My weekend has been full of realizations of what I want to do with my life. On Friday, I started the morning off riding Tina, a gorgeous Morgan mare that belongs to one of my professors. Although I had an exam that afternoon, I felt that getting out to the barn was equally important.
On Friday evening, after our GI Anatomy exam, we had a TG (tail gate) at vet school. We typically have them once or twice a month, but basically it's a chance to hang out with all the vet students and sometimes the faculty comes too. They buy a bunch of Costco Food, fire up the BBQ's and tap the kegs. It's great after a long hard week and the second years do a great job putting it on (next year it will be my class's turn to host the TG's). I sat and ate with my friends, petted dogs that were running around having a great time, and we tried not to talk about the test or vet school (which can be difficult with a group of vet students--> We are so absorbed in our education, which is a great thing, but sometimes you just want to forget about the exams, the random Latin words, the anatomy, the crazy diseases and cases we've seen). Needless to say, I had a great time, and around 6pm I headed off to my equine nursing shift.
I went into the shift knowing I have a lot of horse experience already, but I kept an open mind that I might learn something new that night (well cause really you never stop learning). I first met up with a second year student who was tracking lab animal/exotics. I knew it would be a great shift, I really enjoy working with people who don't have a lot of horse experience. I feel like I'm sharing my passion with them and helping them have an amazing experience with horses. The technician that was teaching us was great and had a good sense of humor. She told us PE meant "penile exam" however I quickly realized the horse's chart said "F" on it for female. I had a great evening in B-barn learning from a very experienced technician that had worked at Davis as a technician for the past 26 years. I actually did learn a few pointers on how to more efficiently do a physical exam and I learned the word "eupnic" which means normal breathing (ya, who would think). I think the most I got out of the experience though was the reassurance that equine medicine is where my passion lies. Working with the horses in B-barn was a wonderful experience and a glimpse into what my fourth year might be like.
On Saturday, I volunteered at the MERCER clinic (veterinary care for pets of the homeless) and it was super busy. We only had about seven veterinary student volunteers and like 21 vet aides, so we had three vet aids per vet student. MERCER is a great opportunity for vet aides to get hands on experience restraining animals, drawing up vaccines, and learned how to apply flea medication. Although it is much different from your typical veterinary clinic it is a great opportunity to find out if veterinary medicine is for you. Although I was only on for the morning shift, I stayed until 2 in the afternoon because there was such a shortage of volunteers. I realized that there was a lot that could be done to improve the clinic and that I wanted to get more involved. MERCER is such a wonderful opportunity that benefits vet students, homeless people, and their pets.
This Sunday I'm taking a little easy as I haven't taken much time to relax lately. I have to study for our Animal Nutrition exam next week. I'm going to try to ride Hobby (the Quarter Horse) and spend some time with my wonderful boyfriend!
Me and Tina
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