Wetlabs

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NStarz

NStarz

Ohio State c/o 2016
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Just a thread for fun (and so I can drool over the stuff I will get to do eventually) :

Vet students, what are your favorite wetlabs/field trips/lectures that you've done/been on/had? Anddddd....GO!
 
NStarz said:
Just a thread for fun (and so I can drool over the stuff I will get to do eventually) :

Vet students, what are your favorite wetlabs/field trips/lectures that you've done/been on/had? Anddddd....GO!
Click to expand...
My favorite so far has been the suture wetlab we did last week. It was only for 2nd years and it was absolutely free including dinner. All of the surgery clinicians and a few clinicians from around the hospital came and taught us a ton of suture patterns on beef tongues. It's a good way to get a feel of what next year's surgery class will be like. It was a lot of fun and we really got to interact with the clinicians.
 
The Feline Medicine Club and Pathology club here at UCDavis had a joint cat necropsy wetlab that was pretty good. They had cats that died/were euthanized at shelters that they'd collected and frozen so that each student could perform a necropsy on a cat. They weren't collecting samples from most of them so we didn't have to worry quite so much about being careful with noting findings and saving tissues and such, so it was a great learning experience. After we were finished with the cats we went around to each organ system table and the people who did the necropsies at that table talked about what they would be looking for in that organ system and any abnormalities in that particular system they did find in their cats.

I had the fattest cat I had ever seen (the pathologists and residents all concurred, this is not an exaggeration) and he took kind of longer to thaw because of the massive layers of saponified fat, haha. Even by the time I got to his heart through all the fat in his thoracic cavity/pericardium, it was still frozen. Same with stomach. Was...slippery?

edit: I think it was a pretty impressively sized lab too, IIRC we had 20 spots for each club and a waitlist. The lesson is be an officer in clubs that have cool wetlabs, because you get priority then. 😉 (I'm a president-elect for FMC)
 
Do I have to choose one??

Suture wetlab = awesome.
Declaw wetlab = also awesome.
Castration labs (goats/alpacas/calves) are always fun. As are ultrasounding goats/alpacas, famancha stuff, hoof trimming, etc.
SA dentistry wetlab at symposium was oddly satisfying considering I never thought I would like dental work
 
things that I've done or heard of...
catheter placing wetlab, emergency CPCR/FAST scan wetlab, dehorning wetlab, herp hiking in the jungle at night, exotics radiology labs, sea turtle conservation (overnight trip in small groups to help conduct research), vaccination of cattle lab, scrubbing and gowning lab for sx
 
Combined avian bandaging/catheter placement and necropsy (bandage dead bird, put catheter in dead bird, necropsy dead bird!) was awesome. We had everything from an American Woodcock to a Bald Eagle.

Runner up was equine joint injections. Hitting a joint space is so satisfying. I learned more functional anatomy in those 2 hours then I did in hours and hours of lab.
 
SA internal med wetlab (got to try out joint taps, bone marrow aspirates, etc)
wildlife immobilization lab (used a dart gun and pistol for the first time!)
emergency procedures lab
 
Male cat neuter wet-lab. Only requirement is that you've done the repro part of anatomy. Getting to neuter a cat first semester of vet school was awesome!
 
1. Spay/Neuter labs for surgery-live surgery is awesome!
2. Ruminant handling lab-I still think has been one of my favs so far, and really surprised me with how much I fell in love with cows.
3. Pain management lab-cadaver lab to practice epidurals, dental blocks, distal limb blocks for declaws, and stifle blocks (also doubles as learning to do a stifle joint tap. 😛)
 
Oh, almost forgot the "tubology" wetlab from the internal medicine club - chest tubes, TTWs, CSF taps, bone marrow aspirates and other awesome stuff.
 
Loved our injection site/necropsy lab with our bovine club.

Our equine club gets the AAEP short courses pretty often. I had to miss the dental one 🙂() but the farrier one was awessssome.
 
nyanko said:
I had the fattest cat I had ever seen (the pathologists and residents all concurred, this is not an exaggeration) and he took kind of longer to thaw because of the massive layers of saponified fat, haha. Even by the time I got to his heart through all the fat in his thoracic cavity/pericardium, it was still frozen. Same with stomach. Was...slippery?

edit: I think it was a pretty impressively sized lab too, IIRC we had 20 spots for each club and a waitlist. The lesson is be an officer in clubs that have cool wetlabs, because you get priority then. 😉 (I'm a president-elect for FMC)
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Dude, your cat was INSANE!! It was definitely by far the fattest cat ever. The sheer amount of saponified fat on the table around the cat was really impressive, haha. And I second the edit - I'm an officer in the pathology club, so got priority for that wetlab as well. 🙂 Another awesome path wetlab was cow necropsies last year, that was ton of fun!

But if I have to pick my favorite, it's by far the macaque physical exam wetlab that the lab animal medicine club organizes every year. We go out to the primate center and they have a couple of anesthetized rhesus macaques, and we practice complete physical exam, venipuncture, catheter placement, intubation, ultrasound exam, etc. It's super fun and an amazing learning experience! I'm president of that club, and every year we have people join the club just for that wetlab. However, you have to show commitment to the club to have priority, because the spots are very limited and we want to make sure actual lab animal people, who need those skills, get to participate.
 
I don't post here often, but I ran across this thread to get ideas for future wet labs. And since NStarz is heading to OSU, I thought I would let her know what she has to look forward to:

ECC techniques wet lab: central lines, chest tubes, tracheotomy, FAST Scan
Eye Enucleation
Suture Wet lab
Soft Tissue Reconstruction
Thoracotomy
Soft Tissue Reconstruction
Bovine Toe Amputation and Facilitated Ankylosis
CPR
Limb Amputation
Joint Injection
Ultrasound

These are the ones I'm involved in organizing through the surgery, emergency and equine clubs, but there are plenty more.
 
Dream2bVet said:
I don't post here often, but I ran across this thread to get ideas for future wet labs. And since NStarz is heading to OSU, I thought I would let her know what she has to look forward to:

ECC techniques wet lab: central lines, chest tubes, tracheotomy, FAST Scan
Eye Enucleation
Suture Wet lab
Soft Tissue Reconstruction
Thoracotomy
Soft Tissue Reconstruction
Bovine Toe Amputation and Facilitated Ankylosis
CPR
Limb Amputation
Joint Injection
Ultrasound

These are the ones I'm involved in organizing through the surgery, emergency and equine clubs, but there are plenty more.
Click to expand...


Woohoo! Thanks, dream2bvet. Sounds awesome. What year are you at OSU?
 
NStarz said:
Just a thread for fun (and so I can drool over the stuff I will get to do eventually) :

Vet students, what are your favorite wetlabs/field trips/lectures that you've done/been on/had? Anddddd....GO!
Click to expand...

My favorite, for some reason, has been ultrasounding an equine limb. I don't know why. It was just ... really interesting. It was a lightbulb moment for me with understanding what I'm seeing on an ultrasound.

I also enjoyed doing a check desmotomy and neurectomy. On a removed limb. We also practiced joint blocks and taps on those. Was an awesome couple days.

I got to do most of my first spay even as a first year - that was nifty. I've done some cat castrations, but those aren't very exciting once you've done exactly one old tomcat. I've yet to do a dog neuter.

In the "really useful, but not necessarily cool" category, the SA dental radiology lab was awesome for those of us without much clinical background. If you've been taking digital rads of cat/dog mouths as a tech it'd be boring, but for those of us who hadn't it was *really* educational.

Honestly - and I'm probably weird for enjoying it so much - but the one recurring out-of-class thing I look forward to the most is a clinic that our school, a local vet tech school, and a local church host once a month. We're able to provide somewhat more care than a 'vaccination' clinic, we work side by side with tech students, we have a large degree of latitude with how to treat animals (though it's still under the supervision of a vet), and you get to know the clients because many of them are repeat and, using us as their primary care provider because of limited income. (Yes, I'm aware that many of you think these people shouldn't own pets! I respect your opinion (really), and disagree.)

Oh. And the cannulated cow lab was just plain cool. Hint to future vet students: borrow and bring a waterproof camera with video capability for some really interesting video clips. It's challenging juggling a flashlight and camera with one hand, but pretty nifty.
 
LetItSnow said:
Honestly - and I'm probably weird for enjoying it so much - but the one recurring out-of-class thing I look forward to the most is a clinic that our school, a local vet tech school, and a local church host once a month. We're able to provide somewhat more care than a 'vaccination' clinic, we work side by side with tech students, we have a large degree of latitude with how to treat animals (though it's still under the supervision of a vet), and you get to know the clients because many of them are repeat and, using us as their primary care provider because of limited income. (Yes, I'm aware that many of you think these people shouldn't own pets! I respect your opinion (really), and disagree.)
Click to expand...

We have something that sounds quite similar (with the absence of vet tech students and the addition of pre-vet students) that is run by the 2nd years for homeless people in Sacramento and their pets: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/clubs/mercer/
 
nyanko said:
We have something that sounds quite similar (with the absence of vet tech students and the addition of pre-vet students) that is run by the 2nd years for homeless people in Sacramento and their pets: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/clubs/mercer/
Click to expand...

Nice web site, too. You guys are way more organized than we are. I'm part of the incoming leadership team for our organization - we'd really like to get it to the level you guys appear to be at.
 
LetItSnow said:
Nice web site, too. You guys are way more organized than we are. I'm part of the incoming leadership team for our organization - we'd really like to get it to the level you guys appear to be at.
Click to expand...

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 Amazing.
 
nyanko said:
We have something that sounds quite similar (with the absence of vet tech students and the addition of pre-vet students) that is run by the 2nd years for homeless people in Sacramento and their pets: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/clubs/mercer/
Click to expand...


Deleted. For some reason I double-posted. Still learning to use the Internets. Net Drivers License is in the mail.
 
I really really enjoy the feline club and internal med wetlabs since they seem to have a lot of procedural labs that are freaking awesome.

Dental lab was by far my favorite. Made gingival flap, extracted canine, and got to drill away.

There was also a lab where like each 2 students got paired up with a resident or clinician, with a bunch of sutures, scalpels, tubes, catheters, biopsy needles, etc... and they were like, lemme know what you wanna learn, and I can teach you. *drools*

I'm not too big on LA wetlabs, but I went to a horse AI one at the beginning of first-year, and it was super fun!
 
I must say I am completely jelly! We have very few wetlab type things from special interest groups here 🙁 I don't know if its from a lack of resources or an ethics committee problem or a vet student problem but DEFINATELY jelly of the amount of different special interest groups you guys have!

Thinking it might be awesome to set up an EMCC group as i know there are lots interested, but as a 4th year I think I'm a little busy...

But I am really excited that next week I get to take out the spleen and perform a gastropexy on a pig!
 
Some of my favorites:
Spay/neuter labs for surgery -- super stressful (for me at least), but really exciting too!
Tranquilizer gun lab -- I didn't get to actually use it, but still interesting to see it
Local anesthetic techniques in cattle -- epidurals, eye blocks, horn blocks, etc.

The last 2 were from my elective class this semester, definitely one of my favorite classes so far.
 
Coquette22 said:
Combined avian bandaging/catheter placement and necropsy (bandage dead bird, put catheter in dead bird, necropsy dead bird!) was awesome. We had everything from an American Woodcock to a Bald Eagle.

Runner up was equine joint injections. Hitting a joint space is so satisfying. I learned more functional anatomy in those 2 hours then I did in hours and hours of lab.
Click to expand...

These were awesome. I also liked microsurgery (spay and neuter dead mice, essentially), the other necropsy labs and the snake ultrasound.
 
Dream2bVet said:
I don't post here often, but I ran across this thread to get ideas for future wet labs. And since NStarz is heading to OSU, I thought I would let her know what she has to look forward to:

ECC techniques wet lab: central lines, chest tubes, tracheotomy, FAST Scan
Eye Enucleation
Suture Wet lab
Soft Tissue Reconstruction
Thoracotomy
Soft Tissue Reconstruction
Bovine Toe Amputation and Facilitated Ankylosis
CPR
Limb Amputation
Joint Injection
Ultrasound

These are the ones I'm involved in organizing through the surgery, emergency and equine clubs, but there are plenty more.
Click to expand...
As a future OSU vet student, those sound AMAZING! Do you have to be a member of all of those clubs to participate? Or are they open to all students? I was thinking about joining surgery and food animal medicine club, but had no idea there was an emergency one! Ahhhh, so many clubs but I am envisioning so little time.
 
I'm thinking the same thing Marino! I was originally just planning on joining the wildlife club, but now see all these things I'd like to do! Emergency medicine club sounds awesome.
 
breenie said:
Loved our injection site/necropsy lab with our bovine club.

Our equine club gets the AAEP short courses pretty often. I had to miss the dental one 🙂() but the farrier one was awessssome.
Click to expand...

Yesss the injection site lab was awesome!

I did one of the palpation labs out at the dairy last fall. We got to use the ultrasound!

One of the vets I shadowed before vet school had a really fun bird handling/injection lab. She brought in a bunch of her own birds and adoptable birds and we got to draw blood and give subcutaneous injections.

The exotics club also went to the KC zoo for a tour of the veterinary facility. Pretty awesome, and the head vet is super cool.

Edit: We also did a goat handling lab, where we disbudded one of the clinician's baby goats.

I'm not in all of these clubs. Really, I'm only in bovine club, but the exotics club opened the tour up to anyone, and small ruminants club also opened theirs up to anyone, so I just kind of tagged along. I'm good at that apparently.
 
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marino0213 said:
As a future OSU vet student, those sound AMAZING! Do you have to be a member of all of those clubs to participate? Or are they open to all students? I was thinking about joining surgery and food animal medicine club, but had no idea there was an emergency one! Ahhhh, so many clubs but I am envisioning so little time.
Click to expand...
You do have to be a member to participate in most wet labs. You'll get to learn about all the clubs during orientation and the lunch lectures throughout the first couple of weeks.
 
Dream2bVet said:
You do have to be a member to participate in most wet labs. You'll get to learn about all the clubs during orientation and the lunch lectures throughout the first couple of weeks.
Click to expand...
Dream2b,
Do you think that it is manageable to be involved in a variety of clubs? I was thinking 2 just so that I could be sufficiently involved in each. But, is it okay to join clubs just so that you have the opportunity to participate in cool wet labs?
 
marino0213 said:
Dream2b,
Do you think that it is manageable to be involved in a variety of clubs? I was thinking 2 just so that I could be sufficiently involved in each. But, is it okay to join clubs just so that you have the opportunity to participate in cool wet labs?
Click to expand...

At least here at UMN, it's very possible. I'm the president-elect of one, VP of another, and member of at least three more.

Thing about club membership is .... worst case, you pay your dues and don't do anything with the club the entire rest of the year and you're out your dues. So long as you don't take on a role within the club, there's no real requirement that you participate.

When clubs bring in speakers here, they usually allow anyone to come (club member or not). But, if food is provided, that's usually for club members only. Wet labs are most often restricted to club members, but not always.

Some people's advice is to limit yourself so you don't get overwhelmed your first year when you're trying to adjust. You can always join clubs later, so it's not bad advice. I take the opposite approach: so long as joining doesn't commit you to anything (which is the case here for almost every club, if not all of them) ... join what you're interested in and then rethink it for your second year based on which ones you participated in.
 
marino0213 said:
Dream2b,
Do you think that it is manageable to be involved in a variety of clubs? I was thinking 2 just so that I could be sufficiently involved in each. But, is it okay to join clubs just so that you have the opportunity to participate in cool wet labs?
Click to expand...
At Penn, a lot of people sign up for almost every club. There is NO cost, and then you just get a lot of e-mails and pick and choose which things you want to. So definitely YES!

I went to only one wet lab for about 4 or 5 different clubs last year. Only really participated regularly in 1 club.
 
When a group at school is hosting a free event with food I'm just like...


JCCJ8.gif
 
I'm in the first semester of my final year in undergrad (BSc majoring in physiology), wanting to become a vet in the future (but my GPA says otherwise - under a B+ average at the moment)
Anyway, yesterday for a physiology paper I'm taking, we had a live sheep thermodilution lab with a LOT of supervisors.
I was the "primary surgeon" for my group, so I got to make an incision in the neck, exposed the jugular and carotid by blunt dissection, inserted catheters into each vessel, and advanced them towards the various parts of the heart. Had a bit of help of course.
I was so nervous prior to the lab, but once I started, I was on a role. I can see myself doing this as a vet, but again the GPA says otherwise ... blah. Maybe one day 🙂

Additionally at the end, one of the senior cardiovascular lecturers (that knows everything and expects you to as well), opened up the chest cavity of one of the sheep, exposing the beating heart. We got to touch it and hold the heart in our hands which was crazy.

It was an epic and amazing experience that I won't forget, and appreciate every moment of the wonderful opportunity.

I seriously hope that one day I get into vet.
The debt to salary ratio will be huge, but in the end, salary is not the point in doing vet now is it!
 
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i'm trying to think of fun ideas for emergency club wetlabs for next fall, any good ones ya'll have participated in? catheter lab, FAST scan, CPR...
 
jmo1012 said:
i'm trying to think of fun ideas for emergency club wetlabs for next fall, any good ones ya'll have participated in? catheter lab, FAST scan, CPR...
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you're referring to SA emergency, but I did an alpaca dystocia wetlab (with crias that had died naturally and been frozen/saved for that purpose). It was through our food animal club, an alpaca specialist put it on. She had simulated a birth canal and uterus. We took turns placing the crias in difficult to remove situations for each other, then took turns trying to get them out. Really helpful and interesting to get experience in a LA emergency situation.
 
that redhead said:
Not in that club, but I've seen CPR and (I think) emergency thoracotomy labs by them.
Click to expand...

We just had a wetlab for FAST scan for colic in horses that was pretty good. I haven't been to any small animal emergency wetlabs.
 
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