holy crap it's almost november!

hey! i'm taking a study break to post an update before I forget. Yup, another weekend of studying - we have our first physiology test tomorrow and although it's not worth too much, there's sooo much information included! I also hate neurology and that's the majority of the test, so needless to say I'll be glad when tomorrow morning is over.

Recap of the past week:

- we finally ordered our class merch!!!!!!!!! aka those black DVM jackets with our beautiful owl crest that I've dreamed about for years :) of course I also had to get a hoodie and a baseball hat too...oops :)

- I had my second PHC shift: it was an early morning so there weren't many appointments but I got to see the 4th year students prep a dog for a spay, and it reassured me that I don't have to know everything by the time I get to that point - it's a great teaching hospital :)

- another merch post: I got this amazing hoodie (my bank account is not happy, but I am!)

- dairy and beef farm tour: 1 word - CALVES! oh my lord they were the cutest things ever. we also got to see the dairy cows being milked which is a surprisingly fast process, but I was basically just there to stare at the babies nonstop. we couldn't take pictures but here are some examples:

fuzzy beef calves



dairy calves



This weekend was basically just studying and walking Daisy since I feel bad for being gone all week, I woke up this morning and she had snuck up to the top of the bed and was snoring away while resting her head on MY pillow...cutest thing ever. Matt may not be in Guelph with me but I have someone else to replace his snoring ;)

This week I have this phys test, another PHC shift, an anatomy viva voce (oral exam) and then finally HALLOWEEN! I think we're all ready to party, and I'm excited because I'm going to be a mermaid and I'm all set to do some awesome makeup. Then Matt is coming down on Saturday and I'm sooo ready to have a non-studying weekend :):)

I guess I'll stop procrastinating now and get back to phys. Bye for now :)



Little update

hey guys :) just thought i'd post an update while I have time, because this week is gonna be a crazy one!

Daisy has been settling into my place very well, she is in love with my bed and hasn't slept in her own bed until she did today for about an hour. Spoiled brat! Since I really haven't been working out since I've been here, having my dog with me has been a good way to force my butt to go for multiple walks a day :) it also makes me even more obsessed with her than I was before because we spend all of our time together....like I watch her sleep because she's the cutest (crazy dog lady, I know!)

Our 3 day week seemed way longer after having 4 days off, I think everyone was dead by Friday. I had my orientation for the dog enrichment program (volunteer dog walker for the beagles/hounds that are on campus for teaching purposes). I can't wait to get started because that just means even more beagles in my daily life :) Then on Saturday I had my first shift at the Primary Healthcare Center. It felt great to get back in the clinic environment (spoken like a true vet student). There were back to back appointments so I got to observe 4 of them from behind a 2 way mirror. They have microphones set up so that you can hear the whole appointment, since it is a teaching hospital. It was really cool and made me really feel like a vet student, especially since we got to wear our lab coats (yes I'm easily pleased!)

Other than that, we have another Histo test tomorrow so I spent some (definitely not all) of the weekend studying. This week I have another PHC shift, and we have 2 field trips to dairy/swine/poultry/beef farms. Since most of my vet experience is with small animals, I'm looking forward to seeing some new things :) We aren't allowed to take pictures but I'll definitely do an update next weekend. That's it for now!

Settling in just fine :)

My morning....so exciting!



4 days off :)

helloooo everyone!

I just had 4 days off of school so I'm currently sitting in bed and dreading my 6:30 am alarm that's waiting for me in the morning :(

This weekend was (Canadian) thanksgiving so I went home to celebrate. Matt came down on Friday night and we had wine and pizza, because we figured we'd be eating all weekend anyway so why not? Saturday we had Matt's family's dinner and then Sunday was mine (hello double turkey, double pumpkin pie and double fat-Faith!).

Thanksgiving props

Yesterday I went our for dinner with my girlfriends and then we saw Annabelle, which was pretty good and reaffirmed my hatred for both dolls annnd children. Why are kids always so creepy in horror movies?!

Today I headed back to Guelph with DAISY!! It was time for her to join me here. It's going to take some adjusting because she's only moved one time in her 9 years of life but she's doing pretty good so far and is taking advantage of my comfy bed.

Taking over the bed already

Just thought I'd add in an update here even though it isn't school related, I'm going to go relax for the rest of the night - the rest of October is busyyyyyy school-wise so I'm taking advantage of the calmness while I can.

Bye for now! :)

- Faith & Daisy

How could I forget the Beagles??

In my exhaustion last night I forgot to mention the highlight of my week at school - BEAGLES!! As many of you know, I'm a Beagle owner, and they are the most lovable pains in the ass ever :) The teaching dogs at OVC are mostly beagles (they only get used for non-invasive things, don't worry!). We got to practice restraint techniques on them this week, and the room was basically a bunch of wagging tails. Happiest dogs ever :) One of them was named Ambrosia and I almost couldn't contain my excitement for that adorable little face and ears! Ahhh. Clearly I miss my beagle, who is hopefully coming back to guelph with me after Thanksgiving break :) Here are some pictures of her to end this little rant of mine!

Can I sleep forever?

Hey guys!

How I feel right now

Wow, what a week! We had ~35-40 hours of classes and labs in the past 5 days. It was one of those weeks where some days were just 8 hours of sitting in lecture, which are always brutal - but coffee helps! I vowed that when I got into vet school I wouldn't complain about it like I hear some people do about med/vet programs because I've wanted this for sooo long. But I will definitely admit that I'm exhausted! It's just been an adjustment going from undergrad where I made my own schedule and didn't let my days begin before 10:30 am.

We had our first test on Monday morning, bright and early at 8:30 am. It was Histology which is a bit of a pain, but I'm thankful I took it in undergrad so it's one course that isn't bombarding me with totally new information. I think it went well :)

Histo - looks pretty, but it isn't that cool

On Tuesday we had a practice viva voce which is an oral anatomy exam. Basically the prof takes each group around to their cadavers - cat, dog, sheep and pony - and points at structures and we have to identify them. This one didn't count for marks but was good practice, and our group did great (group 9 is the best group anyway ;)) It made me realize that I actually am retaining stuff I learn in lab! I've actually been loving anatomy, which I wasn't expecting.

Matt visited on Tuesday afternoon (the benefits of only living an hour from my hometown) and we did some shopping and then went to the Burger's Priest - basically we ate a heart attack on a bun and it was amazing. It was a good mid-week visit to break up the monotony of school.

UMMM yes this deserved a picture. So goooood

We also signed out some practice cows on Tuesday to work on the techniques we learned last week, and my love for cows is growing every time I see them (I would mention this after posting a burger...oops).

Today we got to practice blood smearing in Histology lab; it's always nice when we do things in class/lab that are practical/that we will likely use in the future. Mine weren't all that bad for my first time!

So right now I'm enjoying a thrilling night in, watching tv and eating snacks and not leaving my bed. Soon it'll be time for bed and I will NOT be setting an alarm! (allllleluia!) Next weekend is Thanksgiving so I'll be going home because we have 4 days off - hello food, food and more food!

Goodnight :)

Cows & Stethoscopes

Hi everyone :) first off - we have a crest! this amazing thing will soon be on jackets and hoodies and the million other pieces of merch I'm going to buy so I can show off ;)

This week I got to touch animals!! I want to say "finally" but apparently lots of vet schools across the world hardly have any contact with live animals until second year, so I won't complain about waiting 3ish weeks!

We had our first large animal handling lab yesterday, which I've been anticipating since I come from an almost entirely small animal background. I've always loooved horses, I've ridden a few times but I don't know anything technical about them. We started with basic skills like haltering, leading, picking out hooves and grooming. My group's horse was named Violet and she was new to the teaching barn so she was very curious but behaved great :) now I reeeally want a horse in the future! Then we moved to the dairy barn and got to halter and restrain cows, which is a messier and more sweat-inducing job, but cows are so damn adorable. Those eyes and ears and giant sloppy tongues make up for the fact that they like to explode with pee and poop whenever they feel the need to. It was awesome to feel a bit like a farm vet in coveralls and steel-toed boots, and I'm already looking forward to "horse care week" where we get assigned to care for a horse daily.

We also got to do a heart lab in anatomy, which ended with the prof doing a live dissection of a horse heart (or was it a cow..either way it was as big as my head). Only vet students would gasp and go "ooooooh it's beautiful" when the valves of the heart were visible.....yes we're nerds!

This week was super tiring with 4/5 days starting at 8:30, and I would have normally slept in this morning (Saturday) but we had our professional welcoming ceremony! My family came down to watch me get officially welcomed into the profession, complete with a stethoscope and an embroidered blue lab coat - I guess I'm here to stay! The speeches themselves weren't all that thrilling for the most part (especially at 10 am..) but our class' presidents gave an awesome speech about the 2018 Ivory Owls - the line that stuck with me was "we get along with every classmate we meet because we're all slightly different versions of the same person" or something like that - so true :) afterwards my family and I walked around some gorgeous nature trails which Guelph is full of.

I'm ending this week very tired but also very happy :) ..until I have to study all day tomorrow for our first test on Monday :( but that's life - and an excuse to drink more coffee!

I like cutting things :)

Helloooo from London! I decided to come home for the weekend because it's UWO's homecoming (and my first homecoming as an actual alumnus who isn't living in London anymore!). I also figured I wouldn't have the time to go home until Thanksgiving so I might as well take the opportunity now.

Recap of this past week: I LOVE DISSECTING ANIMALS. We had 2 anatomy labs this week, and in addition to the fact that they're soo helpful for visualizing everything we've been learning in lecture, I'm also a little scalpel-happy. One thing I was thinking while dissecting thoracic muscles, ribs, lungs and hearts was that 1. internal anatomy is so complicated but body systems work so perfectly together, it's amazing, and 2. it isn't as intimidating as I used to imagine it being. Of course it'll be a different story when I'm cutting into a live animal, but I always think of surgery as being a mess of arteries and nerves that only a magical surgeon could manoeuvre around. These anatomy labs have shown me that once you know the anatomy of that region, everything falls into place and it isn't as scary as it may seem! Now let me do a heart surgery... Hahah just kidding.

In non-academic news, our class (Ivory Owls!) is working on a crest that will be on all of our merchandise. I can't wait to finally vote on a badass owl design so we can get those jackets that I've been wanting forever - and of course walking around all over Guelph showing odd that "Veterinary Medicine" embroidery on my back ;)

Or this could be on our jackets? 

Next weekend is our professional welcoming ceremony where we get our embroidered blue coats (blue coats > white coats, sorry MDs ;)) and stethoscopes. I'm ready to feel even closer to being a vet :)

But for this weekend I'm a Mustang, not an owl! I'm going to get some sleep so that I can be ready to celebrate tmrw in purple and white attire :)