Time to Spring Back into Action

The spring semester has just started for veterinary students like myself, whereas the undergrad students have one more week of freedom. I am excited to start this new semester, because this is the last set of classes I will ever have to take. Also, these are mostly classes I have chosen to sign up for, things that sparked my interest at the end of last year.

Even though I am taking a lot of electives, which makes for a very busy semester, I am ready to see what each and every one of them holds in store. Most of the electives are large animal oriented, which is one of the directions I plan to pursue after vet school. The first electives include swine health, bovine reproductive lab, advanced ruminant, and advanced equine classes. The swine class is only eight classes long, and each time we look at different diseases that affect every body system and the herd as a hole. In the bovine reproductive lab, I will palpate a Holstein cow by rectal palpation twice a week for a total of eight weeks to better develop my palpation skills and follow how a reproductive track changes during pregnancy. Advanced ruminant and advanced equine will both expand on what we learned in large animal medicine, going more in depth, instead of just skimming the surface of the different diseases that affect the systems of the body.

Besides my elective classes, we take core classes, which we do not get to choose. These include the remainder of small animal medicine and radiology, as well as new classes such as a practice management class. We will be learning how to run a practice from the administrative and financial end of things. There is also a correlates class we take and throughout the semester we are given cases to “soap.” We get the case at the beginning of the week and we look for the top reasons the animal is sick and turn it in later that week. This semester we have twelves cases.

Later this semester I am taking electives such as camelids, feline medicine, equine lameness, and diagnostic cytology. I have heard great things about all of these classes and I can’t wait to see what is in store. All these classes are preparing me for next year, which will start the weekend after third year ends. I am excited to see what challenges, joys, lessons, and new skills this semester has for me.


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