We're on spring break, so I have all the time in the world to answer questions 🙂
Kare Bear- the best way to find out the class load is to look in the vet school catalog (the thing with the average stats of accepted students, etc). Here's what first year consisted of:
First semester:
-Anatomy
-Histology
-Radiology
-Clinical Skills
-Professional Skills
-Animal Populations
-Intro to Nutrition
-Biochemistry
-Large Animal Neonatology (elective)
Second semester:
-Neurology
-Organology
-Virology
-Immunology
-Physiology
-Pharmacology
-Clinical Skills II
-Professional Skills II
-Genetics
-Behavior Core
-Equine Limb (elective)
-Swine Production (elective)
-Special Topics in Zoo Animal Medicine (elective)
It sounds like a lot, and it is, but they do stagger the courses so it's not like you're taking all of them at once. You just get good at keeping notes straight and keeping track of which test is coming up. First semester, we had one test per week, but this semester it seems to be whatever goes- sometimes none, sometimes one, two, three, or four.
As far as hands-on, that's what Clinical Skills is for. First semester focused on large animals. We learned how to do a physical exam of a cow and horse, where to give injections, how to place a catheter, how to draw blood, how to put on a halter and methods of restraint. We also had a few random lessons like how to do a surgical scrub and how to tie three different kinds of knots. Our final in that class was performing several parts of the physical exam (show how you would examine the eye and what you'd be looking for, how you'd examine the front leg, what you'd be looking for, and name each part of the leg as you go, etc). We also had a written final that was more like "what's the normal heart rate of a foal", "what would you call this type of marking", "what breed of cow gives milk with the highest percent butterfat", etc.
This semester, Clinical Skills is all about small animals. Each of us gets to do an internship at a local clinic to learn everything we're supposed to learn- how to do a physical, how to draw blood, how to take a history, etc. We haven't started those yet, so I'm not sure exactly what we'll be doing, but that's the jist of it.
The large animal hospital clerk duty is required every year except 4th, unless you're tracking large animal, in which case you do it 4th year too. You have to do 2 6-hour-long shifts in the hospital, usually on a weekday evening from 6 PM to 12 AM. You hang out with one older student and a technician and take care of all the critters. Sometimes you have to be there the whole time, other times the hospital is empty and you get to go home early. I had one fun night and one boring night. One of my friends didn't get to do anything except "learn how to drag a dead cow into the freezer".. heehee. We do get a fair number of exotics in the hospital, as Iowa CVM won't take llamas or alpacas for some reason. We get goats and sheep and occasionally a camel (they are not nice!). Also, part of your Neonatology credit comes from working on "foal team" second semester. We're on call a few times a month, and if there's a foal that needs 24 hour care, we come in between 7 PM and 7 AM to take care of it. My team hasn't been called in yet, but foal season is just starting... There's also a volunteer Colic Team for people who want to be called in to help with emergency colics.
Some of the best hands-on work comes from the wetlabs that various clubs put on. The Canine Club has done an opthomology lab, a cardiac auscultation lab, and a Gentle Leader lab all just this semester. Equine Club is pretty active, as is ZEAW (zoo, exotics, avian, and wildlife). ZEAW did a chicken necropsy lab and a reptile handling lab, and will soon be having a rabbit handling lab. The Emergency Medicine Club does quite a bit, like bandaging and suturing labs. I've just revived the Holistic Medicine Club, and we'll be doing an acupuncture wetlab later this semester. You could go to so many labs if you wanted to, it's crazy. There are also plenty of conventions to attend, and they almost always have wetlabs too. I went to an exotics symposium in January and got to learn how to do skin scrapings on fish and identify fish parasites, and did a necropsy on a red-tailed hawk. You can get as much hands-on experience as you can find time for, really.
Phew, I think I answered everyone's questions... let me know if you have any more! I definitely encourage everyone to come to the Open House on the 1st of April if you can manage it... it's tons of fun! You can visit our fistulated cow 😀
