Today’s post is
dedicated to what this blog is supposed to be about - school. Here is an update on what has been happening
in the veterinary school world:
Pathology: My favorite class! We have learned about tissue injury, tissue
necrosis (death), neoplasms (which are basically tumors), and now we are
learning about hemostasis and inflammation and just starting the topic of
healing. Hemostasis is essentially the
process of clotting blood when there is injury to the blood vessel. It’s a balance between having enough clotting
to stop the blood, but not too much clotting to cause a problem. My favorite thing we’ve learned about in
Pathology so far is the process of what causes neoplasms (tumors). We’ve learned the differences between
sarcomas and carcinomas, what makes tumors malignant versus benign, which ones
are most dangerous, how to identify them by looking at their cells in the
microscope, and more. It’s all been so
interesting! However, the 3 hour test we
had (which was pretty much all essay questions) was not so fun - Luckily it
turned out better than expected :)
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| Fecal Snap Test - Parasitology Lab |
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| Ctenocephalides felis - Your everyday flea! |
Parasitology: Not my favorite class! Bugs just aren’t my thing. We’ve learned about intestinal parasites of
cats and dogs such as hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms; blood parasites of cats
and dogs - most importantly heartworms - and ticks, fleas, and mites. We just have started parasites of ruminants. For once I feel semi-ahead in a class and am
thankful for the experiences I had this summer working with ticks because it’s giving
me a head start on all of this material. I’ve also learned that there are parasites everywhere
and that I shouldn’t eat anything or ever touch dirt, because I will get a
parasite, it will migrate to my brain, and I will die. (Not really, but that’s sure how it feels!)
Pharmacology:
Hard to tell what has been going on in this class - it’s all been a
blur. We’ve been talking about how the
autonomic nervous system plays a part in pharmacology. The autonomic nervous system is comprised of
the sympathetic (fight or flight) and the parasympathetic (rest & digest)
systems. We’ve been learning how to
block receptors to affect the animal. Last
week, we started talking about pain, pain receptors and how we can reduce
and/or block pain. We are just now beginning
to learn about cardiac drugs.
Bacteriology: In
BacT we’ve covered all sorts of bacteria - where they are found, how they
develop, what diseases they can cause, etc. - including E. coli, Staphylococcus
aureus, Salmonella, and more. We’ve
covered at least 35 different bacteria so far!
Yuck.
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| Study Buddy |
One of the major differences between 1st year and 2nd year - is that we have our tests more in "clumps" than every Friday. Last year, I really enjoyed having a normal schedule - study Sunday-Thursday and have a test every Friday. "Normal" is no longer a concept that exists in my world. I have 4 tests between this Wednesday and next Wednesday. I'm not quite sure who decides that this a good testing schedule for 2nd years. I think they are training us to be stressed so we'll handle animal emergencies better... or at least that's what I'm telling myself to make it better :)
Happy Monday!
Turns out Bob the Tiger was 18 years old and had been suffering from chronic kidney problems for the past 10 years. This afternoon we got to watch the necropsy (an autopsy on animals) of Bob and then take a look at his kidneys. Bob's kidneys had cysts and subcapsular cysts and he had progressively lost over 1/2 of his body weight. As sad as it is, I think it was a very good choice by the zoo and K-State to euthanize him before his health declined further. 
