Life and Veterinary Adventures

Today I completed my last day at The Children's Farm for my Large Animal Practicum class. It was an extremely hot day with temperatures of over 100 degrees. Luckily, we were dismissed as soon as we finished our skills with our instructors. I just about passed out while working in a humid horse arena practicing tail wraps, leg wraps, IM (intramuscular) injections, and jugular blood draws. We were rewarded with popsicles and Gatorade when we were all done, though! This week has been a lot of fun as well as a lot of hard work. It was a great experience and I love how my classmates work together to get things done. Time to enjoy another break with a few days spent up north with my family before going on my externship! I'll leave you with some cute photos of animals at the farm.

This is the stack of binders and books I've accumulated while being in school. I'm happy to say that I'm now done with classes! It has been so much work. I've lost too many hours of sleep, had an unhealthy level of stress, and I've had to put my social life almost completely on hold. I feel like I can take a deep breath now and relax. Well, almost. Tomorrow I will be on the farm for the Large Animal Practicum course. My class is rotating through there the next few weeks to get our AVMA skills. We took a trip out there last week and I loved it. I'm excited to go back tomorrow. I'll have a week off between then and going back for four more days. I'm most excited to set up a sheep. (Basically, when you sit a sheep on their rump they just kind of relax and I think it's adorable.) I highly recommend checking out The Children's Farm in Palos Park, IL if you're in the area. They're a nonprofit organization dedicated to educat...

Tristan and I went to Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon to go spend some time with our puppy and my family and to see our friends Dre and Joel before they move. First, we walked Honey and Molly around at the park with my mom. Honey was so sleepy that she took a nap under a bench for a while. Then we grabbed lunch in Cedarburg before heading back to my dad's with Honey. Once we got there, we met the new neighbors and their three huskies. One of them was just a puppy and he was so cute! Max It was so adorable watching him try to play with Honey. Buddies! I almost had tears in my eyes when it was time to say goodbye to Honey again. She was yelping as we got in the car without her. She'll be staying with us for a week soon, though, and then she'll be all ours in about 3 months. Next, we headed to Dre and Joel's in Milwaukee and were greeted with big hugs. Life has been so busy and we haven't been able to hang out nearly as much as we...

It's been a while since I've posted. Since I'm on spring break, I figured I should write a post before I'm consumed by school again. So, since my last post, I have adopted Honey myself. She didn't have any prospective homes and the people who wanted her just couldn't figure out a way to make it work. While it hasn't been easy for me either, I think she'll ultimately be very happy with me as her momma. She'll be staying with my dad for a few months until I'm more on my feet and have a better schedule. I'm currently gone 12 hours a day and haven't had much luck getting a job that can work around that, so having her live with me just isn't in the cards at the moment. I just hope she can adjust to all the commotion at my dad's. She hasn't been having the easiest time the past few days here. As far as school goes, I have 1 more 2 month term (which is about 5 weeks of classes, 2 random weeks off, and 1 week on a...

I wanted to post on my social networking sites before I post on the public adoptions site in hopes that Honey will go to someone I know so that I can still see her and so I don't have to say goodbye to her forever. (Maybe I'm selfish but I love her too much to never see her again and get her hugs and kisses.) I need someone to adopt Honey as soon as possible. She's a very sweet Vizsla mix, she just turned 1 this past November. She is spayed, microchipped, and vaccinated. She's in excellent health and she knows many commands including, sit, paw, down, wait, an d free. She would do best in a home with no cats, but other dogs are okay. Honey has been through a lot in her short life. She is a survivor of Parvovirus, a deadly condition that most puppies don't survive from. When she arrived at my school she was constantly crying from the pain of what it put her young, weak body through. Luckily, she was saved by a plasma transfusion and she is still h...

This winter has been pretty weird. We've had hardly any snow and the temperatures have been fairly warm for the midwest with a few below freezing days scattered in there. Last Friday was exceptionally snowy, however, and I was stuck driving in it. It usually takes me 45 minutes to 1 hour to/from school, but last Friday it took me over 4 hours to get home. It was awful. When I finally got home, I ran to the bathroom and then got ready to meet up with Tristan, Ninna, and Sean for a movie date. At least four people ditched their kennel duty that night at school, and a few people from my cohort who weren't scheduled decided to stay and help out. I'm glad my cohort actually cares about the well-being of our animals, unlike the newbies. (But I won't get into that.) This past week at school we were able to perform ultrasounds and we got to see the reptile show.  Ultrasounds are more complicated than one might think. There's a lot that goes into getting ...

Today is my last day of a two week long break from school. It was much needed for all of us and I feel quite rejuvenated. The Friday before our break started was pretty pointless. We had no final exams and we were originally supposed to have this day off according to our schedules. But we need those "contact hours." So, we spent the day goofing off, wandering Tinley Park, and playing games. The next day, a bunch of us went to Toni's house for an ugly Christmas sweater party. I think this video explains the night pretty well. We also went to Tristan's work's holiday party, which was 20's murder mystery themed. Everyone's costumes looked so great. Here are a couple shots of Ninna and me as we were leaving. A great deal of my break involved driving for Christmas. We drove to Milwaukee for my mom's immediate family a week before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we drove to my great uncle's in Lake Forest, and then drove...