Friday, September 25, 2015

Almost done with miscellaneous block!

I just have one more week left of miscellaneous block, and then it's on to exams and small animal block! Miscellaneous block consists of surgery, zoo and wildlife medicine, pathology, and lab animal medicine.

I just finished up my zoo rotation at a site in Oregon which was AMAZING. I got to see some really cool animals and work with some fantastic doctors and really had a blast. There were two fourth years there, as well as another third year with me and it was really great. I would like to go back some time, definitely.

We had our pathology rotation at Antech, which was really helpful. I think the information was fantastic but unfortunately what we learned isn't on the exam... at all... So while I feel much more confident looking at cytology, histopathology, chemistries, and cbcs, it doesn't matter for the exam. The commute was pretty awful, about 1-2 hours each way every day, so that was really rough. On the bright side, they did let us out a little early to account for traffic, so I appreciated that accommodation. Not to mention, getting to see such a huge and well-known facility was really cool!

At the moment, I'm at UCD for a lab animal rotation and it's been a great experience. We have a lot of assignments but none of them are that bad or terribly time-consuming. The facilities are great and I'm learning a lot from the residents and veterinarians here. I've been lucky enough to sit in on a protocol review and some other meetings. I'm a bit ashamed to admit how little I knew about the duties of a lab animal veterinarian and their typical day-to-day life but this has been really eye opening and I've enjoyed it way more than I expected. We have a week left here, so I'm interested to see what happens next week!

1 comment:

  1. Hi Rachel,

    My name is Dana and I will be starting my first year at western this august. Your blog has been so helpful to read! I wanted to ask you what should I be prepared to face on my first block? I have so many mixed emotions right now.

    Thank You
    Dana

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