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Looking Forward to my Last Break

Michelle C.This upcoming Christmas break will be my last as a student, as my peers and I will be entering clinics immediately after the conclusion of the third-year veterinary curriculum. I have been meticulously planning to get the most out of the four-week break, during which I will be spending two weeks doing a veterinary externship in Dallas and the remaining time traveling with family and friends.

Externships offer students an exciting opportunity to spend two to six weeks under a direct doctor mentorship to apply the clinical skills obtained during the first three years of veterinary school and ease the transition from classroom to clinical practice. I am really looking forward to the externship experience, as I feel more confident interpreting blood work and other laboratory data than I have ever been.

Needless to say, I am also very excited to travel! My advice to all future students is that you should use your free time to travel spontaneously. Whether it is visiting distant families out of state or going on a road trip with your significant other, it will greatly enhance your soul! I definitely plan on spending a lot of time with my family this winter break, since I wont be able to visit them very often during my fourth year.

But until then, everyone is buckling down and preparing for our final exams. Stress is high, but I am grateful to have such great, supportive classmates and faculty members who are always there to help us succeed. Good luck on finals, everybody!

Learning through Labs

Michelle M.After the gauntlet of the first two years of veterinary school, it really is nice to experience some of the perks of third year. We get to put a lot of what we learned our first two years of school into use, especially during our lab periods. Just this past week, our Small Animal Medicine class had us practicing a procedure called a pericardiocentesis, a procedure that involves inserting a needle through the body wall and into the pericardium, the sac that surrounds the heart, so that the fluid can be drained. This may be necessary in certain patients to remove excess fluid to make them feel better and also so that the fluid can be tested to determine what may be causing the patient’s problem. My class was able to practice this on some pretty cool models that simulate how it will feel to perform the procedure in a live patient one day.

We previously had several large-animal labs. My favorite was the ophthalmology lab, which gave us practice in procedures with the equine eye. We were able to use live horses and do a full ophthalmic exam. We also practiced performing auriculopalpebral nerve blocks; these blocks involve injecting a small amount of lidocaine near the auriculopalpebral nerve, which will temporarily prevent the horse from blinking. Since we can’t ask the horse to hold his eye open for us like human doctors can, this nerve block is a very useful technique to learn, as it makes the exam more pleasant for the horse and also much quicker for everyone. We were then able to use an ophthalmoscope to perform a fundic exam to determine if the eye is healthy or if there are any problems.

In addition to our medicine labs, I also had a large-animal skills lab this semester, during which we were able to help improve our large animal-handling skills with cattle, pigs, goats, and horses and perform some of the routine procedures we will do as vets one day, such as trimming feet and drawing blood for testing. It was always the highlight of my week to work with these animals, as I plan on becoming a large-animal vet after I graduate. I even got to learn how to shoe a horse using a horse leg model that was more realistic than I ever could have anticipated. While farriers are often the ones who put shoes on horses, it was fascinating to learn how the process is done and important to understand so that we can properly care for horses who injure their hooves. Next semester I will have small-animal skills labs and I am looking forward to seeing what I will learn there. It’s really encouraging learning some of the skills I will be using on a daily basis when I am on clinics full-time next year. I can’t wait to see what I will learn next!

Being Selective About Third-Year Electives

Mikaela StanislavAs a third-year veterinary student, I have been
able to choose the electives that I take; after two years of taking
a pre-selected curriculum, this is an amazing experience! I get to
pick what I want to learn, which makes learning all the more
fun.

This semester, I have completed an oncology elective. Oncology
is a big part of veterinary medicine because 50 percent of dogs
over the age of 10 years will develop cancer. Through this
elective, I was able to learn about current research being done
that correlates human cancers and cancer in dogs, because it is
very similar and advances in each field can help each other.

The elective I just finished is dermatology. This is also a
large part of veterinary medicine, as many pets have issues with
skin or allergies, especially living in Texas. In dermatology, we
learned how to identify different infections, causes, and how to
treat common dermatologic problems. Did you know that dogs can have
food allergies, too? It’s a lot harder to find out if dogs have a
food issue because they can’t tell you they feel bad after eating
something or if they eat something that causes them to itch.

The next elective I will be taking is clinical pathology, in
which I will learn all about how to interpret blood work and
understand what the values mean. I’ll be able to tell if a dog is
anemic, if it has liver issues, or even if it’s a diabetic.
Clinical pathology is a skill that we will be using every day in
practice. Interpreting blood and urine are common practices and
taking this elective will hopefully help me feel more comfortable
with this aspect of veterinary medicine.

Overall, all of my classes have been good, but it’s even more
exciting to get to decide what you learn!

Piecing Together the Puzzle

Ali C.We are now over a quarter of the way done with the semester! Whoop! Veterinary School is really good at keeping our minds and bodies busy, so even though it feels like the clock is barely ticking during some class days, it’s actually FLYING by! I can feel the jittery excitement in the air, because all of my third-year classmates can finally see a glimmer of light at the end of the vet school tunnel. We are gaining confidence, skills, and wisdom; we finally feel closer to being doctors and further from students.

We third-year students have gotten more comfortable with basic surgical procedures so far this semester; nevertheless, I still sweat bullets the entire time. Putting non-powdered surgical gloves onto sweaty hands should be an Olympic sport. Gold medal goes to me for my hilarious and laborious struggle with such a menial task! This week, AFTER I took 10 minutes to get my gloves on, I proceeded to accidentally poke a hole in the glove on my left index finger with a stray towel clamp, which meant I had to stop what I was doing, remove my poked glove, and start the whole gloving process over again. It’s definitely a learning curve.

Luckily for me, sweating doesn’t interfere with my paper test-taking skills! 3VM students had a BIG Small Animal Medicine test this week covering a month and a half of oncology and endocrinology material. These are probably some of the most common diseases I will be dealing with as a small-animal veterinarian once I graduate. Unfortunately, at least 50 percent of dogs over the age of 10 will get some form of cancer, which is why it is so important for us to learn how to treat and manage cancer patients. It may be surprising to you, but dogs and cats are candidates for chemotherapies and radiation, just like humans! Our professor, Dr. Claudia Barton, made sure to emphasize the fact that cancer is indiscriminate of species; therefore, observations from cancer in our domestic animals can be studied and incorporated into human oncologic research.

For endocrinology, we are taught by Dr. Audrey Cook, who has a wonderful European accent and a remarkable passion for the diseases she presents. I actually printed out all of her notes, put it in a binder, and labeled it my “Cook Book,” since I plan on keeping it on my shelf in my veterinary practice in the near future. My favorite disease she has talked about is feline hyperthyroidism. I like it because it is a disease that likes to hide behind the façade of just “old cat syndrome,” but when correctly diagnosed and treated it can really improve the lives of our aging kitties. It is nerve-wracking to learn all of these common, everyday diseases while having aging animals of your own. I find myself wondering which diseases my own cat will get someday—and hoping I will be sharp enough to spot them early and treat them!

This upcoming Monday is one of the few Mondays that we don’t have an exam. To take advantage of my lessened weekend stressors, I am headed back to my hometown of Boerne to visit my parents, my 103-year-old great-uncle, and my three brothers. I haven’t seen any of them since summer and am starting to feel the homesickness. I try to make time during the week to reach out to all of them, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen with everything else going on. Hopefully they can get my head out of my textbooks, help me to relax, and have a little fun before diving back on Monday.

What I have found to be so incredible and different about our third year of vet school is that we are finally putting all the pieces together and understanding veterinary medicine on a different level. Our veterinary puzzle is actually starting to come together, and it is SO EXCITING!

Third-Year Excitement

TaylorOne of the best things about third year is getting to choose our electives! Veterinary students are required to take 14 hours of electives by the end of our third year, in addition to our 14-plus hours of core classes per semester. The electives are one to two credit hours, with smaller class sizes ranging from 12-80 people. This means that we get to take a variety of electives and learn more about the specific topics that we’re interested in, in a smaller setting and with more hands-on learning.

I’m currently taking the “Oncology” elective, in which I’m learning more about common tumor types and cancer treatments. I will also be taking the “Dermatology,” “Exotic Hoofstock,” “Avian Medicine,” and “Cardiology” electives this semester. I’m particularly excited about some of the electives that I will be taking in the spring, including “Small Animal Behavior,” “Dentistry,” “Diseases of Swine,” “Feline Medicine,” and “Preventative Medicine.” I’m grateful for the opportunity to take such a wide variety of electives to learn more about interesting topics that cannot always be covered in-depth in the core classes and to become more familiar with the clinicians and residents that I will work with during my fourth year.

Our core classes for this semester include “Small Animal Medicine,” “Large Animal Medicine,” “Radiology,” “Junior Surgery,” and “Correlates.” I’m excited to take all of the information I’ve learned from first and second year and apply it to the big picture of our small- and large-animal medicine courses this year to learn how to treat our veterinary patients and “think more like a doctor.” So far, I’m enjoying “Small Animal Medicine” the most and look forward to learning more about common diseases and pathologic conditions in small animals and how to treat them.

We also have a few clinic days each semester, during which we get to work with the fourth-years, residents, interns, and clinicians on different services in the Small or Large Animal Hospitals. This semester, I’ve already shadowed in the “Neurology” and “General Surgery” services. I’ve enjoyed these clinic days; I feel that they’ve helped me better navigate the Small Animal Hospital and get a feel for how fourth year will be, in addition to learning from some cool cases!

I’m excited for all that I will learn this year! I know that my electives and clinical rotations, in addition to our core classes, will help prepare me for fourth year, which is only a short nine months away! This year will fly by, and I will do my best to soak up every minute of fun and learning from it!

Hitting the Ground Running

Sydney M.After just finishing the first two weeks of my third year, I am already feeling busy, but also excited for the semester. Third year is full of not only important lectures, but also awesome skills lab, clinics, electives, and surgery! The schedule is jammed packed with material to get us ready for fourth year, so it’s a nonstop day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Third year is very different from the first two years of vet school in that we have electives of our own choosing throughout four different blocks. My first elective is “Oncology” and I am learning from the oncologists in our hospitals; they are specialized in this field, so I am learning from clinicians who can give us tricks of the trade and break down what is most common or most important to know for when we get out into practice. So far, they have lectured to us about the different cancer types, different treatments options, and the differences in our species. This past week we met at the Diagnostic Imaging & Cancer Treatment Center, where they showed us the state-of-the-art equipment A&M has that we can use treat our patients, such as CT, MRI, and Tomotherapy. The elective is broken up so that we are not just in lecture the entire time, but also are getting a chance to work on cases ourselves and see how we would go about diagnosing an animal and staging the types of cancer.

I am also taking “Small Animal Skills” this block, and it’s been good practice as well! The very first week of “Small Animals Skills” started with a reptile-handling lab, in which I learned how to restrain snakes, different sized lizards, and turtles. A reptile rescue group came in, bringing a plethora of reptiles with them so we could get plenty of practice. I personally held several species of snakes, including a corn snake, ball python, and hog-nosed snake. Out of the lizards, I held a Chinese waterdragon, Tegu, and bearded dragon. It was amazing to be able to have that experience and learn so much about them.

The classes themselves are really interesting because we are starting our small-animal and large=animal medicine courses. Medicine really helps us gain the tools necessary to think like a doctor! In large-animal medicine, we are starting with the topic of theriogenology, which is all about reproduction. For our cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, knowledge of reproduction is very important so we can make sure we are keeping our breeds free of congenital problems. Small-animal medicine is starting a lecture series on oncology, so I am getting a lot of knowledge in that subject!

With all of the new and exciting labs and classes I am taking this semester, I’m happy I am hitting the ground running with third year and hope to gain a ton of new experiences along the way!

Departing Advice for Vet School Success

I am now only a week and a half away from starting my clinical year! Because our clinical year is so busy, fourth-year students do not serve as ambassadors, which means I will be leaving the team as both a member and its leader. While reflecting on my first three years of veterinary school, I remembered my blog post from first year that summarized my advice for veterinary school. These lessons were helpful to me in my second and third year and will continue to serve me well in my final year of veterinary school.

If I could give one final piece of advice for succeeding in veterinary school, I would say that success in veterinary school is determined as much by your attitude as by your knowledge and experience. With that in mind, below is a list of five personality traits that I believe are valuable in veterinary school:

  1. Resilience: Veterinary school is full of challenges, both academically and emotionally. My classmates and I all have had to deal with obstacles of different magnitudes while in veterinary school, whether the setback was failing a course, coping with a family crisis, or managing responsibilities while ill. Resilience is the strength to keep persevering through four difficult years even in times when it seems impossible to become a successful veterinarian.
  2. Adaptability: Being adaptable is a key part of resilience. Veterinary medicine is constantly changing and veterinary school constantly presents its own challenges. This year we had to adapt to a completely new Veterinary Biomedical Education Complex. Next year’s incoming first-year class will have a completely redesigned curriculum. Fourth year is the epitome of change during veterinary school—fourth-year students change rotations within the hospital every two weeks, and each service has its own rules and structure.
  3. Loyalty: It is far better to face the challenges of veterinary school united. Support your classmates through their struggles by sharing resources and offering help. This will be especially important during fourth year, when students share cases and patient care. Always remember that your classmates and professors will be your future colleagues.
  4. Confidence: It is sometimes hard for me to feel confident during veterinary school. However, confidence is needed to pursue opportunities and make the most out of a veterinary-school education. Because I was confident enough to apply, I had amazing experiences, such as spending three weeks working at a macaw conservation project in the Peruvian rainforest and serving as a leader in several student organizations, including CVM Ambassadors.
  5. Open-mindedness: Veterinary medicine is constantly evolving thanks to new advances in research. It is impossible to be an expert in everything, especially as a student. Be humble and willing to learn from others.

I hope that this advice is helpful, no matter where you are on your veterinary school journey. I have loved my time in veterinary school so far, and I am excited for next year!