Skip to main content
What can we help you find?

Terra, the ‘Service Dog’

Mikaela and Terra
Mikaela and Terra

Recently, I was able to bring my dog, Terra, to school! That is one of the perks of being a veterinary student—sometimes we get to all bring our pets to class.

We needed her for our orthopedics laboratory, in which we were learning to do a proper orthopedic exam and how to apply a splint. Nothing beats the real thing when it comes to practicing, and Terra was a willing patient (for a lot of treats).

We started out by just watching her walk in a straight line from the front, back, and sides to see her gait and how she moves. This can help you identify if there is a lame leg and which one it could be. Then you do the same thing at a jog. After that, we do a standing exam and you feel over all the joints for anything that is out of the ordinary. It is important to feel both sides at the same time to compare the two sides.

Following the standing exam, Terra got to lay down and we went through all the ranges of motion on each joint to make sure she had full movement in each without pain. Through this whole thing, she was just getting pets and treats and thought it was the best thing. Turns out, she is a pretty good patient.

After the ortho exam we went to the bandaging lab! But, first, we needed to give all the pups a chance to relax, so we went outside for a puppy party! Terra played with a 6-month-old Whippet named Goose, and they are now best friends. We also played fetch for a while so she would be tired and lay still for the bandage.

When we went inside, each of my group members got to practice making a splint and securing it to the body. We did Terra’s front legs, one at a time. There is a lot of padding and you need to make sure the placement of everything is correct so that there is no way for the animal to get hurt from the bandage that is supposed to be helping heal.

Once we wrapped the leg she was allowed to stand to see how she would move in it. At first, she tried to go backward; apparently all dogs do this to try and walk out of the bandage, but once I showed her some treats in front of her, she was basically running to get them. The splint was not going to slow her down. We took it off after a couple minutes and then the other leg was done.

All in all, we had a great day of learning, and it’s always fun to bring your dog to school. Because we are veterinary students, many of our animals are used to being handled, having their hearts listened to, and being our models. We love them so much, and they are willing to help us with our education.

So, really, for Terra, this lab was just another day as a veterinary student’s dog.

Making Time for Myself

Jana with her sorority sisters at SongFest
Jana and her sorority sisters used their study breaks to prepare to participate in SongFest; their theme “Game of Thrones.”

As the semester moves from Thanksgiving break into finals, now is a better time than ever to stress the importance of self-care, which has a reputation of being a glamorous luxury that requires a lot of time and money. While this is far from the case, it is also more than just mentally checking out and watching Netflix for a few hours.

As an average college student, I find myself under a lot of pressure to perform well in school, be involved in extra curricular activities, hold a job, maintain a social life, stay healthy, and keep my room clean. Even though that last one tends to fall lower on my list of priorities, I still struggle to make time for all aspects of my busy life, let alone to take care of myself.

According to PsychCentral, self-care is defined as any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. That can mean different things to different people, but there are a few things to consider when thinking about your own self-care:

  1. Self-care is a way to recharge and replenish, not take away.
    As much as I love watching of all my TV shows, I found that I was not getting the relief I needed from a chronically stressful environment by mindlessly turning on “The Office” for the seventh time. Rather, activities that are engaging, yet still relaxing, have proven to be the better option. By reading a book has been my go-to downtime activity this past semester, for example, I am able to give my eyes a break from screens and lose myself in a story that is not visually presented to me; it is a personal, cozy pastime that also gives my brain some exercise. Be it reading a book, spending time outside, or even watching something different on TV, the time set aside for self-care is precious and is meant to be a way to give back to yourself.

    Jana and her Friends at Messina Hoff
    Jana and her friends enjoyed a Sunday afternoon at Messina Hoff after a long week of tests.
  2. Instead of an occasional treat, self-care is most effective when incorporated into everyday life.
    Some people meditate for a few minutes every morning; others hit the gym everyday after class. This aspect of self-care requires establishing a routine and knowing how you work most efficiently. Most days I feel like a ping-pong ball bouncing between school and work and friends and studying. The name of the game for me is frequent, short breaks. Right before classes started, a friend told me about this wonderful app from NPR called NPR One. Since downloading this free app, I have discovered that NPR is so much more than morning news and documentaries about obscure subjects (though those have proven to be really, really cool). Ranging from three to 45 minutes, incredibly enriching podcasts and radio shows that cross dozens of subjects serve as perfect intermissions to my day. Now, I look forward to my drives across town and walks between class buildings. Integrating self-care of any form into daily practice reduces and prevents anxiety and stress, leaving room for positivity and productivity.
  3. Self-care is not selfish.
    This final point addresses the perception of self-care. From a young age we are encouraged to give to and care for the people around us, to always work our hardest and try our best. It can be uncomfortable to bring something new into your lifestyle that seems to be solely for personal relaxation and pleasure. As a student working toward attending veterinary school, I have drilled the ideas of working hard, pushing my limits, and not stopping until the letters D, V, and M are behind my name; it has become the core of my undergraduate career. While determination and giving 100 percent are keys to success, I have learned you cannot get there running on fumes alone. In order to reach my full potential as a student, employee, ambassador, daughter, friend, and vet school applicant, I must take care of myself mentally, emotionally, and physically. In doing so, I am able to put my best foot forward when it comes to supporting the people in my life.

While this is certainly not an exhaustive list of self-care characteristics or activities, I hope this serves to stimulate delving further into understanding the importance of self-care and discovering which techniques work best for you. Start that journal, make time for that fitness class, or stop being afraid to talk to a counselor.

Self-care is meant to build healthier, happier people, and healthier, happier people tend to do better on finals.

A Glimpse into the Vet School Curriculum

Mary W.As the new curriculum is implemented here at Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine, more and more courses are designed to be fully clinically relevant. For the students, this means we get to play doctor from day one, as overwhelming as that may be. Here are some examples of what my fellow second-year veterinary students and I have seen among some of our classes this semester.

“Charlie is a 6-year-old MC Boston Terrier who presented to your clinic with a one-month history of seizures that have been increasing in frequency and duration. After reviewing the following complete history and introductory blood work, write a prescription for an appropriate drug for Charlie.”

Thus begins another pharmacology lab.

My classmates are split into groups of five or so, each with a different case profile. For this lab, the groups are paired, with one acting as the emergency service and the other as the neurologists.

While every case is different, they all have seizures, as we are focusing on anti-convulsants in lecture. We will spend about half an hour combing resources and notes trying to come up with an appropriate treatment plan before going over all of the cases with the clinician who is presiding over the lab.

We discuss why certain drugs must not be given to certain patients and why one option may be marginally better than another. The clinicians also try to emphasize that sometimes there is no one correct choice; sometimes they are all bad and you may just have to choose the one that is least offensive.

Every pharmacology lab unrolls in much the same way, covering most of the cases we are likely to see in practice and emphasizing those where the decision-making process is not easy.

Parasitology is fairly similar to pharmacology lab.

The beginning of the semester felt like we were studying an entomologist’s encyclopedia: “Here are a dozen ticks (or mites, or lice, or fleas, or nematodes); figure out the best way to tell them apart under a microscope.”

Fortunately, after deciding we had successfully jammed all of that information into our brains, we were able to move on to clinically relevant discussions. Different professors discussed the parasites we were likely to find on the most commonly treated species, emphasizing those that are very common or very detrimental to the animal or the producer’s wallet.

Most of the time, this meant working through a case: “A commercial dairy-goat producer has been having issues with her goats not keeping weight on, and a few have died. She deworms the whole herd with Ivermectin every two months and didn’t have any problems until the rains started a few weeks ago, etc.” Your job as the student is to correctly determine the parasite, treat the parasite, and then educate the client on the best method of prevention for her herd (hint—it’s not “deworm every two months with Ivermectin”).

Throughout this exercise, common parasites of the affected animal are available on slides or in specimen jars, and clinicians are there to answer any questions that may come up. We were also able to do several important clinical diagnostic tests, things vets do every day, like fecal flotation and heartworm tests.

Pathology lab is for those who like getting your hands dirty and staring at gross things; it’s the study of how disease affects tissue, so there’s nothing normal in pathology lab. You’ll see abscesses and cancer, pneumonia and partially healed wounds, nasal cavities that have lost all structure and mineralized vessels.

The best part about path lab is that all of the pathologists love making lesions “relatable” and easy to remember. So, it’s not a lymph node filled with caseous exudate; it’s a ball of your favorite cheese. It’s not chronic passive hypertension of the liver; it’s a “nutmeg liver.” This is made extra fun when they schedule pathology lab right after lunch.

You may get to put your hands on some necrotic intestines and pull fibrin off of a cow heart (wearing gloves, of course), but you will be learning while its happening. Pathology lab is designed as a hands-on, practical workthrough of the disease discussed in class, and we are expected to identify lesions that are placed in front of us.

That can be a lot to ask of a stressed out second-year, but it closely resembles what we will see in practice one day, so we persevere. I appreciate having these labs so that we can hear cases that are actually seen in the hospitals and work through them ourselves with samples and specimens beside us, even if we get it wrong; they’re bringing us one step closer to the dream of doing it all again one day as Doctors of Veterinary Medicine.

Life with a Little Lionhead

Nantika and Joujou
Nantika and Joujou Nibble, her Lionhead rabbit

Yes! It’s a typical thing veterinary students do,” I whisper to myself.

This is a story of the Lionhead and me. It starts one Saturday morning when I am attending the Rat and Rabbit Wet lab, hosted by the Dental Club. The objective of this wet lab is for veterinary students to get hands-on experience with dental care for rats and rabbits. The rabbit breeder brought various breeds of rabbits, big and small, so students can learn to evaluate rabbit teeth. All rabbits are cute, but my eyes stopped at one small rabbit, one with a wool mane encircling the head, which makes it look like a little lion! I had never seen this breed before. Then, the breeder announced that she is currently trying to find a new home for one of her rabbits, and she pointed to that little Lionhead. And…that is the beginning of my life with little Lionhead.

Lionhead is the name of the rabbit breed. The Lionhead rabbit is unique because of its mane, which looks like the mane of a lion. This breed is popular in Europe and is a relatively new breed in the United States. The first Lionhead rabbit was imported to the United States in 2002. The American Rabbit Breeders Association approved the Lionhead Rabbit as an officially recognized breed in 2014.

Before the Lionhead, I had never had a rabbit as a pet. Luckily, as a veterinary student, I have had my fellow vet students and my professors to help guide me through rabbit husbandry, which has made becoming a “first-time rabbit mom” an easy transition. I named him “Joujou Nibble” due to the malocclusion (the misalignment or incorrect relation between the teeth of the two dental arches when they approach each other as the jaws close) of his upper incisor teeth.

Here are some of the first things I learned as a rabbit mom:

Nantika's Lionhead rabbitLesson No. 1 for a rabbit owner is to learn to check the rabbit teeth regularly, because rabbit teeth never stop growing. Therefore, it is easier to get malocclusion, especially when a rabbit does not get the appropriate diet (hay, pellet food, or vegetables). Joujou Nibble goes to the Zoo and Exotic service at the Texas A&M Small Animal Teaching Hospital to get his teeth trimmed. When I first got him, the Zoo and Exotic service kept Joujou Nibble for a couple days while I got his hutch, timothy hay, oat hay, pellets food, bedding, hay rack, toys, litter box, and rabbit igloo (because rabbits like to hide). It was fun to get my house ready for the rabbit.

Lesson No. 2—if the rabbits do not poop or eat or drink in 24 hours, it needs medical attention immediately. Because Joujou Nibble was stressed from changing his home and getting his teeth trimmed, he did not eat or drink or poop and I had to take him back to see the veterinarian at the Zoo and Exotic service again. At the teaching hospital, the veterinarian and vet tech taught me to evaluate the degree of dehydration and give IV fluid, to listen to his gut sound, and to critical care feed a rabbit with a syringe.

Nantika's rabbit in his hutch
Joujou Nibble, in his hutch

Lesson No. 3—rabbits sleep mostly during the day and sleep with their eyes open. At night, Joujou is awake. I can hear him chewing his pellet food or running up and down in his hutch.

Lesson No. 4—litter box training a rabbit is challenging. The veterinarian recommends filling his litter box with rabbit litter and topping it with hay, since rabbits like to eliminate in one corner of the box and munch the clean hay. I have not been very successful in getting him use his litter box, but at least now I know which corner is his favorite inside the pen.

Lesson No. 5—do not yell or punish the rabbit for having “accidents” outside of the litter box. I gently patted him when he did not use his litter box, and that is a mistake! I learned my lesson; Joujou Nibble disapproves that, stomping his back legs when I got closer to him. This can mean “look out,” “pay attention to me,” or “I’m really angry.” I now know his stomp means “I’m angry at you.”

As time has gone on, I’ve begun holding him and talking to him everyday. He is finally willing to come to me and sniff my hand, which is a “yay” moment to me. It feels like when a baby says “mama” for the first time. Bonding with my rabbit is rewarding. As a rabbit’s mom and a future veterinarian, raising my rabbit gives me an understanding of the rabbit behaviors, signs of illness, and how to do physical examinations.

Joujou Nibble and I still have many more lessons to learn about each other, but I am enjoying every moment of learning new things about him; that is how my life with the Lionhead goes.

Filling a Puppy-Sized Hole in my Heart

Laine and her dog Karesen
Laine, before her undergraduate graduation, and Karsen, the service dog she raised, who graduated to become a diabtic-alert companion for a woman in Arizona.

It’s funny, the things you look forward to in life as time goes on and things change. Looking forward to the break has always been a constant in my life and now that I’m nearing the midpoint of my second year in vet school, I only have two winters and one summer left to cherish—what a thought!

I’m looking forward to going home and visiting my family, of course, but I’m also excited to go back and work for the veterinary clinic I’ve been helping at since I was 16 years old. They’ve always been a second family to me and I’ve never failed to learn something from the staff there as I practice my new knowledge. It’s never really work when you’re with people you love, doing what you love.

That isn’t the only reason I’m excited to return home this winter, though!

As an undergraduate student, I raised a service dog that is now in Arizona doing diabetic alert for her forever partner. It’s been so fulfilling knowing I’ve made a difference in someone’s life, but there’s been a hole in my heart where a lovable dog once was and for the continual work that kept me ever-busy.

After watching my friends’ dogs recently, I’ve noticed this hole growing even larger. Most recently, I puppy-sat my friend’s two dogs while one of them was recovering from back surgery, performed at none other than the Texas A&M Small Animal Hospital. All the extra time I spent taking him out to the bathroom in a sling and medicating him every 12 hours made me prouder of my future profession and the magic it can do. Already he’s gaining mobility back in his hind feet and beginning to wag his tail again.

This experience has also served to remind me just how much I miss having my own dog to care for regularly. So, finally, I decided to fill this hole.

This break I will be picking up the little sister of the service dog I raised to keep as my own pet. I cannot express how I excited I am! I hope to continue working for the community through dogs by either training her for search and rescue or therapy work. I know that with my new best friend, I’ll be able to change even more lives… but I have to make it through the slipper-chewing and the potty-training first, all over again. Wish me luck!

Taking Advantage of Opportunities

Kimberly N.Only 20 days of school left! I can’t believe time flew by so fast. Just a little over two months ago, I was starting my first semester of my sophomore year.

Because of the opportunities I found last year, I have been balancing not only school, but also working as an ambassador, doing research in the animal behavior lab, and volunteering at the Wildlife Center (it’s a class, but you’re essentially volunteering). It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun, too! I experienced so many new things this semester, and I can’t wait to experience more.

I like to think I’m a hard worker. Maybe it is the Vietnamese blood in me. Maybe it was my family’s circumstances. Maybe it is just my personality. Whatever the reason, that trait helped me get to where I am now.

About a month ago, I applied for the BIMS Costa Rica Study Abroad (which, by the way, I encourage any BIMS undergrad to apply for). In my application, I wrote a two-page essay that was peer-reviewed by four different people, along with the University Writing Center (super extra, I know). On Nov. 9, at 9:11 a.m., I received an email saying I had been accepted into the program. My heart stopped and I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t believe that I had been accepted! In disbelief, I emailed the professor asking if I was actually accepted and he said yes! Another person I know had also been accepted, but she wrote about a paragraph, so I guess I’m an overachiever. But I was extremely happy when I received that email because it showed that all my hard work paid off!

An important lesson I have learned this semester, which is advice I will now always offer to incoming freshmen, is that it is never too early to look for opportunities.

In fact, there are opportunities that have criteria you meet now and not later. I remember regretting not signing up for “Great Disease of the World” (one of the BIMS-directed electives) last spring because I found out too late that I could have gotten a certificate in public health entomology if I had taken that class. Now, I can’t, because you have to complete the class before you have 75 credit hours, which I have.

There are so many opportunities at Texas A&M, like research and study abroad programs, so you don’t have to look very hard to find something that might interest you.

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!

Semester Turns Down, Skills Turn Up

Brandi M.There are less than 20 days left of the semester! Hallelujah! The 2VM class has had a countdown since the middle of October, and I already have plans to become a permanent resident of my bed for at least a week when I get home. Maybe I’ll venture out to chat with my mom over brunch, mindlessly watch “Top Gun” with my dad for the 100th time, and bribe my brothers to go to the movies with me.

But I’m also finding myself feeling excited to go back to work for this winter break, more excited than I have been any other break. I have worked at a clinic for four years now, starting as a shadow (also known as from the bottom) and moved my way up to technician (where I now am), albeit a still-somewhat-clueless one.

One thing that I’ve noticed is that after every semester in veterinary school, I actually understand more of the things that go on in the clinic. After first semester physiology, I understood heart rhythms on EKGs and why everyone was concerned about a certain pattern. After second semester neuroanatomy, I knew how to assess the neurological status of a patient that came in with a head tilt and unequal pupils. After this semester learning about pharmacology, I’m looking forward to actually knowing what the drugs prescribed to patients do and why they are prescribed in the first place.

It’s moments like these that really put into perspective the things I’m learning in vet school. All of the hard work and long nights studying for exams that I don’t ever truly feel prepared for aren’t fruitless, and I get to showcase the things I’ve learned to the doctors and technicians who have essentially raised me through my formative veterinary-related years. I suppose that’s as much of a sign as anything that I’ve chosen the right career path for myself, since I’m not only willing but excited to endure the ocean of information that’s being metaphorically dumped on me every semester.

At the end of vet school, when I walk across that stage and hear myself called “Dr. Brandi Miller,” I can look back on the time I spent in and out of class learning, the effort I put into the skills taught in labs, and the buildings that were home to this incredible opportunity and tell myself “Veni. Vidi. Vici.”

I came. I saw. I conquered.

Exploring the Unexpected

LisaCollege—what a scary word, even for students IN college. It is a time to live and a time to settle down and really focus into what you really want to make of your life. For me, my first semester as a sophomore in the BIMS program has been a little bit more stressful than what I had anticipated compared to my freshman year.My experiences within this program has taught me a lot about college—most importantly, that life goes on. I have never been the smartest girl in my class but I have been one of the most hardworking. Obstacle after obstacle, my experiences have taught me of my limits and boundaries. What I have learned about my challenges in school is that grades matter, but so does your overall happiness. A&M has been the biggest challenge I have had in my life. Being seven hours away from home, making friends, and keeping up in a challenging program is stressful but, yet, such a great experience.

Overall, I am still in the process of learning that life is somewhat challenging, and we all need somebody to help us through those challenging times.

For me, that person has been my mom, who has supported me throughout my education. When I feel as if my life has taken a turn, a sweet lady named Yolanda always comes to the rescue; she has really helped me get though my hardest times. The best part of it is that my mom and I never have a dull moment, especially when she comes to visit me.

For example, recently, the five living former presidents came to College Station. Crazy, right?!? It’s not every day you get to be a few feet from five presidents stuck in the Bush Library joking around with Secret Service! But, excitingly, that’s exactly what happened with my mom and me. We happened to be there, watching secret service pull together the motorcade for the five presidents to be transported to Reed Arena for the Hurricane Harvey benefit event hosted at Texas A&M. There were snipers on top of the buildings and police officers and secret service everywhere. We were also stuck with a few other individuals who were carefully watching how someone’s life (in this case, the presidents’) can be so organized but, yet, so stressful. As everyone carefully watched the presidents, I watched my mom be as happy as I ever had seen her in our years together.

Although this moment was for the presidents, I consider it OUR moment. It was so cool to actually see five living presidents, but it was so cool to experience this with my mom. This lady never lets anything slide, has always been an educator and always has supported me and my education. I am forever grateful that she has provided me the opportunity to go to A&M, even in the moments I feel as if life is tumbling down. Experiences such as seeing five presidents really doesn’t happen much, but I appreciate that my mom has really supported me in going to a school that gives so many opportunities. Thanks and Gig’ em, Mom!

Finding ‘Balance’ as a First-Year Vet Student

Caitlin with her mom at a football game
When Caitlin’s mom visited for the weekend, Caitlin and took her to an Aggie football game.

Going into a professional program, you hear that all you will be doing is studying and going to class. Say goodbye to sleep, friends, family, etc.

I heard all of these things coming into veterinary school, and, honestly, it was really discouraging. I didn’t want my outside life to be put on hold for four years while I pursued the education that would shape my career.

Vet school was preceded by three days of orientation in which my classmates and I received many reminders to have a school-life balance. That was the first realization that school might not be as daunting as I thought.

While I had thought that I would go in and four years from now I would see my friends, what I was hearing day after day was that I would still have friends as long as I made the choice to see them outside of school. Sometimes studying would have to be put on hold and I would have to make the conscious effort to see the people who matter to me.

 

Caitlin and her friends
Caitlin with the friends who have helped her make it through her first semester of veterinary school

This doesn’t mean that I have time every day to sit at a coffee shop and hang out with everyone. I am in class from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and I still want to learn the information and make sure that I understand what I am supposed to know so that four years down the road, I can be the best veterinarian I want to be. I also was reminded day after day that my school could not be my entire life, so I’ve taken opportunities this semester to have some fun by celebrating with one of my roommates on the day she received her Aggie Ring, spending an entire weekend with my mom and going with her to an Aggie football game (which was so much fun!), and taking study breaks by spending time with the friends who have helped me make it through my first semester.

I just also have to remember that on those days that are tough to get through that I don’t have to go at it alone; I can take a break and have a meal with friends because they are important, too.