This quarter went by so fast! I can't believe I'm already 1/3 done with my first year of veterinary school. I think I had a long period of adjusting at first and am still learning how to survive in veterinary school, but overall, it was a great quarter. I became involved in some clubs, attending "rounds" where they have residents go over unique and cool cases that they see in the clinic here at Davis. They are always fun and suspenseful, because they test your knowledge and let you feel as though you are working up the case yourself. My favorite club functions were the Equine Medicine Club meetings. I also went to the Wildlife medicine club meetings and rounds.
In Vet school, there is such a thing as a "free lunch". We were swamped with lunch talks that always provide us with hot food, mostly pizza, but occasionally burritos and Chinese food! On top of the food, the lunch talks are always interesting.
Freshman Doctoring (400A): This class started during orientation and taught us how to be a good veterinary students. It gave us a chance to meet one another (the class we'll be with for four years!) and learn how to interact in groups. It was taught by the famous Dr. Jim Clark and Cheryl and Dr. Baine. They were all upbeat professors with valuable knowledge to offer.
Animal Behavior (406): I really enjoyed this class, I didn't learn a lot of new material, since I have a lot of experience understanding animal behavior already, but I did learn that it is really important for a veterinarian to understand animal behaviors and educate owners on proper and polite animal behavior, for your safety and theirs. I often think about horses that walk all over people and are "pushy" this is not a desired behavior in the horse, owners need to be the "lead mare" of the herd (owner and horse) and make sure that their 1,000 pound horse is not going to trample them. Behavior is an ever emerging field because one of the main reasons for animal relinquishment is because of behavior issues that could easily be resolved with a little basic knowledge about animal behavior and how to deal with it.
Epidemiology (409): Epidemiology is the study of disease flow through populations. It is very important in studies of Malaria, HIV, the e. Coli spinach outbreak. I think this class really drove it home how important good research is to human and animal health. Not my favorite course, but it was over quickly. I do enjoy learning more about research and how it is conducted, but honestly, I'm really not sure what to take from this class. I'm left wondering how I could have done better in the course and how I could better wrap my head around the professor's questions. I did get a B+ though, much better than I thought I would do!
Physical Chemistry (403): This course was very clinically relevant. I really enjoyed the periodic case discussions that pertained to the course material. The case discussions were presented to us and we had to figure out a differential list of diagnosis and treatments. Each case was then presented by a faculty member that had actually seen and treated the case. It was great to see real cases that related to the material we covered in class.
Veterinary Ethics&Law (436): We had some very opinionated people in this course. We talked about very heated issues in veterinary medicine and the realm of animal welfare. The professor wrote the book on veterinary medical ethics and was very opinionated himself. We had several guest speakers in the course that drove home the realities of these issues. I still have to write my essay over Christmas break which is our grade for the course.
Radiology (430): It was hard to pay attention in this class because they always turned out the lights! How are you supposed to stay awake at 9am in the morning with no light? It was really cool learning how radio graphs are generated, and how Ultrasound, MRI, and CT works. Many of the professors in this course were really great lecturers and had a great sense of humor. We got to hear several physics jokes throughout the quarter.
Anatomy: Canine Locomotor System (401A): One of my favorite classes. This course really made up the bulk of my study time.We began by learning all the bones, all the points, foramen, and fossa's of the bones. We learned all the muscles, veins, arteries, nerves and cutaneous test sites of the canine forelimbs and hind limbs in addition to the epaxial and apaxial musculature of the back. We also learned about variations between species (horse, dog, cat, bovine). A lot of hours spent studying with friends in the anatomy lab. This course was not cumulative, but we had four exams!
Histology (427): We learned exactly what makes up an entire organism (or animal so to speak). We looked at slides during laboratories and learned to differentiate different tissues.
Cardio Anatomy (402A): This class started two weeks before finals week. It was kind of a abrupt introduction to the anatomy of the heart.
Animal Nursing (415): We had several animal handling labs where we got to work with real animals! The first one was small animal handling followed by cat/dog handling, then equine handling and last but not least, food animal handling. Some of my memorable experiences were practicing making a "kitty burrito" and drawing blood from the tail vein of a cow as well as from the jugular from a goat. This course continues the whole first year of veterinary school. This quarter, I had my small animal nursing shifts which introduced me to the VMTH and how they conduct their patients. We also learned how to monitor fluids and find the doctor's orders. It was fun actually getting some hands on with the animals.
