Last week was my “Reading Week” or spring break. I was in Las Vegas attending the Western Veterinary Conference for the first 6 days. This is an event in which veterinarians and technicians attend to get their continuing education credits. After graduation, medical staff are required to continuously keep learning in order to keep up to date with the latest medicine. In Alberta, veterinarians are required to obtain 20 hours of CE each year. For students, there are often interesting topics that aren’t covered in depth during our curriculum. At this 4-day long conference I attended the following lectures:

• Mini Pig Basics I
• Mini Pig Basics II
• Mini Pig Anesthesia, Pain Management and Euthanasia
• Coping with Opioid Shortages in the Shelter Environment
• Acute Azotemia
• Top 10 Behavior Questions You Hate to Hear
• Canine Aggression Towards unfamiliar people on Walks and At the Door
• Turtle Medicine and Surgery
• How to Intubate Almost Any Exotic Companion Mammal
• Sugar Glider Medicine & Disease Management
• Common Avian Emergencies
• Radiology of non-mammalian Exotic Animals
• Small Mammal Radiology
• Emergency Stabilization of Reptile & Amphibian Patients

It was so enjoyable learning without the added pressure of writing down every word for exam purposes. I feel as though I will be far more comfortable treating exotic patients (including mini pigs) when I become a veterinarian, and even in the upcoming clinical year of my education.

A highlight of the lectures was learning how to intubate small mammals – this is where you place a breathing tube down the windpipe to deliver oxygen and anesthetic gas in order to perform a surgery or dental cleaning. To do this in a mouse, for example, the vet speaking uses a tiny endoscopic camera in order to see exactly where the tube is going – to make sure it doesn’t go down to the stomach by mistake!

In addition to the lecture side of things, I was awarded the Jack Walther Leadership Award – this came with some serious perks including our hotel stay, as well as some breakfasts and a tour of their clinical skills center. I also get a registration that I can use within 5 years of graduation, so I will likely be back again at some point.

During our time in Las Vegas, it snowed TWICE! The second time was the night before we left – it started as rain while we were walking down the strip, then snowed through the night. This caused cancellations of dozens of flights, even though it melted as it hit the ground for the most part. That same day, we went to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. We were mostly sustained on Starbucks and McDonalds, which I can’t complain too much – they have some tasty food, and coffee of course. On Sunday night we went to a talk by Mayim Bialik (Amy from the Big Bang Theory) who has a PhD in neuroscience. She had lots of inspiring things to say about encouraging women in STEM, especially regarding family life in higher education. Tuesday night we went to a Keith Urban concert – limited to about 1500 guests, which was super cool!

This past weekend, I attended Real Life, Real Impact conference in Sundre, Alberta. This is more of a retreat hosted by Christian Veterinary Mission. I have been attending since my first year – although I went to Seattle, Washington the first time as it was not offered in Alberta. This was the first time that Parker went with me. I had the privilege of seeing him on the back of a horse for the first time!

With regards to my trip to Mexico, I am pleased to announce that my personal trip costs (travel and accommodation) are fully funded! Thank you so much to everyone who donated. We are still in need of supplies for the surgeries: suture, surgical instruments, surgical gloves and surgical drapes. Any additional funding in my account will be going towards purchasing some of these items. If you know of anyone who might have these items to donate, please have them contact me as there are forms for donating items for tax receipts as well. You can donate online by clicking here. Thank you again!

 

I have reached the end of a long, grueling 6 weeks. From the start of school at the beginning of January, we have had nothing but non-stop tasks and exams. It is difficult to fully realize what we just emerged from, but alas, we have emerged.

This past week, as mentioned previously, we had our draft. Monday and Wednesday night we stayed at the school until around 8-9pm, which was surprisingly fast. On Monday we picked our required rotations, and on Wednesday our other electives. For my month-long “general veterinary practice” rotations (GVP’s), I will be going to Peace River, Erskine, Cochrane and Calgary. Then for my electives I will be primarily in Calgary, as well as a couple weeks in Rimbey, Wetaskiwin and another in Peace River. Peace River is an 8 hour drive north from Calgary, which is a long drive. Luckily, our school gives us a small travel allowance based on where we go – the further from Calgary, the more they give you for expenses. My externship in North Carolina gets no travel allowance, since I pursued it independently.

When I returned home on Wednesday evening, I showed my parents my new schedule for my final year. My dad exclaimed jokingly, “That looks like an Alberta road trip from hell”. In all fairness, our school does push us to all go to some small town clinics in rural Alberta. That is the point – they want to graduate rural mixed practitioners to meet Alberta’s growing demand. I can’t really object, as I do aspire to be a well-rounded practitioner upon graduation.

After my required rotations were picked, I selected my equine (horse) rotations. I will be doing 10 additional weeks of equine medicine, including a first-nations focused clinic, internal medicine, dentistry, lameness and therio (reproduction). My open electives include a shelter rotation, an exotics rotation, my spay/neuter externship in North Carolina and two additional rural mixed rotations. No, I am not a “hardcore horse” person, however I do love horses and am certain I will enjoy the experience. Not having a small animal program at our school has pushed me out of my comfort zone, which is a good thing. Plus, horses are basically giant dogs with hooves.

Aside from the draft nights, we had our equine midterm Monday, I went to CUPS on Monday afternoon, our health management (pig) exam Tuesday, and the CPR competition on Tuesday night. After the CPR competition, I plugged my block heater in the -37°C air, then stayed in the building to write my assignment regarding my CUPS experience. CUPS is a program in Calgary that is aiming to empower people and end homelessness. Our school sets up clinics for us – 6 students each time. It was a great experience to have a real appointment of my own and be able to send home appropriate treatment without a financial burden for the owner; not to mention the amazing stories these people have to share.

The CPR competition is an annual event held by one of the clubs. Often there is a funny scenario in which you have to find out what happened to the dog, then perform CPR. Each team of six people create a punny name and according costumes. Our team did not revive our dog in the 6 minutes, but we did win first place for best name “Where there’s a will, there’s a T-wave”. A T-wave is the last bump in an ECG – if you don’t have one, the dog is not alive. We dressed up in beachwear.

Friday was our 3rd year research project. As a class we studied some genetics in crossbred beef cattle to see how it affected their health. The paper will be published in the Canadian Veterinary Journal at some point, so I will leave it there. That evening I went to Dr. Connery’s house for dinner with my team who will be heading off to Mexico in a few short months. We videoconferenced the other two veterinarians and technician who will be also going, and who have had experience in the area. It was so exciting to hear what we will doing – primarily spay/neuter clinics in partnership with the city. Targets will be animals who would not otherwise get veterinary care – as we would not want to be taking away from local veterinarians. In the past the city has been so grateful as these clinics have saved them so much money in human medical care and general city services. We are in need of some surgical materials – so for any veterinary people reading this, any leads you have on surgical suture that is unexpired, as well as unexpired surgical gloves, please let me know! We plan to do approximately 75 surgeries in four days as a team, so having adequate materials would be ideal. Thank you to everyone who has contributed. Any additional funds past our basic costs will be used for purchasing surgical materials.

Tonight will mark a celebration of completing a very busy season – I will be at a friend, Stacey’s house to watch Monty Python movies and not allow my mind to think too hard. What a relief. Next up – CFIA certification course all week (along with a couple nights of work at the emergency clinic), and then I leave to Vegas for the Western Veterinary Conference on Saturday! I look forward to writing more while I am there. Thank you for reading!

If you would like to contribute to our Mexico trip as a team, you can give to the group here. Be sure to select “Canadian funds” first and then select “University of Calgary Students” from the drop down on “Where would you like your gift to go?”. If you would like to help fund me individually for this trip, go to this link. All donations greater than $25 are tax-deductible. Thank you!

Hello everyone. I hope to make this a site where you can join me on my adventure. Although I haven’t been writing for you the past couple years, I have had nor the time nor the interesting stories to share throughout school. While I have loved the last few years – updates on what part was dissected in anatomy or what I did an autopsy on may not have been what you wanted to read. However, this upcoming year will be a huge adventure for me – not for the least of which because I will be travelling quite a bit for my final year!

Most veterinary schools have an 8-month final year program, which is mostly conducted in a “teaching hospital” – a large building attached to or part of the school. Each rotation is usually in a separate part of the building. Our school was the first of its kind in North America to try something different – a 12-month final year program, with rotations taking place at a variety of well-established veterinary clinics throughout Alberta and beyond. Both types of programs allow for ‘externships’ – these are rotations arranged independently by the student that go through an approval process so that they are counted for credit in lue of a school organized rotation. The reason for the 12-month program is due to the seasonal nature of veterinary work – equine clinics are busiest in the spring, there is pregnancy checking cows in the summer, calving in the early spring and small animal year round. This gives us a real taste for what a rural mixed veterinarian does – overnight emergencies and all.

My rotations will range from 2 weeks to 4 weeks in duration. Now, I can’t quite tell you yet where I will be – that gets decided this week! Our class gets to stay for multiple extra hours after school on two nights – using a draft-style selection process to ensure that everyone has a ‘fair’ chance at the popular selections. We also have two large exams on the same days.

The end of this semester will be on April 26th. Then my final year will begin a mere 10 days later – on May 6th. It will run until May 1st, 2020, in which case I will have a single month off before officially graduating. During my short in-between break before my rotations, I will be going to Mexico to do some veterinary work with an organization called Christian Veterinary Mission in partnership with the by-law veterinarian of the city I will be travelling to. If you would like to help support me, you can donate by clicking here.

If you don’t want to receive my email updates, just unsubscribe below. Hopefully that isn’t the case, so I will do my best to keep these posts interesting! Thank you so much for joining me. I look forward to writing more!