23 August 2012

Mixed animals.

Only one more day left of my mixed animal placement, and I have to say that I do like it. The variety keeps you on your toes (especially the occasional ferret that reminds you that yes, they bite, and yes, it hurts when they do). I've not seen too much large animal work here, but I have been to a TB test and that was kind of fun. The farm we went to had a bunch of Charolais cross calves that were wild (and when I say wild, I mean, OUT OF CONTROL). Two of them managed to rush the crush (unintentional rhyming) and move it forward about a foot. That was exciting. Most of them decided they wanted out from any point except the front gate and got their heads stuck a few times in the bars. Silly things.

Apart from that, they've actually allowed me to do things! This is the first time I've had truly hands on experience in surgery, even if it was only two cat castrations. I still feel a bit out of my depth with the small animal side of things. There are times where I revert back to my vet tech days, when I was so timid and lacked confidence in myself when approaching problems...and also did all the tech duties of drawing up vaccines and holding animals. It's almost like my brain hasn't realized that I'm in vet school, and I know a lot more than I did 3 years ago, which should translate into more confidence about my abilities.

Anyway, this weekend I'm taking my friend J to Isle of Wight for her birthday, because no one should be alone on their birthday. I've got candles and some animal shaped balloons from Sainsbury's to celebrate. Hopefully it doesn't rain the whole weekend!

11 August 2012

Still on an Olympic high.

I meant to post this sooner, but alas. Placement got in the way. 
On Thursday, I got to go see history being made at the Dressage Gran Prix freestyle event at the Olympics. It was a once in a lifetime event, and I had THE BEST time. I went with my friend A, who was the one who managed to get the tickets for the event. And although the USA rider Steffen Peters didn't manage to get a medal, it was still amazing to watch the top riders of the world compete for the gold. I feel very blessed that I was able to go. 


Anyway, my second placement of the summer is now over. I had a wonderful time, although I didn't really get to do much. I'm finding that is a trend with my placements thus far. I wasn't entirely bored out of my mind, but when I'm seeing facebook statuses of "I just performed a castration!" or "I just watched a _____ surgery!", I kind of want to pull my hair out. 

Oh well. I still have two years left of school (YIKES) in which to do all these things. I suppose I'm not in a rush. 

I've got two more placements left this summer; one mixed animal practice and one farm animal practice. We'll see how things go.