I Was in Their Shoes....

I've been so busy the past few weeks, I've felt like I hardly have had time to breath. I'm holding my grades, but having to juggle my busy schedule which mostly involves classes, labs, discussions and the biggy, studying. I think studying is what really consumes my life. In addition to having classes from 9am-5pm five days a week, I spend about 3-4 hours studying a day (at least). Some days, I take some time, like on Monday, I went to the Corn Maize in Dixon with some of my friends and family. It was a blast, we spent an hour and a half winding through the maze in the dark. Later in the week, I find myself trying to catch up. It's an endurance race with an exam every week.

I am taking some time this weekend to celebrate my birthday with Alex in Monterrey. We plan to visit the aquarium and go on a whale watching trip. I know I will have to take my study materials with me, but if the weather holds, I plan to be laying on the beach when I'm studying. Thank God for Davis being relatively close to the ocean as well as the mountains.

I think the important thing in vet school is to take time to live. Life is short, time for studying is short, but you can make it happen. I try to ride at least once a week, working with the horses reminds me why I am working so hard in veterinary school.

On Monday, I had the opportunity to speak with a freshman class career discovery group on main campus. They were all interested in careers with animals, I'm sure at lease 2/3 wanted to go to vet school. It was meet the "upper classmen" day and they were overly excited to be able to speak to a real veterinary student. They asked really good questions about getting adequate experiences and how to improve their chances of getting in to veterinary school. They wanted to know everything about my experiences applying and beginning vet school.

Upon leaving, I thought about how I was in their shoes just five years ago when I enrolled at Sierra Community College. I was determined to succeed in my classes and prepare myself for veterinary school. I thought a lot about all my internship and learning experiences which have really stacked up to lead me to where I am now. I thought it would be a good idea for those following my blog and those who are interested in pursuing veterinary school might find it interesting to learn about my personal experiences that have contributed to my knowledge and skill set today.

First of all, on the application for veterinary school, experiences are divided into several categories for documentation of experience hours. I highly recommend anyone interested in applying to veterinary school in the future begin documenting these hours NOW. Make sure you record the number of hours, where the experience took place, who lead the experience, and a short explanation of what you did. This will greatly help you when you go to fill out your veterinary school application. Trust me, it's a LONG application, save all your time and energy by preparing yourself ahead of time.

Second, I recommend that you get a broad range of experiences. Don't limit yourself because you are scared to try something new or don't know how to get involved. The resources are out there, use your Google skills, join clubs (even if you can't make the meetings), they will put you on list serves that will be invaluable to getting experience for veterinary school.

Third, remember that veterinary school requires 180 hours of veterinary experience, but most applicants have 3,000-3,500 hours!

Other application tips: http://vetmedicine.about.com/library/viewers/uc-apptips.htm

Please look for my future post on my specific experiences

Surviving My First Anatomy Exam

We're in the middle of week 5 of veterinary School and I've just completed my first Anatomy Exam. It was the monster of all exams, the triathlon so to say. It was composed of a lecture exam, a practical lab exam, and a short answer/essay question lab exam portions. Many of you may wonder what a practical lab exam is. It is an exam with about 20-30 stations each with a lab specimen and question asking you to ID a particular part of that specimen. You have one minute at each station to identify the particular part of the specimen and have to write it down on your sheet (spelled correctly). I enjoy this type of exam even though you feel like you really have to know EVERYthing you learned and went over in the laboratory. This year, they also included two oral questions on the lab practical exam. I was nervous about these two questions since I would be required to perform and answer correctly to questions presented to me by our laboratory instructors. To my surprise, I answered them both correctly even though I had a little difficulty. I spent all weekend studying! I have yet to see my grades, but I felt that I at least passed, which is important. This exam focused on the bones of the Thoracic limb (forelimb) and the vertebral column, tendons and ligaments, as well as bone formation and breakdown. We focus mostly on the dog during laboratory, but always go over the major differences between the dog, cat, and the horse.

In addition to studying for my anatomy exam last weekend, I attended a lecture on equine dentistry put on by the equine medicine club on campus and presented by the AAEP (American Association of Equine Practitioners). It was very interesting to learn about the anatomy of a horse's mouth and the problems veterinarians often treat in regards to dentistry. One main idea that I took from it was that you better know what you are doing when you are working on a horse's mouth because you can easily cause more damage than help if you're not careful. We were also warned to be aware of people who are not veterinarians practicing equine dentistry. This makes sense to me since a non-veterinarian would have difficulty correctly sedating horses for treatment as well as treating horses for injuries caused by the dentist, such as accidentally cutting a major artery. I've had the opportunity to work with a non-veterinarian equine dentist and I thought he did a great job working with horse's mouths, however, he often heavily sedated horses, more than might really have been necessary.

Yesterday I went and saw Secretariat with Alex and my mom. It was a great movie and really put a spotlight on the racing industry and history. Altogether, Secretariat won 16 of his 21 career races, with three seconds and one third, for in-the-money finishes in 20 of 21 starts, and total earnings of $1,316,808. The movie made me think of Eight Bells, the young racehorse filly that died racing in the Kentucky Derby several years ago. She collapsed after placing second in the Derby, suffering compound fractures in both front legs resulting in immediate euthanasia. We will always remember her greatness and athleticism, and how great her heart was. I think it also posed a lot of question to the sport of horse racing and how the sport would continue to evolve in the future. 

As for now, I have a lot of studying to do as always. We have 8 exams between now and finals week (not including final exams). I think more frequent exams are helpful so that we do not have to remember so much material at a time, but it keeps you studying daily and on your toes. I've been considering getting a horse lately and know it is such a great market to buy right now, but I still consider my workload in veterinary school. It's definitely not that I can't afford to keep a horse, I don't know if I would have enough time for the horse. Maybe my third or fourth year I can finally have a horse. I realized today that it has been five years since I last owned a horse of my own. For now I love riding Tina (a Morgan mare) and Hobby (a Quarter Horse gelding). I am lucky to have such a great opportunity to continue riding without the commitment of owning a horse.

It's Friday!!!

I can't wait for the weekend, even though it involves studying histology, anatomy, and biochemistry! I'm participating in the Dog'n'Jog tomorrow at UC Davis with my mom, Alex, and the pug (my mom's 10 year old dog...and yes, he does have his own stroller).

Last night, we went to the Vet School Fall Mixer at the Grad. It was super fun even though I didn't get to play beer pong cause somehow we missed them calling us. There was a huge line to get in and to get drinks, but there was great dancing and "professional" beer pong. We danced and had fun, even had a guest appearance of one of our professors! He is really cool and really tries to interact and get to know his students.

Veterinary ethics and law was at 9am the morning after. Our class had a heated and opinionated discussion on licensure and professional behavior in veterinary medicine.