Wednesday, October 07, 2015

Diary of a First-Year Vet Student

Day 3. We have each been assigned boxes that contain the disarticulated (loose) bones of a dog. We were told that we could take them home but that we must keep them away from our own dogs. Fucking cannibals. 

Day 4. Today I made a cow pee. On purpose.  

Day 5. We were told that as veterinarians, we need to have respect for all species, especially one species in particular. The speaker said, “Which one would that be?” then paused…and a girl said tentatively “…spiders?” Everyone broke into laughter. The speaker hesitated then said, “well, sure, spiders, but I was referring specifically to humans.” Everyone laughed again.



Day 6. Someone tried to start a signup sheet for Thursday Snack day. Nobody brought any snacks today. However, one girl brought apples, oranges, and bananas. That was far better than snacks. We fell on the fruit like wolves bringing down a deer.



Day 7. Hallway discussions during breaks revolve around itemized lists of all the things we are no longer doing when we aren't in class. All we do now is study.



Day 10. My gross anatomy partner and I are dissecting a male cat. (Side note: all of the cadaver dogs are pit pulls or pit mixes.) We are not the fastest partners in class by a long stretch. We spend a lot of time talking about what to do before we dive in and start doing it. But we are persistent. Today, when all but one other team had already bagged up their animals, lugged them to the freezers, and cleaned up their tables, we were reviewing the flexor muscles of the forelimb of our cat with the instructor. When we finished identifying them all, he said to us, pointing to the forelimb, “that’s a very nice dissection, by the way.” Never mind that the pectorals looked like they had been chewed off—our forelimb flexors were “very nice”!

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