I woke up Thursday morning, put on a pot of coffee, and grabbed Shorty (our miniature Australian Shepherd) and his leash and headed for the door.  The sun hadn't even started to come up yet as we walked around the apartment complex as Shorty hunted for squirrels and a place to do his business.  I was contemplating the day ahead as I was shaking the sleep cobwebs from my head.  I was up and out at this extra early hour because I needed to do some more last minute studying for my last final of my MBA curriculum, investments.  Also on the docket for the day was the DVM Graduation ceremony that afternoon.  Since  the graduating class were only a year ahead of me for the first half of vet school (that is until I left vet school for my 1 year MBA program), I had several good friends and knew practically everyone in the Class of 2012.  Suddenly, I realized that I "only" had 2 years until graduation, 730 days.  Wow, that seems so ... (Read More)

This is Harley! He is a three-month old miniature poodle. A common misconception is that training your dog can only happen after six months. The truth is that dogs are constantly learning from the first moment you adopt them. That is why it is important to start training and socialization at a young age to have a happy and obedient dog in the future.   Determined to start off on the right foot (or paw I should say) we started Puppy Kindergarten at Puppy Love Training. The first week of class was a 'people only' day where we learned some tips and tricks to keep our puppies healthy, happy, and most importantly TIRED! We also had a 'homework' assignment to introduce our puppies to the clicker. We were instructed to click and treat at least 10 times in a short period (two minutes) to have the dog associate the clicker with a positive reward. The clicker is used a marker that lets the dog know that it has done something correct. Your voice c... (Read More)

I'm a bit of a technological dinosaur.  I feel like I'm one of the five people in the world who still use a flip phone and probably the only person who has managed to avoid having Facebook put a timeline on my profile (You're in good company if that doesn't make sense).  I still sit at a computer to check my emails and I do not know how to play Angry Birds.  The first step is admitting you have a problem, right? Well after careful thought, I will no longer drag my feet into this techie generation.  Tonight I was encouraged by a seminar at the vet school presented by the media savvy experts at Veterinary News Network.  The seminar took students through the ever expanding importance of social media in our lives and profession.  Some shocking statistics of our evolving means of communications and technology were presented to us.  For example, there are about one million books published every year, but Americans n... (Read More)

For our last anesthesia lab before beginning the surgery section of the course, our professors demonstrated how to perform field anesthesia on a horse.  When anesthetizing a horse (or really doing anything with a horse), there's one thing you should really keep in mind: horses are BIG.  That means they are a danger to not only the veterinary staff but to themselves.  That means they need a lot of drug to get them to sleep.  And it also means that when they go down, they can go down hard. So with that in mind, I was pretty excited and nervous to watch this demonstration.  For the reasons I just mentioned, horse anesthesia can be pretty nerve-wracking.  But this demonstration had a little extra layer to cause anxiety.  This was to be field anesthesia, meaning the procedure was literally performed in a field.  No walls, no roof, not even a fence.  Just grass and the open sky.  And fifty vet student... (Read More)

So what a lot of people might not know about vet school classes is that for our first two years, we don't get to choose any of them! We have so many core classes that we all need as foundation for our later learning, that your schedule is planned for you. Now don't get me wrong, all of our classes are really critical for learning how to be the best vets possible, but there is something very cool about getting to choose your own classes for the first time. Well for the Class of 2014, our time has come!  Several weeks ago, we were passed out a list of around 60 elective courses that we could choose from. By an elective, I mean a class that we get to choose to take from a list of options. Each elective is typically worth 1 class credit (a few are 2 or 3), and they only meet for a couple of weeks during the year. Each third year student has to take a minimum of 14 credits worth of electives, but there isn't technically a maximum (just the maxim... (Read More)

This past weekend was one of the highlight weekends for the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine.  On Saturday, April 14, we opened our doors to the public, that they may get a small glimpse into the world of veterinary medicine and all of its wonder.  We had children surgically repairing their beloved "pets" in teddy bear surgery, teenagers learning what the inside of a cow's stomach (the rumen) feels like, and many other opportunities to learn about different aspects of veterinary medicine and biomedical science.  There were also opportunities for people to learn about Alpaca wool weaving, canine agility, falconry, animal breeds, and of course there were opportunities to take pictures with the famous Ms. Reveille.  Open House is always a time for us vet students to really shine. We plan for it all year, and on that day we get the chance to show the public what we do. For one day we can instill in the general populati... (Read More)

This Saturday will be the 19th Annual Open House here at the College of Veterinary Medicine!  Every year, the student body and staff come together and open up the veterinary school to the public.  The day will be full of educational (and fun!) displays and lots of demonstrations with live animals.  This event is an excellent opportunity to educate the public about our profession.  Many hours of planning and preparation are required to make this event a success.  While it takes a lot of hard work, it is well worth it when you see the kids (and parents too!) enjoying the experience.  I never attended Open House as a kid.  I actually had very little exposure to veterinary medicine until college, but it's really cool to hear classmates talk about attending Open House as kids and then seeing them as students now.  I sincerely hope that everyone who attends learns more about our treasured profession.  I hope... (Read More)

One of the things I look forward to every year here in College Station, TX is Parents' Weekend! I'm an out of state student from California, and so I don't get to see my family as often as I would want to. Parents' Weekend is the one time during the year that my family makes the trip out here to Texas, and it's always so much fun!  As an added bonus this year all of us second year students got our white coats! At our White Coat Ceremony (which is the day before Parents' Day), all of the second year students were honored by faculty, staff, fellow students, and our family and friends. We got to walk across the stage and put on a bright new white coat as a symbol of the fact that we have made it through our first two years of veterinary school and into the clinical part of our curriculum. Getting our white coats was such a proud moment for all of us. After all of the many long years of hard work, late night studying and stress, we were fin... (Read More)

Students - both undergraduate and graduate alike - participate in various student organizations. Texas A&M has over 850 student organizations, and it is just one way to get involved in campus life. One of the student organizations I am involved with is the Parents' Weekend Committee (this is the Parents' Weekend for main campus as opposed to the Parents' Weekend for the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences). Parents' Weekend is a committee within the Student Government Association (SGA) whose mission is to serve the students as well as the families of Texas A&M by providing a weekend of appreciation. Parents' Weekend allows students to express their gratitude to those who have impacted their lives. This is done through a number of events that show parents of Texas A&M the essence of the Aggie family. This tradition founded in 1919 has continued to evolve over the years to fit the ever-changing population here at ... (Read More)

One of the greatest aspects of my Texas A&M DVM curriculum is the incorporation of real world cases and live animals starting right out of the gate first year.  I will grant that there are long segments when I don't see anything but books, but that is just the way it has to be.  If you don't understand the fundamentals behind what you see in the clinic, there is no way to make sense of a case and to determine the most appropriate course of action.  In the end, we all wish we had more hands-on experience sooner, but I do know that we have way more opportunities here at A&M than many of our colleagues at other institutions.  With all of that being said, no hands-on example or book case can prepare you for a truly "real world" case.  I came face to face with what I consider my first case when Lauren and I noticed my dog, Shorty, had a sudden onset case of neuropathy.  I will explain what that means in a minute... (Read More)