How to Desense Yourself to Necropsies?

[ThinkBucket12]

Hey guys, currently an accepted student that’s starting school in the fall. I’ve shadowed vets and seen a wide variety of surgeries in which I’ve never had an issue with. I usually think they are super cool and I get really excited to participate/watch.

However, today I had my first opportunity to see a sea otter necropsy demo and became extremely nauseous/panicked at some of the sights I was seeing and had to exit the room. This made me super discouraged in terms of my career as a future veterinarian. I’m feeling like because I became squeamish at this and couldn’t watch the last half of it, that I have no chance at being a successful veterinarian.

But I really don’t want to let this experience discourage me. I want to push through this and desensitize myself so I can be a competent vet. Does anyone have any advice on how to do this? This career has been a passion of mine since I was a kid and I refuse to give up because of this.

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[genny]

Hey guys, currently an accepted student that’s starting school in the fall. I’ve shadowed vets and seen a wide variety of surgeries in which I’ve never had an issue with. I usually think they are super cool and I get really excited to participate/watch.

However, today I had my first opportunity to see a sea otter necropsy demo and became extremely nauseous/panicked at some of the sights I was seeing and had to exit the room. This made me super discouraged in terms of my career as a future veterinarian. I’m feeling like because I became squeamish at this and couldn’t watch the last half of it, that I have no chance at being a successful veterinarian.

But I really don’t want to let this experience discourage me. I want to push through this and desensitize myself so I can be a competent vet. Does anyone have any advice on how to do this? This career has been a passion of mine since I was a kid and I refuse to give up because of this.

Anatomy lab should help. You get so focused on learning structures that you just don’t think about it as something that would make normal people squeamish anymore.

 

[supershorty]

I found that I had a much easier time when I was doing them versus passively watching it. It gives you something to focus on in the moment, as genny said.

You're very much not alone in this experience - you'll find dozens of threads on this forum about struggling with watching surgeries or necropsies by people who are now successful vets. It'll be okay. You just need to give yourself time to adapt to it.

 

[fdvet]

I read a statistic once that said approximately 50% of surgeons report being "squeamish" during medical school/ residency. It is something you can get through!

 

[SardonicWit]

Hey guys, currently an accepted student that’s starting school in the fall. I’ve shadowed vets and seen a wide variety of surgeries in which I’ve never had an issue with. I usually think they are super cool and I get really excited to participate/watch.

However, today I had my first opportunity to see a sea otter necropsy demo and became extremely nauseous/panicked at some of the sights I was seeing and had to exit the room. This made me super discouraged in terms of my career as a future veterinarian. I’m feeling like because I became squeamish at this and couldn’t watch the last half of it, that I have no chance at being a successful veterinarian.

But I really don’t want to let this experience discourage me. I want to push through this and desensitize myself so I can be a competent vet. Does anyone have any advice on how to do this? This career has been a passion of mine since I was a kid and I refuse to give up because of this.

Honestly, the more you're being taught what to look for and how to evaluate and identify things, the better it gets. Like others have said, anatomy lab helps. So does pathology lab.

I had the opportunity to be involved with several necropsies last summer, and I had a blast. Then for our equine wet lab, I signed up for the necropsy session. I grew up with horses, trained professionally for several years before vet school, and still have a few of my own. Seeing the crew nonchalantly hack up a horse was tough. You kind of have to lean into the curiosity pretty hard to get through it. There's a lot that's really, really cool about getting to evaluate a fresh specimen with people who are experts and can explain things to you, and it makes what you're learning really become real in your mind.

Do yourself a favor and find friends who won't judge you. Don't judge them. Extend that and don't judge yourself. It's normal for this to be hard. It goes against our normal instincts to do necropsy, so it's okay if it doesn't feel natural at first. You'll be okay.

 

[Crocodial]

Highly recommend making sure you've eaten well during the day leading up necropsies and surgeries. You can also try bringing a rewarding snack (like chocolate) or something with a distinct smell (like mint) to eat in case you get squeamish and need to step out. It may sound like eating well will make you more likely to throw up but in my experience I was most likely to feel faint when I hadn't eaten enough beforehand. I was able to desensitize myself to these types of situations with my favorite foods.

 

[JaynaAli]

I think as you actually do them you do get more comfortable with it. That’s not to say that everyone will enjoy them, but they do serve a purpose. The majority of vets won’t be doing them routinely, but it’s a skill you need to have in case you need it (and it would be more routinely used in large animal). I remember my first necropsy where we found something significant…sorry if people think this is too graphic but I tell it to illustrate a point. A lady’s dogs went missing and were found dead, and she thought her neighbor shot her dog. It was a huge fluffy dog like a Pyrenees. The pathologist had me basically remove all the fur looking for a bullet hole. I was kinda salty about having to do that especially because it wasn’t fruitful, but at the end of the necropsy I was opening the stomach and the gastric contents were pulled pork and blue-green milo (so strychnine positioning) which proved the dogs death was indeed malicious. Did I hate doing the necropsy? Not gonna lie, yeah I did. But finding something let us tell the owner something important and give them answers in a very tough situation. So many owners want answers but without a tool like necropsy it’s often not possible to know for sure. Realizing it’s role helps justify it a lot, in my opinion.