Diary of a Dick Vet

‘The uterus is the only Y-shaped organ in the body. It’s also the only one with ovaries at either end of it.’

Spoke by someone who has obviously (patiently) helped many-a student with their first bitch spay.

I received an email from a previous EMS placement looking for help at their kennels for the next few weeks. With summer vacation, the kennels fill up quickly and staff is short, so I’m taking the train down and staying for two weeks to help. I’m excited to return and not have to worry about filling out a pesky EMS form, and hopefully I’ll remember enough from my last time there to be useful. Plus, dogs and cats! Yay!

Before this popped up two days ago, I was facing two weeks of total free time until my sister arrives. I found the idea terrifying - how does one pass the time without classes to complain about and EMS to fulfill? I don’t think I have a workaholic bone in my body, but vet school so totally encompasses my life, that I can’t be fulfilled unless I’m doing something that somehow relates to it, even if I’m doing that activity for fun. In this case, I’m going to work, but it feels more like a holiday for me: returning to an old haunt, playing with animals, staying in the Most Comfortable Bed In The World, enjoying plenty of wine, and visiting friends.

I’m glad I can be useful. The couple I’m going to help have taken such good care of me in the past, inviting me to their boxing day and new year parties during my first holiday season away from home, and I’m pleased I can do something nice for them. Plus, um, I’m getting paid. Don’t mind that, neither.

I am being stalked by a French woman named Eleonore.

I fear for my life.

In my program, the first year of University is pre-clinical (it’s the first two for the normal 5-year program) and it also holds the reputation of being the most difficult period. I really doubt that what we’re doing now will be any more difficult than what we do the next three years - although our schedule will be less tedious - but this year is terribly, terribly dry. Although each subject addressed has a case-based tutorial at the end of the lectures, most presentations tend to steer very far away from the ‘real world’ and purposefully leave out the clinical stuff.

There is a wonderful James Herriot anectdote on this very subject. In this particular chapter of All Creatures Great And Small, Herriot recounts one of his first lectures while studying vet at Glasgow. According to him, his lecturer, who was giving a presentation on the points of a horse, was very clever in throwing in little clinical examples, such as explaining related injuries as he named the points of the pelvic limb, which helped Herriot remember the lecture.

(In the rest of the anecdote, Herriot, feeling very cocky about his new knowledge of the equine anatomy after a single day of lecture, attempts to approach a horse on the street and ends up in the air at its whim, with onlookers having a good laugh. That part of the story isn’t really relevant here!)

I definitely agree with Herriot on the usefulness of clinical references. Some lecturers can really bog their students down in over-information, but recently in our neuroscience lectures there has been a perfect blend of information and real life. Neuro is a terribly difficult topic, and it’s mentally draining to be presented with part of the neuroanatomy and its function, and then rack our brains a few days latter to remember what we haven’t even had a chance to study. But, I also feel like personally I’m picking up on neuro much faster than I would have expected due to these examples. Over the past few weeks we’ve had countless videos showing dogs, horses, and even sheep with various neurological disorders. Even if I don’t always get my thoughts straight and incorrectly diagnose the problem, I feel like I really benefit from actually seeing what happens when part of the system fails.

Surprisingly, sometimes these neurological issues are just plain funny. Here’s a clip we watched in class:

There aren’t many books, movies, or television shows that deal with veterinary medicine. Whereas I can think of half a dozen medical shows off the top of my head, most of which are currently on major network television, I can only think of reality television shows and documentaries confined to a few cable channels that deal with veterinary work. I certainly understand why vet med doesn’t seem to capture the imagination of the general public, but I always thought there would be a lot of material if someone were clever enough to explore the profession.

Which is why I was so happy when I found the following video, via Four Paws and Whiskers, a blog written by a veterinarian who practises in New Zealand:

Exactly my kind of humour!

It’s tradition at the Dick Vet for first year students to decorate Summerhall’s entry for Christmas. Because I’m a GEP and not a true 1st year I didn’t get to participate, but I still get to enjoy how festive the place looks on my way to the library to study.

The Christmas tree. Those boxes are empty, of course.

The main staircase. Close enough to Harry Potter, eh?

A festive chain on your way out of Summerhall

I was reading a bit of All Creatures Great And Small this morning over breakfast (mmm, pancakes!) and James Herriot was describing the various muscles and blood vessels he was cutting through and around in the neck of a cow on his way to opening a postpharyngeal oesophageal cyst, and I knew what he was talking about! Well, mostly. It reminded me that I needed to study even more, but it also reminded me of why I’m studying vet med in the first place - so I can poke at cow necks, of course.

Today’s totally useless-yet-oh-so-awesome cute pet video is:

I know it’s been making rounds on the internet, but if you hadn’t seen it yet, you just got lucky

I’m not sure why today, of all days, I am being bombarded with videos of really cute animals, but despite a sense of repetitiveness I had to share this with you:

I should mention that I have always been fascinated with sloths. They’re so unusual, but as you can see here, totally adorable!