Summer 2012--St. Francis Veterinary Clinic Visit #3: "Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot about puppies."

That lovely quotation is from Gene Hill, and it really fits the mood of my latest visit to St. Francis. As I write this, I am taking a break from filling out the VMCAS application for my chosen vet schools (Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, and Mississippi). The last two may seem a little odd, but Augie students have been accepted there in the past, so I have faith that the admissions committees will see that I am from a good school, a school from which they have accepted students before, and consequently look better on me. But we'll see what happens. Anyway, you should know that the VMCAS (Veterinary Medical College Application Service) application is quite extensive and labor-intensive. Not only must I fill out personal information, but I must list each college course I have taken, its designation, what prerequisite it covers (if any), how many credits I earned for it, the grade that I got, and more. On top of that, I must list all of my veterinary and animal experiences, my volunteer activities, and my awards and honors. It is basically a full-time job filling the thing out. And when I am finished with the VMCAS, four of the schools to which I am applying require a supplemental application, which asks more in-depth questions than the VMCAS. Some of the supplemental applications have additional essays, but the two that I need to send by mail look pretty tame, so I'm not overly worried; it's just a heckuva lot to process. Luckily, I am taking this very free day (no work or shadowing) to get as much done on it as I can. I have filled out information for about half of my classes so far. I have also sent e-mails with links to my three evaluators and requested transcripts from Augustana and the University of Minnesota (I took a College-in-the-Schools Spanish course through the U of M during my senior year, so I need to get a transcript for those five credits I earned). So, I have accomplished quite a bit in just two days. But even students with strong work ethics like mine must take a break. I'd been working on the application for about an hour-and-a-half before I ate some lunch and decided to blog about Wednesday while I still felt up to it.

Anyway, on to shadowing. The morning was pretty low-key. I saw some pretty standard surgeries: a canine dental and a feline spay. The third surgery was a little more interesting. It was a wound repair on a Border Collie. I believe he had been running in the yard and split his left hind leg open.  The laceration left an awkward triangle of skin and muscle hanging open like a flap. Dr. K did a very good job of trimming the dirty, necrotic (dead) tissue from the edge of the cut and still leaving enough skin to close the wound. It was a pretty tight job, but it looked beautiful when it was done.

I did a lot of cleaning on Wednesday, too. I had to clean up poop twice (so fun...) and vomit three times (even better!). The vomit was from the wound-repair dog, who escaped from his kennel while I was trying to clean it. I half dragged him back and had to clean the blood from his leg off the floor. I nearly slammed the kennel door in his face because he tried to escape again, and he seemed really scared. I felt bad, but he was not being very good, either. Oh, and I'm sorry if this disgusts you, but I want to give you an accurate picture of what I do. Veterinary medicine is not all fun and games. It's low down and dirty a lot of the time.

However, it was all worth it for an afternoon appointment with a mother Collie and her nine pups! They were the absolute epitome of adorable, and I had to restrain myself from giggling out loud because they were just so stinking cute! The pups were part of a "Royal Collie" breeding program, so they all had very regal names like "Lady Ann" and "Prince Honey." My favorites were three puppies with a lot of black on them. They were basically tricolor because they had a little bit of tan near their noses and feet, so the effect was quite striking. Two of the black ones were going to the same family, a family with two little boys whose personalities each matched that of one of the puppies. How cute! It is my understanding that all of the puppies were either spoken for or were to be kept by the breeder. Lady Ann was off to Alaska, where her future family eagerly awaits her. Another one of the puppies was headed to Kentucky. I loved getting licked by all of the puppies. It was even cute when they sniffed my shoes and tugged on the legs of my scrub pants.

I also got to participate a lot again today. I did some restraint and got to draw up a canine rabies vaccine (I did not administer it because that requires a licensed DVM). I also gave more subcutaneous fluids today, this time just one liter to a Pit Bull. She was very patient with me and sat quietly with her dad while I administered the fluids. I think everything went a lot more smoothly this time. I didn't have any major problems, and no one really needed to help me, which was so cool. I got that great feeling again from knowing that I played a big part in helping an animal feel better.

This upcoming week is another double-shadow week. On Monday, I will get to shadow at an emergency clinic in Oakdale, and Wednesday is back to St. Francis, of course. For the Monday shadow, I have to fill out some forms when I get there, and I won't be allowed to touch anything (for obvious reasons). But I am excited to see what the lifestyle of an emergency vet is all about. I used to watch that show Emergency Vets on Animal Planet, but this will be even better because it will be real life! No word yet on what I will do and see at St. Francis this coming week, but I'm sure it will be great. For now, I must keep chugging along on the VMCAS application. My goal for today is to finish entering all of my classes and maybe start on something else (like one of the four supplemental applications) if I am not too worn out from filling out my coursework. I shall prevail!