Selectives fun!

Classes?  Over.  Exams?  Finished.  Learning?  It never ends!

We totally wrapped up our core classes and final exams last Thursday, and after a long weekend with the boy's family I'm in the middle of my first week of selectives.  I'm taking a week-long course in avian pathology with a few classmates and am having a loooot of fun!  I don't mind microscope work at all, and it's really neat to be able to learn to recognize lesions and responses by cell type or distribution or the amount of fibrin.  Pathology is this huge complicated puzzle, and I love getting introductions to it little by little before next year hits!

Monday and Tuesday our group worked through multiple histopathology cases where we had to identify the organ and bird response to the insult/injury with only a single microscope slide!  Even though I haven't had a whole lot of practice with it before, I am actually learning a lot about what to look for and how to approach the histologic examination. 

Today we all went on a field trip to a North Carolina poultry layer farm and worked on a current case using gross pathology techniques.  The farm has been experiencing a decrease in egg production and a slight increase in mortality, and we were called in to examine the house and conduct some necropsies.  We first did a walk-through of the houses to look for overall flock health and see how many were clearly sick or out of production (small combs, yellow legs, etc. on the females).  Each of us then got to work on doing the necropsies of several birds from each house.  Several of the recently deceased chickens were examined and in addition several of the sick birds from the houses were culled in order to more easily examine the population as a whole. 

What'd we find?

• Most of the culled female birds were out of production and were not currently laying.  These had small, regressed ovaries with tiny or no follicles left.
• Other females had hemorrhagic, congested ovaries and follicles.
• Egg shell strength and bone density were both low in multiple birds.
• Some birds had esophageal lesions and/or were off feed.
• Some retinal degeneration and spinal abscesses were observed.
• There was one hen with a really impressive cystic ovary (like, the cyst took up here entire abdomen) and several old, laminated yolks left over.

Our recommendation after this evidence was examining the feed because the problem was likely nutritional in origin.  The problems we saw all seemed to fit with either a Vitamin D/Calcium and/or Vitamin A problem, so it's possible that either there isn't enough nutrient being delivered or it isn't being well-absorbed due to low fat content in the feed.

Overall, pretty cool day!  It was really awesome to see the approach to a "mystery" case where clinicians are gathering evidence right at the location with very little previous information.  It was also my first time at a large poultry facility, so that in and of itself was pretty amazing.

And after a long day like today, nothing is better than being able to come home and relax without having to think about studying.  I love selectives!

Relaxed...

Honestly, the reason I haven't posted much recently is that there's nothing super-exciting going on!

Finals finished up last Wednesday, and it felt amazing walking out of school knowing I finished my first semester of vet school classes.  Can't believe that I'm 1/6th of the way through with my classroom work!  Everything turned out great - made all A's for my first semester!  Plus I got to enjoy Thanksgiving at home with family, Grandpa, pets, and boy without any stress about school!  Perfect!

Right now we're in the middle of our selectives blocks.  A lot of my classmates are doing some pretty awesome stuff - spaying iguanas, assisting with hospital departments and cases, learning avian pathology, etc. - but I elected to get the required business course out of the way.  Ugh.  It definitely reminds me why I'm not pursuing law or business school.  Soooo boring!  I mean, none of us are arguing that how to build practice value, negotiate contracts, hire/interview, or bookkeep is irrelevant or unimportant.  It's critical, and we know that.  But getting two straight weeks of lecture (7 hours daily) is brutal.  Can't wait for it to be over!

I also got the official go-ahead on some clinical work for Christmas break.  I'll be putting in a week with the oncology department as well as a week with the neurology department.  I can't wait to get a feel for what referral and specialty work is like.  Internships and residencies are still avenues I haven't ruled out, so getting an idea of how specialists operate and how their days flow will be really useful.

Next week I've got an ultrasound wetlab scheduled using goats and sheep, and I've also arranged a cookie exchange between members of our class.  It's awesome to not have to come home at the end of the day and study.  We can actually hang out, have fun, and enjoy each other's company.  Love it!  Heading to Pittsburgh for the weekend to see my favorite boy - and this time I won't have to get up really early or lock myself away to get schoolwork done!  Can't wait!