Diary of a Vet Student

Did you ever watch that session of "Vets in Practise" when Trude and the others were sticking their hands up cow's and testing to see if they were pregnant or not? Back in those young naive days I always thought they were just shoving their arms into the cow's uterus and waving it around until the calf bit them to let them know it was there (if I can get into vet school anyone can). Anyway we've just had a lecture on pregnancy diagnosis in the cow. Of course now I'm a fully fledged vet student I've worked out that it's all done via rectal palpation. There also so much more to it than feeling a cute little muzzle biting your hand. You can tell if she's pregnant from around 35 days (I think, but haven't re-read my notes yet) and then you can feel a tiny wee embryo in the uterine horn. You don't just feel the embryos either, you can feel the ovaries for a massive corpus luteum. You can test the milk for progesterone levels. Cor! it's very very technical!

I've really been enjoying the reproductive anatomy and physiology. A lot of other people on the course say they really enjoy this bit. I don't know why it's so fascinating. I think it could be because people and animals give birth all the time, but it's all so perfectly designed in terms of the gross anatomy and then the hormonal control of the whole thing as well. I'm just blown away by its beauty man! Gufaw Gufaw.

Had a really good working-blizt day yesterday and began to catch up again after the big weekend. My flat mate and I did a little jog in the snow this morning before lectures and that really helped to shift the remnants of what turned out to be a 3 day hangover.

Last Tuesday I went to a "Student Volunteers Abroad" meeting. I'm planning to go to Nepal this Summer with a group of people I'm just getting to know. We've got to fund raise before then and learn to speak Nepalise. The only problem is I'm worried about whether I'll have time to do all that and study. This is always a worry with the vet course, but it is good to try and do non-vet things. I've decided to go for it as it will be the last summer I have the chance and probably the last year when I can fit the fund raising into term time.

Tonight is the "Vet Challenge". This is the fund raising event our year, "The Ewesual Suspects" has organised. Every year has a special name like our lovely cheesy one. We also have a class social committee which raise money through social events for our final holiday. This generally involves getting dressed up and drunk and making a complete tit of yourself. Tonight might be a slightly different affair in that there will be no dressing up but double the tit making. Each year has entered a team into the challenge to do tasks that are going to make everyone laugh or throw up or both. Hmmm we'll see.

So much for studying steadily and continuously throughout the term! Until last night I hadn't been able to properly get into my books since Wednesday night. What can I say? The situation was out of my hands, because it was my birthday on Friday. My lack of studying does not (unfortunately) mean that the work stopped coming in! I've got plenty of catching up to do. I'm actually looking forward to being able to learn all the stuff I've blankly written down in lectures. I find it really difficult to learn on the spot as I'm taking notes and I'm always amazed by people who can ask questions at the end of the lecture. Usually I have no idea what has been said. I can learn if I don't take notes, but then a week later I will have no idea what was said. Hmmmm


So yesterday was Monday and I had serious Monday blues. It's the toughest day, because it's full of lectures. This would be Ok on any other day, but the weekend was so good. Generally the better the weekend the harder the Monday. My main motivation for getting out of bed was that I bought a new red hat for the "red hat party" on the previous Saturday night and I'd decided to were it again on the walk to uni (I'm so cute). Imagine my distress when the damned Scottish weather forced me to wear a big fat woolly one instead. Imagine!

I've got my physiology presentation on haemorrhage tomoorow. Hate to tempt fate but I feel pretty alright about this. Louise and I have written a speech and a handout and we'll just "roll with it" tomorrow and see what happens. Fingers crossed. I have even practiced my speech. Wahey!

Today will be another day of muddling through anatomy lectures, because (da ba da ba....) I haven't read the notes! This is Ok though as they're pretty straight foward to understand and the practicals help to cement things. Next time I write I'll be "read up" and a fully comprehending veterinary student again. It's a sure thing.

When I write this diary I always try to sound up-beat and happy, because vet school is really fabdabidozy most of the time. The things you learn are usually really really interesting too. However now and again the course content takes a spectacular nose dive. Things get a bit mundane, a bit gruelling. Animal husbandary really takes the biscuit in this field. Yesterday I had a farm practical. Off I trundled to Cochno farm, merrily thinking of rolling hills, the blustery wind against my face. When we arrived we were confronted with three rooms full of all kinds of mineral supplements. Some of them dated way back to the 30s. It wasn't all bad and I did learn some very important stuff, but there's only so much a girl can take of "mineral ball licking devices". This is especially so when she's already shattered by the disappointment of not being able to don squeaky clean wellies and go outside.

Last night my lovely flat mate left me alone for 3 hours and I was so bored I decided to read some animal husbandary notes. Yes I really did! I have never done this so far away from the exams before and it's actually much more relaxing when you're not ceased by the shear pannick of cramming. Maybe if I study steadily I can spare myself that pain at the end of term. Hmmmm we'll see.

Today was histology of the reproductive tract. Histology is so confusing. You could be looking at the digestive system, connective tissue, bone. All looks the same to me. It is nice when things start to form a picture, but this does take a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Having said that the reproductive system is really great because everything is so perfectly timed (hormones and stuff).

Everyone is so excited about the vet ball. Tickets went on sale today and the girls have started going to the gym to fit back into their ball dresses. There's going to be a casino and giant twister this year. Wahey!

I've got a tutorial pesentation to prepare on what happens when an animal loses 40% of it's blood. Can't tell everyone it just dies so yesterday was the day when me and Louise (my tutorial partner) decided to think about the lovely task ahead. Luckily our physiology textbook has a really good section on our topic. So I'm gong to put it into my words for the speech part of the tutorial and she's gong to put it into her words for the hand-out part. Sorted. Grand.

This weekend I attempted to get back into working mode and succeeded partly because I went shopping. This really helps to lift your mood for anyone with problems motivating themselves. I spent nearly £200 and therefore managed to get lots of animal husbandary reading done. Sadly I won't be able to keep this up so will have to find some other form of motivation. It will probably have to be chocolate.

Today we're doing more reproduction stuff in anatomy. We've just watched a video of a bitch spay. It's great when you see live animal stuff in lectures and demos, because it makes you remember why you have to cut up the smelly dead ones every week. After this lunch break we're back onto the smelly dead ones....

We're doing reproduction in physiology as well as anatomy. It's really good when you can tie the two subjects together. In biomolecular science we're doing immunolgy which seems to be getting more and more incomprehendable. It's also getting a tad awkward in lectures as the guy lecturing has decided to "spice things up" a bit by asking us all questions. He identifies us using that sheet of our freshers photos with our names on the bottom. It's great.

I'm feeling like an absolutely "good and proper" die-hard veterinary student once again this morning. Made it in for my 9am lectures despite feeling like there's a badger in my mouth and an octopus in my stomach, both consequential of last night's brilliant "Greese Lightening" party. It's always great to go to the first vet celebration of the term as it gets everyone together from the whole vet school. It also normally sets the gossip machine in motion for the rest of the term as it did last night, nuf said.

This week hasn't been as harsh as I was expecting although I am going to have to begin to get my arse into gear, because I have to prepare a presentation on blood loss for my physiology tutorial in about 10 days. Hopefully it shouldn't be too tough, but some work is definitely in order.

We've been given our results from last term. I got all As last year, but this time I've got Bs and Cs. I'm still happy because I've realised that we covered the same amount last term as we did in the whole of last year. There's such a massive leap from 1st to 2nd year, but I'm really enjoying the faster pace and the stuff is more interesting.

It's animal husbandary day today. Wahee! It's not looking too bad on the old AH front this term. We're doing equine stuff, which is a very welcome change from cows and sheep and sheds and grass. Onward and upward....

I finally made it back to Scotland after a perilous 6 hour train journey that was spent mostly standing between carriages as there was nowhere to store my man-sized rucksack and suitcase. A couple of times I ws nearly thrown into the toilet by the weight of my man-sized rucksack coupled with the thrust of the train. It still feels great to be back, although am feeling a bit worried about the onslaught of work that is obviously on its way.

Last term ended pretty well, except for the biomolecular exam (and actually now I think of it the physiology exam too). I knew my stuff for Biomol and so the true/false questions went pretty well. The essay was something else though! Just couldn't even understand it. I must have written the question on the answer sheet about 5 times just to trying and understand it a bit better. I did manage to write a bit of babble down before I left the room at a run in the direction of the beer bar.

There was no easing into the new term. After a very good weekend we were faced with a brisk hour-long walk to uni from our flat followed by a good 9 to 4pm day. Bring it on! The day was action packed. We studied the all-important subject of fish anatomy, which is really fascinating but I'd say almost completely useless. We also got to grips with some lovely endocrinology and immunolgy.

Today we've had our first lecture in reproduction. There's no need for maturity and I for one feel to regress into muffled giggles every time anything even remotely suggestive is said. I'm pretty sure everyone else is the same or perhaps I am just very very silly....

The first social event is already looking very promising. It's a Greese night in town. I've already started buying my Pink Lady outfit. Can't wait!