Summer 2012--St. Francis Veterinary Clinic Visit #6: A Long Time Gone

Well, it certainly felt like I had been gone for ages when I got back to the clinic a couple of days ago. It completely slipped my mind to blog about it yesterday because I was busy finishing one of the essays I need to write for my Iowa State supplemental application. Mom also recently sent out my completed supplemental application packets for Mississippi State and Kansas State, so I am certainly making yet more headway on all of my applications. I enjoy completing each step because I know that it puts me just that much closer to my end goal. Anyway, Wednesday was really a day like any other at the clinic. I participated in all my usual capacities: restraint, anesthesia monitoring, taking temperatures, assembling puppy and kitty packs, and doing some light cleaning. I did get to see a really cool toe amputation surgery, which was very interesting to me. The toe had a quarter-sized tumor on it, so it definitely needed to be removed. After that, I watched a couple of cat spays, which weren't too exciting, but it's never a bad thing to get more experience, even if it's something typical and ordinary. I don't regret a single hour that I have been at the clinic. Later in the afternoon, I helped unpack syringes and put them in boxes for easy access. As always, I spent some quality time with my favorite kitties Odie and Bailey. I would honestly adopt Bailey if I could, but I can't take care of a cat right now. Not only do I still live at home, but I am barely making enough money to pay for books and my vet applications. There's no way I could afford veterinary care, food, and litter for a cat. I know that I'll probably own one dog and one cat someday, but that day will probably come after I have graduated from veterinary school and have a steady, sizable source of income with which to support myself and animals.

I was delighted in the later afternoon to spend some time shadowing Dr. N. She went to do a litter exam on ten English Springer Spaniel puppies. Oh my goodness. They were even cuter than the Collie puppies! They were so beautiful and reminded me a little bit of baby Emmie (my own Brittany dog). Spaniels really are the cutest puppies. Most of them were black and white with deep brown eyes, but a couple very precious ones were liver and white with lighter eyes than their brothers and sisters. I would definitely have wanted to have one of the liver ones. I got to hold most of them, and they spent the majority of the time nibbling and licking me. Nothing like puppy time to make a hectic day all better. Honestly, though. If I even try to sit down at the clinic, someone comes up with something for me to do. Like the aforementioned puppy and kitty packs, pill counting, nail trims, and the like. Not that I'm complaining. I'm glad to be at this point in my pre-vet education where the clinic trusts me enough to assign all these tasks to me. It's better than spending three hours of my time there sitting and reading a book, which is how it used to be. The appointment with the puppies was also cool because Peej showed me how to do an ear smear, spreading the sample on a slide before heat-fixing it with a lighter and dipping it in a trio of Diffquick stains (blue, then pink, then deep violet) before rinsing it off and patting it dry between two paper towels. The staining is really cool because it really brings the contents of the ear debris into good focus. We examined the sample under the microscope and saw quite a bit of yeast and cocci bacteria. I reported this information to Dr. N, who was using the ear smear as a sort of general gauge for the entire litter. Chances are good that if one puppy had that much yeast and bacteria in her ears, at least one of the other puppies did, too.

It was really good to be back after my 10-day break, and everyone thanked me as I walked out the door. Now, I really don't think I deserve all of this thanks. I'm supposed to be an active participant in my shadowing opportunities. It is everyone else who deserves the thanks for supporting me and for giving me things to do that advance my understanding and comfort with veterinary medicine. I am getting very close to 400 hours of shadowing experience, which is basically the minimum that I need to convince the admissions committees that I do know what veterinary medicine is all about and that I will be a successful veterinary student because of my knowledge of the profession. I won't get to shadow next week because Dr. J is on vacation with her family, but it's okay because I think I'll be pretty set for hours, plus my roommate Sarah from last year is coming to visit me! It's just for a few days, but I think that will be enough time to show her around and hang out a little before we go back to school.

In other news, I just found out that I have been awarded the DW Carlson Memorial Scholarship from Augustana College for the 2012-2013 academic year. The scholarship is for junior or senior students who are in pre-professional studies (which I am--pre-vet, obviously!) and who are out-of-staters (also me!). It does require me to maintain a 3.0 GPA, but I think at this stage in the game, I can probably manage that...