Baby Vet Things

Hi!

Once again time is flying and it's been way too long since I last posted!

May has been a whirlwind of moving back to London, getting Ricky settled, and taking advantage of the 2 weeks off that I had before my externship started.

I've now finished 2 weeks of the externship and so far I'm loving it. Last year I worked as an assistant in a vet clinic and although I got to see some cool things, there were way too many reception-related duties involved for my liking. This summer is so much better - being a 4th year student and putting my education into practice has been great. It was intimidating at first but I'm realizing how much I've learned and actually retained. I'm working with horses as well as small animals, and I've recognized a lot of the diseases and stuff that have come up in the majority of cases that I've seen.

I've been practicing my physical exam, blood taking, and vaccination skills (things that we do a million times a day in practice but that we rarely got to work on in school) and will be getting into more surgical things soon. The vet I'm working with is great and it's really cool to be able to discuss "vet things" as we drive to farm calls. Nerdy but true! :)

I'm looking forward to the next 6 weeks and watching my notebook of cases get bigger and bigger. Stay tuned!

Baby pygmy goat!

Ernie and Bert 

Tumor removal

Horse with sarcoids

Free at last :)

Holy crap, I'm done!
After 3ish weeks and 10 finals, I'm finally done third year :)
I'm not the type to get too worked up over finals, but that was definitely the worst exam period I've ever dealt with. Each exam was worth between 55-75% of our final mark, and most of them were back to back. So we'd write one at 9 am, most likely not feel great about it, then had to go home and study for the next one which was at 9 am the next day. Repeat, repeat repeat. It was a weird mix of being stressed because it was worth so much, and just not caring anymore. Whew! Never again!
Now I'm home in London and I have 2 weeks off before I start my externship. I'm nervous but excited to get some horse as well as small animal experience, but for now Im going to take advantage of having absolutely nothing to do!
That's it for now, just wanted to post a quick update since I finally have more than 30 seconds of spare time :)

Dear lectures - goodbye forever :)

After 8 years of university classes, I'm officially done sitting in lecture all day every day - forever! (assuming I pass finals..)

Classes have finally ended and we are all preparing for our marathon of 9 finals over the next few weeks (with one of them being worth 70%...should be fun). I'm so excited to be done with third year! Still can't believe how fast it flew by. We had our white coat ceremony last weekend to signify us moving from classes to clinical and we all felt very old (and also accomplished).

We also finished our last surgery of the year, a cat spay, and when we were doing her physical exam we noticed that she had an umbilical hernia - it was just fat, nothing crazy like intestines, but we got to repair that while we were in surgery :) I'm posting a pic of what came out of the abdomen so if you are squeamish then #sorrynotsorry ;)

Uterus/ovaries and fat from the hernia 

Other than that, I've been obviously spending most of my time with Ricky :) he is the sweetest, gentlest, easiest dog ever. We've been working on his separation anxiety and he's doing way better; he gets a Kong stuffed with yogurt and sardines (I know, gross) and when I come home now he is usually in my bed (I creep from the window) instead of waiting anxiously by the door. He is keeping me on my walking game - although he is very relaxed in the house, this guy can WALK! I've also found a fenced area where I've let him run and watching him at top speed is amazing. Overall he's the best and I'm looking forward to him coming out of his shell more and more. Even Matt who claimed to not like greyhounds (pfft) already loves him. How could you not love this face?

Ricky and his girlfriend Bailey :)

Post-run tongues 

I think that's it, I'm currently studying for radiology and then it's on to the next..and the next..and the next...repeat! Then I have a 2 week break before my externship begins - eek adult things!!

Bye for now :)

Tricky Ricky :)

Hi from me and MY NEW DOG! :)

After months of research and obsessing, I finally adopted a retired racing greyhound :) This is Ricky (race name Tricky Ricky) and he is 5. He raced in West Virginia and has been looking for a home for over a year - he was overlooked because of his colour (black dogs/cats are always the last to be adopted) and because he isn't "small dog safe" (his play is too rough for them - after all, he was bred to chase rabbits!). I had been stalking the website of the rescue I had been in contact with, and had another younger greyhound in mind but he got adopted before I had the chance to visit. However, Ricky's foster family thought he would be perfect for me, and once I met him I realized that maybe he was waiting for me all along :) He is SO well adjusted to everything since he is a little older, completely housetrained, does not chew anything he isn't supposed to, loves walks and people and car rides and large dogs, and is all around perfect. We are working on alone training since he hasn't been an only dog before, but that's why I wanted to adopt now - classes are ending and then April is just exams and then I have a few weeks off before my externship starts - plenty of time to adjust :) he's already doing great, today I left for 10 mins (I know, sounds like nothing) and when I got back he was lying in the hallway showing zero signs of stress. Progress! I missed having a dog so much. We have a good routine, I don't sleep in unnecessarily, and I'm getting more exercise than I have in months - this guy can walk! Overall I'm thrilled to have a companion again :) Here are some more pics:

I got him at the end of reading week, which involved pretty much zero reading. We had a test on the Monday back (ew) which I basically sacrificed since I spent my week getting ready for Ricky and hanging out with friends and family - sometimes a 13% test is just not worth the stress. 

Back with my girls :)

This week we have another test, our last spay/neuter surgery, a simulated client appointment and then another week of classes is over! Only a few more to go, and I couldn't be more happy. We also got our tentative 4th year schedules - reality is coming!!

That's all for now, I mainly just wanted to post about my boy Ricky because I'm so excited! Talk soon :)

"Patience is a virtue" - and I don't have any

Is it reading week yet?? 

That has been the most common phrase out of everyone's mouth lately - I think we are due for a break! I don't know about anyone else, but class has been driving me extra crazy recently. I think it's because I know that these are my last few months of class EVER, and I'm itching to be done!

Since my last post, here is what's been happening:

- Ottawa trip: Cold but awesome! We went out on Friday night and being the old people that we are, came back to the hotel around 1 am and watched Catfish - super romantic anniversary weekend ;) The next day we checked out parliament and then wanted to get out of the -20 degree weather ASAP so we visited the museum of nature which was way cooler than we were both expecting! Lots of animal stuff to look at, and lots of bugs to avoid (who wants to look at a tank full of hissing cockroaches??)

Canada's capital :)

Trying to take selfies with dinosaurs

- Wrote 3 exams (the usual)

- Did 2 more surgeries (both kitty spays) - we've been getting so much more efficient and I've learned so much, I wish we had more! But I'm glad I can go into my externship this summer with at least a bit of hands-on experience :)

We finally took a surgery pic :)

- I also turned 26 (#old) and we had an online test on my birthday + class all day the next day so we took a trip to my friend's parent's cottage to have a breather and celebrate my bday by drinking wine in our PJs. It was soooo necessary, as much as we all did not want to go back to school on the Monday (and write another test), it was a great mini vacay.

Snowshoe adventures :)

Perfection!

We have just over a week of class before reading week (alleluia) and I'm visiting my best friend in Toronto this weekend since we don't have a test on Monday (miracle!) so it'll be nice to breathe for a bit :) I've also been in touch with some greyhound rescues and got approved for adoption, so I'm going to be doing some dog-searching next month - eeeek!

Stay tuned!

Break recap and the usual school stuff

Ok time really needs to stop flying by - it's been almost a month since my last post!

Christmas break went way too fast but it was a great break from school - I squeezed in hangouts with as many friends and family as possible, caught up on sleep, ate and drank way too much, and did absolutely zero school work. There was one day that I was feeling like a good student and I literally opened a set of notes, looked at the first page, and promptly closed it. 

Here are some pics from the 2 weeks of holiday break where I actually had a life!

Christmas parties :)

New year's eve breakfast with my mom and brother - there is a waffle under there somewhere!

Another Christmas party - we ran out of room so had to improvise 

The struggle to take group photos..

New year's eve :)

Matt is obsessed with Gordon Ramsay so this was part of my Christmas gift to him

Matt's Gordon Ramsay inspired steak - vegans beware

So now we've been back to school for not even 2 weeks and I'm already counting down til the end of the semester. Sitting in class all day is killing me, especially after the break, and I'm looking forward to getting into clinical things. Thank god for the group of friends I have at school because if it wasn't for our group chat full of ranting, I may go nuts (it's always good to release anger, right?) Classes this year are much more relevant and interesting, but this is my 8th year of post-secondary education and lectures in general are starting to test my patience.

We're already getting back into tests and assignments, the silver lining is that overall this semester has less class time - there are a few long weekends, reading week in Feb, and then classes actually end before the craziness of finals begin. I'm looking forward to getting more surgery experience too :)

This weekend Matt and I are going to Ottawa for a weekend getaway to celebrate our 9 year anniversary (damn, I really am old) and then after that it's back to weekly tests so I'm going to enjoy the next few days!

That's it for now :)

Christmas break :)

Another semester of vet school complete! Just one more semester of classes and clinical things begin :) Not gonna lie, I am beyond ready to get out of class - mainly because I may go crazy if I have to listen to one more person complain about how unfair exams are or how hard vet school is (but I'll end my rant there..)
I just got home (London), wrote my last exam this morning and got outta there ASAP! We've been hit with quite a bit of snow which I'm happy about because 1. last year was a green Christmas and it was depressing, and 2. I don't care how much snow we get because I have no plans for the next 2 weeks other than sleeping and watching movies. Although I should catch up on some notes because my to-do list just keeps growing.
Not much has happened since my last post, I came home one weekend to go to Matt's work Christmas party and also saw Fantastic Beasts (loved it), and then December was just full of studying since I had 4 tests and 2 online quizzes and an assignment and labs - the usual! It's been tiring but the busier we are, the faster time seems to go, and we always survive it somehow :)

The end of Movember - thank God that's over with now

We've been doing more 4th year stuff, ranking elective rotations and such. It's crazy that in a month or 2 I'll have my tentative schedule for 4th year!
My group had a great Secret Santa/hangout and we took some festive group photos as we do every year. This time it included some horses :)

Other than sleeping I plan on seeing all my London friends over the next 2 weeks; we have a Christmas party tomorrow and I'm looking forward to dusting off my makeup and actually looking like a normal human for the first time in awhile :)

That's all for now!