euthanasia when they came in and were looking for confirmation they were making the right decision, but the other family member wasn't ready and wanted to keep trying. They were very nice people but I was kind of caught in the middle and then got asked the dreaded "if this were your pet, what would you do?" question. I hope I handled it okay but I have no idea if what I said made it better or worse.
 
missdarjeeling said:
Oh, same. I've done 3 so far, and for each one, those are the questions I've been asking myself. Especially whether the owners felt supported. Did I do a good job explaining what was going to happen? Did they feel I was compassionate enough?

This last one was a QoL discussion turned euthanasia for a patient I hadn't seen before but who had been seen by someone else at the practice. Two of the family members were 99% decided on euthanasia when they came in and were looking for confirmation they were making the right decision, but the other family member wasn't ready and wanted to keep trying. They were very nice people but I was kind of caught in the middle and then got asked the dreaded "if this were your pet, what would you do?" question. I hope I handled it okay but I have no idea if what I said made it better or worse.
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Soon enough you’ll end up with piles and piles of thank you cards for your euthanasias, and you’ll realize what an impact you make for your clients and it really starts to become routine, even if you do and say different things each time.
 
Minnerbelle said:
F@&$. I’m so sorry. That’s so incredibly sad and tragic.
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I wasn’t close with either of them, but still makes me incredibly sad that they’re gone so soon 🙁 and how easily that could have been me. Even in the last year I’ve been in that place.
 
Caiter92 said:
I wasn’t close with either of them, but still makes me incredibly sad that they’re gone so soon 🙁 and how easily that could have been me. Even in the last year I’ve been in that place.
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It really is a gut punch. It hits me every time another colleague is lost, and I can totally see why it happens. I worry about a couple of my good friends on a regular basis, and feel like I’m waiting for that dreaded phone call. Somehow it hits even harder to hear about your classmates. Y’all worked so hard for this, and this is just the beginning. As far as my career goes, I hit rock bottom 5 months after graduation and felt like my world was crumbling. Maybe there were other factors and maybe it was unrelated, but I remember how awful it was for me then, and it saddens me deeply that perhaps that could be the end for some. I remember so vividly driving to work and thinking about how if I crashed my car and was injured or worse, I wouldn’t have to go into work. It took my husband saying, “this is it, you are going to put in your notice right now over email/text/phone, I don’t care. Or I will do it for you,” to get out. For any of you out there that are having a tough time, I know how isolating and devastating it can be when it doesn’t work out. Please know I’m always around if you ever need to offload your baggage.
 
vetmedhead said:
Don't gotta know how to spell it or say it, only how to do it.

Dr. Teeps, veteiririanarian, at your service 😉
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I feel the need to add an addendum to this post and inform you all that veteiririanarian has inadvertently been added to my phone's autocorrect, but only intermittently, so I can't remove it from the dictionary.

So

Every once in a while

I am trying to seriously talk about veterinarians

and talk about veteiririanarians instead
 
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vetmedhead said:
I feel the need to add an addendum to this post and inform you all that veteiririanarian has inadvertently been added to my phone's autocorrect, but only intermittently, so I can't remove it from the dictionary.

So

Every once in a while

I am trying to seriously talk about veterinarians

and talk about veteiririanarians instead
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yesterday at the dealership my salesman asked me to spell veterinarian. I blanked so hard and had to google it
 
itsrocky said:
So far in practice have diagnosed.... hyperthyroid, hypothyroid multiple times, and Cushing’s. I just need an Addisonian and a diabetes to comply the circle.
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I’ve had a few hypothyroids and cushings too, and also had a hyperparathyroidism in a cat! I was pretty stoked :laugh:
 
Caiter92 said:
I’ve had a few hypothyroids and cushings too, and also had a hyperparathyroidism in a cat! I was pretty stoked :laugh:
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dang, haven’t had that one yet! I’ll have to add it to my checklist 😀
 
SARdoghandler said:
Dang guys, send some over here.

Most of my medical cases so far have been more like "welp, Fluffy's bloodwork is pristine so I have no idea why he's feeling so unwell :shrug:"
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it’s either cancer or hypochondriac owner. Sometimes I can’t tell which is worse
 
Minnerbelle said:
it’s either cancer or hypochondriac owner. Sometimes I can’t tell which is worse
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Oh and how can I forget, early hemoabdomen or early tamponade type things... the clock is ticking and the pet may be dead soon. These always make me uneasy and thus why I flash these nondescript adr but clean labwork friends for good measure.

If it’s a cat, often also an anal gland abscess that you won’t realize is the problem until it either busts or the cat comes back and screams when you try to take its temp. These are tricky. You don’t think to check the cat’s butt when it’s adr, esp when it’s early on and the cat doesn’t quite have a high fever.
 
WildZoo said:
I've only gotten diabetes. So much diabetes.

But two cats in remission now!
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Two in remission? Good job!

The medicine residents at school would always tell us not to be afraid of diabetes, but, yup, still afraid of managing diabetes. Do you guys use the FreeStyle Libre? I saw a few at school, and one of the vets at my hospital has been using it, too, so I'm hoping to learn how to place them.

I keep getting other weird cases, and the universe also likes to send the vast majority of the touch-me-not patients my way. For my very first patient at my primary hospital, I couldn't even do an exam without sedating her first. Got bitten by a dog for the first time in about 7 years during my first week, too.
 
missdarjeeling said:
Two in remission? Good job!

The medicine residents at school would always tell us not to be afraid of diabetes, but, yup, still afraid of managing diabetes. Do you guys use the FreeStyle Libre? I saw a few at school, and one of the vets at my hospital has been using it, too, so I'm hoping to learn how to place them.

I keep getting other weird cases, and the universe also likes to send the vast majority of the touch-me-not patients my way. For my very first patient at my primary hospital, I couldn't even do an exam without sedating her first. Got bitten by a dog for the first time in about 7 years during my first week, too.
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I've stared at the AAHA guidelines long enough to almost have them memorized, it's how I get through lol thankfully none of mine have been in DKA or anything

I wish we had a Libre! But no such luck.

I had a dog do a warning grab of my arm and I was glad if was a warning (really could barely be called a bite) but also terrified at the realization of how much damage she could have done if it hadn't been a warning...
 
missdarjeeling said:
The medicine residents at school would always tell us not to be afraid of diabetes, but, yup, still afraid of managing diabetes. Do you guys use the FreeStyle Libre? I saw a few at school, and one of the vets at my hospital has been using it, too, so I'm hoping to learn how to place them.
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I have been using them (in select cases) for a couple years! They're not without complications, but definitely very helpful. There's a great YouTube video from one of the vet schools on placing them, it's pretty straightforward. The biggest thing is selecting a spot without a ton of motion and that's not too bony, and setting client expectations appropriately.
 
One month done with residency and it’s been great! I’ve been on biopsy and necropsy duty, and it’s so weird to see my name on reports. There’s no students on clinics here yet, but there will be the next time I’m on necropsy duty, so I’m intrigued to see how things change when I’m in the instructor role.
 
lilylilac said:
One month done with residency and it’s been great! I’ve been on biopsy and necropsy duty, and it’s so weird to see my name on reports. There’s no students on clinics here yet, but there will be the next time I’m on necropsy duty, so I’m intrigued to see how things change when I’m in the instructor role.
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What’re you doing a residency in?
 
SARdoghandler said:
@awesomenessity there's another one of you!
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tenor.gif
 
Cephal0pod said:
On overnights and just got off a shift that started with my first GDV and ended with my first mesenteric torsion 😱 The latter is currently in surgery, fingers crossed for him.
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YOU GUYS. That mesenteric torsion not only made it through surgery - he got to go HOME! :soexcited: Absolutely incredible! The whole hospital was rooting for him and his recovery. I’ll never forget that dog.
 
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